Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 10: The Dhammapada and Sutta Nipata
CHAPTER XXIII. — THE ELEPHANT.

[326. Yoniso, i.e. yonisah, is rendered by Dr. Fausboll 'sapientia,' and this is the meaning ascribed to yoni by many Buddhist authorities. But the reference to Hemakandra (ed. Boehtlingk and Rieu, p. 281) shows clearly that it meant 'origin,' or 'cause.' Yoniso occurs frequently as a mere adverb, meaning 'thoroughly, radically' (Dhammapada, p. 359), and yoniso manasikara (Dhammapada, p. 110) means 'taking to heart' or 'minding thoroughly,' or, what is nearly the same, 'wisely.' In the Lalita-vistara, p. 41, the commentator has clearly mistaken yonisah, changing it to ye 'niso, and explaining it by yamnisam, whereas M. Foucaux has rightly translated it by 'depuis l'origine.' Professor Weber suspected in yonisah a double entendre, but even grammar would show that our author is innocent of it. In Lalita-vistara, p. 544, l. 4, ayonisa occurs in the sense of error.

328, 329. Cf. .]

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331. If an occasion arises, friends are pleasant; enjoyment is pleasant, whatever be the cause; a good work is pleasant in the hour of death; the giving up of all grief is pleasant.

332. Pleasant in the world is the state of a mother, pleasant the state of a father, pleasant the state of a Samana, pleasant the state of a Brahmana.

333. Pleasant is virtue lasting to old age, pleasant is a faith firmly rooted; pleasant is attainment of intelligence, pleasant is avoiding of sins.

[332. The commentator throughout takes these words, like matteyyata, &c., to signify, not the status of a mother, or maternity, but reverence shown to a mother.]

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