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THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. IV, 1, 14.
all acts done to the Tathagata, notwithstanding his having passed away and not accepting, are nevertheless of value and bear fruit. And this future possibility, great king, has been foreseen by the Blessed One, and spoken of, and declared, and made known, when he said: “It may be, Ananda, that in some of you the thought may arise : [99] •The word of the Master is ended. We have no Teacher more!' But it is not thus, Ananda, that you should regard it. The Truth which I have preached to you, the Rules which I have laid down for the Order, let them, when I am gone, be the Teacher to you ?." So that because the Tathagata has passed away and consents not thereto, that therefore any act done to him is empty and vain—this saying of the enemy is proved false. It is untrue, unjust, not according to fact, wrong, and perverse. It is the cause of sorrow, has sorrow as its fruit, and leads down the road to perdition !'
14. Now hear another reason for the same thing. Does the broad earth acquiesce, O king, in all kinds of seeds being planted all over it?'
Certainly not, Sir.'
Then how is it those seeds, planted without the earth's consent, do yet stand fast and firmly rooted, and expand into trees with great trunks and sap and branches, and bearing fruits and flowers?'
•Though the earth, Sir, gives no consent, yet it acts as a site for those seeds, as a means of their development. Planted on that site they grow, by
* Book of the Great Decease, VI, 1, translated in · Buddhist Suttas,' p. 112.
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