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The Debate of King Milinda

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The Debate of King Milinda The Debate of King Milinda © Bhikkhu Pesala 2013 All rights reserved This publication may be printed for ee disibution without any changes or omissions, without any further permission being required. The PDF may not be hosted on other web sites. The reason I do not permit that is to ensure that only the latest edition is available. Whenever I come across errors, or am informed about them, I correct and update the PDF on my web site. Web site owners who just grab ee content to enhance their own sites rarely bother to keep the content up to date. Linking to the PDF file on my site is not permied either. Please post a link to the relevant page on my web site. ● First edition published in 1990. ● Hardback editions printed with permission in 1991 and 1998 by Motilal Benarsidass. ● Paperback edition printed with permission in 2001 by Inward Path Publications. ● New paperback edition published in 2010 by the Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation. ● New online PDF edition published in July 2013 for the Association for Insight Meditation. Fᴏʀᴇᴡᴏʀᴅ by Ven. Dr. Hammalawa Saddhātissa The Milinda Pañha is a Pali book wrien in about the 1st century B.C. King Milinda, a Bacian king who ruled the northeast of India, met a learned monk called Nāgasena and the king put a number of questions on the philosophy, psychology and ethics of Buddhism. I presume this debate was conducted in the Bacian Greek language but was later anslated into Pali and Sanskrit. This well-known Pali book called Milinda Pañha or Questions of King Milinda has twice been anslated into English: in 1890, and in 1969. Both anslations are literary and, in many places literal, therefore they were mainly confined to scholars. This present work is, however, not a literal but a ee rendering making an abridgement and aimed at the reader who prefers to take a short cut rather than the long way, notwithstanding that the laer may be very beautiful. The amework remains the same as the original, but in many cases the number of similes used to make a point has been reduced. The author, Bhikkhu Pesala, is a Buddhist monk who had aining in Burma and Thailand whose knowledge of Pali has enabled him to check areas of ambiguous anslation to compile this concise and readable work in elegant, modern English while his knowledge of Buddhism has enabled him to clari some obscure ideas. This book will certainly serve its intended aim by the uncomplicated presentation of the original work. iii Pʀᴇ�ᴀᴄᴇ I started work on the first edition of “The Debate of King Milinda” in 1988 at the instigation of Ven. Dr. Hammalawa Saddhātissa. A Sri Lankan supporter, Indrajit Samaranayake, gave me the keys to his house, and I ped the first dra on his computer while he and his wife were at work. In 1990 the first paperback edition of 500 copies was published for ee disibution. Motilal Banarsidass reprinted the first edition as a hardback in 1991, and in 1998 they printed a revised edition. My original intention in abridging Rhys David’s anslation was to make this important work of Buddhist literature accessible to as many people as possible, but it is still not widely available. Therefore, I produced a pocket edition for the Association for Insight Meditation. Inward Path Publications brought out a beautifully presented edition for ee disibution in 2001, but it seems that that edition is now used up. A PDF of their edition produced by Buddhanet was available on my website for some time. I created an updated version that was published for ee disibution by The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation in 2010, and updated the PDF file of that edition for my website in 2013. In the current edition the chapter names and divisions of questions now more closely follow the Pāḷi Text, and I have changed the anslation of a few terms. The Dilemmas (meṇḍakapañho) are now called Paradoxes. The index, which is fully updated, includes anslations of Pāḷi terms. The Milinda Pañha is ideally suited for people educated in the West. Most questions that sceptical Westerners ask are answered in its pages. The method of reasoned inquiry is the one advised by the Buddha himself in the Kesamui Sua, his discourse to the Kālāmas. One should always keep an open mind, and continue to read, to question, and meditate until one gains personal realisation of the uths that the Buddha taught. Ignorance of the Dhamma is the main reason that we have taken rebirth. The uth is concealed om unenlightened minds — to gain insight and right understanding we need to practise insight meditation, which is the only way to win liberation om the cycle of suffering. Bhikkhu Pesala August 2013 v CONTENTS Foreword.......................................................................................iii Preface............................................................................................v Milinda’s India.................................................................................................x Introduction..................................................................................xi The Rise of the Māgadha Kingdom.......................................xiii The Rise of the Bactrian Kingdom.........................................xiv Comparison with the Chinese Text.........................................xv The Arrangement of the Pāḷi Book.......................................xvii Abbreviations............................................................................xviii The Debate of King Milinda................................................................1 Prologue.........................................................................................1 King Milinda’s Questions....................................................................3 The Great Chapter...............................................................................3 A Question on Concepts................................................................3 The Long Journey..............................................................................10 Continuity of Dhamma................................................................10 Sustained Application.......................................................................13 Beginning the Journey..................................................................13 Nibbāna.............................................................................................17 Separation of Phenomena.............................................................17 The Buddha.......................................................................................20 Did The Buddha Exist?.................................................................20 Mindfulness.......................................................................................22 Attachment to the Body...............................................................22 Mentality is Hard to Discern.............................................................25 Memory........................................................................................25 The Resolution of Paradoxes.............................................................29 Preliminary Discussion................................................................29 The Psychic Powers Chapter........................................................30 1. On Honours Paid to the Buddha.........................................30 2. The Omniscience of the Buddha..........................................31 3. Devadatta’s Ordination.......................................................33 4. Causes of Earthquakes.........................................................33 5. Asseveration of Truth..........................................................34 6. The Paradox of Conception.................................................35 Contents vii 7. The Duration of the Religion...............................................35 8. Purity of the Buddha...........................................................36 9. Perfection of the Buddha.....................................................37 10. Equanimity of the Buddha.................................................38 The Schism Chapter......................................................................39 11. The Minor and Lesser Precepts.........................................39 12. The Esoteric Teaching........................................................39 13. The Fear of Death...............................................................40 14. Protection from Death.......................................................41 15. The Power of Māra............................................................41 16. Knowledge of Wrong Doing..............................................42 17. The Buddha Is Not Possessive...........................................42 18. The Unity of the Order......................................................43 The Dismissal Chapter.................................................................44 19. Dhamma is Best.................................................................44 20. The Compassion of the Buddha........................................44 21. The Modesty of the Buddha..............................................45 22. The Buddha’s Perfect Speech.............................................46 23. The Talking Tree................................................................46 25. Adoration of Relics............................................................47 24. The Last Meal.....................................................................47 27. The True Recluse................................................................48
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