254. Q. Then why should the Buddha say, in the Parinibbana Sutta, that he "has no such thing as the closed fist of a teacher, who keeps something back?" If his whole teaching was open to every one's comprehension, why should so great and learned a man as Buddha Ghosha declare it so hard to understand?

A. The Buddha evidently meant that he taught

everything freely; but equally certain is it that the real basis of the Dharma can only be understood by him who has perfected his powers of comprehension. It is, therefore, incomprehensible to common, unenlightened persons.

255. Q. How does the teaching of the Buddha support this view?

A. The Buddha looked into the heart of each person, and preached to suit the individual temperament and spiritual development of the hearer.

Footnotes

^33:* Mr. Childers takes a highly pessimistic view of the Nirvanic state, regarding it as annihilation. Later students disagree with him.

^38:* Saranam. Wijesinha Mudaliyar writes me:--"This word has been hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered Refuge, by European Pali scholars, and thoughtlessly so accepted by native Pali scholars. Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhistic philosophy justifies the translation. Refuge, in the sense of a fleeing back or a place of shelter, is quite foreign to true Buddhism, which insists on every man working out his own emancipation. The root Sr in Samskrit (sara in Pali) means to move, to go; so that Saranam would denote a moving, or he or that which goes. before or with another--a Guide or Helper. I construe the passage thus: Gacchami, I go, Buddham, to Buddha, Saranam, as my Guide. The translation of the Tisarana as the "Three Refuges," has given rise to much misapprehension, and has been made by anti-Buddhists a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking refuge in nonentities and believing in unrealities. The term Refuge is more applicable to Nirvana, of which Saranam is a synonym. The High Priest Sumangala also calls my attention to the fact that the Pali root Sara has the secondary meaning of killing, or that which destroys. Buddham saranam gacchami might thus be rendered "I go to Buddha, the Law, and the Order, as the destroyers of my fears;--the first by his preaching, the second by its axiomatic truth, the third by their various examples and precepts."

^40:* This qualified form refers, of course, to laymen who only profess to keep five Precepts: a Bhikkhu must observe strict celibacy. So, also, must the laic who binds himself to observe eight of the whole ten Precepts for specified periods during these periods he must be celibate. The Five Precepts were laid down by Buddha for all people. Though one may not be a Buddhist, yet the five and eight precepts may profitably be observed by all. It is the taking of the "Three Refuges" that constitutes one a Buddhist.