REFORMERS AND THEIR FATE 201
dissolution of the body, after death, into some state of happiness in heaven ?”
‘Yes, O Brahman, that I admit. And at that time I was the Brahman who, as chaplain, had that sacrifice performed.’
- ‘Is there, O Gotama, any other sacrifice less difficult and less troublesome, with more fruit and more advantage still than this?’
‘Yes, O Brahman, there is.’
‘And what, O Gotama, may that be?’
‘The perpetual gifts kept up in a family where they are given specifically to virtuous recluses.’
- ‘But what is the reason, O Gotama, and what the cause, why such perpetual giving specifically to virtuous recluses, and kept up in a family, are less difficult and troublesome of greater fruit and greater advantage than that other sacrifice with its three modes and its accessories of sixteen kinds?’
‘To the latter sort of sacrifice, O Brahman, neither will the Arhata go, nor such as have entered on the Arhat way. And why not ? Because in it beating with sticks takes place, and seizing by the throat. But they will go to the former, where such things are not. And therefore are such perpetual gifts above the other sort of sacrifice.’
- ‘And is there, O Gotama, any other sacrifice less difficult and less troublesome, of greater fruit and of greater advantage than either of these.’
‘Yes, O Brahman, there is.’
‘And what, O Gotama, may that be ?’
‘The putting up of a dwelling place (Vihara) on behalf of the Order in all the four directions.’
- ‘And is there, O Gotama, any other sacrifice less difficult and less troublesome, of greater fruit and of greater advantage than each and all of these three?’
‘Yes, O Brahman, there is.’
‘And what, O Gotama, may that be?’
‘He who with trusting heart takes a Buddha as his guide, and the Truth, and the Order—that is a sacrifice better than open largeses, better than perpetual alms, better than the gift of a dwelling place.’
- ‘And is there, O Gotama, any other sacrifice less difficult and less troublesome, of greater fruit and of greater advantage than all these four?’
‘When a man with trusting heart takes upon himself the preceptsabstinence from destroying life; absitence from taking what has not been given; abstinence from evil conduct in respect of lusts; abstinence from lying words; abstinence from strong, intoxicating, maddening