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MISCELLANEOUS.
296. The disciples of Gotama (Buddha) are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on Buddha.
297. The disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on the law.
298. The disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on the church.
299. The disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on their body.
nay, even a living tree, in such high estimation as to prevent its wanton destruction, has declared that the murder of a Brâhmana, to whom he accorded reverence, along with his own Sangha, was blameless ?' D'Alwis, Nirvana, p. 88. Though something might be said in reply, considering the antecedents of king Agâtasatru, the patron of Buddha, and stories such as that quoted by the commentator on the Dhammapada (Beal, 1.c. p. 150), or in Der Weise und der Thor, p. 306, still these two verses are startling, and I am not aware that Buddha has himself drawn the conclusion, which has been drawn by others, viz. that those who have reached the highest Sambodhi, and are in fact no longer themselves, are outside the domain of good and bad, and beyond the reach of guilt. Verses like 39 and 412 admit of a different explanation. Still our verses being miscellaneous extracts, might possibly have been taken from a work in which such an opinion was advanced, and I find that Mr. Childers, no mean admirer of Buddha, was not shocked by my explanation. 'In my judgment,' he says,' this verse is intended to express in a forcible manner the Buddhist doctrine that the Arhat cannot commit a serious sin. However, we have met before with far-fetched puns in these verses, and it is not impossible that the native commentators were right after all in seeing some puns or riddles in this verse. D’Alwis, following the commentary, explains mother as lust, father as pride, the two valiant kings as heretical systems, and the realm as sensual pleasure, while veyyaggha is taken by him for a place infested with the tigers of obstruction against final beatitude. Some confirmation of this interpretation is sup
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