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THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. IV, 1, 38.
long-suffering, and on self-restraint, and on temperance, and on voluntary subjugation to meritorious vows, and on freedom from all forms of wrath and cruelty, and on truthfulness, and on purity of heart. He had abandoned, O king, all seeking after the satisfaction of his animal lusts, he had overcome all craving after a future life, his strenuous effort was set only towards the higher life. He had given up, O king, the caring for himself, and devoted himself thenceforth to caring for others alone. His mind was fixed immovably on the thought: “How can I make all beings to be at peace, healthy, and wealthy, and long lived ?" [117] And when, O king, he was giving things away, he gave not for the sake of rebirth in any glorious state, he gave not for the sake of wealth, nor of receiving gifts in return, nor of flattery, nor of long life for himself, nor of high birth, nor of happiness, nor of power, nor of fame, nor of offspring either of daughters or of sons—but it was for the sake of supreme wisdom and of the treasure thereof that he gave gifts so immense, so immeasurable, so unsurpassed. It was when he had attained to that supreme wisdom that he uttered the verse : "Gali, my son, and the Black Antelope, My daughter, and my queen, my wife, Maddi, I gave them all away without a thoughtAnd 'twas for Buddhahood I did this thing?."
38. The angry man, o king, did the great king Vessantara conquer by mildness, and the wicked man by goodness, and the covetous by generosity,
From the Kariyå Pitaka I, ix, 52. See Dr. Morris's edition for the Pali Text Society, p. 81.
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