A Record Of Buddhistic Kingdoms - Being An Account By The Chinese Monk Fa-hien Of His Travels In India And Ceylon (a.d. 399-414) By James Legge
- Page 86 of 190 - First - Home
[7] Perhaps We Should Read Here "To See Buddha," And Then Ascribe The
Transformation To The Nun Herself.
It depends on the punctuation which
view we adopt; and in the structure of the passage, there is nothing
to indicate that the stop should be made before or after "Buddha." And
the one view is as reasonable, or rather as unreasonable, as the
other.
[8] "A holy king who turns the wheel;" that is, the military conqueror
and monarch of the whole or part of a universe. "The symbol," says
Eitel (p. 142) "of such a king is the chakra or wheel, for when he
ascends the throne, a chakra falls from heaven, indicating by its
material (gold, silver, copper, or iron) the extent and character of
his reign. The office, however, of the highest Chakravartti, who hurls
his wheel among his enemies, is inferior to the peaceful mission of a
Buddha, who meekly turns the wheel of the Law, and conquers every
universe by his teaching."
[9] This was Brahma, the first person of the Brahmanical Trimurti,
adopted by Buddhism, but placed in an inferior position, and surpassed
by every Buddhist saint who attains to bodhi.
[10] A common name for the earth below, where, on digging, water is
found.
[11] The height is given as thirty chow, the chow being the distance
from the elbow to the finger-tip, which is variously estimated.
[12] A note of Mr. Beal says on this: - "General Cunningham, who
visited the spot (1862), found a pillar, evidently of the age of
Asoka, with a well-carved elephant on the top, which, however, was
minus trunk and tail.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 86 of 190
Words from 22837 to 23110
of 51126