Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

[1. For a further explanation of the meaning of anattam see Gotama's second discourse in the Mahâ Vagga I, 6: 38-47. Buddhaghosa makes no special comment here on either of the seven perceptions.] p. 10 'So long as the brethren shall persevere in kindness of action, speech, and thought amongst the saints, both in public and in private--so long as they shall divide without partiality, and share in common with the upright and the holy, all such things as they receive in accordance with the just provisions of the order, down even to the mere contents of a begging bowl--so long as the brethren shall live among the saints in the practice, both in public and in private, of those virtues which (unbroken, intact, unspotted, unblemished) are productive of freedom[1], and praised by the wise; which are untarnished by the desire of future life, or by the belief in the efficacy of outward acts[2]; and which are conducive to high and holy thoughts--so long as the brethren shall live among the saints, cherishing, both in public and in private, that noble and saving faith which leads to the complete destruction of the sorrow of him who acts according to it--so long may the brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper. 'So long as these six conditions shall continue to [1. Buddhaghosa takes this in a spiritual sense, 'tâni pan' etâni (sîlâni) tanhâ-dâsavyato moketvâ bhugissa-bhâva-karanato bhugissâni:' that is, 'These virtues are bhugissâni because they bring one to the state of a free man by delivering him from the slavery of craving.'