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THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. IV, 1, 56.
his death, in response to the question put by Subhadda the recluse : “But if in this system the brethren live the perfect life, then the world would not be bereft of Arahats ?." This last phrase is absolute, inclusive; it cannot be explained away. If the first of these statements be correct, the second is misleading, if the second be right the first must be false. [131] This too is a double-pointed question, more confused than the jungle, more powerful than a strong man, more knotty than a knot. It is now put to you. Show the extent of the power of your knowledge, like a leviathan in the midst of the sea.'
56. “The Blessed One, O king, did make both those statements you have quoted. But they are different one from the other both in the spirit and in the letter. The one deals with the limit of the duration of the doctrine ?, the other with the practice of a religious life-two things widely distinct, as far removed one from the other as the zenith is from the surface of the earth, as heaven is from purgatory, as good is from evil, and as pleasure is from pain. But though that be so, yet lest your enquiry should be vain, I will expound the matter further in its essential connection.'
57. When the Blessed One said that the good law : would only endure for five hundred years, he said so declaring the time of its destruction, limiting the remainder of its existence. For he said: “The good law, Ananda, would endure for a thousand years if no women had been admitted to the
* Book of the Great Decease, V, 62, translated in 'Buddhist Suttas,' p. 108. ? Sâsana.
• Saddhammo.
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