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78
THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES
IV, 6, 45.
Never before have I seen a lamp of the law that burned thus brightly through all time.'
[Here ends the dilemma as to the Arahat's power over his body.]
[DILEMMA THE FIFTY-EIGHTH. THE LAYMAN'S SIN.]
45. [255] Venerable Nâgasena, suppose a layman had been guilty of a Pârâgika offence1, and some time after should enter the Order. And neither he himself should be aware that when still a layman he had so been guilty, nor should any one else inform him, saying: "When a layman you were guilty of such an offence." Now if he were to devote himself to the attainment of Arahatship, would he be able so to comprehend the Truth as to succeed in entering upon the Excellent Way?'
•
'No, O king, he would not.'
'But why not, Sir?'
'That, in him, which might have been the cause of his grasping the Truth has been, in him, destroyed. No comprehension can therefore take place.'
46. 'Venerable Nâgasena, your people say :
66
To him who is aware (of an offence) there comes
1 This, for a member of the Order, would be either unchastity, theft, murder, or putting forward false claims to extraordinary holiness. See Vinaya Texts,' part i, pp. 3-5. But Hînafikumburê takes the word Pârâ gika here in the sense of matricide, parricide, injuring a Bo Tree, murder of an Arahat, wounding a Tathagata, or rape of a nun.
Tathattâya. Rahat phala pinisa pilipadane wî nam, says the Simhalese (p. 361).
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