Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - Attachment

Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - Attachment

The Debate of King Milinda
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala

Chapter 6
Attachment
1.“Is the body, Nàgasena, dear to you
recluses?”
“No great king.”
“Then why do you nourish it and lavish
attention upon it?”
“We nourish it and care for it as you would
care for a wound, not because the wound was dear to you
but just so the flesh may grow again. For this was said by
the Blessed One:
“This filthy body stinks outright
Like ordure, like a privy’s site;
This body men that have insight,
Condemn, is object of a fool’s delight.
“A tumour where nine holes abide
Wrapped in a coat of clammy hide47
And trickling filth on every side,
“Polluting the air with stenches far and wide.
If it perchance should come about
That what is inside it came out
Surely a man would need a knout
With which to put the dogs and crows to rout’.”48
47.Only these latter two lines are in Miln.
48.Vism. 196. Translation, Bhikkhu ¥àõamoli.

2.“If the Buddha was omniscient why did he lay down
the rules for the Order only when the occasion arose?”
“He laid down the rules only when the need arose as
a skilled doctor only prescribes medicine when the need
arises although he knows all the medicines in advance of a
disease arising.”
3.“If the Buddha was endowed with the thirty-two
marks of a great man49 why were his parents not also so
endowed?”
“As a lotus that is born in the mud and comes to
perfection in the water does not resemble them, so the
Buddha was unlike his parents.”
4.“Was the Buddha a Brahmacàrin, a celibate?”
“Yes he was.”
“Then he was a follower of Brahmà!”
“Although an elephant’s sound is like a heron’s he is
not a follower of herons. Tell me, great king, is Brahmà one
with intelligence (buddhi)?”
“Yes.”
“Then surely he is a follower of the Buddha!”
5.“Is ordination a good thing?”
“Yes it is.”
“But did the Buddha obtain it or not?”
“Great king, when the Buddha attained omniscience
at the foot of the Bodhi tree, that was for him an ordination;
49.Physical characteristics that are predicted by astrology. See D. ii. 17; M. ii. 136; Milnò. 17

there was no conferring of ordination upon him by others
in the way that he has laid down for his disciples.”
6.“To whom are tears a cure; to the man who weeps at
the death of his mother or to him who weeps due to
affection for the truth?”
“The tears of the first, O king, are stained and hot with
passion but the tears of the second are stainless and cool.
There is a cure in coolness and calm but in heat and passion
there can be no cure.”
7.“What is the distinction between one who is full of
passion and one who is devoid of passion?”
“The one is enslaved, O king, and the other is not
enslaved.”
“What does that mean?”
“One is in want but the other is not.”
“But both of them like good food, neither likes bad
food.”
“The man who is passionate, O king, eats his food
experiencing both the taste and the passion for the taste,
but the man without passion experiences only the taste and
not the passion arising therefrom.”
8.“Where does wisdom dwell?”
“Nowhere, O king.”
“Then there is no wisdom.”
“Where does the wind dwell?”
“Nowhere.”

“Then there is no wind!”
“You are dexterous, Nàgasena, in reply.
9.“What is meant by the round of rebirths (saüsàra)?”
“Whoever is born here, dies here and is born else-
where. Having been born there they die and are born some-
where else.”
10.“By what do we remember what was done long ago?”
“By memory (sati).“
“Is it not by mind (citta) that we recollect?”
“Do you, O king, recollect any business that you have
done and then forgotten?”
“Yes.”
“Were you then without a mind?”
“No, but my memory failed me.”
“Then why do you say that it is by mind that we
recollect?”
11.“Does memory always arise subjectively or is it
stirred up by suggestion from outside?”
“Both, O king.”
“But doesn’t that amount to all memory being sub-
jective in origin?”50
“If, O king, there were no imparted memory then
artisans would have no need of practice or schooling and
teachers would be useless, but the contrary is the case.”
50.It is not clear to me what is meant here. Perhaps King Milinda is suggesting that since a
recollection prompted by another afterwards arises by one’s own mental effort it is
subjective in origin.