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IV, 1, 21.
THE GIANT BAMBU.
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20. Now there are these seven classes of minds. Those, great king, who are full of lust, ill-will, delusion, or wrong doing, who are untrained in the management of their body, or in conduct, or in thought, or in wisdom,—their thinking powers are brought into play with difficulty, and act slowly. And why is it so ? Because of the untrained condition of their minds. It is like the slow and heavy movements of a giant bambd—when it is being dragged along with its wide-spreading, extensive, overgrown, and interlaced vegetation, and with its branches intricately entangled one with the other. So slow and heavy are the movements of the minds of those men, O king. And why? Because of the intricate entanglements of wrong dispositions. This is the first class of minds.'
21. ‘From it the second class is to be distinguished. Those, O king, who have been converted, for whom the gates of purgatory are closed, who have attained to right views, who have grasped the doctrine of the Master—their thinking powers, so far as the three lower stages are concerned, are brought quickly
involved and confused. I have added the words in brackets from the Simhalese, and translated the rest according to the general sense of the Simhalese and the figures of the Pâli. Hardy gives his 'version' at p. 386 of the Manual of Buddhism.' It says, ' In one load of rice there are 63,660,000 grains. Each of these grains can be separately considered by Buddha in a moment of time. In that moment the seven-times gifted mind exercises this power.' The last sentence is a misunderstanding of the opening words of our next section (IV, 1, 20).
That is, of the Excellent Way. They are the three FettersDelusion of self, Doubt, and Dependence on rites and ceremonies and outward morality-which the Sotâ panno has conquered, broken.
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