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

[1. Nâgapalokitam Vesâliyam apaloketvâ. The Buddhas were accustomed, says Buddhaghosa, on looking backwards to turn the whole body round as an elephant does; because the bones in their neck were firmly fixed, more so than those of ordinary men! 2. Or Conditions (Dhammâ). They must, of course, be carefully distinguished from the better known Four Noble Truths (Sakkâni) above, Chap. II, § 2.] p. 65 freedom is realised and known--then is the craving for existence rooted out, that which leads to renewed existence is destroyed, and there is no more birth.' 3. Thus spake the Blessed One; and when the Happy One had thus spoken, then again the teacher said[1]: 'Righteousness, earnest thought, wisdom, and freedom sublime-- These are the truths realised by Gotama, far-renowned. Knowing them, he, the knower, proclaimed the truth to the brethren. The master with eye divine, the quencher of griefs, must die!' ------------------------ 4. There too, while staying at Bhanda-gâma, the Blessed One held that comprehensive religious discourse with the brethren on the nature of upright conduct, and of earnest contemplation, and of intelligence. 'Great is the fruit, great the advantage of earnest contemplation when set round with upright conduct. Great is the fruit, great the advantage of intellect when set round with earnest contemplation. [1. This is merely a stock phrase for introducing verses which repeat the idea of the preceding phrase (see above, paragraph 32). It is an instructive sign of the state of mind in which such records are put together, that these verses could be ascribed to Gotama himself without any feeling of the incongruity involved. The last word means, completely gone out; and here refers to the extinction of kilesa and tanhâ, which will bring about, inevitably, the extinction of being. Compare the passage quoted by Burnouf in Lotus de la Bonne Loi, p. 376. Probably the whole stanza formerly stood in some other connection, where the word parinibbuto had its more usual sense. See Buddhaghosa's note on IV, 23.]