Page:A Record of the Buddhist Religion as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago.djvu/75

 But in instructing the priests exclusively, he fully explained the purport of the seven skandhas (i.e. groups) of offences. He considered that even the great sins of those who dwell in the existing world would disappear at the advance of morality (sila), and the faults, however small they might be, would be done away with, when his law of discipline (Vinaya) had been clearly taught. Since anger expressed against a small branch of a tree brought, as a punishment, a birth among the snakes, and mercy shown towards the life of a small insect raised one to the heavenly abode , the efficacious power of good or bad actions is indeed evident and indisputable. Therefore the Sûtras and Sâstras were both given to us, and meditation (dhyâna) and wisdom (pragñâ) were established by the Buddha; is not the Tripitaka the net par excellence for catching people? Thus, whenever one came in person to the Great Master, His teaching was of one kind; and when the Master desired to teach and save people according to their abilities, he would lay aside those arguments which were most adapted to another. When we see that the Prince of Mâra bewitched the mind of Ânanda when the latter received the first words of the Buddha at Vaisâlî, and that by the last declaration on the Hiranyavatî (i.e. the