1 The whole of this passage down to the end of § 10 recurs in the Iddhip&da Vagga of the Sa/wyutta Nikaya.
2 Idjdhi. The four paths are, 1. will, 2. effort, 3. thought, and 4. investigation, each united to earnest thought and the struggle against sin. The Iddhi reached by them is supposed in works on Buddhism to be a bodily condition (power of flying, &c), by which the body rose superior to all the ordinary limitations of
mastered them as to be able to use them as a
means of (mental) advancement, and as a basis for
edification, he, should he desire it, could remain in
the same birth for a kalpa, or for that portion of the
kalpa which had yet to run. Now the Tathcigata
has thought them out, and thoroughly practised and
developed them [in all respects as just more fully
described], and he could, therefore, should he desire
it, live on yet for a kalpa, or for that portion of the
kalpa which has yet to run/
4. But even though a suggestion so evident and
a hint so clear were thus given by the Blessed One,
the venerable Ananda was incapable of comprehend-
ing them ; and he besought not the Blessed One,
saying, * Vouchsafe, Lord, to remain during the
kalpa ! Live on through the kalpa, O Blessed One !
for the good and the happiness of the great multi-
tudes, out of pity for the world, for the good and
the gain and the weal of gods and men ! ' So far
was his heart possessed by the Evil One \
matter — a bodily condition corresponding to the mental condition of exaltation and power by which it was reached. On this curiously perverted exaggeration of the real influence of the mind over the body see, further, the translator's 'Buddhism/ pp. 174-177. Two of the string of participles — ydnikata, which may possibly mean ' made use of as a vehicle/ and susam&raddha, * most thoroughly ascended up to' — might seem to allude to Iddhi as a power of flying bodily through the air. But the whole set of participles is used elsewhere of conditions of mind highly esteemed among the Buddhists, and incapable of giving support to any such allusion. So, for instance, of universal love (metta) at Gataka II, 61.
1 Yathd taw Marena pariyu/Mita^itto. Here taw is the indeclinable particle, yathd ta/rc introducing an explanation. My MS. of the Digha Nikaya and the Tumour MS. of the Sumangala Vilasini read pariz/u/Mita, and either spelling is correct. The
42 THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. CH.
5. A second and a third time did the Blessed One
[say the same thing, and a second and a third time
was Ananda's heart thus hardened}
6. Now the Blessed One addressed the venera-
ble Ananda, and said : ' You may leave me, Ananda,
awhile, and do whatever seemeth to thee fit/
' So be it, Lord ! ' said the venerable Ananda, in
assent, to the Blessed, and rising from his seat he
saluted the Blessed One, and passing him on the
right, sat down at the foot of a certain tree not
far off thence.
7. Now not long after the venerable Ananda
had been gone, M&ra, the Evil One, approafched the
Blessed One, and stood beside him. And so stand-
ing there, he addressed the Blessed One in these
words :
' Pass away now, Lord, from existence ; let the
Blessed One now die. Now is the time for the
Blessed One to pass away — even according to the
fact is that the y or v in such cases is even less than euphonic ; it is an assistance not to the speaker, but merely to the writer. Thus in the Sinhalese duwanaw&, 'to run/ the spoken word is du- # anawd, and the w is written only to avoid the awkward use in the middle of a word of the initial sign for the sound a. That the speakers of Pali found no difficulty in pronouncing two vowels together is abundantly proved by numerous instances. The writers of Pali, in those cases in which the second vowel begins a word, use without hesitation the initial sign ; but in the middle of the word this would be so ungainly that they naturally prefer to insert a consonantal sign to carry the vowel sign. The varying readings I have pointed out are a strong confirmation of the cor- rectness of the pronunciation of modern native scholars ; and we may the more readily adopt it as the question is not really one concerning the pronunciation of Pali, but concerning the use which modern native copyists make of their own alphabet. I would pro- nounce therefore pari-u/Mita-^itto.
M AH A-P ARINIBBAN A-SU TTA.
word which the Blessed One spoke when he said 1 :
" I shall not die, O Evil One ! until the brethren
and sisters of the order, and until the lay-disciples
of either sex 2 shall have become true hearers, wise
and well-trained, ready and learned, versed in the
Scriptures, fulfilling all the greater and the lesser
duties, correct in life, walking according to the pre-
cepts — until they, having thus themselves learned
the doctrine, shall be able to tell others of it, preach
it, make it known, establish it, open it, minutely ex-
plain it and make it clear — until they, when others
start vain doctrine, shall be able by the truth to
vanquish and refute it, and so to spread the wonder-
working truth abroad ! " '
8. * And now, Lord, the brethren and sisters of the
order and the lay-disciples of either sex have be-
come [all this], are able to do [all this]. Pass away
now therefore, Lord, from existence ; let the Blessed
One now die ! The time has come for the Blessed
One to pass away — even according to the word
which he spake when he said, " I shall not die, O
Evil One ! until this pure religion of mine shall
have become successful, prosperous, widespread, and
popular in all its full extent — until, in a word,
it shall have been well proclaimed to men." And
now, Lord, this pure religion of thine has become
[all this]. Pass away now therefore, Lord, from
1 The words here quoted were spoken by the Buddha, after he had been enjoying the first bliss of Nirvawa, under the shepherd's Nigrodha tree (see my * Buddhist Birth Stories/ pp. 109-1 1 1). The Evil One then also tempted him to die (see below, paragraph III, 43), and this was his reply.
2 The whole paragraph is repeated, here and below, for each of these classes of persons.
44 THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. CH.
existence; let the Blessed One now die! The time has come for the Blessed One to pass away ! '
9. And when he had thus spoken, the Blessed
One addressed M4ra, the Evil One, and said: 'O
Evil One ! make thyself happy, the final extinction
of the Tathdgata shall take place before long. At
the end of three months from this time the TatM-
gata will die ! '
10. Thus the Blessed One while at the A^pila
A'etiya deliberately and consciously rejected the rest
of his allotted sum of life. And on his so rejecting it
there arose a mighty earthquake, awful and terrible,
and the thunders of heaven burst forth. And when
the Blessed One beheld this, he broke out at that
time into this hymn of exultation :
' His sum of life the sage renounced,
The cause of life immeasurable or small ;
With inward joy and calm, he broke,
Like coat of mail, his life's own cause ! '
11. Now the following thought occurred to the
venerable Ananda : ' Wonderful indeed and marvel-
lous is it that this mighty earthquake should arise,
awful and terrible, and that the thunders of heaven
should burst forth ! What may be the proximate,
what the remote cause of the appearance of this
earthquake ? '
12. Then the venerable Ananda went up to the
place where the Blessed One was, and did obeisance
to the Blessed One, and seated himself respectfully
at one side, and said : * Wonderful indeed and mar-
vellous is it that this mighty earthquake should
arise, awful and terrible, and that the thunders of
mahA-parinibbana-sutta.
heaven should burst forth! What may be the
proximate, what the remote cause of the appearance
of this earthquake ? '
13. * Eight are the proximate, eight the remote
causes, Ananda, for the appearance of a mighty
earthquake. What are the eight? This great
earth, Ananda, is established on water, the water on
wind, and the wind rests upon space. And at such
a time, Ananda, as the mighty winds blow, the
waters are shaken by the mighty winds as they
blow, and by the moving water the earth is shaken.
These are the first causes, proximate and remote,
of the appearance of a mighty earthquake.
14. 'Again, Ananda, a Samawa or a Brihman of
great (intellectual) power, and who has the feelings
of his heart well under his control ; or a god or fairy
(devati *) of great might and power, — when such a
1 Devatd is a fairy, god, genius, or angel. I am at a loss how to render this word without conveying an erroneous impression to those not familiar with ancient ideas, and specially with ancient Buddhist ideas, of the spirit world. It includes gods of all sorts ; tree and river nymphs ; the kindly fairies or ghosts who haunt houses (see my * Buddhist Birth Stories/ Tale No. 40) ; spirits in the ground (see above, § I, 26); the angels who minister at the great renunciation, the temptation, and the death of the Buddha; the guardian angels who watch over men, and towns, and countries ; and many other similar beings. ' Celestial being ' would be wholly inapplicable, for instance, to the creatures referred to in the curious passage above (§ I, 26). * Superhuman being ' would be an inaccu- rate rendering ; for all these light and airy shapes come below, and after, man in the Buddhist order of precedence. 'Spirit' being used of the soul inside the human body, and of the human soul after it has left the body, and figuratively of mental faculties — none of which are included under devatd — would suggest ideas incon- sistent with that of the Pali word. As there is therefore no appro- priate general word I have chosen, for each passage where the expression occurs, the word used in English of the special class
46 THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. CH,
one by intense meditation of the finite idea of earth
or the infinite idea of water (has succeeded in
realising the comparative value of things 1 ) he can
make this earth move and tremble and be shaken
violently. These are the second causes, proximate
or remote, of the appearance of a mighty earth-
quake.
1 5. 'Again, Ananda, when a Bodhisatta consciously
and deliberately leaves his temporary form in the
heaven of delight and descends into his mothers
womb, then is this earth made to quake and tremble
and is shaken violently. These are the third causes,
proximate or remote, of the appearance of a mighty
earthquake 2 .
more particularly referred to in the passage of the text. Here all kinds of devatas being referred to, and there being no word in English for them all, I have ventured to put the word devata* into my version, and to trouble the reader with this note.
1 Yassa paritt& paMavi-sawwd bhavit& hoti appam£»£ &posa#M, on which Buddhaghosa says simply, Paritta* ti dub- bald: appama^d ti balav&, and then goes on, as a note to kampeti, to tell a long story how Sangharakkhita S&ma«era, the nephew of Naga Thera, attained Arahatship on the day of his admission to the order; and at once proceeded to heaven, and standing on the pinnacle of the palace of the king of the gods, shook the whole place with his big toe ; to the great consternation and annoyance of the exalted dwellers therein! There is no doubt a real truth in the idea that deep thought can shake the universe, and make the palaces of the gods to tremble, just as faith is said in Matthew xxi. 21 to be able to remove mountains, and cause them to be cast into the sea. But these figurative expressions have, in Buddhism, become a fruitful soil for the outgrowth of superstitions and misunderstandings ; and the train of early Bud- dhist speculation in this field has yet to be elucidated. There is much about it in the Maha* Padh&na Sutta of the Digha Nik£ya, where Chap. Ill, §§ 1 1-20 recur.
2 The Bodhisatta's voluntary incarnation is looked upon by the Buddhists as a great act of renunciation, and curious legends have
mahA-parinibbAna-sutta.
1 6. * Again, Ananda, when a Bodhisatta deliberately
and consciously quits his mother s womb, then the
earth quakes and trembles and is shaken violently.
This is the fourth cause, proximate and remote, of
the appearance of a mighty earthquake.
1 7. ' Again, Ananda, when a Tathdgata arrives
at the supreme and perfect enlightenment, then this
earth quakes and trembles and is shaken violently.