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 383

VII, 6, 5.
OF MILINDA THE KING.
353
danger in carelessness, his Samanaship fades not away, but rather does he go forward to Nirvana itself. This, O king, is the quality of the land tortoise he ought to have. For it was said, O king, by the Blessed One, the god over all gods, in the Dhammapada:
“The Bhikshu who in earnestness delights, Who sees the danger of indifference, Shall fall not from his high estate away, But in the presence of Nirvana dwell 1.”'
54. THE MOUNTAIN HEIGHT. 4. Venerable Nagasena, those five qualities of the mountain height you say he ought to have, which are they?'
Just, О king, as the mountain height is a hidingplace for the wicked; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, keep secret the offences and failings of others, revealing them not. This, o king, is the first of the qualities of the mountain height he ought to have.
5. 'And again, O king, just as the mountain height is void of many people; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, [409] earnest in effort, be void of lust, angers, follies, and pride, of the net of (wrong) views ?, and of all evil dispositions. This, O king,
i Dhammapada, verse 32. The source from which the verse is taken is unknown now, and was also evidently unknown to our author. With the closing words nibbânass eva santike, compare verse 372, sa ve nibbâna-santike. Santike, immediate, close,' is always used with the connotation of being in the very presence of. The local qualification, 'near,' is upanissaya, avidûre. * Ditthi-gâla, the net of delusions, those relating to the per(36)
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