The Questions of King Milinda, Part II: Book VII: The Similes: Chapter 6

'Just, O king, as the carpenter saws off the wood along the line of the blackened string (he has put round it to guide him) 1; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, standing on righteousness as a basis, and holding in the hand of faith the saw of knowledge, cut off his evil dispositions according to the doctrine laid down by the Conquerors. This, O king, is the first quality of the carpenter he ought to have.

27. 'And again, O king, just as the carpenter, discarding the soft parts of the wood 2, takes the hard parts; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, forsaking the path of the discussion of useless theses, to wit:--the everlasting life theory--the let-us-eat-and-drink-for-tomorrow-we-die theory 3--the theory that the soul and the body are one and the same--that the soul is one thing, the body another--that all teachings are alike

1--that what is not done is of no avail--that men's actions are of no importance--that holiness of life does not matter--that on the destruction of beings nine new sorts of beings appear--that the constituent elements of being are eternal 2--that he who commits an act experiences the result thereof--that one acts and another experiences the result of this action--and other such theories of Karma or wrong views on the result of actions--forsaking, I say, all such theses, paths which lead to heresy, he should learn what is the real nature of those constituent elements of which each individuality is, for the short term of its individuality, put together, and so reach forward to that state which is void of lusts, of malice, and of dullness, in which the excitements of individuality are known no more, and which is therefore designated the Void Supreme 3.

1! Put aside rubbish from you!
Winnow away the chaff 2, the men who hold
Those who are not so, as true Samanas!
Get rid of those who harbour evil thoughts,
Who follow after evil modes of life!
Thoughtful yourselves, and pure, with those resort,
With those associate, who are pure themselves 3!"'

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Here ends the Sixth Chapter.

Footnotes

351:1 Not traced as yet.

352:1 Mahâ-parinibbâna Suttanta V, 24, translated in 'Buddhist Suttas,' p. 91. The beginning of the exhortation has been already quoted above, p. 177 (of the Pâli).

352:2 Kittaka-dhara-kummassa, literally 'of the tortoise who wears the sectarian mark (on his forehead).' The Simhalese repeats this phrase, which clearly distinguishes this tortoise from the other, the water tortoise, of VII, 1, 12.

353:1 Dhammapada, verse 32. The source from which the verse is taken is unknown now, and was also evidently unknown to our author. With the closing words nibbânass eva santike, compare verse 372, sa ve nibbâna-santike. Santike, immediate, close,' is always used with the connotation of being in the very presence of. The local qualification, 'near,' is upanissaya, avidûre.

353:2 Ditthi-gâla, the net of delusions, those relating to the permanence 354:1 This is a favourite stanza. It occurs in the Samyutta XIV, 16-18, and is included in the verses ascribed, in the Thera Gâthâ, to the Arahats Somamitta and Vimala (verses 148, 266).

355:1 The Simhalese, p. 610, is here greatly expanded.

355:2 This stanza has only been traced at present in commentaries,356:1 In my note above, I, 146, I might have referred to this passage.

357:1 Not traced as yet.

358:1 Sutta Nipâta II, 6, 10 (verse 282).

359:1 Uttarim visesam udhigakkhissâmi. Hînati-kumburê, p. 614, renders this, 'shall I arrive at the advantage of the attainment of the fruits of the path.' And he may be right, as the word uttarim is used. But the context seems to imply the rendering I have ventured to give, which preserves the usual connotation in this connection of the other two words of the phrase. A Bhikshu, for instance, on seeing a faded flower, will try to realise, to conjure up before his mind, the real fact of the transitoriness of all earthly (and of all heavenly) things. That is the specific idea of which he is in search, the deer he has to catch. No doubt it is only an intermediate step to the realisation of the fruits of the path. But as visesam adhigakkhati is the technical term for success in such meditation, I cannot but think that the mind of our author was directed to the intermediate, rather than to the later stage of the Bhikshu's endeavour. The Simhalese has, perhaps, been guided by the verse, but there the word visesam is omitted.

360:1 Not traced as yet. There are stanzas of Mogha-râga's both in the Sutta Nipâta and the Thera Gâthâ, but this is not one of them.

360:2 By putting a small fish on his hook catches a big one.

360:3 Not traced as yet.

361:1 Kâla-suttam. See Dr. Morris's note in the 'Journal of the Pâli Text Society,' 1884, pp. 76-78, where he compares Mahâ Vastu, p. 17, and other passages.

361:2 Pheggum. See above, p. 267 (of the Pâli), and Magghima Nikâya I, 198, 434, 488, from which it is clear that pheggu is a technical term applied to the softer portions of every tree, no doubt the outside portions. Sâra, on the other hand, means not pith, but heart of a tree. The Simhalese words are sambulu and aratuwa. Compare the ebony tree, the outside of which is as soft and white as deal, whereas the inside is black and hard.

361:3 Sassatam and Ukkhedam. See 'Buddhist Suttas,' p. 149. Hînati-kumburê, p. 615, omits these two, and is very confused in his version of the others.

362:1 Tad uttamam aññad uttamam. The Simhalese omits the second uttamam.

362:2 The Simhalese takes all the four previous phrases as qualifying this last one.

362:3 This passage will be found of the greatest importance for the history of the development of early Buddhist belief. In the present state of our knowledge--or rather of our ignorance--of that subject, its obscure allusions are no doubt unintelligible. But they will not always remain so. And, when rightly understood, they will be expressly valuable inasmuch as they refer to that department of Buddhist belief of which we know, from other sources, the least. The development--or degeneration, if the expression be preferred--of Buddhist doctrine took place along three principal lines. Firstly, in the doctrine as to the person of the Buddha; secondly, in the pushing of Arahatship into the background and the elevation, in its place, of Bodisatship into the ideal; and thirdly, in the doctrine of the relation of man to the universe. We know a good deal of the growth of the legend of the Buddha, and of the change in the ethical standpoint. Of the evolution of the philosophic conceptions we know at present but little. It is on this last point that our author here lets us somewhat behind the scenes. The theses he 363:1 Kârandavam. In Childers, 'a sort of duck,' in the Simhalese, 'excrement.'

363:2 Palâpe vâhetha. Chaff is so often used in Pâli of frivolous talk that it is given in the dictionaries as having that meaning. Hînati-kumburê takes it here in the sense of men of low caste, leprous Kandâlas.

363:3 Not traced as yet. It is not in the Sutta Nipâta. This is the only passage in which our author gives the name of a book as the source from which he takes a passage, when the passage cannot be found in it. See Introduction, I, xliii.