Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1890
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 310

IV, 3, 36.
Such a saying is therefore not worthy of the Blessed One, and he ought not to have made use of it. For if the first injunction be right then this must be wrong, and if this be right then the injunction to do no injury to any one, but to dwell full of love and kindness in the world, must be wrong. This too is a double-edged problem now put to you, and you have to solve it.'
KINDNESS AND PUNISHMENT.
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36. The Blessed One, great king, gave both the commands you quote. As to the first, to do no injury to any one, but to live full of love and kindness in the world that is a doctrine approved by all the Buddhas. And that verse is an injunction, an unfolding of the Dhamma, for the Dhamma has as its characteristic that it works no ill. And the saying is thus in thorough accord with it. But as to the second command you quote that is a special use of terms [which you have misunderstood. The real meaning of them is : Subdue that which ought to be subdued, strive after, cultivate, favour what is worthy of effort, cultivation, and approval "]. The proud heart, great king, is to be subdued, and the lowly heart cultivated-the wicked heart to be subdued, and the good heart to be cultivated-carelessness of thought is to be subdued, and exactness of thought to be cultivated-[186] he who is given over to wrong views is to be subdued, and he who has attained to right views is to be cultivated-he who is not noble1 is to be subdued, and the noble one is
santati means also 'lineage, descent,' the phrase may equally well refer to the sort of punishment I have ventured to put into the text.
'Ariyo and anariyo used technically in the sense of one who has not, and one who has, entered upon the Noble Eightfold Path.
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