3.3.3. The beginning point (MIL3.3.3)

The king said: ‘When you say that the ultimate point is not apparent, what do you mean by “ultimate point”?’

‘Of whatsoever time is past. It is the ultimate point of that, O king, that I speak of.’

‘But, if so, when you say that it is not apparent, do you mean to say that of everything? Is the ultimate point of everything unknown?’

‘Partly so, and partly not.’

‘Then which is so, and which not?’

‘Formerly, O king, everything in every form, everything in every mode, was ignorance. It is to us as if it were not. In reference to that the ultimate beginning is unknown. But that, which has not been, becomes; as soon as it has begun to become it dissolves away again. In reference to that the ultimate beginning is known.’

‘But, reverend Sir, if that which was not, becomes, and as soon as it has begun to become passes again away, then surely, being thus cut off at both ends, it must be entirely destroyed ?’

‘Nay, surely, O king, if it be thus cut off at both ends, can it not at both ends be made to grow again ?’

‘Yes, it might. But that is not my question. Could it grow again from the point at which it was cut off?’

‘Certainly.’

‘Give me an illustration.’

Then the Elder repeated the simile of the tree and the seed, and said that the Skandhas (the constituent elements of all life, organic and inorganic) were so many seeds, and the king confessed himself satisfied.

The Questions of King Milinda, translated from the Pali by T.W. Rhys Davids.

Part 1 (to section 5.4.10) was originally published as Volume xxxv of “The Sacred Books of the East”, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1890.

Part 2 (from section 5.5.1) was originally published as Volume xxxvi of “The Sacred Books of the East”, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1894.

This SuttaCentral edition was prepared by Bhikkhu Sujato based on the digital text of the Internet Sacred Text Archive. The work of the Sacred Text Archive to make this text publically available is gratefully acknowledged.

In preparing this edition minor editorial changes have been made. The structure has been adapted to agree with the Mahāsaṅgīti Pali text as found on SuttaCentral. In addition, the corrections proposed by the translator in the “Addenda et Corrigenda” of the original editions have for the most part been adopted.

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Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.