Vinaya Texts

SR No.: 007684
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2523
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 128

I, 5, 4. ADMISSION TO THE ORDER OF BHIKKHUS. 85
are given to desire, intent upon desire, delighting in desire, the law of causality and the chain of causation will be a matter difficult to understand; most difficult for them to understand will be also the extinction of all samkhâras, the getting rid of all the substrata (of existence 1), the destruction of desire, the absence of passion, quietude of heart, Nirvana! Now if I proclaim the doctrine, and other men are not able to understand my preaching, there would result but weariness and annoyance to me.'
3. And then the following....2 stanzas, unheard before, occurred to the Blessed One: 'With great pains have I acquired it. Enough! why should I now proclaim it? This doctrine will not be easy to understand to beings that are lost in lust and hatred.
'Given to lust, surrounded with thick darkness, they will not see what is repugnant (to their minds), abstruse, profound, difficult to perceive, and subtle.'
4. When the Blessed One pondered over this matter, his mind became inclined to remain in quiet, and not to preach the doctrine. Then Brahmâ
1 The upadhis (substrata of existence) are specified in the commentary on the Sutta-Nipâta, ap. Dhammapada, p.433:‘sabbupadhinam parikkhayâ 'ti sabbesam khandhakâmagunakilesâbhisamkhârabhedânam upadhînam parikkhînattâ.' Probably abhisamkhâra is not co-ordinate with the other members of the compound, but is determined by them, comp. pabbaggâbhisamkhâra, iddhâbhisamkhâra, gamikâbhisamkhâra. The upadhis, therefore, according to this passage, consist: firstly, in the actions of mind that are directed towards the khand has (i. e. that have the effect of propagating and augmenting the dominion of the khandhas); secondly, in the actions tending to the fivefold pleasures of sense; and thirdly, in those connected with kilesa (evil passion).
* Buddhaghosa explains anakkhariya by anuakkhariya, which is alike unintelligible to us. The Lalita Vistara (p. 515, ed. Calcutta) has abhikshnam ('repeatedly').
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