[135] Literally, “to advance against.” ([return])
[136] Cf. Beal’s translation in the S. B. E. Vol XIX. pp. 306-307, vs. 2095-2101. Beal utterly misunderstands the Chinese original. ([return])
[137] The Buddhacarita, Cowell’s translation in the S. B. E. Vol. XLIX. p. 145. ([return])
[138] From A. J. Edmunds’s translation of Dhammapada. ([return])
[139] P. 225. Beal’s translation is not always reliable, and I would have my own if the Chinese original were at all accessible. ([return])
[140] The gâthâs supposed to be the first utterance of the Buddha after his enlightenment, according to Rockhill’s Life of the Buddha (p. 33) compiled from Tibetan sources, give an inkling of nihilism, though I am inclined to think that the original Tibetan will allow a different interpretation when examined by some one who is better acquainted with the spirit of Buddhism than Rockhill. Rockhill betrays in not a few cases his insufficient knowledge of the subject he treats. His translation of the gâthâs is as follows:
“All the pleasures of the worldly joys,
All which are known among the gods,
Compared with the joy of ending existence,
Are not as its sixteenth part.“Sorry is he whose burden is heavy,
And happy he who has cast it down;
When once he has cast off his burden,
He will seek to be burthened no more.“When all existences are put away,
When all notions are at an end,
When all things are perfectly known,
Then no more will craving come back.”
In the Udâna, II., 2, we have a stanza corresponding to the first gâthâ here cited, but the Udâna does not say “the joy of ending existence,” but “the destruction of desire.”
According to the Lalita Vistara, the Buddha’s utterance of victory is (Râjendra Mitra’s Edition p. 448):
“Cinna vartmopaçânta rajâh çuṣkâ âçravâ na punaḥ çravanti.
Chinne vartmani varttate duḥkhasyaiṣonta ucyate.”