Questions of King Milinda Part 02

Author(s): T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford

Page 34

THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES
'Very good, Nâgasena! That is so, and I accept it as you say.
[Here ends the dilemma as to dwelling-places.]
4
[DILEMMA THE FORTY-SECOND. MODERATION IN FOOD.]
IV, 5, 4.
4. 'Venerable Nâgasena, the Blessed One said: "Be not remiss as to (the rules to be observed) when standing up (to beg for food). Be restrained in (matters relating to) the stomach '."
'But on the other hand he said:
"Now there were several days, Udâyin, on which I ate out of this bowl when it was full to the brim, and ate even more 2."
'Now if the first rule be true, then the second statement must be false. But if the statement be true, then the rule first quoted must be wrong.
1 This verse has not yet been traced. The first half of it occurs in a different connection at Dhammapada, verse 168, which I have rendered (at 'Buddhism,' p. 65), 'Rise up and loiter not!' without any reference at all to food. This was in accordance with the view taken of the passage, both by Prof. Fausböll, who renders it (p. 31 of his edition of the Pâli), 'Surgat, ne sit socors,' and by Prof. Max Müller, who renders it (S. B. E., vol. x, part i, p. 47), 'Rouse thyself, do not be idle!' And I still think (especially noting such passages as Dhammapada, verses 231, 232, and the verse quoted in the Commentary, p. 126 of Fausböll, from Gâtaka IV, 496, &c.) that this was the original meaning in that connection. But here the words must clearly be taken as referring to food, and it is very remarkable that the commentator on the Dhammapada (see p. 335 of Fausböll's edition) takes them in that sense also even in the other connection. It is a striking instance of the way in which commentators impart a purely technical sense into a general ethical precept.
From the Mahâ Udâyi Sutta (Magghima Nikâya, No. 77).
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