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A MONTHLY MAGAZINE
Translated from the Originals by ALBERT J. EDMUNDS.
(Second Series).
{1} THE MASTER REMEMBERS A PRE-EXISTENT STATE.
Itivuttaka 22. John xvii. 5. (Not before translated).
THIS was spoken by the Blessed One, spoken by the Arahat and heard by me.
O monks, be not afraid of good works: such is the name for happiness, for what is wished, desired, dear, and delightful, namely good works. And for a long time have I known, monks, the wished-for, desired, dear, delightful and severally enjoyed results of good works done for a long time. Having practised benevolence for seven years, I did not return to this world during the revolution and evolution of an æon. Yea, monks, for the revolution of an æon I was an Angel of Splendour, and during the evolution I rose again in the empty palace of the Brahmâs. Yea, then, O monks, I was a Brahmâ, the great Brahmâ, conquering, unconquered, all-seeing, controlling. And thirty-six times, O monks, was I Sakko, the lord of the angels; many hundreds of times I was a king, a righteous emperor, a king of righteousness,1 victorious in the four quarters, securely established in my country, and possessed of the seven treasures. Now what was the doctrine of that region and kingdom? This is what I thought of it, O monks: What deed of mine, is this the fruit of? Of what deed is this the result, whereby now I am thus magical and mighty? This is what I thought of it, O, monks: This is the fruit of three deeds of mine, the result of three deeds, whereby now I am thus magical and mighty, to wit: alms, control, and abstinence.
[The substance of this Sutta is then put into two stanzas].
Exactly this is the meaning of what the Blessed One said, and it was heard by me.
{2} FAITH TO REMOVE MOUNTAINS.
Numerical Collection VI. 24. Matthew xvii. 20, 21. (Not before translated.)
(Repeated in Matt. xxi, which is parallel with Mark xi. But the added verse which appears in some MSS., Matt. xvii. 21, is analogous to Gotamo's exclamation about ignorance).
Monks, a monk endowed with six qualities can cleave the Himâlaya, the monarch of mountains. But what a doctrine for vile ignorance! Which are the six?
Monks, suppose a monk is expert in the attainment of Trance (or Concentration), in the maintenance thereof and the rising therefrom; expert in the obscure intimations of trance, in its range, and in earnest aspiration thereunto. A monk endowed with these six qualities, O monks, can cleave the Himâlaya, the monarch of mountains. But what a doctrine for vile ignorance!
{3} THE BELOVED DISCIPLE REACHES HEAVEN HERE.
Numerical Collection III. 80. John xxi. 22. Cf. Mark ix. 1. (Not before translated).
Udâyi, if Ânando should die with passion unsubdued, yet by his believing heart he would seven times obtain an angelic kingdom among the angels; and even in this India he would obtain a great kingdom seven times. But, O Udâyi, even in this life, will Ânando enter Nirvâ.na.
{4} THE MASTER KNOWS GOD AND HIS KINGDOM.
Long Collection, Dialogue 13. (Translated In S. B. E. XI. and in Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Vol. 2, each time by Rhys Davids: 1881 and 1899).
John vi. 46; vii. 29; viii. 42, 55.
That man, O Vâse.t.tha, born and brought up at Manasâkata, might hesitate or falter when asked the way thereto. But not so does the Tathâgato hesitate or falter when asked of the kingdom of God (world of Brahmâ) or the path that goeth thereto. For I, O Vâse.t.tha, know both God and the Kingdom of God and the path that goeth thereto; I know it even as1 one who hath entered the Kingdom of God and been born there.
Mark vi. 7-13; Matthew xxviii. 19, 20; Luke x. 1.
Mahâvaggo I, 10, 11. (Translated in S. B. E. XIII. p. 112).
At that time there were sixty-one1 Arahats in the world.
And the Blessed One said unto the monks: "I am delivered, O monks, from all fetters, human and divine. Ye, O monks, are also delivered therefrom. Go forth, O monks, on your journey for the weal and the welfare of much people, out of compassion for the world, and for the wealth and the weal and the welfare of angels and mortals. Go no two of you the same way. Preach, monks, the Doctrine which is glorious in its origin, glorious at the climax, glorious at the end, in the spirit and the letter. Proclaim a religious life wholly perfect and thoroughly pure. There are beings whose mental eyes are darkened by hardly any dust, but unless they hear the Doctrine they will perish. They will understand it.
Mark iii. 29. (R. V. 1881.) Cullavaggo VII. 3. (Translated in S. B. E. XX. p. 254)
"Is it true, Devadatto, as they say, that thou goest about to stir up schism in the Order and schism in our society?"--"It is true, O Blessed One."--"Enough, Devadatto. Let not schism in the Order be pleasing unto thee: serious, O Devadatto, is a schism in the Order. Whosoever, Devadatto, divides the Order when it is at peace gives birth to an æon-lasting fault, and for an æon he is tormented in hell. But whosoever, Devadatto, makes peace in the Order when it has been divided gives birth to the highest merit (literally, Brahmâ-merit), and for an æon he is happy in Paradise."
[The words {Greek: aiwnion amarthma} in Mark iii. 29, are the exact verbal equivalent of the Pâli kappa.t.thikam kibbisam, or, as the Siam edition has it, kappa.t.thitikam. Schism is the deadly sin of Buddhism, the other four of its deadly sins being rare deeds of violence--matricide, parricide, saint-murder and wounding a Buddha. The deadly sin of the New Testament is resistance to the Divine operation, while that of the Mazdeans is self-defilement. (S. B. E. IV., p. 101.) The Christian and Buddhist ones are of long retribution, but terminable, for everlasting hell was unknown to the Jews at the time of Christ, and therefore unknown to the Master's terms. Only the Mazdean uses the language of absolute despair; but if the p. 249 universalism of the Bundahish be a true tradition from the lost Dâmdâd Nosk, then even this sin is finally forgiven.]
Mark ix. 2-8. Book of the Great Decease. p. 46 of the Pâli. (Translated in S. B. E. XI.)
Now not long after Pukkuso the Mallian had gone, the venrable Ânando placed upon the person of the Blessed One that pair of gold-cloth robes, burnished and ready for wear. And when so placed upon the person of the Blessed One it appeared bereft of its brightness.
And the venerable Ânando said unto the Blessed One: "Wonerful, O Lord! Marvellous, O Lord! that the color of the Tathâgato's skin should be so pure and purified. For when I placed upon the person of the Blessed One this pair of gold-cloth robes, burnished and ready for wear, it appeared bereft of its brightness."
Ânando, it is even so. There are two occasions, Ânando, when the color of a Tathâgato's skin becomes pure and exceeding purified. What are the two?--On the night, Ânando, wherein a Tathâgato is supernally enlightened with incomparable and perfect Enlightenent, and on the night when he enters Nirvâ.na with that kind1 of Nirvâ.na which leaves no substrata behind: on these two occasions the color of a Tathagato's skin becomes pure and exceeding purified. And now, Ânando, this day, in the third watch of the night, in the garden ground of Kusinârâ, in the sâl-grove of the Mallians, between the twin sâl-trees, will take place the Tathâgato's passage into Nirvâ.na. Come, Ânando, let us go on unto the river Kakutthâ." "Even so, Lord," said the venerable Ânando, in assent unto the Blessed One.
| The pair of burnished gold-cloth robes were brought by Pukkuso: The Master, when begirt therewith, in golden color shone. |
[The stanza proclaims the antiquity of the legend.]
See The Open Court for August, 1898, with critical notes in November, 1898, and June, 1899. The same story from another and fuller version in the Canon has been translated by me in separate form.
(The Marvellous Birth of the Buddhas: Philadelphia, McVey 1899. Price, 25 cents). The oldest Canonical Nativity legend is that of the Sutta Nipâto (translated in S. B. E., Vol. X.) I hope in the future to publish a new translation.
{9} POWER OVER EVIL SPIRITS AND ASSOCIATION WITH ANGELS.
Mark iii. 11; Matthew xxvi. 53; John i. 51. Udâna I. 7.
Thus have I heard. At one season the Blessed One was staying at Pâ.talî, at the Goat-herd Shrine, in the haunt of the Goblin Goat-herd. Now at that season the Blessed One was sitting throughout the thick darkness of the night in the open air, and one by one an angel would touch him. Then the Goblin Goat-herd, being seized with fear and bristling terror, approached the Blessed One and when near him uttered thrice his cry of "Blighted! Affrighted!" and said in his fright: "This demon is thine, O Prophet!"1
Then the Blessed One, when he had understood the fact, gave vent, upon that occasion, to the following Udâna:
| "When the Brâhman bath passed beyond his own idea (dhammâ), Then doth he overcome this demon and monster." |
1. Or King by right, the Epic title of a Hindû suzerain.
1. The Siam text has even as Brahmâ (i.e., God or archangel). Though the Buddhists held that the supreme Godhead was an office, not a person, and that Buddha himself had held that office in a past eternity (see above), yet they ascribed to the chief Brahmâ all the Christian titles of the Deity. (Long Collection, Dialogues I and XI.)
1. Rendel Harris suggests a parallel, if not a connexion, with Luke's Seventy who went to the Gentiles.
1. See Itivuttaka 44, for the two kinds of Nirvâ.na. I do not fear to translate thus in view of this remarkable passage, so obviously referred to in our text. One line of the primitive Itivuttaka is worth whole pages of the developed Dialogues.
1. The Pâli Samano, in contradistinction to Brâhmano, is precisely the Old Testament prophet as against the priest. Buddha, however, persistently idealised the word "Brâhman," as in our present stanzas, to mean an Arahat. But in the familiar phrase, samana-brâhmanâ, the word is used in its usual sense, and I should translate: "prophets and priests," or "philosophers and brahmins." The samanas were the freethinking ascetics of the caste of the nobles, like Gotamo himself, who did not believe in priestly orthodoxy. They united the qualities of the Hebrew prophet and the Greek philosopher, having the fervour of the one and the dialectic of the other.