[183. This verse is again one of the most solemn verses among the Buddhists. According to Csoma Korosi, it ought to follow the famous Arya stanza, 'Ye dhamma' (Lotus, p. 522), and serve as its complement. But though this may be the case in Tibet, it was not so originally. The same verse (ascribed to Kanakamuni) occurs at the end of the Chinese translation of the Pratimoksha. (Beal, J. R. A. S. XIX, p. 473; Catena, p. 159); in the Tibetan translation of the Gathasangraha, v. 14 (Schiefner, Mel. Asiat. I VIII, pp. 568, 586; and Csoma Korosi, As. Res. XX, p. 79). Burnouf has fully discussed the metre and meaning of our verse on pp. 527, 528 of his 'Lotus.' He prefers sakittaparidamanam, which Csoma translated by 'the mind must be brought under entire subjection' (svakittaparidamanam), and the late Dr. Mill by 'proprii intellectus subjugatio.' But his own MS. of the Mahapadhana-sutta gave likewise sakittapariyodapanam, and this is no doubt the correct reading. (See D'Alwis, Attanugaluvansa, p. cxxix.) We found pariyodappeya in , in the sense of purging oneself from the troubles of thought. From the same verb, (pari) ava + dai, we may derive the name Avadana, a legend, originally a pure and virtuous act, an {Greek: aridteia}, afterwards a sacred story, and possibly a story the hearing of which purifies the mind. See Boehtlingk-Roth, s.v. avadana.

184. Childers, following the commentator, translates, 'Patience, which is long-suffering, is the best devotion, the Buddhas declare that Nirvana is the best (of things).'

185. Cf. Suttanipata, . Patimokkhe, 'under the law,' i.e. according to the law, the law which leads to Moksha, or 'freedom.' Pratimoksha is the title of the oldest collection of the moral laws of the Buddhists (Burnouf, Introduction, p. 300; Bigandet, The Life of Gaudama, p. 439; Rhys Davids, Buddhism, p. 162), and as it was common both to the Southem and the Northem Buddhists, patimokkhe in our passage may possibly be meant, as Professor Weber suggests, as the title of that very collection. The commentator explains it by getthakasila and patimokkhasila. Sayanasam might stand for sayanasanam, see Mahabh. XII, 6684; but in Buddhist literature it is intended for sayanasanam; see also Mahabh. XII, 9978, sayyasane. Fausboll now reads panta instead of patthan.

187. There is a curious similarity between this verse and verse 6503 (9919) of the Santiparva:
Yak ka kamasukham loke, yak ka divyam mahat sukham,
Trishnakshayasukhasyaite narhatah shodasim kalam.
'And whatever delight of love there is on earth, and whatever is the great delight in heaven, they are not worth the sixteenth part of the pleasure which springs from the destruction of all desires.' The two verses 186, 187 are ascribed to king Mandhatri shortly before his death (Mel. Asiat. VIII, p. 471; see also Gataka, vol. ii. p. 113).]

p. 51