3.7.6. Kinds of wisdom (MIL3.7.6)

The king said: ‘Venerable Nāgasena, how many kinds of wisdom are there?’

‘Seven, O king.’

‘And by how many kinds of Wisdom does one become wise?’

‘By one: that is to say by the kind of wisdom called “the investigation of the Truth.”’

‘Then why is it said there are seven?’

‘Tell me, O king. Suppose a sword were lying in its sheath and not taken in the hand, could it cut off anything you wanted to cut off with it?’

‘Certainly not.’

‘Just so, great king, by the other kinds of wisdom can nothing be understood without investigation of the Truth.’

‘Very good, Nāgasena!’

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.