Questions of King Milinda Part 02

SR No.: 007682
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2240
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

Page 363

VII, 4, 15.
OF MILINDA THE KING.
333
38. THE BULL 12. Venerable Nâgasena, those four qualities of the bull you say he ought to take, which are they?'
Just, О king, as the bull never forsakes its own stall; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, never abandon his own body on the ground that its nature is only the decomposition, the wearing away, the dissolution, the destruction of that which is impermanent. This, o king, is the first quality of the bull he ought to have.
13. ‘And again, O king, as the bull, when he has once taken the yoke upon him, bears that yoke through all conditions of ease or of pain ; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, [397) when he has once taken upon himself the life of a recluse, keep to it, in happiness or in woe, to the end of his life, to his latest breath. This, O king, is the second quality of the bull he ought to
have.
14. 'And again, O king, as the bull drinks water with never satiated desire; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, receive the instruction of his teachers and masters with a desire, love, and pleasure that is never satiated ? This, O king, is the third quality of the bull he ought to have.
15. 'And again, O king, as the bull equally bears the yoke whoever puts it on him ; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, accept with bowed head the admonitions and ex
· See Digha Nikâya II, 83; Gâtaka I, 146.
i Ghayamânena, atriptikawa aghrânayem in the Simhalese.
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