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22
THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA.
I, 27.
of our own views, and five hundred on as many points of our opponents' views—the Yamaka, with its ten divisions into complementary propositions as to origins, as to constituent elements, and so onand the Patthâna, with its twenty-four chapters on the reason of causes, the reason of ideas, and the rest. And he said [13]: That will do, Sir. You need not propound it again. That will suffice for my being able to rehearse it.'
27. Then Någasena went to the innumerable company of the Arahats, and said: 'I should like to propound the whole of the Abhidhamma Pitaka, without abridgement, arranging it under the three heads of good, bad, and indifferent qualities. And they gave him leave. And in seven months the venerable Nâgasena recited the seven books of the Abhidhamma in full. And the earth thundered, the gods shouted their applause, the Brahma gods clapped their hands, and there came down a shower from heaven of sweet-scented sandal-wood dust, and of Mandarava flowers! And the innumerable company of the Arahats, then and there at the Guarded Slope, admitted the venerable Nâgasena, then twenty years of age, to full membership in the higher grade of the Order. ::28. Now the next day after he had thus been admitted into full membership in the Order, the venerable Nâgasena robed himself at dawn, and taking his bowl, accompanied his teacher on his round for alms to the village below. And as he went this thought arose within him: 'It was, after all, empty-headed and foolish of my teacher to leave the rest of the Buddha's word aside, and teach me the Abhidhamma first !'.
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