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SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA.
iii.

vehicle in this world anywhere to be found, in whatever direction thou shalt search, apart from the device (shown) by the most high among men.

97. Ye are my children, I am your father, who has removed you from pain, from the triple world, from fear and danger, when you had been burning for many kotis of Æons.

98. And I am teaching blessed rest (Nirvâna), in so far as, though you have not yet reached (final) rest, you are delivered from the trouble of the mundane whirl, provided you seek the vehicle of the Buddhas.

99. Any Bodhisattvas here present obey my Buddha-rules. Such is the skilfulness of the Gina that he disciplines many Bodhisattvas.

100. When the creatures in this world delight in low and contemptible pleasures, then the Chief of the world, who always speaks the truth, indicates pain as the (first) great truth.

101. And to those who are ignorant and too simple-minded to discover the root of that pain I lay open the way: 'Awaking of full consciousness, strong desire is the origin of pain[1].'

102. Always try, unattached[2], to suppress desire. This is my third truth, that of suppression. It is an infallible means of deliverance; for by practising this method one shall become emancipated[3].

103. And from what are they emancipated, Sâri-


  1. Samudâgamah, trishna duhkhasya sambhavah. l am not certain of the translation of samudâgama, which recurs below in Chap. V, in the apparent sense of full knowledge, agreeing with what the dictionaries give.
  2. Anisritâh.
  3. Na ko mârgam hi bhâvitva vimuktu bhoti (var. lect. bhotu). The words na ko spoil metre and sense, and must be expunged.