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

The following are the details of the aggregate technical terms used in the above summary, but it will be understood that the English equivalents used give rather a general than an exact representation of the ideas expressed by the Pâli ones. To attempt more would demand a treatise rather than a note, and it has given me peculiar pleasure to learn, as these sheets are passing through the press, that my friend Dr. Morris intends to devote a book to the treatment of these seven 'Jewels of the Law,' as the Kulla Vagga calls them (IX, 1, 4), which form, when united, the bright diadem of Nirvâna. The four Earnest Meditations (kattâro Satipatthânâ) are-- 1. Meditation on the body. 2. Meditation on the sensations. 3. Meditation on the ideas. 4. Meditation on reason and character. {footnote p. 63} The fourfold Great Struggle against sin is divided into kattâro Samappadhânâ, which are-- 1. The struggle to prevent sinfulness arising. 2. The struggle to put away sinful states which have arisen. 3. The struggle to produce goodness not previously existing. 4. The struggle to increase goodness when it does exist. The four Roads to Saintship are four means by which Iddhî (see above, § 3, note) is to be acquired. They are the Kattâro Iddhipâdâ: 1. The will to acquire it united to earnest meditation and the struggle against sin. 2. The necessary exertion united to earnest meditation and the struggle against sin.