- "This body[8] is impermanent, a thing of bitterness and
vanity,[9] and which cannot be looked on as pure.[10] I am weary of
this body, and troubled by it as an evil." With this he grasped a
knife, and was about to kill himself. But he thought again: - "The
World-honoured one laid down a prohibition against one's killing
himself."[11] Further it occurred to him: - "Yes, he did; but I now
only wish to kill three poisonous thieves."[12] Immediately with the
knife he cut his throat. With the first gash into the flesh he
attained the state of a Srotapanna;[13] when he had gone half through,
he attained to be an Anagamin;[14] and when he had cut right through,
he was an Arhat, and attained to pari-nirvana;[15] (and died).
NOTES
[1] Karanda Venuvana; a park presented to Buddha by king Bimbisara,
who also built a vihara in it. See the account of the transaction in
M. B., p. 194. The place was called Karanda, from a creature so named,
which awoke the king just as a snake was about to bite him, and thus
saved his life. In Hardy the creature appears as a squirrel, but Eitel
says that the Karanda is a bird of sweet voice, resembling a magpie,
but herding in flocks; the /cuculus melanoleucus/. See "Buddhist Birth
Stories," p. 118.
[2] The language here is rather contemptuous, as if our author had no
sympathy with any other mode of disposing of the dead, but by his own
Buddhistic method of cremation.
[3] The Chinese characters used for the name of this cavern serve also
to name the pippala (peepul) tree, the /ficus religiosa/. They make us
think that there was such a tree overshadowing the cave; but Fa-hien
would hardly have neglected to mention such a circumstance.
[4] A very great place in the annals of Buddhism. The Council in the
Srataparna cave did not come together fortuitously, but appears to
have been convoked by the older members to settle the rules and
doctrines of the order. The cave was prepared for the occasion by king
Ajatasatru. From the expression about the "bringing forth of the
King," it would seem that the Sutras or some of them had been already
committed to writing. May not the meaning of King {.} here be extended
to the Vinaya rules, as well as the Sutras, and mean "the standards"
of the system generally? See Davids' Manual, chapter ix, and Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, pp. 370-385.
[5] So in the text, evidently for pari-nirvana.
[6] Instead of "high" seats, the Chinese texts have "vacant." The
character for "prepared" denotes "spread;" - they were carpeted;
perhaps, both cushioned and carpeted, being rugs spread on the ground,
raised higher than the other places for seats.
