35. Lecture 7, Lesson 3

1Some are awakened as middle-aged men and exert themselves well, having, as clever men, heard and received the word of the learned[1]. The noble ones have impartially preached the law. Those who are awakened, should not wish for pleasure, nor do harm, nor desire (any forbidden things). A person who is without desires and does no harm unto any living beings in the whole world, is called by me ‘unfettered.’ (1)

2One free from passions understands perfectly the bright one[2], knowing birth in the upper and nether regions.

3‘Bodies increase through nourishment, they are frail in hardships.’ See some whose organs are failing (give way to weakness).

4A person who has no desires, cherishes pity. He who understands the doctrine of sin, is a mendicant who knows the time, the strength, the measure, the occasion, the conduct, the religious precept; he disowns all things not requisite for religious purposes, in time exerts himself, is under no obligations; he proceeds securely (on the road to final liberation) after having cut off both (love and hate)[3]. (2)

5A householder approaching a mendicant whose limbs tremble for cold, may say:

6O long-lived Śramaṇa! are you not subject to the influences of your senses?

7O long-lived householder! I am not subject to the influences of my senses. But I cannot sustain the feeling of cold. Yet it does not become me to kindle or light a fire[4], that I may warm or heat myself; nor (to procure that comfort) through the order of others.

8Perhaps after the mendicant has spoken thus, the other kindles or lights a fire that he may warm or heat himself. But the mendicant should well observe and understand this, that he may order him to show no such obsequiousness. Thus I say. (3)

9The scholiast says that there are three classes of the awakened: the Svayambuddha, the Pratyekabuddha, and the Buddhabodhita. The last only is treated of in the text.

10The latter part of this paragraph is nearly identical with lecture 2, lesson 5, § 3, to which we refer the reader for the explanation of the dark phrases.

11The original has fire-body, which the faithful are enjoined not to injure; see lecture 2, lesson 4.