Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/188

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140
SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA.
v.

self to the wilderness and meditate on the pure law ; by it thou shalt acquire the transcendent faculties.

72. The man catches the meaning, goes to the wilderness, meditates with the greatest attention, and, as he is endowed with good qualities, ere long acquires the five transcendent faculties.

73. Similarly all disciples fancy having reached Nirv&^a, but the Gina. instructs them (by saying): This is a (temporary) repose, no final rest.

74. It is an artifice of the Buddhas to enunciate this dogma[1]. There is no (real) Nirv&#a without all-knowingness ; try to reach this.

75. The boundless knowledge of the three paths (of time), the six utmost perfections (Pdramitfis), voidness, the absence of purpose (or object), the absence of finiteness 2 ;

76. The idea of enlightenment and the other laws leading to Nirvi/za, both such as are mixed with imperfection and such as are exempt from it, such as are tranquil and comparable to ethereal space ;

77. The four Brahmavihdras 8 and the four Sangrahas 4 , as well as the laws sanctioned by eminent sages for the education of creatures ;

78. (He who knows these things) and that all phenomena have the nature of illusion and dreams,

Or, absence of fixed purpose, pratfidhdnavivar^itam.

Otherwise termed Appamanwd in Pali; they are identical with the four bha'van&s, or exercises to develop benevolence, compassion, cheerful sympathy, and equanimity, well known from the Yoga; see Yogarastra I, 33.

Commonly called sangrahavastuni, Pali sangahavatthuni, articles of sociability, viz. liberality, affability, promoting another's interest, and pursuit of a common aim; see e.g. Lalita-vistara, p. 39, l. 1.


  1. Of temporary repose, it would seem.