20. The holy ones: Arahats, those who have attained. The sentence means: "he is on his way to Nirvana."

21. Amatapadam: lit. "The endless or deathless state" (Fausboll). Nirvana is defined by many such phrases in the Dhammapada--sometimes negative, as here; sometimes positive, as in 23--"highest freedom." Whatever the Supreme Bliss be, it is unlike all human experience save that of the Arahat.

Rhys Davids translates "ambrosia, or nectar."

As it were dead: i.e. spiritually or morally dead. Cf. "Let the dead bury their dead," Matt. viii, 22, and "The life of the fool is worse than death," Ecclus. xxii, 11.

22. The lot of the Noble. The word "Aryo" meant in Gautama's day Nobleman, or Aryan. He defined the nobleman anew, making nobility consist not in birth, but in conduct. Then he developed the meaning till it stood for Arahats--the experts in his system, those who have attained.

23. Meditation: jhanam--that ecstatic contemplation in which the mind, rapt from the sounds and sights of the

ordinary world, concentrates itself upon some single object or idea; this leads to serenity and a unique bliss, anticipation of Nirvana.

Highest freedom. Nirvana is complete freedom from: (1) The body and suffering; (2) Desire and other taints.

25. An island: i.e. Nirvana.

Self-control, temperance. Buddhism makes much of the "cardinal virtues."

26. The Buddhist motto may be said to be "Strive without ceasing."

27. The joy which is born of meditation plays a great part in Buddhist psychology and ethics. (Cf. Rhys Davids' Early Buddhism, pp. 62-5.)

28. Contrast this somewhat Epicurean attitude with St. Paul's exhortation "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep" (Rom. xii, 15).

The Buddhist position is in reality midway between the Epicurean and the Christian; it is stoical: the attitude to be assumed towards the "crowd" is either mettam, benevolence if (one's own salvation being certain) one can help them: or it is upekha, detachment. "What can't be cured must be endured." Mudita, sympathy, and Karuna, pity, are also duties, but it is no use wasting those upon the blinded and foolish crowd. (Cf. 61, 64.)

30. Sakra: i.e. Indra, a high god of Hinduism whom Buddhism has relegated to the rank of an archangel, ruling the Tavatimsa heaven. He is said to have been a young Brahmin who for his zeal in doing good was reborn as Sakra. His human name was Magha. He is regarded by Buddhists as a kind of recording angel. (Childers.)