Questions of King Milinda Part 02

SR No.: 007682
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2240
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

Page 35

IV, 5, 5.
OF MILINDA THE KING.
This too is a double-edged problem, now put to you, which you have to solve.'
5. 'Both the passages you have quoted, O king, were spoken by the Blessed One. But the former passage (214) is a statement as to the nature of things, an inclusive statement, a statement which leaves no room for anything to be supplemented to it, or added to it in the way of gloss, a statement of what is true and real and in accordance with the facts, and that cannot be proved wrong, a declaration made by the prophets, and sages, and teachers, and Arahats, and by the Buddhas who are wise for themselves alone (Pakkeka-Buddhas), a declaration made by the Conquerors, and by the All-wise Ones, a declaration made too by the Tathagata, the Arahat, the Supreme Buddha himself. He who has no selfcontrol as regards the stomach, O king, will destroy living creatures, will take possession of what has not been given to him, will be unchaste, will speak lies, will drink strong drink, will put his mother or his father to death, will slay an Arahat, will create a schism in the Order, will even with malice aforethought wound a Tathagata. Was it not, O king, when without restraint as to his stomach, that Devadatta by breaking up the Order, heaped up for himself karma that would endure for a kalpa?? It was on calling to mind this, o king, and many other things of the same kind, that the Blessed One declared :
"Be not remiss as to the rules to be observed)
See above, p. 164 (p. 109 of the Pâli text). These passages show that Dr. Morris's note in the Journal of the Pali Text Society,' 1885, requires modification. See also below, IV, 8, 88, and the passages quoted by him in the Journal' for 1886.
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