‘Venerable Nāgasena, did all the Bodisats go through a period of penance, or only Gotama?’
‘Not all, O king, but Gotama did.’
‘Venerable Nāgasena, if that be so, it is not right that there should be a difference between Bodisat and Bodisat.’
‘There are four matters, O king, in which there is such difference. And what are the four? There is a difference as to the kind of family (in which they are born), there is a difference as to their place in the period (which has elapsed since the succession of Buddhas began), there is a difference as to the length of their individual lives, there is a difference as to their individual size. In these four respects, O king, there is a difference between Bodisat and Bodisat. But there is no difference between any of the Buddhas, who are alike in bodily beauty, in goodness of character, in power of contemplation and of reasoning, in emancipation, in the insight arising from the knowledge of emancipation, in The four bases of confidence, in the ten powers of a Tathāgata, in the sixfold special knowledge, in the fourteenfold knowledge of Buddha, in the eighteen characteristics of a Buddha —in a word, in all the qualities of a Buddha. For all the Buddhas are exactly alike in all the Buddha-qualities.’
‘But if, Nāgasena, that be so, what is the reason that it was only the Gotama Bodisat who carried out the penance?’
‘Gotama the Bodisat had gone forth from the world, O king, when his knowledge was immature, and his wisdom was immature. And it was when he was bringing that immature knowledge to maturity that he carried out the penance.’
‘Why then, Nāgasena, was it that he thus went forth with knowledge and with wisdom immatured? Why did he not first mature his knowledge, and then, with his knowledge matured, renounce the world?’
‘When the Bodisat, O king, saw the women of his harem all in disorder, then did he become disgusted, and in him thus disgusted discontent sprang up. And on perceiving that his heart was filled with discontent, a certain god of those that wait on Death (Māra) thought: “This now is the time to dispel that discontent of his heart,” and standing in the air he gave utterance to these words: “O honourable one! O fortunate one! Be not thou distressed. On the seventh day from this the heavenly treasure of the Wheel shall appear to thee, with its thousand spokes, its tire, and its nave, complete and perfect; and the other treasures, those that walk on earth and those that travel through the sky, shall come to thee of their own accord; and the words of command of thy mouth shall bear sway over the four great continents and the two thousand dependent isles; and thou shalt have above a thousand sons, heroes mighty in strength to the crushing out of the armies of the foe; and with those sons surrounding thee thou, master of the Seven Treasures, shalt rule the world!” But even as if a bar of iron, heated the livelong day and glowing throughout, had entered the orifice of his ear, so was it that those words, O king, entered the ear of the Bodisat. And to the natural distress he already felt there was added, by that utterance of the god, a further emotion, anxiety, and fear. just as a mighty fiery furnace, were fresh fuel thrown on it, would the more furiously burn—just as the broad earth, by nature moist, and already swampy through the water dripping on it from the vegetation and the grass that have arisen on it, would become more muddy still when a great rain cloud had poured out rain upon it—so to the distress that he already felt there was added, by that utterance of the god, a further emotion, anxiety, and fear.’
‘But tell me, Nāgasena, if the heavenly Wheel-treasure had, on the seventh day, appeared to the Bodisat, would he, the Wheel having appeared, have been turned back from his purpose?’
‘No Wheel-treasure appeared, O king, on the seventh day to the Bodisat. For rather that was a lie that was told by that god with the object of tempting him. And even had it appeared, yet would not the Bodisat have turned aside. And why not? Because the Bodisat, O king, had firmly grasped (the facts of) the impermanence (of all things, of) the suffering (inherent in existence as an individual, of) the absence of a soul (in any being made up of the five Skandhas), and had thus arrived at the destruction of the attachment (to individuality which arises from lust, or from heresy, or from dependence upon outward acts, or from delusions as to the possession of a permanent soul). The water, O king, which flows into the river Ganges from the Anottata lake, and from the Ganges river into the great ocean, and from the great ocean into the openings into the regions under the earth —would that water, after it had once entered that opening, turn back and flow again into the great ocean, and from the great ocean into the Ganges river, and from the Ganges river into the Anottata lake?’
‘Certainly not, Sir.’
‘In the same way, O king, it was for the sake of that last existence of his that the Bodisat had matured merit through the immeasurable aeons of the past. He had now reached that last birth, the knowledge of the Buddhas had grown mature in him, in six years he would become a Buddha, all-knowing, the highest being in the world. Would then the Bodisat, for the sake of the Wheel-treasure, turn back?’
‘Certainly not, Sir.’
‘No! Though the great earth, O king, with all its peaks and mountain ranges, should turn back, yet the Bodisat would not before he had attained to Buddhahood. Though the water of the Ganges should flow backwards up the stream, yet the Bodisat would not turn back before he had attained to Buddhahood. Though the mighty ocean with its immeasurable waters should dry up like the water in the footprint of a cow, yet would not the Bodisat turn back before he had attained to Buddhahood. Though Sineru, the king of the mountains, should split up into a hundred or a thousand fragments, yet would not the Bodisat turn back before he had attained to Buddhahood. Though the moon and sun with all the stars should fall, like a clod, upon the ground, yet would not the Bodisat turn back before he had attained to Buddhahood. Though the expanse of heaven should be rolled up like a mat, yet would not the Bodisat turn back before he had attained to Buddhahood! And why not? Because he had torn asunder every bond.’
‘Venerable Nāgasena, how many bonds are there in the world?’
‘There are these ten bonds in the world, O king, bound by which men renounce not the world, or turn back again to it. And what are the ten? A mother, O king, is often a bond, and a father, and a wife, and children, and relations, and friends, and wealth, and easy income, and sovranty, and the five pleasures of sense. These are the ten bonds common in the world, bonds bound by which men renounce not the world or turn back to it. And all these bonds had the Bodisat, O king, burst through. And therefore could he not, O king, turn back.’
‘Venerable Nāgasena, if the Bodisat, on discontent arising in his heart at the words of the god, though his knowledge (of the four Truths) was yet imperfect, and his insight of a Buddha not mature, did nevertheless go forth into renunciation of the world, of what advantage was penance to him then? Ought he not rather, awaiting the maturity of his knowledge, to have lived in the enjoyment of all (suitable) foods?’
‘There are, O king, these ten sorts of individuals who are despised and contemned in the world, thought shameful, looked down upon, held blameworthy, treated with contumely, not loved. And what are the ten? A woman without a husband, O king, and a weak creature, and one without friends or relatives, and a glutton, and one dwelling in a disreputable family, and the friend of sinners, and he whose wealth has been dissipated, and he who has no character, and he who has no occupation, and he who has no means. These are the ten despised and contemned in the world, thought shameful, looked down upon, held blameworthy, treated with contumely, not loved. It was on calling these conditions to mind, O king, that this idea occurred to the Bodisat: “Let me not incur blame among gods and men as being without occupation or without means! Let me as a master in action, held in respect by reason of action, one having the supremacy which arises from action, one whose conduct is based upon action, one who carries action (into every concern of life), one who has his dwelling in action, be constant in earnestness.” That was the spirit, O king, in which the Bodisat, when he was bringing his knowledge to maturity, undertook the practice of penance.’
‘Venerable Nāgasena, the Bodisat, when he was undergoing penance, said thus to himself: “But it is not by this penance severe that I shall reach the peculiar faculty of the insight arising from the knowledge of that which is fit and noble—that insight beyond the powers of ordinary men, May there not be now some other way to the wisdom (of Buddhahood) ?”
‘Was then the Bodisat, at that time, confused in his mind about the way ?’
‘There are twenty-five qualities, O king, which are causes of weakness of mind, weakened by which the mind cannot successfully be devoted to the destruction of the āsavas (the Great Evils—lust, becoming, delusion, and ignorance). And what are the twenty-five? Anger, O king, and enmity, and hypocrisy, and conceit, and envy, and avarice, and deceit, and treachery, and obstinacy, and perverseness, and pride, and vainglory, and the intoxication (of exalted ideas about birth or health or wealth), and negligence in (well-doing), and intellectual inertness or bodily sloth, and drowsiness, and idleness, and friendship with sinners, and forms, and sounds, and odours, and tastes, and sensations of touch, and hunger, and thirst, and discontent. These are the twenty-five qualities, O king, which are causes of weakness of mind, weakened by which the mind cannot successfully be devoted to the destruction of the āsavas. (And of these it was) hunger and thirst, O king, which had then seized hold of the body of the Bodisat. And his body being thus, as it were, “possessed,” his mind was not rightly devoted to the destruction of the āsavas. Now the Bodisat, O king, through the immeasurable aeons of the past, had followed after the perception of the Four Noble Truths through all of his successive births. Is it then possible that in his last existence, in the birth in which that perception was to arise, there should be any confusion in his mind as to the way? But nevertheless there arose, O king, in the Bodisat’s mind the thought: “May there not now be some other way to the wisdom (of a Buddha)?” And already before that, O king, when he was only one month old, when his father the Sakya was at work (ploughing), the Bodisat, placed in his sacred cot for coolness under the shade of the jambu tree, sat up crosslegged, and putting away passion, free from all evil conditions of heart, he entered into and remained in the first Ghāna—a state of joy and ease, born of seclusion, full of reflection, full of investigation, and so into the second, and so into the third, and so into the fourth Ghāna.’
‘Very good, Nāgasena! That is so, and I accept it as you say. It was whilst he was bringing his knowledge to maturity that the Bodisat underwent the penance.’
Here ends the dilemma as to the penance undergone by the Bodisat.