Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - Sense Bases

Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - Sense Bases

The Debate of King Milinda
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala

Chapter 4
Sense Bases
1.“What is the root, “Are the five sense
bases produced from various kammas, or
all from one?” “From various kammas, O
king.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“If you were to sow five kinds of seeds in a
field the produce would be of five kinds.”
2.“Why is it, Nàgasena, that all men are not alike; some
are short-lived and some long-lived, some sickly and some
healthy, some ugly and some handsome, some powerful
and some powerless, some poor and some rich, some low-
born and some noble, some foolish and some wise?”
“Why is it that all plants are not alike?”
“Because they come from different seeds.”
“Just so, O king, it is because of the variety of kammas
that beings are not all the same. For this was said by the
Blessed One, ‘All beings have kamma as their own property,
are heirs to it, born from it, are relatives of their kamma and
have kamma as their refuge; whatever kamma they do
divides them into high and low states’.”38
38.M. iii. 203. cf. A. v. 87, 288.

3.“You said that your going forth was so that this
suffering might be extinguished and no further suffering
arise. Is it brought about by previous effort, or to be striven
after now, in the present?”
“Effort now is concerned with what remains to be
done, former effort has accomplished what it had to do.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“Is it when the enemy is arrayed against you that you
set to work to have a moat dug, a rampart raised, a watch-
tower built, a stronghold constructed and stores collected?”
“Certainly not your reverence.”
“Just so, effort now is concerned with what remains to
be done, former effort has accomplished what it had to do.”
4.“You say that the fire of purgatory would instantly
destroy a boulder the size of a house; but you also say that
whatever beings are reborn in hell, though they burn for
hundreds of thousands of years they are not destroyed.
How can I believe this?”
“Although the food, bones and even stones eaten by
various female beings are destroyed inside their abdomens
yet their embryos are not destroyed. Just so those beings in
hell avoid destruction by the influence of their kamma. “
5.“You say that the world rests on water, the water on
air and the air on space. This too I cannot believe.”
Then the elder showed the king water in a regulation
water-filter supported by atmospheric pressure and the
king was convinced.

6.“Is cessation nibbàna?”
“Yes, O king. All foolish worldlings take pleasure in
the senses and their objects; they find delight in them and
cling to them. Hence they are carried down by the flood [of
passion] and are not released from birth and suffering.
However, the wise disciple of the noble ones does not
delight in those things. So craving ceases in him. Thence,
attachment ceases, becoming ceases, birth ceases, old age,
death, grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow and despair cease to
exist. Thus it is that cessation is nibbàna.”
7.“Does everyone attain nibbàna?”
“Not all, O king; but whoever conducts himself
rightly, understands what should be understood, perceives
what should be perceived, abandons what should be
abandoned, develops what should be developed and
realises what should be realised;
39 he attains nibbàna.”
8.“Can one who has not attained nibbàna know that it is
blissful?”
“Yes indeed, O king. As those who have not had their
hands and feet cut off can know how painful a condition it
is by the cries of those who have; so can those who have not
attained nibbàna know it is blissful by hearing the joyful
words of those who have attained it.”
—}{—
39.Understands the truth of suffering, perceives impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and
not-self, abandons craving, and realises nibbàna.