Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1

374

The whole passage is interesting as displaying even in the Pali Canon the germs of the idea that the Buddha is an eternal spirit only partially manifested in the limits of human life. In the Mahâparinib.-sutta Gotama is only voluntarily subject to natural death.

375

The phrase occurs again in the Sutta-Nipâta. Its meaning is not clear to me.

376

The text seems to represent him as crossing first a streamlet and then the river.

377

It is not said how much time elapsed between the meal at Cunda's and the arrival at Kusinârâ but since it was his last meal, he probably arrived the same afternoon.

378

Cf. Lyall's poem, on a Rajput Chief of the Old School, who when nearing his end has to leave his pleasure garden in order that he may die in the ancestral castle.

379

Dig. Nik. 17 and Jâtaka 95.

380

It is said that this discipline was efficacious and that Channa became an Arhat.

381

It is difficult to find a translation of these words which is both accurate and natural in the mouth of a dying man. The Pali text vayadhammâ saṅkhârâ (transitory-by-nature are the Saṅkhâras) is brief and simple but any correct and adequate rendering sounds metaphysical and is dramatically inappropriate. Perhaps the rendering "All compound things must decompose" expresses the Buddha's meaning best. But the verbal antithesis between compound and decomposing is not in the original and though saṅkhâra is etymologically the equivalent of confection or synthesis it hardly means what we call a compound thing as opposed to a simple thing.

382

The Buddha before his death had explained that the corpse of a Buddha should be treated like the corpse of a universal monarch. It should be wrapped in layers of new cloth and laid in an iron vessel of oil. Then it should be burnt and a Dagoba should be erected at four cross roads.

383

The Mallas had two capitals, Kusinârâ and Pâvâ, corresponding to two subdivisions of the tribe.

384

Theragâthâ 557 ff. Water to refresh tired and dusty feet is commonly offered to anyone who comes from a distance.

385

Mahâvag. VIII. 26.

386

E.g. Therîgâthâ 133 ff. It should also be remembered that orientals, particularly Chinese and Japanese, find Christ's behaviour to his mother as related in the gospels very strange.

387

E.g. Roja, the Malta, in Mahâvag. VI. 36 and the account of the interview with the Five Monks in the Nidânakathâ (Rhys Davids, Budd. Birth Stories, p. 112).

388

E.g. Maj. Nik. 36.

389

Dig. Nik. XVII. and V.

390

Maj. Nik. 57.

391

Mahâparib. Sutta, I. 61.

392

The earliest sources for these legends are the Mahâvastu, the Sanskrit Vinayas (preserved in Chinese translations), the Lalita Vistara, the Introduction to the Jâtaka and the Buddha-carita. For Burmese, Sinhalese, Tibetan and Chinese lives of the Buddha, see the works of Bigandet, Hardy, Rockhill and Schiefner, Wieger and Beal. See also Foucher, Liste indienne des actes du Buddha and Hackin, Scènes de la Vie du Buddha d'après des peintures tibétaines.

393

It was the full moon of the month Vaiśâkha.

394

The best known of the later biographies of the Buddha, such as the Lalita Vistara and the Buddha-carita of Aśvaghosha stop short after the Enlightenment.

395

There are some curious coincidences of detail between the Buddha and Confucius. Both disliked talking about prodigies (Analects. V11. 20) Confucius concealed nothing from his disciples (ib. 23), just as the Buddha had no "closed fist," but he would not discuss the condition of the dead (Anal. xi. 11), just as the Buddha held it unprofitable to discuss the fate of the saint after death. Neither had any great opinion of the spirits worshipped in their respective countries.

396

Maj. Nik. 143.

397

The miraculous cure of Suppiyâ (Mahâvag. VI. 23) is no exception. She was ill not because of the effects of Karma but because, according to the legend, she had cut off a piece of her flesh to cure a sick monk who required meat broth. The Buddha healed her.

398

The most human and kindly portrait of the Buddha is that furnished by the Commentary on the Thera- and Therî-gâthâ. See Thera-gâthâ xxx, xxxi and Mrs Rhys Davids' trans. of Therî-gâthâ, pp. 71, 79.