________________
245
VII, 3, 9
8. But the two men thought, 'Where now can that man be who was to come alone? He is delaying long.' And as they were going to meet him, they caught sight of the Blessed One sitting at the foot of a certain tree. On seeing him they went up to the place where he was, and saluted him, and took their seats on one side. To them also the Blessed One discoursed, [and they were converted as the other man had been, and he sent them back by another way. And the same thing occurred as to the four, and the eight, and the sixteen men 1.]
DISSENSIONS IN THE ORDER.
9. And the one man returned to Devadatta, and said to him: 'I cannot, Lord, deprive the Blessed One of life. Great is the power (Iddhi 2) and might of the Blessed One.'
'That will do, friend. You need not do so. I will slay the Blessed One myself.'
Now at that time the Blessed One was walking up and down (meditating) in the shade below the mountain called the Vulture's Peak. And Devadatta climbed up the Vulture's Peak, and hurled down a mighty rock with the intention of depriving the Blessed One of life. But two mountain peaks came together and stopped that rock, and only a splinter falling from it made the foot of the Blessed One to bleed ".
1 The last two paragraphs of § 7 are repeated in full in the text in each case.
2 The Iddhi here must be the power of religious persuasion. Pakkhâyâyam. See Mahâvagga V, 1, 5, and Mahâ-parinibbâna Sutta II, 31 (p. 22 of the text).
Papatika. In the text, by a misprint, this and the preceding word have been joined together.
Pâde ruhiram uppâdesi, where ruhira is equal to lohita..
Digitized by Google
