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XI, 1, 1.
ON THE COUNCIL OF RÂGAGAHA.
371
their arms and wept; and some fell headlong on the ground; and some reeled to and fro in anguish at the thought: “Too soon has the Blessed One died! Too soon has the Happy One passed away! Too soon has the Light gone out in the world !"
* But those of the Bhikkhus who were free from the passions (the Arahats) bore their grief, collected and composed at the thought: "Impermanent are all component things. How is it possible (that they should not be dissolved]?”
*Then I, Sirs, spake thus to the Bhikkhus : “Enough, Sirs! Weep not, neither lament! Has not the Blessed One already declared to us that it is the very nature of all things near and dear unto us that we must divide ourselves from them, leave them, sever ourselves from them? How then, Sirs, can this be possible—that whereas anything whatever born, brought into being and organised, contains within itself the inherent necessity of dissolution-how then can this be possible that such a being should not be dissolved ? No such condition can exist!"
•Then at that time, Sirs, one Subhadda, who had gone out from the world in his old age, was
seated there in the company of Bhikkhus. And · Subhadda, the late-received one, said to the Bhikkhus: “Enough, Sirs! Weep not, neither lament! We are well rid of the great Samana. We used to be annoyed by being told, 'This beseems you, this beseems you not.' But now we shall be able to do whatever we like; and what we do not like, that we shall not have to do?."
In the Book of the Great Decease the following speech comes before the preceding one.
Bb 2
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