Dialogues of the Buddha (Digha Nikaya)

13. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. For there is a further soul, which by passing beyond ideas of form, by the dying out of ideas of resistance, by paying no heed to ideas of difference, conscious that space is infinite, reaches up to the plane of the infinity of space !. This you neither know of nor perceive. [35] But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution ot the body, is cut off and destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being. 14. * To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. 1 Compare the 4th Vimokha. See Rh. D. ' Buddhist Suttas,' pp. 52, 213. The idea of resistance, pa/igha, is here not ethical, but refers to the senses. Having no sense of reaction to touch, of opposition to muscular effort It appears from M. I, 164 that this was pretty much the view put forth by Gotama's first teacher A/ara Kalama.

For there is a further soul, which having passed beyond the plane of the infinity of space, knowing that consciousness is infinite, reaches up to the plane of the infinity of consciousness \ This you neither know of nor perceive. But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution of the body, is cut off and destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being. 15. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. For there is a further soul, which by passing quite beyond the plane of the infinity of consciousness, knowing that there is nothing, reaches up to the plane of no obstruction 2. This you neither know of nor perceive. But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution of the body, is cut off and destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being.

16. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. For there is a further soul, which by passing quite beyond the plane of no obstruction, realises ' This is good, this is excellent,' and reaches up to the plane of neither ideas nor the absence of ideas 3. This you 1 Compare the 5th Vimokha. This seems from M. I, 165 to have been much the same as the view held by Rama, whose son and pupil, Uddaka, was Gotama's second teacher. 2 Compare the 6th Vimokha. 3 Though it is not explicitly so stated, this last of these seven theorisers is no doubt to be considered as believing in all the sorts of soul held by the others, so that he believes in seven. One may compare the five souls each more subtle than the last, made respectively of anna, pra«a, manas, vi^«a«a, and ananda (food, breath, mind, consciousness, and joy), described in the Taittirfya Upanishad II, 1-5. The Buddhist modification of these theories omits the souls, and neither know of, nor perceive. But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution of the body, is cut off, destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being.

17. 'These, brethren, are the recluses and Brahmans who are Annihilationists and in seven ways maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being. [36] And whosoever do so they, all of them, do so in one or other of these seven ways. There is none beside. 1 8. [Repetition of § 40, above p. 44, setting forth that other, higher, knowledge of a Tathagata, for which alone he can be rightly praised.] 19. 'There are, brethren, recluses and Brahmans who hold the doctrine of happiness in this life, who in five ways maintain the complete salvation, in this visible world, of a living being. And relying on what, starting out from what, do they do so ? 20. ' Hereon, brethren, some recluse or Brahman may have the following opinion, the following view : " Whensoever the soul, in full enjoyment and possestreats instead of various states of mind (produced by stages of meditation), the attainment of which, during this life, leads to rebirth in corresponding worlds, or planes of existence, named after those stages of meditations. But the oldest Pi/aka texts say very little about it, and the history of Buddhist speculation on the matter has yet to be formulated.

Centuries afterwards we find a somewhat analogous conception in the gradually ascending series of seven, each more subtle than the last (Sthula-jarira, lihga-jarira, indriya, manas, ahahkara, buddhi, and atman), set out in the Sahkhya texts, and the later Vedanta has a similar series. There is sufficient truth in the idea of the series of seven set out in our text to explain the persistence of the general idea in all the Indian systems, but the details and the application are strikingly different. The text shows that the four Arlipa Vimokhas of the Buddhist theory were regarded by the early Buddhists as derived from closely allied speculations, older than Buddhism, and expressed in almost identical phraseology. sion of the five pleasures of sense, indulges all its functions, then, Sir, the soul has attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvana V Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being. 21. s To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the soul does not by that alone attain to the highest Nirvana. And why not ? Sensuous delights, Sir, are transitory, they involve pain, their very nature is to fluctuate. And grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow, and loathing arise out of their inconstancy and change. [37] But whensoever the soul, putting away sensuous delights and evil dispositions, enters into and abides in the First Ghana., the state of joy and ease, born of seclusion, accompanied by reflection, accompanied by investigation, then, Sir, has the soul attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvana." Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being.

22. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the soul does not by that alone attain to the highest Nirvana. And why not ? Because inasmuch as that state involves reasoning and investigation it is stamped as being gross. But whensoever, Sir, the soul, suppressing both reasoning and investigation, enters into and abides in the Second 6v£ana, the state of joy and ease, born of serenity, without reflection or investigation, a state of elevation of mind, internal calm of heart, then, Sir, has the soul attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvana." Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being. 1 Buddhaghosa here (Sum. I, 121) explains Nirvawa as the suppression of pain ; pain, dukha, being bodily, as opposed to domanassa. mental. ' In this visible world ' means in whatever world the particular soul happens to be at the time. On pari^areti compare V. II, 290 raga. uyyane pari^aresi, 'the king indulged himself, enjoyed himself, in the garden.' ' All its functions ' is added from the Commentary. 23. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the soul does not by that alone attain to the highest Nirvana. And why not ? Because inasmuch as that state involves the sense of joy, of exhilaration of heart, it is stamped as being gross. But whensoever, Sir, the soul, by absence of the longing after joy remains in equanimity, mindful and self-possessed, and experiences in the body that ease of which the Arahats speak (when they say) ' the man serene and thoughtful dwells at ease,' and so enters into and abides in the Third 6*^ana — then, Sir, has the soul attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvana." Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being.

24. ' To him another says : " There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the soul does not by that alone attain to the highest Nirvana. And why not ? Because inasmuch as that state involves a constant dwelling of the mind on the ease it has enjoyed it is stamped as gross. [38] But whensoever, Sir, the soul, by putting away ease, by putting away pain, by the previous dying away both of joys and griefs has entered into and abides in the Fourth cTMna1 — a state made pure by self-possession and equanimity, without pain and without ease — then, Sir, has the soul attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvana." Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being. 25. ' These, brethren, are the recluses and Brahmans who hold the doctrine of happiness in this life, who in five ways maintain the complete salvation, in this visible world, of a living being. And those who do 1 The text shows that the four Guanas were regarded by the early Buddhists as older than Buddhism. The very words used are identical ; the only modification introduced in Buddhism being the omission of the ' souls.' These four, together with the lour Arupa Vimokhas (see note on § 19), make up the Eight Attainments (Samapattiyo), often mentioned in the Gataka commentary as practised by preBuddhistic recluses.

so, all of them, do so in one or other of these five ways. There is none beside. 26. [Repetition of $ 40, above p. 44, setting forth that other, higher, knowledge of a Tathagata, for which alone he can be rightly praised.] 27. 'These, brethren, are the recluses and Brahmans who arrange the future, whose speculations are concerned with the future, and who on forty-four grounds put forward various assertions regarding the future. And those who do so, all of them, do so in one or other of these forty-four ways. There is none beside. 28. [Repetition of § 40, above p. 44, setting forth that other, higher, knowledge of a Tathagata, for which alone he can be rightly praised.] [39] 29. ' These, brethren, are the recluses and Brahmans who reconstruct the past, and arrange the future, or who do both, whose speculations are concerned with both, and who in sixty-two ways put forward propositions with regard to the past and to the future, and those who do so, all of them, do so in one or other of these sixty-two ways. There is none beside. 30. [Repetition of § 40, above p. 44, setting forth that other, higher, knowledge of a Tathagata, for which alone he can be rightly praised.]

[40] 32. 'Of these, brethren, those recluses and Brahmans who are Eternalists, who in four ways maintain that the soul and the world are eternal : (2) those who are Semi-eternalists, who in four ways maintain that the soul and the world are partly eternal and partly not : (3) those who are Extensionists, who in four ways maintain the infinity or the finiteness of the world: (4) those who are Eel-wrigglers, who when a question is put to them on this or that resort, in four ways, to equivocation, to wriggling like eels : (5) those who are Fortuitous-Originists, who in two ways maintain that the soul and the world arose without a cause : (6) those who in any of these eighteen ways reconstruct the past : (7) those who hold the doctrine of a conscious existence after death, who maintain in sixteen ways that the soul after death is conscious : (8) those who hold the doctrine of an unconscious existence after death, who maintain in eight ways that the soul after death is unconscious : (9) those who maintain in eight ways that the soul after death is neither conscious nor unconscious : (10) those who are Annihilationists, who maintain in seven ways the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being :

(1 1) those who hold the doctrine of happiness in this life, who in five ways maintain the complete salvation, in this visible world, of a living being — That opinion of theirs is based only on the personal sensations, on the worry and writhing consequent thereon !, of those venerable recluses and Brahmans, who know not, neither perceive, and are subject to all kinds of craving- : 45 foil. [41,42] 'Those opinions of theirs are therefore based upon contact (through the senses). 58 foil. [43] 'That they should experience those sensations without such contact, such a condition of things could not be. 71. [44] ' They, all of them, receive those sensations through continual contact in the spheres of touch. To them on account of the sensations arises craving, on account of the craving arises the fuel (that is, the necessary condition, the food, the basis, of future lives), from the fuel results becoming, from the tendency to become arises rebirth, and from rebirth comes death, and grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow, and despair. It is, brethren, when a brother understands, 1 On paritasita compare M. I, 36 na asati paritassati, 'is not worried at what is not': paritassana, 'fidgetiness' or ' worry,' at M. I, 136 ; S. Ill, 15-19 ; and Mil. 253, 400. On vipphandita, M. I, 8, 486; Dh. S. 381 (Asl. 253); Gat. IV, 495.

as they really are, the origin and the end, the attraction, the danger, and the way of escape from the six realms of contact, that he gets to know what is above, beyond, them all !. 72. [45] ' For whosoever, brethren, whether recluses or Brahmans, are thus reconstructors of the past or arrangers of the future, or who are both, whose speculations are concerned with both, who put forward various propositions with regard to the past and to the future, they, all of them, are entrapped in the net of these sixty-two modes ; this way and that they plunge about, but they are in it ; this way and that they may flounder, but they are included in it, caught in it. ' Just, brethren, as when a skilful fisherman or fisherlad should drag a tiny pool of water with a fine-meshed net he might fairly think : " Whatever fish of size may be in this pond, every one will be in this net ; flounder about as they may, they will be included in it, and caught" — just so is it with these speculators about the past and the future, in this net, flounder as they may, they are included and caught. [46]

73. 'The outward form, brethren, of him who has won the truth2, stands before you, but that which binds it to rebirth is cut in twain. So long as his body shall last, so long do gods and men behold him. On the dissolution of the body, beyond the end of his life, neither gods nor men shall see him. ' Just, brethren, as when the stalk of a bunch of mangoes has been cut, all the mangoes that were hanging on that stalk go with it ; just so, brethren, though the outward form of him who has won the truth stands before you, that which binds it to rebirth has been cut in twain. So long as his body shall last, so long do gods and men behold him. On the dissolution of the body, beyond the end of his life, neither gods nor men shall see him.' 1 In the text the first three of these four propositions are repeated of each of the eleven classes of theorisers. The fourth is put in the form which, to avoid repetition, 1 have adopted for all the four. 2 Tat hag at a, that is the speaker himself, the Buddha.

74. When he had thus spoken, the venerable Ananda said to the Blessed One : ' Strange, Lord, is this, and wonderful ! And what name has this exposition of the truth ? ' ' Ananda, you may remember this exposition as the Net of Advantage, and as the Net of Truth, and as the Supreme Net, and as the Net of Theories ; remember it even as the Glorious Victory in the day of battle !' Thus spake the Blessed One, and glad at heart the brethren exalted his word. And on the delivery of this discourse the thousandfold world-system shook, Here ends the Brahma-^ala Sutta. The first Dialogue deals with the most fundamental conceptions that lay at the root of the Buddha's doctrine, his Dharma, his ethical and philosophical view of life — the second puts forth his justification for the foundation of the Order, for the enunciation of the Vinaya, the practical rules of canon law by which life in the Order is regulated. The Rules themselves are not discussed. It is only certain ethical precepts that are referred to in so many words. The question is a larger and wider one than the desirability of any particular injunction. It is as to the advantage, as to the use, of having any Order at all.

King A^atasattu of Magadha, after pointing out the advantages derived from their occupations by a long list of ordinary people in the world, asks whether the members of the Order, who have given up the world, derive any corresponding advantage, visible in this life, from theirs. The answer is a list of such advantages, arranged in an ascending scale of importance, each one mentioned being said to be better and sweeter than the one just before described. The list of ordinary occupations given in the question is interesting evidence, especially as compared with the later lists of a similar kind referred to in the notes, of social conditions in the Ganges valley at the time when this Dialogue was composed. And the introductory story, in which the king explains how he had put a similar question to the founders of six other orders, and gives the six replies he received, is interesting evidence of the views held by the authors of the Dialogue as to beliefs current at the time. The replies are no less interesting from the fact, pointed out by the king, that they are not to the point. Each of the six teachers goes off into a general statement of his theory instead of answering the question put. But as the works, if any, of all these teachers save one — Nigant/ia. Nata-putta — have been irretrievably lost, the summary here given of their doctrines is of great importance as evidence of the sort of

speculation they favoured. The six paragraphs are short and obscure, and this is just what we should expect. As is the case with the accounts given by early Catholic writers of opinions they held to be heretical, the versions of these six sets of belief are neither adequate nor clear. But a number of other references to these six theories are found, as pointed out in the notes, both in the Buddhist and in the Cain records. And it would be premature to discuss our six paragraphs until the whole of the available evidence is made accessible to scholars. It is noteworthy that in at least two cf these answers some of the expressions used seem to be in a Prakrit differing in dialect from the Pali of the Pi/akas. And these are not the only instances of the preservation in the Pi/akas of ancient dialectical varieties. The answer which the Buddha is represented to have given, in his turn, to the question raised by the king, takes (as is so often the case) the form of a counter-question. ' The very man whom, under ordinary circumstances, you would treat as slave or servant — what treatment would you mete out to him after he had joined an Order ? ' The king confesses that he would treat him as a person worthy of honour and respect. And neither in question nor answer is there any reference specially to the Buddhist Order. It is taken for granted, alike by the Buddha and the king, that any one who had devoted himself to the religious life, whatever the views or opinions he held, or the association he had joined, would, in accordance with the remarkable tolerance of that age and country, be treated with equal respect and courtesy. And the same note runs all through the Dialogue. The Buddha shows the advantages of the ' life of a recluse,' not necessarily of a follower of his own. And most of what he says would apply as much to his strongest opponents as to the members of his own Order.

The following, in a constantly. ascending order of merit, are the advantages, visible in this life, which he claims for such a recluse: — i. The honour and respect shown to a member of a religious order. 3. The training in all those lower kinds of mere morality set out in the very ancient document called ' The Silas.' The importance of this document has been discussed above, in the Introduction to the Brahma-^-ala. The details of it may be summarised here as follows : — a. Mercy and kindness to all living things ; § 43 x. 1 Details a-d (though the fact is not referred to here) are the 58 II. SAMAiVWA-PHALA SUTTA. d. Truthfulness, peacefulness, courtesy, and good sense in e. Abstinence from luxury of twelve different kinds, and freedom from trickery and violence ; § 45. f. Not injuring plants ; § 46. g. Not laying up treasure, of seven kinds ; § 47. h. Not frequenting shows, of twenty-six specified kinds ; § 48. i. Not playing games, eighteen being mentioned by name ; § 49j. Not using luxurious rugs, &c., of twenty different kindi ; k. Not using toilet luxuries, of which twenty-two are specified; §51.

/. Not talking vain things, of which twenty-seven instances are given ; § 52. m. Not using sophistical and rude phrases when talking of higher things ; § 53. n. Not acting as go-between ; § 54. 0. Not practising trickery and mystery under the guise of religion; §55. p. Not gaining a living by low arts, such as auguries (§ 56) ; advising as to the best sorts of various things (§ 57) ; prophesying as to war and its results (6 58) ; astrology (§ 59); foretelling famine or plague or the reverse (§ 60) ; arranging marriages, using spells, or worshipping gods (§ 61); various sorts of medical trickery 3. The confidence of heart, absence of fear, resulting from the consciousness of right doing ; § 63. 4. The habit of keeping guarded the door of his senses; 5. The constant self-possession he thus gains ; § 65. 6. The power of being content with little, with simplicity of life ; § 66. 7. The emancipation of heart from the Five Hindrances to self-mastery — covetousness, ilKtemper, laziness, worry and flurry and perplexity ; §§ 68-74. 8. The joy and peace that, as a result of the sense of this emancipation, fills his whole being ; § 75.

opposites of the three bad acts of the body, and the four bad acts of speech, kaya- and va£i-du££aritani, so often referred to in the Suttas, and in the Abhidhamma. The three others (of the mind), making up the ten given in my manual, p. 142, are omitted here because they belong to the higher morality. 9. The practice of the Four Guanas ; §§ 75-82 *. 10. The Insight arising from knowledge («a«a-dassana) ; 11. The power of projecting mental images ; §§ 85, 86. 12. The five modes of mystic Insight (a bhi««a) ; §§87-96 — a. The practice of Iddhi. h. The Heavenly Ear — hearing heavenly sounds. c. Knowledge of others' thoughts. d. Memory of his own previous births. e. Knowledge of other people's previous births (the Heavenly 13. The realisation of the Four Truths, the destruction of the Asavas and attainment of Arahatship ; §§ 97, 98. Now it. is perfectly true that of these thirteen consecutive propositions, or groups of propositions, it is only the last, No 13, which is exclusively Buddhist. But the things omitted, Ine union of the whole of those included into one system, the order in which the ideas are arranged, the way in which they are treated as so many steps of a ladder whose chief value depends on the fact that it leads up to the culminating point of Nirvana in Arahatship — all this is also distinctively Buddhist. And further, the whole statement, the details of it, the order of it, must have soaked very thoroughly into the minds of the early Buddhists. For we find the whole, or nearly the whole, of it repeated (with direct reference by name to our Sutta as the oldest and most complete enumeration of it) not only in all the subsequent dialogues translated in this volume, but also in many others.

In these repetitions the order is always the same, and the details (so far as they occur) are the same. But one or other of the thirteen groups is often omitted, and the application of those of them that remain is always different — that is to say, they are enumerated in support, or in illustration, of a different proposition. A comparison of some of these other applications of the list is full of suggestion as to its real meaning here. In the Amba//^a the point is as to caste. The Kshatriya caste is the most honourable, but wisdom and conduct are higher still. What then is the right conduct, what the right 1 Buddhaghosa (p. 219) says that though the Four Arupa Vimokkhas are not explicitly mentioned they are to be understood (thus making up the Eight Samapattis). This may be so: but it looks like a later writer reading his own opinion into the older text. They are put into the text at Po///$apada, pp. 183, 184, and it is difficult to see why they should not have been also inserted here, if they were really implied. 60 II. SAMAiViVA-PHALA SUTTA. wisdom ? The conduct (Tarawa) is all the above paragraphs from 2-9 inclusive; the wisdom (vi^a) is the rest, 10-13 "•

In the Sonadanda the question is: 'What is the true Brahman?' After, by his usual Socratic method, leading Sonadanda to acknowledge that the only two essential requisites are goodness and intelligence, these last are explained as above (2-9 and 10-13). In the Ku/adanta the question is as to the right sort of sacrifice. Aftei rejecting animal sacrifice we have generosity (of various kinds, each better than the last), faith, training in the precepts, and 2-13, set forth as each of them a better sacrifice than the last. In the ^aliya the question is whether the soul is the same as, or is other than,, the. body. The answer is a counterquestion. Repeating our sections 2-13 (omitting ii and 12). the Buddha asks, at the end of each subdivision, whether men who do that would be likely to trouble themselves as to speculations about the soul? And the answer being, of course, 'No,' rejoins that neither does he. In the Po///zapada the question is as to the way in which various recluses attain to mystic trance. The Buddha's answer is that it is by training; and the training should be first in morals (our groups 2 and 3) then in the things mentioned in our groups 4-9, and then in the Four Arupa Vimokkhas. The Dialogue then takes up other questions, omitting our groups 10-13.

In the Key add ha. the talk is on miracles, mystic powers. And the Buddha, disparaging all others, calls attention to our groups 2-13. In the l^ohikka. the question is as to who is the right sort of teacher ; and the answer is that it is the one whose pupil carries out our groups 2-13. In the Tevi^a the question is as to the way by which one can attain to union with God (Brahma-sahavyata). The answer gives our groups 1-8, and then adds the Four Brahma-viharas. In the shorter of the two Hatthipadopama Suttas 1 Possibly Nos. 1 1 and 1 2 are meant, both here and in all the other Suttas, to be omitted. The wording is ambiguous. Buddhaghosa, who talks here (see p. 268) of Nos. 10-13 as me Eightfold pa«»a, apparently means to include them (he could not otherwise get eight). But the argument of the Mahali seems to exclude them. The texts always jump from the last words of 10 to the last words of 13. Now as in the Mahali No. 12 is excluded, it is clear that at least there only Nos. 10 and 13 are meant. And there is no difference between the phraseology in the Mahali and that used in the other Suttas.

(No. 27 in the Ma^7?ima), the question discussed between a Brahman and an ascetic is as to the ascendancy of the Buddha over the other teachers of the time. The Buddha himself giving afterwards the full reason, repeats our group 2 (omitting however clauses/" to p inclusive1), then repeats our groups 6> % 4< 5> 7? 8, 9, then omitting groups jo and 11, quotes two only, the last two (omitting. the first three)2 of the five Abhi««as in group 12, and concludes with group 13 in full. In the Maha Ta/zha-sankhaya Sutta (No. 38 in the Ma^/zima), we have the same sequence — our group 2 (omitting f to p), then 6, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. The rest is omitted. In the next Sutta, the longer of the Assapuras, after a summary in different words of most of the contents of our group 2, we have our group 4, then two paragraphs not in our Sutta, then our groups 5, 7, 8, 9, and the last two only out of group 1 2, and then (as a climax) our group 13 — all enumerated to show what is the true Brahman, the true samara. Then again in the Sakuludayi, No. 79 of the Ma^/zima, it is declared to be not for the sake of realising happiness that recluses take up the celibate life in the Order under the Buddha, but for the sake of those matters set forth in our groups 2-9 inclusive 3, of the two last of the Abhiw/as, and above all for the sake of the attainment of Arahatship.

Besides the differences pointed out above between the Suttas preserved in the Digha, and in the Ma^/zima, respectively— differences due, I think, solely to the difference in the subjects under discussion — there are also a few verbal differences, amounting to scarcely more than ' various readings/ due, perhaps, to the divergent traditions of the Digha - bhazzaka and the Ma^/nma-bha«aka (the students and repeaters of the two collections in which the Dialogues are handed down to us). However this may be, it is clear that the sum and the sequence of the paragraphs in our Sutta is regarded as of 1 From which we may infer that, as respects those matters, he saw no difference between himself and the other teachers. 2 So that the power of Iddhi, of hearing heavenly sounds, and of knowing other people's thoughts, are apparently supposed to be common ground between the Buddhists and the other sects. They are included in our Sutta because they are supposed to be part of the advantage of life in an Order — in any Order, that is, not only the Buddhist. 3 Maxima II, 37, 38. Perhaps the pe is meant to be supplied from the twenty-seventh Sutta just quoted — the difference, however, as we have seen, is not of great importance.

great importance, not as a statement of Buddhist ethics, or of Buddhist philosophy, or of the Buddhist religion, but as a statement of the advantages that may be looked for as the result of life in an Order. And further that the statement has to be slightly modified and shortened when the question is the narrower one of life in the particular community which we call the Buddhist Order. The difference is interesting— in the scheme for the Buddhist Order the «a«a-dassana, the power of projecting a mental image (apparently of oneself, which seems like the earliest germ of the modern Yoga ideas about the astral body), the powers of Iddhi, the power of hearing heavenly sounds (something like hearing the music of the spheres), and the power of knowing the thoughts of others, are all omitted. In the abstract given above, I have called these last three, together with the power of calling to mind one's own, and other peoples', previous births, the Five Abhi««as, or Intuitions. And this is in accord with the passages on which Childers's article sub voce is based. But these powers are not so called either in our text, or in any other Dialogue yet published. The use of the word abhi««a in this technical sense would seem therefore (to judge from the published texts) to be a sign of the later date of the book in which it occurs *. In the oldest portions of the Pi/akas the word is always used in the general sense of insight, and if any special limitation is hinted at, it is simply the insight of Arahatship that is emphasised (as in Dhammapada 423, which is a quotation from Iti-Vuttaka, No. 99, and is quoted also at Ariguttara I,

The Eightfold Path is not mentioned in our Sutta. This is not merely because it is not possible always to mention 1 The oldest case of the technical use of the word, so far as I know, is in the introductory story of the Maha Vibhariga on the fourth Parana (Vin. Ill, 87). This is later than the Old Commentary on the Patimokkha, from which it incorporates many passages, and this again is later, of course, than the Patimokkha itself. Neither the Five nor the Six Abhi««as are given as groups among the groups of Fives and Sixes in the Ahguttara. The word Abhi»«a is used in the divisions containing the Fives and Sixes exclusively in its ordinary sense (III, 277, 451 ; comp. IV, 348). And this is the more instructive as what were afterwards called the Six Abhi»«as are actuary given in full (IV, 17-19, §§ 6-1 1) in the same words as in the Akahkheyya Suita (No. 6 of the M-Agg/i\mz, translated in my ' Buddhist Suttas'), and very nearly as in our Sutta, here under discussion. But they are not called Abhiw«as. 2 Compare also A. I, 100; II, 249; III, 3, 9, 277. everything. The Path does not come within the special advantages of life in the Order. To enter upon the Path to Arahatship, to walk along it, is not peculiar to members of the Order. A bhikshu might reach the goal either along that path, open also to laymen 1) or by the process set out in our Sutta. They are two quite distinct methods of training, of which our Sutta deals only with one

It is essential, in order to understand Buddhist ethics, to bear in mind that there are (and must be in such a system) several different lines along which both speculation and edifying teaching run. These are : 1. The course of conduct laid down for the ordinary Buddhist layman, contained in the Gahapati-vaggas found in the various nikayas 2. 2. The rules as to the outward conduct of the members of the Order, laid down in the Patimokkha and in the Khandhakas 3. 3. The system of self-training in higher things prescribed for members of the Order. Of this our present Sutta is a striking example. 4. The method of self-training laid down for those who have entered upon the Path to Arahatship. (The Four Truths, the Eightfold Path, and the Asavas.) In the first of these Buddhism goes very little beyond the current ethics of the day. In the second a very great deal has been simply incorporated from the rufes found expedient by previous recluses, both Brahman and non-Brahman, though there are numerous differences, both of the positive regulations included, and also of things deliberately omitted. Even the third, as we have seen, cannot be considered, except in a very limited sense, as exclusively Buddhist. It is in the fourth that the essential doctrines of Buddhism are to be found. All four have, no doubt, become welded together into a more or less consistent whole. But to understand the whole, the relation of its various parts has to be kept constantly in view.

This will explain an apparent contradiction. The last Sutta quoted, the Sakuludayi, states that the aim of the religious or celibate life as led in the Buddha's Order, is the attainment, in order, of the various things set out in our Sutta (groups 2-9, 12 and 13). 1 For a list of twenty-one laymen Arahats see A. Ill, 451 ; and there are other instances recorded. 2 A good summary of this is in the Sigalovada Sutta, an abstract of which is given in my Manual, pp. 143 foil. 3 Translated in ' Vinaya Texts' (S. B. E.). 64 II. SAMAiWA-PHALA SUTTA. Now in other passages other things are stated to be the aim. Thus in the Sa;#yutta (IV, 51) the Buddha himself is represented as explaining that the celibate life (the brahma- £ariya)1 is led by his followers for the sake of the complete understanding of pain (dukkha-pari«/za). Further on in the same book (VI, 253 = V, 6, 27) this is three times repeated, with the suggestive addition that there is one way to this, to wit, the Noble Eightfold Path. Again, in the Ariguttara (IV, 7) the higher life is said to be for the sake of getting rid of, of cutting through, seven Bonds which prevent one from attaining Arahatship. The argument on pp. 88, 99 (though the word brahma-^arinya does not occur) comes to much the same thing. And further on in the same book (IV, 272) the object is stated to be for the sake of getting rid of five particular sorts of envy.

Nagasena is therefore quite right when he says that the object of renouncing the world to live in the Order is for the sake of righteousness and peace 2 ; and in another place that it is to the end that sorrow may pass away 3. All these explanations belong to the Path, not to the rules of the Order. They are not really inconsistent with the other aim that our Sutta sets out* And they are only additional proof, if such were needed, that it is no more possible to sum up in a single phrase (as some writers have tried to do) the aim of Buddhism, or the object of life in the Order, than it would be to sum up in a similar way the aim of Christianity, or the object for which men enter a Christian Order. The aims are necessarily as various as the character and circumstances of the various individuals who take them up. And Nagasena does not hesitate to add — and to add in speaking to a king — that some had joined the Order in terror at the tyranny of kings, some in fear of robbers, some because they were harassed by debt, and some perhaps merely to gain a livelihood.

This also would apply to other Orders both in India and elsewhere, and is quite consistent with our Sutta, which only purports to set forth the advantages the early Buddhists held to be the likely results of joining, from whatever motive, such an Order as their own. 1 That is, of course, ' the best course of life ' with the connotation of celibacy. The German ' Wandel ' is a good rendering of ^Tariya. We have no expression so good. See Sawyutta V, 16, 17. 2 Milinda I, 31 (of my translation). 3 Ibid. I, 51 ; compare I, 101. [The Fruits of the Life of a Recluse *.] [47] 1. Thus have I heard. The Blessed One was once dwelling at Ra^agaha in the Mango Grove of Civaka the children's physician2, with a great company of the brethren, with twelve hundred and fifty of the brethren. Now at that time the king of Magadha, A^atasattu, the son of the Videha princess3, on the Uposatha day, held on the fifteenth, on Komudi (white 1 Gogerly's translation of the first part of this Sutta, and Burnouf's translation of the whole of it, have been reprinted in Grimblot's ' Sept Suttas Palis.' These versions, of remarkable ^lerit for the time when they were made, are full of mistakes which the sincepublished editions of the Commentury, and of numerous allied texts, enable us now to avoid. I have not thought it necessary to point out the numerous passages, occurring indeed in nearly every sentence, in which the present translation differs from theirs. It should be mentioned here, however, that Burnouf has missed the whole point of the dialogue by misundei standing the constantly repeated phrase sandi/Mikaw samawwa-phalaw from which this title is taken. He renders it throughout as meaning 'foreseen and general fruit' which is grammatically impossible as regards sand i////ikaz«, and rests on a false derivation as regards samawwa. This last word means, of course, ' samawaship, being a samawa, living as a samawa, a recluse, a religieux.'

2 Givakassa komarabha££assa. Buddhaghosa (Sum. I, 133) naturally follows the compilers of the Khandakas (V. I, 269) in interpreting the adjective as ' brought up by the Prince.' But see the note at ' Vinaya Texts,' II, 174 ; which shows that the more likely meaning is ' the bringer-up of children ' (child-doctor). Several cures, however, wrought by him are recorded ; and the patients are always adillts. There is no other reference at all to his being a child-doctor, and the Khandaka which gives the other interpretation is a very ancient document. 3 See the note in my 'Buddhist Suttas,' p. 1. Buddhaghosa (p. 139) says she was the daughter of the king of Kosala. water-lily), the full moon day of the fourth month 1, at night, when the moon was full, was seated on the upper terrace roof of his palace surrounded by his ministers. And the king, on that sacred day, gave utterance to a hymn of joy, saying: 1 How pleasant, friends, is the moonlight night ! How beautiful, friends, is the moonlight night! How lovely, friends, is the moonlight night! How soothing, friends, is the moonlight night ! How grand a sign, friends, is the moonlight night ! 1 Who is the recluse or Brahman whom we may call upon to-night, who, when we call upon him, shall be able to satisfy our hearts 2 ? '

2. When he had thus spoken, a certain minister said to the king : ' There is, Sire, Pura^a Kassapa, the head of an order, of a following, the teacher of a school, well known and of repute as a sophist, revered by the people, a man of experience, who has long been a recluse, old and well stricken in years. Let your Majesty pay a visit to him. It may well be3 that, on calling upon him, your heart, Sire, shall find peace.' But when he had thus spoken A^atasattu the king kept silence. 3-7. Then other five ministers spake in the same terms of Makkhali of the cow-pen, [48] of Af ita of the garment of hair, of Pakudha Ka^ayana, of Sa^aya of the Bela/Ma clan, and of the Niga^a of the Nata clan. And still, to each, A^atasattu the king kept silence. 1 This is interesting, as it shows that the year, for the compilers of our Sutta, began in Savana (middle of July to middle of August), that is, with the rainy season. There were three Uposatha days in each month, on the 7th, 14th, and 15th day of the month. The full moon night of Kattika (middle of October to middle of November) is called Komudi (from Kumuda, a white water-lily), because that flower is supposed to bloom then. Burnouf is wrong in translating Komudi as the name of the month.

2 The same lines recur, but in a different order, at Gat. I, 105. Dosina, the etymology of which puzzlH Childers and also Buddhaghosa (p. 141), is^-yotsnS. 3 Appeva nam a. Both.Gogerly and Burnouf take this to mean 'to a certainty,' but compare D. I, 179, 205; V. II, 85, 262. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 6 J 8. [49] Now at that time £lvaka the physician was seated, in silence, not far from A^itasattu the king. And the king said to him : ' But you, friend Qvaka, why do you say nothing ? ' 'The Blessed One, Sire, the Arahat, the all-awakenedone, is now lodging in our Mango Grove, with a great company of the brethren, with twelve hundred and fifty brethren. And this is the good report that has been noised abroad as to Gotama the Blessed One : " An Arahat, fully awakened, is the exalted One, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy, with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to mortals willing to be led, the teacher of gods and men, a blessed Buddha." Let your Majesty pay a visit to him. It may well be that, on calling upon him, your heart, Sire, shall find peace.'

1 Then, friend Qvaka, have the riding-elephants made ready.' 9. • Very good, Sire ! ' said Qvaka the physician in assent to the words of the king. And he had five hundred she-elephants made ready, and the state elephant the king was wont to ride, and had word brought to the king : ' The elephants, Sire, are caparisoned. Do now what seemeth to you meet.' Then the king had five hundred of his women mounted on the she-elephants, one on each ; and himself mounted the state elephant ; and he went forth, the attendants bearing torches, in royal pomp, from Ra^agaha to Givaka. the physician's Mango Grove. 10. And the king, when close upon the Mango Grove, was seized with a sudden fear and consternation, and the hairs on his body stood erect. And anxious and excited, he said to c7ivaka : [50] ' You are playing me no tricks, 6ivaka ? You are not deceiving me ? You are not betraying me to my foes ? How can it be that there should be no sound at all, not a sneeze nor a cough, in so large an assembly of the brethren, among twelve hundred and fifty of the brethren ? '

1 Fear not, O king. I play no trick, neither deceive you ; nor would I betray you to the foe. Go on, O king, go straight on ! There, in the pavilion hall, the lamps are burning.' 1 1. Then the king went on, on his elephant as far as the path was passable for elephants, and then on foot, to the door of the pavilion ; and then said to Givaka : ' But where, G*fvaka, is the Blessed One ? ' ' That is he, O king, sitting against the middle pillar, and facing the East, with the brethren around him.' 1 2. Then the king went up, and stood respectfully on one side. And as he stood there and looked on the assembly, seated in perfect silence, calm as a clear lake, he broke out: 'Would that my son, Udayi Bhadda, might have such calm as this assembly of the brethren now has ! ' ' Do your thoughts then go where love guides them ? ' ' I love the boy, and wish that he, Udayi Bhadda, might enjoy such calm as this assembly has.' 13. Then the king bowed to the Blessed One, and stretching fqrth his joined palms in salutation to the Order took his seat aside, [5l] and said to the Blessed One : ' I would fain question the Blessed One on a certain matter, if he give me opportunity to set forth the question.'

1 Ask, O king, whatsoever you desire.' 14. ' There are, Sir, a number of ordinary crafts : — mahouts, horsemen, charioteers, archers, standard bearers, camp marshalls, camp followers, high military officers of royal birth, military scouts \ men brave as elephants, champions, heroes, warriors in buckskin, home-born slaves, cooks, barbers, bath attendants, confectioners, garland-makers, washermen, weavers, basket-makers, potters, arithmeticians, accountants, and whatsoever others of like kind there may be. All 1 Pakkhandino, 'rushers forth/ The exact meaning of some of these military terms is still uncertain, and was apparently uncertain to Buddhaghosa. They all recur, with some differences of reading, in the Milinda (p. 331, in a later and much longer list), and also in the Ahguttara (IV, 107), as the names of the constituent elements of a standing army. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 69 these enjoy, in this very world, the visible fruits of their craft. They maintain themselves, and their parents and children and friends, in happiness and comfort. They keep up gifts, the object of which is gain on high, to recluses and Brahmans, — gifts that lead to rebirth in heaven, that redound to happiness, and have bliss as their result. Can you, Sir, declare to me any such immediate fruit, visible in this very world, of the life of a recluse1 ?'

15. ' Do you admit to us, O king, that you have put the same question to other recluses or to Brahmans ? ' ' I do, Lord.' ' Then tell us how they answered it, if you do not mind.' ' I have no objection where the Blessed One, or others like him, are.' [52] ' Then speak, O king.' 16. 'Once I went to Pura^a Kassapa 2. And after exchanging with him the greetings and compliments of friendship and courtesy, 1 seated myself beside him, and put to him the same question as I have now put, Lord, to you. 17. 'Then Pura^a Kassapa said to me: 'To him who acts, O king, or causes another to act, to him who mutilates or causes another to mutilate, to him who punishes or causes another to punish, to him who causes grief or torment, to him who trembles or causes others to tremble, to him who kills a living creature, who takes what is not given, who breaks into houses, who commits dacoity, or robbery, or highway robbery, or adultery, or who speaks lies, to him thus acting there is no guilt. If with a discus with an edge sharp as

1 Burnouf has made a sad mess of this important and constantly repeated clause. He has ' Is it then possible, Sir, that one should declare to them (that is, to the craftsmen just mentioned) in this world, such a result (of their actions) as foreseen and as the general fruit of their conduct ? ' But the king asks the Buddha to tell him (the king himself) whether the members of the Order derive from their life any benefit corresponding to that which the craftsmen derive from theirs. 2 According to Buddhaghosa (p. 142) he was one of the teachers who went about naked. a razor he should make all the living creatures on the earth one heap, one mass, of flesh, there would be no guilt thence resulting, no increase of guilt would ensue. Were he to go along the south bank of the Ganges striking and slaying, mutilating and having men mutilated, oppressing and having men oppressed, there would be no guilt thence resulting, no increase of guilt would ensue. Were he to go along the north bank of the Ganges giving alms, and ordering gifts to be given, offering sacrifices or causing them to be offered, there would be no merit thence resulting, no increase of merit. [53] In generosity, in self-mastery, in control of the senses, in speaking truth there is neither merit, nor increase of merit." Thus, Lord, did Pura^a Kassapa, when asked what was the immediate advantage in the life of a recluse, expound his theory of non-action1. Just, Lord, as if a man, when asked what a mango was, should explain what a bread fruit is, just so did Pura/za Kassapa, when asked what was the fruit, in this present state of being, of the life of a recluse, expound his theory of non-action. Then, Lord, it occurred to me : " How should such a one as I think of giving dissatisfaction to any recluse or Brahman in my realm ? " So I neither applauded nor blamed what he said, and though dissatisfied I gave utterance to no expression of dissatisfaction, and neither accepting nor rejecting that answer of his, I arose from my seat; and departed thence.

19. ['In the same manner I went to five other teachers, and receiving to this same question put an answer not to the point, I behaved in each case as just set forth. And the answers of the five were thus :] 2 1 Akiriyawz vyakasi. Gogerly interprets this 'he replied by affirming that there are no future rewards and punishments.' Burnouf has simply ' m'a donne* une r£ponse vaine.' But the corresponding word in the subsequent sections summarises the theory of the teacher questioned. On this theory compare A. I, 62 ; V. I. 235. 8 In the text the framework of the interview is repeated each time in the same words as above. Only the answers differ. The answers all recur in the Ma.gg^ima I, 513 foil. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 7 1 20. 'When one day I had thus asked Makkhali of the cow-pen 1, he said : " There is, O king, no cause, either ultimate or remote, for the depravity of beings ; they become depraved without reason and without cause. There is no cause, either proximate or remote, for the rectitude of beings ; they become pure without reason and without cause. The attainment of any given condition, of any character, does not depend either on one's own acts, or on the acts of another, or on human effort. There is no such thing as power or energy, or human strength or human vigour. All animals, all creatures (with one, two, or more senses), all beings (produced from eggs or in a womb), all souls (in plants) 2 are without force and power and energy of theii own. They are bent this way and that by their fate, by the necessary conditions of the class to which they belong, by their individual nature : and it is according to their position in one or other of the six classes that they experience ease or pain.

1 There is a good deal in both the Buddhist and theAGain texts about this Makkhali Gosala, whose followers were called A^fvakas, and who was regarded, from the Buddhist point of view, as the worst of the sophists. Some of the Gaina passages, and also Buddhaghosa here, are referred to by Hoernle, 'Uvasaka dasao,' pp. 108 foil. : and in the Appendixes. The principal Pi/aka passages are M. 1,31, 198, 238, 250, 483, 516,524. S.I, 66, 68; 111,69, 211; IV, 398. A. I, 33, 286; III, 276, 384. V. I, 8, 291 ; II, in, 130, 165, 284; IV, 74. See also Git I, 493 and G. V, 68. As the sect is thrice mentioned in the Asoka Edicts as receiving royal gifts it is certain that it retained an important position for several centuries at least. See Senart, 'Inscriptions de Piyadasi,' II, 82, 209. From the beginning of the answer down to the end of p. 53 recurs at S. Ill, 211, and the rest of it at ibid. 212, and the first part of the answer is ascribed at ibid. p. 69 to Pura«a Kassapa. 2 Sabbe satta, sabbe pa«a, sabbe bhuta, sabbe £"iva. Buddhaghosa gives details of these four classes of living beings, showing how they are meant to include all that has life, on this earth, from men down to plants. The explanation is very confused, and makes the terms by no means mutually exclusive. They are frequently used in the same order in the Gaina-Sutras, and Professor Jacobi renders them accordingly ' Every sentient being, every insect, every living thing, whether animal or vegetable.' ' Gaina-Sutras,' II, xxv. This is much better ; but we have, in our version, to give the sense in which the Buddhists supposed Gosala to have taken the words.

[54] ' "There are fourteen hundred thousands of the principal sorts of birth, and again six thousand others, and again six hundred. There are five hundred sorts of Karma, and again five (according to the five senses), and again three (according to act, word, and thought) ; and there is a whole Karma and a half Karma (the whole being a Karma of act or word, the half a Karma of thought). ' " There are sixty-two paths (or modes of conduct), sixty-two periods, six classes (or distinctions among men)1, eight stages of a prophet's existence2, forty-nine hundred sorts of occupation 3, forty-nine hundred sorts of wandering mendicants, forty-nine hundred regions dwelt in by Nagas, two thousand faculties, three thousand purgatories, thirty-six places where dust accumulates, seven sorts of animate and seven of inanimate production, and seven of production by grafting, seven sorts of gods, and of men, and of devils, and of great lakes, and seven principal and again seven hundred minor sorts of Pa^uz'as4 of precipices, and of dreams. ' " There are eighty-four hundred thousand periods during which both fools and wise alike, wandering in transmigration, shall at last make an end of pain. Though the wise should hope : ' By this virtue or this performance of duty, or this penance, or this righteousness will I make the Karma (I have inherited), that is not yet mature, mature' — though the fool should hope, by the same means, to get gradually rid of Karma that has matured — neither of them can do it. The ease and pain, measured out, as it were, with a measure, cannot be altered in the course of transmigration ; there

1 Compare the corresponding theory of the Gains as given in the Uttaradhyayana Sutra in Jacobi's Gaina-Sutras, vol. ii, p. 213: and that of Purawa Kassapa quoted in Aiiguttara III, 383. 2 Buddhaghosa gives the details ' babyhood, playtime, trial time, erect time, learning time, ascetic time, prophet time, and prostrate time ' with (very necessary) comments on each. One may compare Shakspere's ' Seven Ages of Man.' 3 Ag\v&. The Siamese edition reads a^ivaka. * I think this is the right reading, but don't know what it means. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. J $ can be neither increase nor decrease thereof, neither excess nor deficiency. Just as when a ball of string is cast forth it will spread out just as far, and no farther, than it can unwind, just so both fools and wise alike, wandering in transmigration exactly for the allotted term, shall then, and only then, make an end of pain." ' Thus, Lord, did Makkhali of the cow-pen, when asked what was the immediate advantage in the life of a recluse, expound his theory of purification through transmigration. [65] 23. 'When, one day, I had thus asked A^ita of the garment of hair, he said1 : " There is no such thing, O king, as alms or sacrifice or offering. There is neither fruit nor result of good or evil deeds. There is no such thing as this world or the next. There is neither father nor mother, nor beings springing into life without them. There are in the world no recluses or Brahmans who have reached the highest point 2, who walk perfectly, and who having understood and realised, by themselves alone, both this world and the next, make their wisdom known to others.

' " A human being is built up of the four elements. When he dies the earthy in him returns and relapses to the earth, the fluid to the water, the heat to the fire, the windy to the air, and his faculties 3 pass into space. The four bearers, on the bier as a fifth, take his dead body away ; till they reach the burning-ground men utter forth eulogies, but there his bones are bleached, 1 This answer recurs S. Ill, 307, M. I, 515 (compare Dh. S. 1215, 1362, 1364), as the view of a typical sophist. 2 Sammag-gato. Buddhaghosa gives here no explanation of this word, but the Gataka Commentary on Gat. Ill, 305 says it means the man who has attained the highest fruit; that is, Arahatship. Gato is used here in the same sense as it has in Tathagato, in gatatto (in the NigawMa paragraph below), and in viggi.-ga.to (S. N. 730, 733, 743), that is, who has not only attempted to go to. but has actually reached, the aim (common alike to the orthodox Ved&ntist Brahmans and to each of the various schools of independent, diss ting, thinkers and recluses) of the conquest over ignorance, of the grasp of truth.

3 Indriyani, the five senses, and the mind as a sixth. 74 II. SAMAiViVA-PHALA SUTTA. and his offerings1 end in ashes. It is a doctrine of fools, this talk of gifts. It is an empty lie, mere idle talk, when men say there is profit therein. Fools and wise alike, on the dissolution of the body, are cut off, annihilated, and after death they are not." ' Thus, Lord, did A^ita of the garment of hair, when asked what was the immediate advantage in the life of a recluse, expound his theory of annihilation. [56] 26. ' When, one day, I had thus asked Pakudha Ka^ayana, he said : " The following seven things, O king, are neither made nor commanded to be made, neither created nor caused to be created, they are barren (so that nothing is produced out of them), stedfast as a mountain peak, as a pillar firmly fixed. They move not, neither do they vary, they trench not one upon another, nor avail aught as to ease or pain or both. And what are the seven ? The four elements — earth, water, fire, and air — and ease, and pain, and the soul as a seventh. So there is neither slayer nor causer of slaying, hearer or speaker, knower or explainer. When one with a sharp sword cleaves a head in twain, no one thereby deprives any one of life, a sword has only penetrated into the interval between seven elementary substances."

' Thus, Lord, did Pakudha KaiMyana, when asked what was the immediate advantage in the life of a recluse, expound the matter by expounding something else. [57] 28. 'When, one day, I had thus asked the Niga»//*a of the Nata clan, he said: "A Nigaw///a, O king (a man free from bonds), is restrained with a fourfold self-restraint. He lives restrained as regards all water ; restrained as regards all evil ; all evil has he washed away ; and he lives suffused with the sense of evil held at bay. Such is his fourfold selfrestraint. And since he is thus tied with this fourfold 1 Ahutiyo. See Buddhavazwsa XXVII, 10; KathaVatthu 550. The phrase is omitted in the parallel passage in the Gaina ' Sutrakrnahga. ' pointed out by Jacobi, ' Graina-Sutras/ II, xxiv. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE 75 bond, therefore is he, the NigawMo (free from bonds), called Gatatto (whose heart has gone; that is, to the summit, to the attainment, of his aim) Yatatto (whose heart is kept down ; that is, is under command), and 7/kitatto (whose heart is fixed)1." 1 Thus, Lord, did the NigantAa. of the Nata clan, when asked what was the immediate advantage in the life of a recluse, expound his theory of the fourfold bond.

[58] 31. 'When, one day, I had thus asked Sa^aya of the Belaya clan, he said : " If you ask me whether there is another world — well, if I thought there were, I would say so. But I don't say so. And I don't think it is thus or thus. And I don't think it is otherwise. And I don't deny it. And I don't say there neither is, nor is not, another world. And if you ask me about the beings produced by chance ; or whether there is any fruit, any result, of good or bad actions ; or whether a man who has won the truth continues, or not, after death — to each or any of these questions do I give the same reply2." [59] 33. 'Thus, Lord, did Sa^aya of the Belaya clan, when asked what was the immediate advantage in the life of a recluse, show his manner of prevarication. And to him, as to all the others, I expressed neither approval nor dissatisfaction, but neither accepting nor 1 The series of riddles in this difficult passage is probably intended to be an ironical imitation of the NigawMa's way of talking. Gogerly has caught the general sense fairly enough, but his version is very free, and wrong as to two of the words, and it gives no idea of the oracular form in which the original is couched. Burnouf's rendering is quite wide of the mark.

The first of the ' Four Restraints ' is the well-known rule of the Gains not to drink cold water, on the ground that there are ' souls ' in it. See the discussion in the Milinda (II, 85-91 of my translation). Professor Jacobi (' Gaina-Sutras/ II, xxiii) thinks the 'Four Restraints' are intended to represent the four vows kept by the followers of Parjva. But this surely cannot be so, for these vows were quite different. 2 The text repeats the whole paragraph put above (p. 27 of the text) into the mouth of the Eel-wriggler. 76 II. SAMAiWVA-PHALA SUTTA. rejecting what was said, I arose from my seat, and departed thence \ 34. ' And now, Lord, I put the same question to the Blessed One. Can you show me any immediate fruit, in this world, of the life of a recluse, such as those who follow each of the occupations I have mentioned are, each of them, able to show ?' ' I can, O king. And to that end I would fain put a question to you. Answer it as you may think most fit. [60] 35. ' Now what do you think, O king. Suppose among the people of your household there were a slave who does work for you, rises up in the morning before you do and retires earlier to rest, who is keen to carry out your pleasure, anxious to make himself agreeable in what he does and says, a man who watches your every look. Suppose he should think, "Strange is it and wonderful, this issue of meritorious deeds, this result of merit! Here is this king of Magadha, A^atasattu, the son of the Videha princess — he is a man, and so am I. But the king lives in the full enjoyment and possession of the five pleasures of sense — a very god, methinks — and here am I a slave, working for him, rising before him and retiring earlier to rest, keen to carry out his pleasure, anxious to make myself agreeable in deed and word, watching his very looks. Would that I were like him, that I too might earn merit. Why should not I have my hair and beard shaved off,

1 Of these six teachers Purawa denies the evil Karma in a bad act and vice versa ; A^ita, in preaching annihilation at death, shuts out the possibility of any effect to be worked by Karma ; and Makkhali rejects both Karma and its effect. The theory of Pakudha seems to exclude responsibility ; the Niga7/Ma simply begs the question, by asserting that a NigawMa has attained the end; and Saw^aya gives no answer at all. The only one of these six theories of life on which independent evidence is at present accessible is that of the NigawMa (the Gain theory). But no attempt has yet been made to summarise it, or set it out in a manner intelligible to Western readers. It is very much to be hoped that this want may soon be supplied by one or other of the excellent scholars familiar with the texts. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 77 and don the yellow robes, and going forth from the household state, renounce the world ?" And suppose, after a time, he should do so. And having been admitted into an Order, should dwell restrained in act and word and thought, content with mere food and shelter, delighting in solitude. And suppose your people should tell you of this, saying: "If it please your majesty, do you know that such a one, formerly your slave, who worked for you, and so on (all as before) has now donned the yellow robes, and has been admitted into an Order, and dwells restrained, content with mere food and shelter, delighting in solitude?" Would you then say : " Let the man come back ; let him become a slave again, and work for me"?'

36. ' Nay, Lord, rather should we greet him with reverence [el], and rise up from our seat out of deference towards him, and press him to be seated. And we should have robes and a bowl, and a lodging place, and medicine for the sick — all the requisites of a recluse — made ready, and beg him to accept of them. And we should order watch and ward and guard to be kept for him according to the law.' 4 But what do you think, O king. That being so, is there, or is there not, some fruit, visible in this world, of the life of a recluse?' ' Certainly, Lord, that is so.' I This then, O king, is the first kind of the fruit, visible in this world, which I maintained to arise from the life of a recluse.' 37. ' Can you, Lord, show me any other fruit, visible in this world, of the life of a recluse ? ' I I can, O king. And to that end I would fain put a question, &c. [as before, to the end of § 36, the case now put being that of a free man who cultivates his land, a householder, who pays taxes and thus increases the king's wealth, but gives up his little property and his position in his clan, and enters an Order.]

[62] 39. Can you, Lord, show me any other fruit, visible in this world, of the life of a recluse, a fruit higher and sweeter than these?' 78 II. SAMAiViVA-PHALA SUTTA. 'I can, O king. Give ear therefore, O king, and give good heed, and I will speak. 40. ' Suppose, O king, there appears in the world one who has won the truth, an Arahat, a fully awakened one, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy, who knows all worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to mortals willing to be led, a teacher for gods and men, a Blessed One, a Buddha. He, by himself, thoroughly knows and sees, as it were, face to face this universe, — including the worlds above of the gods, the Brahmas, and the Maras, and the world below with its recluses and Brahmans, its princes and peoples, — and having known it, he makes his knowledge known to others. The truth, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation, doth he proclaim, both in the spirit and in the letter, the higher life doth he make known, in all its fullness and in all its purity *. 41. 'A householder2 or one of his children, or a man of inferior birth in any class listens to that truth ; and on hearing it he has faith in the Tathaga'ta (the one who has found the truth) ; and when he is possessed of that faith, he considers thus within himself :

' " Full of hindrances is household life, a path for the dust of passion. Free as the air is the life of him who has renounced all worldly things. How difficult is it for the man who dwells at home to live the higher life in all its fullness, in all its purity, in all its bright perfection ! Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let me clothe myself in the orange-coloured robes, and let me go forth from the household life into the homeless state." 1 Then, before long, forsaking his portion of wealth, be it great or small, forsaking his circle of relatives, be they many or be they few, he cuts off his hair and beard, he clothes himself in the orange-coloured robes, 1 Buddhaghosa applies these last two adjectives to the truth, not to the life. But it seems more in accord with the next paragraph to refer them to the life. 2 Gahapati, which Buddhaghosa takes here in the sense of peasant, ryot. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 79 and he goes forth from the household life into the homeless state. 42. 'When he has thus become a recluse he lives self-restrained by that restraint that should be binding on a recluse x. Uprightness is his delight, and he sees danger in the least of those things he should avoid. He adopts, and trains himself in, the precepts. He encompasses himself with good deeds in act and word. Pure are his means of livelihood, good is his conduct, guarded the door of his senses. Mindful and self-possessed he is altogether happy.

43. ' And how, O king, is his conduct good ? ' In this, O king, that the Bhikshu, putting away the killing of living things, holds aloof from the destruction of life. The cudgel and the sword he has laid aside, and ashamed of roughness, and full of mercy, he dwells compassionate and kind to all creatures that have life* ' This is part of the goodness that he has. [Here follow the whole of the Silas (the paragraphs on minor morality), in the words already translated above in the Brahma-^ala Sutta. §§ 8 to 27. Only for 'Gotama the recluse' one should read 'the Bhikshu'; and alter in each case the words of the refrain accordingly.] [69] 63. ' And then that Bhikshu, O king, being thus master of the minor moralities, sees no danger from any side ; that is, so far as concerns his self-restraint in conduct. Just, O king, as a sovereign, duly crowned, whose enemies have been beaten down, sees no danger from any side ; [70] that is, so far as enemies are concerned, so is the Bhikshu confident. And endowed with this body of morals, so worthy of honour, he experiences, within himself, a sense of ease without alloy. Thus is it, O king, that the Bhikshu becomes righteous.

64. ' And how, O king, is the Bhikshu guarded as to the doors of his senses 2 ? ' 1 Patimokkha-sa/ravara-sawzvuto. Buddhaghosa, I think, takes this to mean ' restrained according to the rules of the Patimokkha.' a On the following important and constantly repeated paragraph compare M. I, 180, 268; K. V. 424-6, 463-4; Mil. 367; Asl. 400, &c. 1 When, O king, he sees an object with his eye he is not entranced in the general appearance or the details of it1. He sets himself to restrain that which might give occasion for evil states, covetousness and dejec-' tion, to flow in over him so long as he dwells unrestrained as to his sense of sight. He keeps watch upon his faculty of sight, and he attains to .mastery over it. And so, in like manner, when he hears a sound with his ear, or smells an odour with his nose, or tastes a flavour with his tongue, or feels a touch with his body, or when he cognises a phenomenon with his mind he is not entranced in the general appearance or the details of it. He sets himself to restrain that which might give occasion for evil states, covetousness and dejection, to flow in over him so long as he dwells unrestrained as to his mental (representative) faculty. He keeps watch upon his representative faculty, and he attains to mastery over it. And endowed with this self-restraint, so worthy of honour, as regards the senses, he experiences, within himself, a sense of ease into which no evil state can enter2. Thus is it, O king, that the Bhikshu becomes guarded as to the doors of his senses.

65. ' And how, O king, is the Bhikshu mindful and self-possessed ? 1 In this matter, O king, the Bhikshu in going forth or in coming back keeps clearly before his mind's eye (all that is wrapt up therein — the immediate object of 1 Na nimittaggahi hoti nanuvyaw^anaggaht. The phrase nimittaw gawhati means either to seize upon anything as the object of one's thought to the exclusion of everything else (see, for instance, Vin. I, 183, and Buddhaghosa's note on it given in the ' Vinaya Texts,' II, 9), or to seize upon the outward sign of anything so keenly as to recognise what it is the mark of (Vin. Ill, 17). And when the object is a person of the other sex this phrase is the idiom used for our ' falling in love with.' Buddhaghosa gives, as an instance of the nimitta, the general conclusion that the object seen, heard, &c, is a man or woman; of the anuvyaw^ana, the perception of the detail that he or she is smiling, talking, &c. 2 Avyaseka, literally 'with no besprinkling' (of evil, says Buddhaghosa). THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 8 1 the act itself, its ethical significance, whether or not it is conducive to the high aim set before him, and the real facts underlying the mere phenomenon of the outward act). And so also in looking forward, or in looking round ; in stretching forth his arm, or in drawing it in again ; in eating or drinking, in masticating or swallowing, in obeying the calls of nature, in going or standing- or sitting, in sleeping or waking, in speaking or in being still, he keeps himself aware of all it really means l. Thus is it, O king, that the Bhikshu becomes mindful and self-possessed.

[7l] 66. ' And how, O king, is the Bhikshu content ? ' In this matter, O king, the Bhikshu is satisfied with sufficient robes to cherish his body, with sufficient food to keep his stomach going. Whithersoever he may go forth, these he takes with him as he goes — just as a bird with his wings, O king, whithersoever he may fly, carries his wings with him as he flies. Thus is itv O king, that the Bhikshu becomes content 2. 1 A small volume might be written on the various expansions of this text in the Pi/akas. Several whole Dialogues are devoted to it, and various Suttas in others of the oldest texts. Buddhaghosa has many pages upon it here, and deals with it also at length in the Visuddhi Magga and elsewhere. What is above added in brackets explains the principal points of what is implied, according to the Pi/akas, in this famous passage, — the Buddhist analogue to St. Paul's : ' Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God ' (1 Cor. x. 31). By the real fact underlying any action is meant that, in the Buddhist theory, behind the action (going, seeing, &c.) there is no ego, no actor (goer, seer, &c), that can be called a ' soul ' (Abbhantare atta nama aloketa va viloketa va n' atthi), but that there is a psychological explanation sufficient, of itself, without the soul-theory.

2 'Consider the fowls of the air/ &c. (Matt. vi. 26). No man can call me servant, and I wander — So said the Exalted One — At will, o'er all the earth, on what I find I feel no need of wages, or of gain, So let the rain pour down now, if it likes, to-night. (Dhaniya Sutta 8.) And see the context in my 'American Lectures,' p. 168. 82 II. samaMa-phala sutta. 67. ' Then, master of this so excellent body of moral precepts, gifted with this so excellent selfrestraint as to the senses, endowed with this so excellent mindfulness and self-possession, filled with this so excellent content, he chooses some lonely spot to rest at on his way — in the woods, at the foot of a tree, on a hill side, in a mountain glen, in a rocky cave, in a charnel place, or on a heap of straw in the open field. And returning thither after his round for alms he seats himself, when his meal is done, cross-legged, keeping his body erect, and his intelligence alert, intent. 68. ' Putting away the hankering after the world \ he remains with a heart that hankers not, and purifies his mind of lusts. Putting away the corruption of the wish to injure, he remains with a heart free from illtemper, and purifies his mind of malevolence. Putting away torpor of heart and mind2, keeping his ideas alight3, mindful and self-possessed, he purifies his mind of weakness and of sloth. Putting away flurry and worry, he remains free from fretfulness, and with heart serene within, he purifies himself of irritability and vexation of spirit. Putting away wavering, he remains as one passed beyond perplexity ; and no longer in suspense as to what is good, he purifies his mind of doubt.

69. ' Then just, O king, as when a man, after contracting a loan 4, should set a business on foot, and his 1 Abhi^^aw loke pahaya. Gogerly renders 'banishes desire from him,' leaving out loke altogether, and rendering abhig^M in defiance both of the derivation and of the traditional explanation of the word. Even Burnouf (who frequently uses ' desire ' for words in the Pali meaning ' lusts ' or ' excitement ') has here ' cupidite? 2 So Buddhaghosa here (p. 211). But the Dhamma Sangam 11 56, n57Aexplains it as torpor of mind and body. 3 Aloka-sa«»i, literally 'whose ideas are light.' Neumann ('Reden des Gotamo,' I, 434, &c.) translates Moving the light/ which may be the right connotation. Burnouf has 'being aware of his visual sensation ' (de son regard), which is certainly wrong. * Inam a day a. Neumann has 'oppressed by debt,' but Buddhaghosa (p. 212) says 'taking goods on interest'; and this is confirmed by Gat. IV, 256, V, 436. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 83 business should succeed, and he should not only be able to pay off the old debt he had incurred, but there should be a surplus over to maintain a wife. Then would he realise [72] : " I used to have to carry on my business by getting into debt, but it has gone so well with me that 1 have paid off what I owed, and have a surplus over to maintain a wife." And he would be of good cheer at that, would be glad of heart at that : —

70. 'Then just, O king, as if a man were a presto disease, in pain, and very ill, and his food would not digest, and there were no strength left in him ; and after a time he were to recover from that disease, and his food should digest, and his strength come back to him ; then, when he realised his former and his present state, he would be of good cheer at that, he would be glad of heart at that : — 71. 'Then just, O king, as if a man were bound in a prison house, and after a time he should be set free from his bonds, safe and sound, and without any confiscation of his goods ; when he realised his former and his present state, he would be of good cheer at that, he would be glad of heart at that : — ■ 72. ' Then just, O king, as if a man were a slave, not his own master, subject to another, unable to go whither he would ; and after a time he should be emancipated from that slavery, become his own master, not subject to others, a free man, free to go whither he would ; then, on realising his former and his present state, he would be of good cheer at that, he would be glad of heart at that : —

[73] 73. ' Then just, O king, as if a man, rich and prosperous, were to find himself on a long road, in a desert, where no food was, but much danger ; and after a time were to find himself out of the desert, arrived safe, on the borders of his village, in security and peace ; then, on realising his former and his present stale, he would be of good cheer at that, he would be glad of heart at that : — 74. 'Just so, O king, the Bhikshu, so long as these five Hindrances are not put away within him looks upon himself as in debt, diseased, in prison, in slavery, lost on a desert road. But when these five Hindrances have been put away within him, he looks upon himself as freed from debt, rid of disease, out of jail, a free man, and secure ; 75. 'And gladness springs up within him on his realising that, and joy arises to him thus gladdened, and so rejoicing all his frame becomes at ease, and being thus at ease he is filled with a sense of peace, and in that peace his heart is stayed l.

75 a. ' Then estranged from lusts, aloof from evil dispositions, he enters into and remains in the First Rapture — a state of joy and ease born of detachment 2, reasoning and investigation going on the while. ' His very body does he so pervade, drench, permeate, and suffuse with the joy and ease born of detachment, that there is no spot in his whole frame not suffused therewith. [74] 76. 'Just, O king, as a skilful bathman or his apprentice will scatter perfumed soap powder in a metal basin, and then besprinkling it with water, drop by drop, will so knead it together that the ball of lather, taking up the unctuous moisture, is drenched with it, pervaded by it, permeated by it within and without, and there is no leakage possible. 1 From the beginning of § 68 the text, though here split up into paragraphs for the convenience of the reader, is really one long sentence or paragraph of much eloquence and force in the Pali ; and the peroration, leading on to the GMnas, is a favourite passage recurring M. I, 71; Vin. I, 294; Mil. 84. The five similes are to be taken, in order, as referring to the Five Hindrances (Nivarawa) given in § 68. The Dhamma Sangawi 1152 gives six hindrances, and M. I, 360-3 gives eight.

2 Vivek a, 'separation' — physically of the body, 'seclusion'; intellectually, of the objects of thought, ' discrimination ' ; ethically, of the heart, ' being separate from the world.' We have no word in English suggesting these three, all of which are implied. The stress is upon separation from the world, taking 'world' in the sense of all the hindrances to spiritual progress, and especially of the five chief Hindrances (Nivara«a) just above set out. Buddhaghosa has nothing here, but compare Asl. 166. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 85 ' This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this world, higher and sweeter than the last. yy. * Then further, O king, the Bhikshu suppressing all reasoning and investigation enters into and abides in the Second G/i&na., a state of joy and ease, born of the serenity of concentration, when no reasoning or investigation goes on, — a state of elevation l of mind, a tranquillisation of the heart within. ' And his very body does he so pervade, drench, permeate, and suffuse with the joy and ease born of concentration, that there is no spot in his whole frame not suffused therewith.

78. ' Just, O king, as if there were a deep pool, with water welling up into it from a spring beneath, and with no inlet from the east or west, from the north or south, and the god should not from time to time send down showers of rain upon it. Still the current of cool waters rising up from that spring would pervade, fill, permeate, and suffuse the pool with cool waters, and there would be no part or portion of the pool unsuffused therewith. [75] ' This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this world, and higher and sweeter than the last. 79. ' Then further, O king, the Bhikshu, holding aloof from joy, becomes equable 2 ; and mindful and self-possessed he experiences in his body that ease which the Arahats talk of when they say : " The man serene and self-possessed is well at ease," and so he enters into and abides in the Third G/iana. ' And his very body does he so pervade, drench, 1 Ekodibhava. Compare Asl. 169, Senart in Mahavastu I, 554, and the notes in J. P. T. S., 1884, p. 32 foil.

2 Upekhako, literally 'looking on,' that is, looking on rival mental states with equal mind. Imperturbable, impartial, tolerant, unsusceptible, stoical, composed, are all possible renderings, and all unsatisfactory. The ten kinds of Upekkha, ' equanimity/ translated into English from Sinhalese by Spence Hardy (Manual, p. 505"), can now be corrected from the Pali at Asl. 172. permeate, and suffuse with that ease that has no joy with it, that there is no spot in his whole frame not suffused therewith. 80. 'Just, O king, as when in a lotus tank the several lotus flowers, red or white or blue, born in the water, grown up in the water, not rising up above the surface of the water, drawing up nourishment from the depths of the water, are so pervaded, drenched, permeated, and suffused from their very tips down to their roots with the cool moisture thereof, that there is no spot in the whole plant, whether of the red lotus, or of the white, or of the blue, not suffused therewith. ' This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this world, and higher and sweeter than the last. 81. 'Then further, O king, the Bhikshu, by the putting away alike of ease and of pain, by the passing away alike of any elation, any dejection, he had previously felt, enters into and abides in the Fourth GA&na., a state of pure self-possession and equanimity, without pain and without ease.

[76] 'And he sits there so suffusing even his body with that sense of purification, of translucence, of heart, that there is no spot in his whole frame not suffused therewith. &2. 'Just, O king, as if a man were sitting so wrapt from head to foot in a clean white robe, that there were no spot in his whole frame not in contact with the clean white robe — just so, O king, does the Bhikshu sit there, so suffusing even his body with that sense of purification, of translucence, of heart, that there is no spot in his whole frame not suffused therewith. ' This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, and higher and sweeter than the last. 83. ' With his heart thus serene, made pure, translucent, cultured, devoid of evil, supple, ready to act, firm, and imperturbable, he applies and bends down his mind to that insight that comes from knowledge. He grasps the fact: "This body of mine has form, it is built up of the four elements, it springs from father THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 87 and mother, it is continually renewed by so much boiled rice and juicy foods, its very nature is impermanence, it is subject to erasion, abrasion, dissolution, and disintegration x ; and therein is this consciousness 2 of mine, too, bound up, on that does it depend."

84. 'Just, O king, as if there were a Veluriya gem, bright, of the purest water, with eight facets, excellently cut, clear, translucent, without a flaw, excellent in every way. And through it a string, blue, or orange-coloured, or red, or white, or yellow should be threaded. If a man, who had eyes to see, were to take it into his hand, he would clearly perceive how the one is bound up with the other 3. [77] ' This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this world, and higher and sweeter than the last. 85. ' With his heart thus serene, made pure, translucent, cultured, devoid of evil, supple, ready to act, firm, and impertuibable, he applies and bends down his mind to the calling up of a mental image. He calls up from this body another body, having form, 1 This is a favourite description of the body. (See M. I, 500 ; II,i7; S. IV, 83; Gat I, 146, &c.) The words for erasion, abrasion, are cunningly chosen (u££Aadana, parimaddana). They are also familiar technical terms of the Indian shampooer, and are so used above (p. 7, § 16 of the text). The double meaning must have been clearly present to the Indian hearer, and the words are, therefore, really untranslatable.

2 Vi«»S«a. ' The five senses, sensations arising from objects, and all emotions and intellectual processes,' says Buddhaghosa (p. 221). 3 In spite of this and similar passages the adherents of the soul theory (having nothing else to fasten on) were apt to fasten on to the Buddhist Vinnana as a possible point of reconciliation with their own theory. Even an admirer of the Buddha (one Sati, a member of the Order) went so far as to tell the Buddha himself that he must, as he admitted transmigration, have meant that the V inn an a. did not really depend upon, was not really bound up with, the body, but that it formed the link in transmigration. In perhaps the most earnest and emphatic of all the Dialogues (M. I, 256 foil.), the Buddha meets and refutes at length this erroneous representation of his view. But it still survives. I know two living writers on Buddhism who (in blissful ignorance of the Dialogue in question) still fasten upon Buddha the opinion he so expressly refused to accept. 88 II. SAMAiV/VA-PHALA SUTTA. made of mind, having all (his own body's) limbs and parts, not deprived of any organ *. 86. 'Just, O king, as if a man were to pull out a reed from its sheath. He would know: "This is the reed, this the sheath. The reed is one thing, the sheath another. It is from the sheath that the reed has been drawn forth V And similarly were he to take a snake out of its slough, or draw a sword from its scabbard 3.

1 This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this life, and higher and sweeter than the last. 87. 'With his heart thus serene, made pure, translucent, cultured, devoid of evil, supple, ready to act. firm and imperturbable, he applies and bends down his mind to the modes of the Wondrous Gift4. [78] He enjoys the Wondrous Gift in its various modes — being one he becomes many, or having become many becomes one again ; he becomes visible or invisible ; he goes, feeling no obstruction, to the further side of a wall or rampart or hill, as if through air ; he penetrates up and down through solid ground, as if through water ; he walks on water without breaking 1 Buddhaghosa explains that, if the Bhikshu have his ears unpierced, so will the image, and so on. 2 This old simile occurs already in the Satapatha-Brahma/za IV 3. 3, 16. 3 The point is the similarity. Buddhaghosa explains that the Kara«</a is not a basket (as Burnouf renders it), but the skin which the snake sloughs off; and that the scabbard is like the sword, whatever the sword's shape. He adds that of course a man could not take a snake out of its slough with his hand. He is supposed in the simile to do so in imagination.

4 Iddhi, literally 'well-being, prosperity. The four Iddhis of a king are personal beauty, length of life, strong health, and popularity (M. Sud. Sutta in my 'Buddhist Suttas,' pp. 259-261). The Iddhis of Gotama when at home, as a boy, were the possession of a beautiful garden, soft clothing, comfortable lodging, pleasant music, and good food (A. I, 145). Worldly Iddhi is distinguished from spiritual at A. I, 93. Buddhaghosa gives nine sorts of Iddhi, mostly intellectual, at Asl. 91, and compare 237. There are no examples in the Pi/akas of concrete instances of any of these except the last ; but see S. IV, 289, 290; A. Ill, 340, 341; M.P.S. 43. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 89 through, as if on solid ground ; he travels cross-legged in the sky, like the birds on wing ; even the Moon and the Sun, so potent, so mighty though they be, does he touch and feel with his hand ; he reaches in the body even up to the heaven of Brahma. 88. ' Just, O king, as a clever potter or his apprentice could make, Could succeed in getting out of properlyprepared clay any shape of vessel he wanted to have — or an ivory carver out of ivory, or a goldsmith out of gold.

[79] ' This O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, and higher and sweeter than the last. 89. ' With his heart thus serene, made pure, translucent, cultured, devoid of evil, supple, ready to act, firm and imperturbable, he applies and bends down his mind to the Heavenly Ear. With that clear Heavenly Ear surpassing the ear of men he hears sounds both human and celestial, whether far or near. 90. 'Just, O king, as if a man were on the high road and were to hear the sound of a kettledrum or a tabor or the sound of chank horns and small drums he would know: "This is the sound of a kettledrum, this is the sound of a tabor, this of chank horns, and of drums 1." This. O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this life, and higher and sweeter than the last. 91. 'With his heart thus serene (&c. as before), he directs and bends down his mind to the knowledge which penetrates the heart. Penetrating with his own heart the hearts of other beings, of other men, he knows them. He discerns —

The passionate mind to be passionate, and the calm mind calm ; [so] The angry mind to be angry, and the peaceful mind peaceful ; The dull mind to be dull, and the alert mind alert ; 1 The point of the comparison, says Buddhaghosa (223), is that if he is in trouble and has lost his way he might be in doubt. But if calm and secure he can tell the difference. The attentive mind to be attentive, and the wandering mind wandering ; The broad mind to be broad, and the narrow mind narrow ; The mean mind to be mean, and the lofty mind lofty ] ; The stedfast mind to be stedfast, and the wavering mind to be wavering ; The free mind to be free, and the enslaved mind enslaved. 92. ' Just, 0 king, as a woman or a man or a lad, young and smart, on considering attentively the image of his own face in a bright and brilliant mirror or in a vessel of clear water would, if it had a mole on it, know that it had, and if not, would know it had not. [8l] ' This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this world, and higher and sweeter than the last.

93. ' With his heart thus serene (&c. as before), he directs and bends down his mind to the knowledge of the memory of his previous temporary states. He recalls to mind his various temporary states in days gone by — one birth, or two or three or four or five births, or ten or twenty or thirty or forty or fifty or a hundred or a thousand or a hundred thousand births, through many an aeon of dissolution, many an aeon of evolution, many an aeon of both dissolution and evolution 2. " In such a place such was my name, such my family, such my caste 3, such my food, such my experience of discomfort or of ease, and such the limits of my life. When I passed away from that state, I took form again in such a place. There I had 1 Sa-uttara and anuttara. Unless the interpretation given in theDhamma Sangam 1292, 1293, 1596, 1597 ('occupied with rebirth in heaven, and occupied with Arahatship') reveals a change in the use of terms, the evil disposition, in this case only, is put first. 2 This is based on the Indian theory of the periodic destruction and renovation of the universe, each of which takes countless years to accomplish.

THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 9 1 such and such a name and family and caste and food and experience of discomfort or of ease, such was the limit of my life. When I passed away from that state I took form again here " — thus does he call to mind his temporary state in days gone by in all their details, and in all their modes. 94. 'Just, O king, as if a man were to go from his own to another village, and from that one to another, and from that one should return home. Then he would know : " From my own village I came to that other one. There I stood in such and such a way, sat thus, spake thus, and held my peace thus. Thence I came to that other village ; and there I stood in such and such a way, sat thus, spake thus, and held my peace thus. And now, from that other village, I have returned back again home 1." [82] ' This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse. Visible in this world, and higher and sweeter than the last.

95. ' With his heart thus serene (&c. as before), he directs and bends down his mind to the knowledge of the fall and rise of beings. With the pure Heavenly Eye 2, surpassing that of men, he sees beings as they pass away from one form of existence and take shape in another ; he recognises the mean and the noble, the well favoured and the ill favoured, the happy and the wretched, passing away according to their deeds : " Such and such beings, my brethren, in act and word and thought, revilers of the noble ones, holding to wrong views, acquiring for themselves that Karma which results from wrong views, they, on the dissolution of the body, after death, are reborn in some unhappy state of suffering or woe. But such and such beings, my brethren, well doers in act and word and thought, not revilers of the noble ones, holding to right views, 1 The three villages correspond to the three stages of being, the three B hum is, — the world of lust, the world of form, and the formless worlds (the Kama, Rupa, and Arupa Lokas). 8 Dibba-/takkhu. See the note below on § 102 at the end of this Sutta.

acquiring for themselves that Karma that results from right views, they, on the dissolution of the body, after death, are reborn in some happy state in heaven." Thus with the pure Heavenly Eye, surpassing that of men, [83] he sees beings as they pass away from one state of existence, and take form in another ; he recognises the mean and the noble, the well favoured and the ill favoured, the happy and the wretched, passing away according to their deeds l. 96. ' Just, O king, as if there were a house with an upper terrace on it in the midst of a place where four roads meet, and a man standing thereon, and with eyes to see, should watch men entering a house, and coming forth out of it, and walking hither and thither along the street 2, and seated in the square in the midst. Then he would know : " Those men are entering a house, and those are leaving it, and those are walking to and fro in the street, and those are seated in the square in the midst." ' This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this world, and higher and sweeter than the last.

97. 'With his heart thus serene (&c. as before), he directs and bends down his mind to the knowledge of the destruction of the Deadly Floods 3. He knows 1 This paragraph forms the subject of the discussion in the Katha Vatthu III, 9 (p. 250). The mere knowledge of the general fact of the action of Karma is there distinguished from the Dibba- £akkhu, the Heavenly Eye ; and the instance of SSriputta is quoted, who had that knowledge, but not the Heavenly Eye. As he was an Arahat it follows that the possession of the Heavenly Eye was not a necessary consequence of Arahatship. Buddhaghosa adds (p. 224) that the sphere of vision of the Heavenly Eye did not extend to the Formless Worlds. On the Dhamma-^akkhu, ' the Eye for the Truth/ see below, p. 1 10, § 21 of the text. 8 VJtisaw^arante is Buddhaghosa's reading. The Siamese has Vithi/w. Compare M. I, 279. 8 Asavas, Deadly Floods, another untranslatable term. Neumann has Illusion ( Wahn) ; Bumouf has defilement (souillures). They are sometimes the three here mentioned (M. I, 23, 155; A. I, 167; S. IV, 256, &c); but speculation, theorising (Di/Mi) is added as a fourth in the M. P. S. and elsewhere. Unfortunately,

THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 93 as it really is : " This is pain." [84] He knows as it really is: "This is the origin of pain." He knows as it really is : " This is the cessation of pain." He knows as it really is : " This is the Path that leads to the cessation of pain." He knows as they really are : " These are the Deadly Floods." He knows as it really is : " This is the origin of the Deadly Floods." He knows as it really is : " This is the cessation of the Deadly Floods." He knows as it really is: "This is the Path that leads to the cessation of the Deadly Floods." To him, thus knowing, thus seeing, the heart is set free from the Deadly Taint of Lusts \ is set free from the Deadly Taint of Becomings2, is set free from the Deadly Taint of Ignorance 3. In him, thus set free, there arises the knowledge of his emancipation, and he knows : " Rebirth has been destroyed. The higher life has been fulfilled. What had to be done has been accomplished. After this present life there will be no beyond ! "

98. ' Just, O king, as if in a mountain fastness there were a pool of water, clear, translucent, and serene ; and a man, standing on the bank, and with eyes to see, should perceive the oysters and the shells, the gravel and the pebbles and the shoals of fish, as they move about or lie within it : he would know : " This the word has not been yet found in its concrete, primary, sense ; unless indeed Buddhaghosa's statement (at Asl. 48) that wellseasoned spirituous liquors were called asava be taken literally. It is therefore impossible to be sure what is the simile that underlies the use of the word in its secondary, ethical sense. Perhaps after all it is the idea of overwhelming intoxication, and not of flood or taint or ooze, that we ought to consider. Subhuti in quoting the above passage from Buddhaghosa (in the Abhidhana Padtpiki SiUi, p. 43) reads parivas throughout for parivas . 1 Kamasava, with special reference to the taint of hankering after a future life in the sensuous plane (Kama Loka); that is, in the world. 2 Bhavasava, with special reference to the taint of hankering after a future life in the plane of form and the formless plane (the Rtipa and Arupa Loka's) that is, in heaven.

8 A viggas ava, with special reference to ignorance of the Four Great Truths, just above summarised. pool is clear, transparent, and serene, and there within it are the oysters and the shells, and the sand and gravel, and the shoals of fish are moving about or lying still1." [85] ' This, O king, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this world, and higher and sweeter than the last. And there is no fruit of the life of a recluse, visible in this world, that is higher and sweeter than this V 99. And when he had thus spoken, A^atasattu the king said to the Blessed One : ' Most excellent, Lord, most excellent! Just as if a man were to set up that which has been thrown down, or were to reveal that which is hidden away, or were to point out the right road to him who has gone astray, or were to bring a lamp into the darkness so that those who have eyes could see external forms — just even so, Lord, has the truth been made known to me, in many a figure, by the Blessed One. And now I betake myself. Lord, to the Blessed One as my refuge, to the Truth, and to the Order. May the Blessed One accept me as a disciple, as one who, from this day forth, as long as life endures, has taken his refuge in them. Sin has overcome me, Lord, weak and foolish and wrong that I am, in that, for the sake of sovranty, I put to death my father, that righteous man, that righteous king ! May the Blessed One accept it of me, Lord, that do so acknowledge it as a sin, to the end that in future I may restrain myself.'

100. 'Verily, O king, it was sin that overcame you in acting thus. But inasmuch as you look upon it as sin, and confess it according to what is right, we accept your confession as to that. For that, O king, is custom in the discipline of the noble ones3, that whosoever 1 The simile recurs M. I, 279; A. I, 9. Compare for the words sippi-sambuka Gat. V, 197; A. Ill, 395; Trenckner, 'Pali Miscellany,' p. 60. 2 Because, as Buddhaghosa points out, this is really Arahatship, Nirvana ; and it was to this, to Arahatship, that all the rest led up. 5 Ariyanaw. That is, either of previous Buddhas, or perhaps of the Arahats. THE FRUITS OF THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE. 95 looks upon his fault as a fault, and rightfully confesses it, shall attain to self-restraint in future.' 101. When he had thus spoken, A^atasattu the king said to the Blessed One : ' Now, Lord, we would fain go. We are busy, and there is much to do.' ' Do, O king, whatever seemeth to thee fit' Then A^atasattu the king, pleased and delighted with the words of the Blessed One, arose from his seat, and bowed to the Blessed One, and keeping him on the right hand as he passed him, departed thence.

102. Now the Blessed One, not long after A^atasattu the king had gone, addressed the brethren, and said : ' This king, brethren, was deeply affected, he was touched in heart. If, brethren, the king had not put his father to death, that righteous man, and righteous king, then would the clear and spotless eye for the truth have arisen in him, even as he sat there V Thus spake the Blessed One. The brethren were pleased and delighted at his words. Here ends the Discourse on the Fruits of the Life of a Recluse. SamazHa-phala Sutta is ended. 1 The Dhamma-/£akkhu (Eye for the Truth) is a technical term for conversion, for entering on the Path that ends in Arahatship. It is higher than the Heavenly Eye (dibba-^akkhu, above, p. 82 of the text, § 95) which sees other people's previous births, and below the Eye of Wisdom (pa«/Ia-^akkhu) which is the wisdom of the Arahat (Itivuttaka, p. 52, § 61). This is one of several Suttas (mentioned in the notes to the celebrated verse quoted at the end of Chapter I) which deal with the subject of caste. It is sufficiently evident from the comparative frequency of the discussions on the matter of Brahman pretensions that this was a burning question at the time when the Dialogues were composed. No other social problem is referred to so often ; and Brahmans would not be so often represented as expressing astonishment or indignation at the position taken up regarding it by the early Buddhists unless there had really been a serious difference on the subject between the two schools. But the difference, though real, has been gravely misunderstood.

Some writers on Buddhism do not hesitate to ascribe to Gotama the role of a successful political reformer, by representing him as having fought for the poor and despised against the rich and privileged classes, and as having gone far to abolish caste. Other writers gird at the Buddha because most of the leaders of this Order were drawn from the ranks of the respectable and the well-to-do, with an education in keeping with their social position ; and disparage him for neglecting the humble and the wretched, for not using his influence to abolish, or to mitigate, the harshness of caste rules. Both views are equally unhistorical. It is well known that the population of India is now divided into a number of sections (we call them ' castes '), the members of which are debarred from the right of intermarriage (from the ccnnnbium) with those outside their caste, and also, but in constantly varying degrees, from the right of eating together (of cotnmensalily) with the members of other sections. Each such ' caste ' has also a council or committee by which it is governed, and which settles all disputes regarding the caste. The disastrous effects, from the ethical, social, and political points of view, of these restrictions, and of caste as a whole, have been often grossly exaggerated, and the benefits of the

system ignored. And we are entirely unwarranted in supposing the system, as it now exists, to have been in existence also at the time when Buddhism arose in the valley of the Ganges. Our knowledge of the actual facts of caste, even as it now exists, is still confused and inaccurate. The theories put forward to explain the facts are loose and irreconcilable. And an accurate statement of the corresponding facts, if any, at the time of Gotama, has yet to be drawn up. We have long known that the connnbium was the cause of a long and determined struggle between the patricians arid the plebeians in Rome. Evidence has been yearly accumulating on the existence of restrictions as to intermarriage, and as to the right of eating together, among other Aryan tribes — Greeks, Germans, Russians, and so on. Even without the fact of the existence, now, of such restrictions among the modern successors of the ancient Aryans in India, it would have been almost certain that they also were addicted to similar customs. It is certain that the notion of such usages was familiar enough to some at least of the tribes that preceded the Aryans in India. It is quite a mistake to look upon all these tribes as far below the Aryans in culture. Both the Kolarians and the Dravidians were probably quite the equals of the Aryans in social organisation. And the Aryans probably adopted much from them, especially in matters relating to land tenure, village community, government, taxation, and so on. Their custom of endogamy and exogamy, their ideas as to puiity and the reverse, may have differed from those of the Aryans, but were similar in kind. Rules of endogamy and exogamy ; privileges, restricted to certain classes, of eating together, are not only Indian or Aryan, but world-wide phenomena. Both the spirit, and to a large degree the actual details, of modern Indian caste usages, are identical with these ancient, and no doubt universal, customs. It is in them that we have the key to the origin of caste.

At any moment in the history of a nation such customs seem, to a superficial observer, to be fixed and immutable. As a matter of fact they are never quite the same in successive centuries, or even generations. A man's visible frame, though no change is at any moment perceptible, is really never the same for two consecutive moments, and the result of constant minute variations becomes clear after the lapse of time. The numerous and complicated details which we sum up under the convenient (but often misleading) single name of caste are solely dependent for their sanction on public opinion. That opinion seems stable. But it is always tending to vary as to the degree of importance attached to some particular one of the details, as to the size and complexity of the particular groups in which each detail ought to be observed. This last statement may be illustrated by the case of the Chaliyas. When the Dutch started cinnamon cultivation in Ceylon on a large scale, they wanted labourers. The peasantry, who belonged almost exclusively to one caste, the Goigamas, regarded it as unworthy of a free man to work for hire. Some of them, however, in the struggle of motives, found the pressure of poverty too strong for them, and accepted service as coolies. The others, thinking this bad form, became averse to giving their daughters in marriage to such coolies. These feelings were naturally stronger at first among the Goigamas of good social position, and it became a mark of superiority not to have a relative married to a worker in the cinnamon gardens. And such workers were called Chaliyas. By the time that the families of Chaliyas were numerous enough to afford mates for the male or female coolies, the Chaliyas found it impossible to find wives elsewhere. And thus, under the very eyes of Europeans, the size of one group had been diminished by the very considerable number of persons engaged in a new and despised trade. In other words, what we call a new caste had arisen, the caste of the Chaliyas. When the English took Ceylon they gave up the government cultivation of cinnamon. The gardens were carried on, in ever lessening numbers, by private individuals. The number of the Chaliyas consequently declined. Numbers of them, as they gradually returned to ordinary peasant work, became reabsorbed among the Goigamas. This was an instance of a change precisely "contrary to that which happened when the caste gradually arose. But all did not succeed in returning ; and there are, therefore, still some Chaliyas left. And the caste survives though the members of it are now no longer exclusively, or even largely, employed in cinnamon gardens ; and many ol them have become wealthy and honoured.

What had happened in this case was, not two separate and striking revolutions, but a long series of slight changes in public opinion, no doubt quite imperceptible at the time to the very people among whom the changes were taking place. And after all the changes were not so very slow. Three or four generations were enough to cover the whole series with the consequent results. Who can doubt but that the history of ancient India, if we had only access to the necessary evidence, would be found to cover, in its two thousand five hundred years, and through its wide territory, a constant succession of similar variations ; and that similar variations are recurring still to-day. Owing to the fact that the particular set of people who worked their way to the top based its claims on religious grounds, not on political power or wealth, the system has, no doubt, lasted longer in India than in Europe. But public opinion still insists in considerable circles, even in Europe, on restrictions of a more or less defined kind, both as to marriage and as to eating together. And in India the problem still remains to trace in the literature the gradual growth of the system — the gradual formation of new sections among the people, the gradual extension of the institution to the families of people engaged in certain trades, belonging to the same sect or tribe, tracing their ancestry (whether rightly or wrongly) to the same source. All these factors, and others besides, are real factors. But they are phases of the extension and growth , not explanations of the origin, of the system.

There is no evidence to show that at the time when the conversations recorded in the Dialogues took place (that is to say, in the sixth century B.C.) there was any substantial difference, as regards the barriers in question, between the peoples dwelling in the valley of the Ganges and their contemporaries dwelling on the shores of the Mediterranean. The point of greatest weight in the establishment of the great difference in the subsequent development — the supremacy, in India, of the priests — was still being hotly debated. And all our evidence tends to show that at least in the wide extent of territory covered by the Pi/akas — countries close upon a hundred thousand square miles in area — the struggle was being decided rather against the Brahmans than for them. There were distinctions as to marriage ; endogamous and exogamous groups. In a few instances, all among the lower classes of the people, these amounted, probably, to what would now be called caste-divisions. But of castes, in the modern sense, among the preponderating majority there is little or no conclusive evidence. There was a common phrase current among the people, which divided all the world into four va«#a (colours or complexions)— the nobles, the priests, the other Aryan people, and the non-Aryan .Sudras (Khattiy&,Brahma«a,Vessa,and Sudda). The priests put themselves first, and had a theological legend in support of their contention. But it is clear from the Pi/akas that this was not admitted by the nobles. And it is also clear that no one of these divisions was a caste. There was neither connnbium nor commensality between all the members of one va««a, nor was there a governing council for each. The fourth was distinguished from the others by race. The remaining three were distinguished from each other by

social position. And though in a general rough way the classification corresponded to the actual facts of life, there were insensible gradations within the four classes, and the boundary between them was both variable and undefined. And this enumeration of the populace was not complete. Outside these classes there were others, resembling in many points the modern low castes, and always when mentioned in the Pi/akas following after the above four. Thus in Anguttara I, 162 1, the argument is that just as there is no real difference in oxen, in spite of the fact that they can be arranged in classes by difference of colour (vanna), and the strong, active, well-trained ox is selected by preference, without regard to his colour (vanna) ; so also, when presenting gifts, the man of strong, active, well-trained mind should be selected as donee — without reference to the fact of his belonging to any one of the four classes of society (vanna), or of his being a Kandala. or a Pukkusa. It is plain that this passage distinguishes the last two from the four vanna. and therefore from the vSudras. Other old texts 2 insert between these two three further names — the Vewas, the Nesadas, and the Rathakaras, that is to say, the workers in rushes 3, bird-catchers, and cartmakers. By these are meant aboriginal tribesmen who were hereditary craftsmen in these three crafts ; for they are called hina-gatiyo, low tribes. They no doubt formed castes in the modern sense, though we have no information as to their marriage customs. They are represented in the £ataka book as living in villages of their own, outside the towns in which ordinary people dwelt, and formed evidently a numerically insignificant portion of the populace.

In the last passage quoted in the previous note there are mentioned, as distinct from these low tribes (the hina-^atiyo), certain low occupations (hina-sippani) — mat-makers, potters, weavers, leather-workers, and barbers. As they are excluded from the list of those distinguished by birth (ga\. i), it is implied that there was no hard and fast line, determined by birth, for those who gained their living by these trades. There would be a natural tendency for the son to follow the father's craft 4 ; 1 Compare Petavatthu II, 6, 12. 2 Assalayana (No. 93 in the Ma^/zima) ; Anguttara II, 85 = P. P. IV, 19 ; Sa/rcyutta I, 93 ; Vina) a IV 6-10, &c. 3 Sometimes explained as carpenters, sometimes as basket-makers, sometimes as makers of sunshades. 4 Further exemplified by the number of people described as keva//a-putto, assaroha-putto, na/a-putto, suda-putto, &c. centuries afterwards they had become castes, and they were then on the border line. But they were not castes as yet. Besides the above, who were all freemen, there were also slaves. We only hear of them quite occasionally, as domestic servants, in the houses of the very rich. Individuals had been captured in predatory raids, and reduced to slavery (Gat. IV, 220) ; or had been deprived of their freedom as a judicial punishment (Gat. I, 200) ; or had submitted to slavery of their own accord ('Vinaya Texts,' I, 191 ; Sum. I, 168). Children born to such slaves were also slaves, and the emancipation of slaves is often referred to. But we hear nothing of such later developments of slavery as rendered the Roman latifnndia, or the plantations of some Christian slave-owners, scenes of misery and oppression. For the most part the slaves were household servants, and not badly treated, and their numbers seem to have been insignificant l.

What we find then, in the Buddha's time, is caste in the making. The great mass of the people were distinguished quite roughly into four classes — social strata — of which the boundary lines were vague and uncertain. At the one end of the scale certain outlying tribes, and certain hereditary crafts of a dirty or despised kind, were already, probably, castes. At the other end of the scale Brahmans by birth (not necessarily sacrificial priests, for they followed all sorts of occupations) were putting forward caste claims that were not yet universally admitted. There were social customs about the details of which we know very little (and dependent probably, more exactly upon the gotta rather than upon the ^atij, which raised barriers, not seldom broken through, as to intermarriage of people admittedly belonging to the same va«;/a, and a fortiori of others. And there was a social code, based on the idea of impurity, which prevented familiar intercourse (such as commensality) between people of different rank ; and rendered disgraceful the use of certain foods. We find, however, no usages which cannot be amply paralleled in the history of other peoples throughout the world in similar stages of social evolution. The key-stone of the arch of the peculiarly Indian caste organisation — the absolute supremacy of the Brahmans — had not yet been put in position, had not, in fact, been yet made ready. The caste-system, in any proper or exact use of the term, did not exist.

In the face of this set of circumstances Gotama took up 1 See also A. I, 145, 206; II, 67 ; III, 36, 132, 217 ; Vin. IV, 224; D. I, 5, 60, 72, 93, 141 (translated above) ; Gat. I, 226, 385; III, 343, 437 ; Dhp. Cy. 238, &c. a distinct position. It meets us, it is true, in two phases; but it forms one consistent and logical whole. In the first place, as regards his own Order, over which alone he had complete control, he ignores completely and absolutely all advantages or disadvantages arising from birth, occupation, and social status, and sweeps away all barriers and disabilities arising from the arbitrary rules of mere ceremonial or social impurity. One of the most distinguished members of his Order, the very one of them who was referred to as the chief authority, after Gotama himself, on the rules of the Order, was Upali, who had formerly been a barber, one of the despised occupations. So Sunita, one of the brethren whose verses are chosen for insertion in the Thera Gatha, was a Pukkusa, one of the low tribes. Sati, the propounder of a deadly heresy, was of the sons of the fisherfolk, afterwards a low caste, and even then an occupation, on account of its cruelty, particularly abhorred. Nanda was a cowherd. The two Pa#//zakas were born out of wedlock, to a girl of good family through intercourse with a slave (so that by the rule laid down in Manu 31, they were actually outcasts). A^apa was the daughter of a deer-stalker, Puwza and Punnika. had been slave girls. Sumangalamata was daughter and wife to workers in rushes, and Subha was the daughter of a smith. More instances could doubtless be quoted already, and others will become known when more texts are published.

It does not show much historical insight to sneer at the numbers as small, and to suggest that the supposed enlightenment or liberality was mere pretence. The facts speak for themselves ; and the percentage of low-born members of the Order was probably in fair proportion to the percentage of persons belonging to the despised ^atis and sippas as compared with the rest of the population. Thus of the Theris mentioned in the Theri Gatha we know the social position of sixty, of whom five are mentioned above — that is, 8£ per cent, of the whole number were base-born. It is most likely that this is just about the proportion which persons in similar social rank bore to the rest of the population. Whether the Buddhist Order differed in this respect from the other similar communities which are mentioned in the Buddhist books as having already existed when the Buddhist Order was founded, is still matter of controversy. The Buddhist books are mostly silent on the matter. But that very silence is valuable evidence. It is scarcely likely that, if there had been much difference, there should be no allusion to it in the Pi/akas. And the few passages in print confirm this. We

have seen how in the Sama«#a-phala Sutta (above, p. 77) it is taken for granted that a slave would join an Order (that is any order, not the Buddhist). And in the Aggarc/za Sutta of the Digha, and the Madhura Sutta of the Ma^^ima, there is express mention of .Sudras becoming Samaras, as if it were a recognised and common occurrence, long before the time of the rise of Buddhism. So in the Gataka (III, 3H1) we hear of a potter, and at IV, 392. of a KandiLla., who become Samaras (not Buddhist Samawas)1. On the other hand, it is just possible that in these passages the custom afterwards followed in the Buddhist Order is simply put back to earlier times, and is an anachronism. The low-born, however earnest in their search after truth, were no doubt excluded from any community of hermits or religious recluses in which Brahmans had the upper hand. But all the twice-born (the Dvi§"as, that is the Khattiyas, Brahma^as, and Vessas) were certainly justified, by public opinion, in becoming Samaras. To what extent the .Sudras, and the tribes below the .Sudras, were accorded, in communities other than the Buddhist, a similar privilege, is at present doubtful. But the Buddha certainly adopted, and probably extended, the most rational view current at the time.

There is one point, however, in which he seems to have restricted (and for a valid reason) the existing custom. It is impossible to avoid the inference from the passage just referred to (in the Sama««a-phala, above, p. 77), that the existing orders, or most of them, admitted slaves to their ranks. Now among a number of rules laid down to regulate admission to the Buddhist Order, in such wise that the existing rights of third parties should not be encroached upon, there is a rule (translated in ' Vinaya Texts,' S. B. E., I, 199) that no runaway slave shall be admitted. And in the form of words to be used at the chapter held for admitting new members, one of the questions asked of the candidate is : * Are you a freeman 2? ' Whenever slaves were admitted to the Order, they must have previously obtained the consent of their masters, and also, I think, have been emancipated. Secondly, as regards all such matters as we may now fairly call ' questions of caste ' outside the Order, the Buddha adopted the only course then open to any man of sense ; that is to say, he strove to influence that public opinion, on which the observances depend, by a constant inculcation of reasonable views. Thus in the Amagandha Sutta 3 of the Sutta

1 See Fick, 'Sociale Gliederung im nordostlichen Indien,' pp. 50, 51. 2 'Vinaya Texts,' I, 230. 8 Translated by Fausboll, S. B. E., pp. 40-42. 104 HI. AMBA7TffA SUTTA. Nipata (certainly one of the very oldest of our documents) it is laid down, in eloquent words, that defilement does not come from eating this or that, prepared or given by this or that person, but from evil deeds and words and thoughts. This is a particularly interesting passage, being one of the few in which sayings of previous Buddhas are recorded. In other words the Buddhists put forward this view as having been enunciated long ago — with the intended implication that it was a self-evident proposition which was common ground to the wise. No originality, no special insight, is claimed on account of a view that would have put an end to so many foolish prejudices based on superstition. The Buddha's position is again to adopt, in this matter, the sensible position already put forward by others. As to other details also, which it would take too long to set out here, Gotama followed the same plan. On the general question, however, he had opinions, presumably his own. For they are not found elsewhere. And in the early Buddhist texts (always ready to give credit to others, and even anxious wherever possible to support their views by showing that others, especially in ancient times, had held them) these views are not referred to as part of the doctrine of either earlier or contemporary teachers.

We may class the utterances on this point under three heads — biological, ethical, and historical. In the Vase////a Sutta of the Sutta Nipata (several verses of which have been inserted also in the Dhammapada) the question, as in the So;/adaWa Sutta, translated below, is as to what makes a man a Brahman. As his answer the Buddha reminds his questioners of the fact that whereas, in the case of plants (large or small), insects, quadrupeds, serpents, fish, and birds, there are many species and marks (due to the species) by which they can be distinguished — in the case of man there are no such species, and no such marks. ' Herein,' as pointed out by Mr. Chalmers \ ' Gotama was in accord with the conclusion of modern biologists, that " the A)itliropidae are represented by the single genus and species, Man" — a conclusion the more remarkable as the accident of colour did not mislead Gotama' as it did so many of his contemporaries then ; and even, within living memory, so many in the West. He goes on to draw the conclusion that distinctions made between different men are mere matters of prejudice and custom ; that it is wisdom and goodness that make the only valid distinction, that make a man a Brahman ; that the

1 J. R. A. S., 1894, p. 396. Arahat is therefore the true Brahman ; and that it is only the ignorant who had, for so long, maintained that it was birth that made a man a Brahman. Similar arguments frequently recur. In the Madhura Sutta, a dialogue, shortly after the Buddha's death, between the king of Madhura and Ka££ana, the point raised is whether the Brahmans are right in their exclusive claims. ' The Brahmans say thus, Ka^ana : — " The Brahmans are the most distinguished of the four divisions into which the people is classified l ; every other division is inferior. The Brahmans are the white division ; all the rest are black. The Brahmans alone are accounted pure, not those who are not Brahmans. The Brahmans are the legitimate sons of God (of Brahma), born from His mouth, specially made by Him, heirs of Brahma ! What do you, Sir, say to this ? " ' The Buddhist answer is first to remind the king of the actual facts of life — how a prosperous member of any one of the four va;/«as would find members of each of the other three to wait upon him and serve him. There was no difference between them in this respect. Then, secondly, he points out how a wicked man (whatever his va««a), in accordance with the doctrine of Karma acknowledged by all good men (not ^»nly by Buddhists), will be reborn in some state of woe ; and a good man in some state of bliss. Thirdly, a criminal, whatever his va««a, would be equally subject to punishment for his crime. And lastly, a man, whatever his va««a, would, on joining an order, on becoming a religieux, receive equal respect and honour from the people 2.

A Brahman might object that all this ignores the important point that the Brahmans were, originally, born of Brahma, and are his legitimate heirs. It was this claim to especial connection with the mysterious powers of a supernatural kind, so widely believed in, that formed their chief weapon in the struggle. We find the Buddhist reply to that in the Agga««a Sutta of the Digha, in many respects one of the most interesting and instructive of all the Dialogues 3. It is a kind 1 Literally ' are the best colour' (va««a, with reference to the wellknown classification into four va««as, neither of which was a caste, referred to above). 2 This Madhura Sutta has now been edited and translated, with valuable introduction and notes, by Mr. Robert Chalmers, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, ^-§94. 3 The larger portion of this Sutta (from the beginning of the genesis part down to the election of the first king) is also preserved in the Mahavastu. See Senart's edition, vol. i, pp. 338-348. The reading agninyazw (p. 340, 17, &c.) represents the Pali agga##aw. of Buddhist book of Genesis. In it the pretensions of the Brahmans are put forward in the same terms as those just quoted above from the Madhura Sutta.

Gotama replies that they make these claims in forgetfulness of the past. The claims have no basis in fact. It is righteousness (dhamma) and not class distinction (va««a) that makes the real difference between man and man1. Do we not daily see Brahman women with child and bearing sons just like other folk ? How can they then say that they are born of God ? And as to their origin, when the evolution of the world began, beings were at first immaterial, feeding on joy, giving light from themselves, passing through the air. There was thick darkness round about them, and neither sun nor moon, nor stars, nor sex, nor measures of time. Then the earth rose in the midst of the waters, beautiful as honey in taste and colour and smell, and the beings, eating thereof, lost their brightness, and then sun and moon and stars appeared, and time began to run. And then also their bodies became more coarse and material, and differences of complexion (va««a) became manifest among them. Then some prided themselves, and despised others, on the ground of their finer complexion. And thereupon the fine-tasting earth ceased to be so. Then successively fine moss, and sweet creepers, and delicate rice appeared, and each time the beings ate thereof with a similar result. Then differences of sex appeared ; and households were formed ; and the lazy stored up the rice, instead of gathering it each evening and morning ; and the rights of property arose, and were infringed. And when lusts were felt, and thefts committed, the beings, now become men, met together, and chose certain men, differing from the others in no wise except in virtue (dhamma), to restrain the evil doers by blame or fines or banishment. These were the first Kshatriyas. And others they chose to restrain the evil dispositions which led to the evil doing. And these were the first Brahmans, differing from the others in no wise, except only in virtue (dhamma).