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266
THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA.
IV, 4, 7.
members of the Order only, and be kept secret from all others. And again, just as there are several classes of people, O king, known as distinct in the world—such as wrestlers, tumblers, jugglers, actors, ballet-dancers, and followers of the mystic cult of the sun and moon, of the goddess of fortune and other gods?. And the secrets of each of these sects are handed on in the sect itself, and kept hidden from all others. Just so with the universal custom of all the Tathagatas that the recitation of the Pâtimokkha should take place before the members of the Order only, and be kept secret from all others. This is why the recitation of the Pâtimokkha is, up to that extent, kept secret in accordance with the habit of previous Tathagatas.'
7. 'And how is it that the Pâtimokkha is kept secret, up to that extent, out of reverence for the Dhamma ? The Dhamma, great king, is venerable and weighty. He who has attained to proficiency in it may exhort another in this wise: “Let not this Dhamma so full of truth, so excellent, fall into the hands of those unversed in it, where it would be despised and contemned, treated shamefully, made a game of, and found fault with. Nor let it fall into the hands of the wicked who would deal with it in all respects as badly as they.” It is thus, o king, that the recitation of the Pâtimokkha is, up to that
1 There are twenty classes of these people mentioned in the text, and the meaning of most of the names is obscure. The Simhalese simply repeats them all, adding only the word bhaktiyo, 'believers in,' to the names of the various divinities. The classing together of jugglers, ballet-dancers, and followers of the numerous mystic cults, so numerous in India, is thoroughly Buddhistic, and quite in the vein of Gotama himself—as, for instance, in the Maha Sîla (see my 'Buddhist Suttas,' p. 196).
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