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BUDDHIST WORKS IN CHINESE.
APRIL, 1875.]
(law), and forget them not for a moment, persevere in studying them alone; I, as the good physician, knowing the disease which affects you, give this as a medicine fit for the case: without this you die. Or, like the guide who knows the way, I direct you where to go and what path to take: without a guide you perish. And now, if you have any doubts respecting the four great truths which lie at the bottom of my teaching, ask me, O Bhikshus, and explain your doubts; for while you doubt there can be no fixity."
This exhortation the world-honoured one repeated three times, but neither of the Bhikshus propounded any question, for so it was they had no doubts.
Then Aniruddha, reading the hearts of the congregation, addressed Buddha, and said: "World-honoured, the moon may scatter heat and the sun cause cold-but there can be no difference as to the truth and meaning of the four great doctrines which Buddha has placed at the bottom of his system. There is the great truth of sorrow' (dukha). Sorrow can never co-exist with joy, or produce it. 'Concourse' (the expression concourse,' generally translated 'accumulation,' evidently refers to the 'rush' or 'concourse' of thoughts and events, experiences and anxieties, as the true cause of sorrow), this is the true cause (of sorrow); besides this there is no other. The 'destruction of sorrow' is just the destruction of cause, no cause, no fruit;' and 'the way' is this very way by which the cause may be destroyed, and this is the 'true" way,' and there is no other. World-honoured one, the Bhikshus are firmly fixed in these doctrines: there is not the shadow of a doubt, there is no question or difference of opinion in the congregation respecting them. The only thought which affects the congregation is one of grief that the world-honoured one should be about to depart and enter Nirvana, just as we have begun to enter on the practice of this law and understand its meaning; just as in the night a flash of lightning lights up the way for the weary traveller and then is gone, and he left to wander in the dark; this is the only thought which weighs on the mind of the congregation."
Notwithstanding the assurance of Aniruddha, the world-honoured one wishing that every member of the congregation should be
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strong in his belief, and attain perfect assurance, again out of his compassion addressed them, and said :
"Bhikshus, lament not at my departure, nor feel any regret; for if I remained in the world through the kalpa (i.e. to the end of the world), then what would become of the church (assembly) ? it must perish without accomplishing its end! and the end is this: by personal profit to profit others.' My law is perfectly sufficient for this end. If I were to continue in the world, it would be for no good; those who were to be saved are saved, whether gods or men; those who are not saved shall be saved, by the seeds of truth I have sown. From henceforth all my disciples practising their various duties shall prove that my true body, the Body of the Law (dharmakava), is everlasting and imperishable.
"Be assured of this, the world is transitory; dismiss your sorrow, and seek deliverance; by the light of wisdom destroy the gloom of all your doubts. The world is fast bound in fetters and oppressed with affliction; I now give it deliverance, as a physician who brings heavenly medicine. Put away every sin and all wickedness; remember that your body' is but a word coined to signify that which does not really exist-ford across the sea of death, old age, and disease-Who is the wise man that does not rejoice in the destruction of these, as one rejoices when he slays the enemy who would rob him?
"Bhikshus, keep your mind on this; all other things change, this changes not. No more shall I speak to you. I desire to depart. I desire Nirvana. This is my last exhortation."
6. Another Sûtra worthy of notice is the Chong-Laun, or Pranya-mul-śástra-taika, by Nagarjuna. I shall proceed to give the translation of the 25th section of this work on Nirvana.
(1) If all things are unreal,
Then how is it possible to remove From that which does not exist
Something which being removed leaves Nirvana ?
This section argues that if all things are alike empty and unreal, then there is no such thing as birth and death; consequently there can be no removal of sorrow, and the destruction of the five elements of existence (limited existence),
