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A Select Comparison of Passages from Early Buddhist and Jain Texts*
Dr. Kenji Watanabe
As Buddhism and Jainism share many common elements in their phraseology, the purpose of this paper is to draw attention to some analogous passages which appear to have been overlooked by modern scholarship. The texts used for this study are Āyārungasutta II.15 and Dhammapada 183: Isibhāsivām 29.19 and Dhammapada 360, 361)
1.1 The Pali Dhammapada (=Dhp.)183 reads as follows:
sabbapāpassa akaranamṁ kusalassa upasampudā sacittapariyodapanum etam Buddhāna sāsanam
Not to do any evil acts, to cultivate what is good, to purify one's mind, this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
This verse, which is very famous among Buddhists, and is said to have been taught by Kāśyapa Buddha, one of the seven Buddhas of the past. It is regarded as the very source of all the teachings of Buddhism, from which sprang the various tenets of both Mahāyana and Theravada sects.
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