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6.2.4. Dilemma the Sixty-Fourth. What Is, But Not In the World

Mil 6.2.4

Amber leaves floating along a clear woodland stream over smooth stones.

PTS cs 11 ‘Venerable Nāgasena, there are to be seen in the world Buddhas, and Pacceka-Buddhas, and disciples of the Tathāgatas, and sovran overlords, and kings over one country, and gods and men;—we find rich and poor, happy and miserable;—we find men who have become women, and women who have become men—there are good deeds and evil, and beings experiencing the result of their virtue or their vice;—we find creatures born from eggs, and in the water, and in sediment, or springing into life by the mere apparitional birth; creatures without feet, bipeds and quadrupeds, and creatures with many feet;—we find Yakkhas and Rakkhasas, and Kumbhaṇḍas, and Asuras, and Dānavas, and Gandhabbas, and Petas and Pisācas, and Kinnaras, and Mahoragas, and Nāgas and Supaṇṇas, and magicians and sorcerers;—there are elephants, and horses, and cattle, and buffaloes, and camels, and asses, and goats, and sheep, and deer, and swine, and lions, and tigers, and leopards, and bears, and wolves, and hyenas, and dogs, and jackals, and many kinds of birds;—there is gold and silver, and the pearl, and PTS vp En 102 The diamond, and the chauk, and rock, and coral, and the ruby, and the Masāra stone, and the cat’s-eye, and crystal, and quartz, and iron ore, and copper, and brass, and bronze;—there is flax, and silk, and cotton, and hemp, and wool;—there is rice, and paddy, and barley, and millet, and kudrūsa grain, and beans, and wheat, and oilseed, and vetches;—there are perfumes prepared from roots, and sap, and pith, and bark, and PTS vp Pali 268 leaves, and flowers, and fruit, and of all other sorts;—we find grass, and creepers, and shrubs, and trees, and medicinal herbs, and forests, and rivers, and mountains, and seas, and fish, and tortoises—all is in the world. Tell me, Sir, what there is, then, which is not in the world.’

PTS cs 12 ‘There are three things, O king, which you cannot find in the world. And what are the three? That which, whether conscious or unconscious, is not subject to decay and death—that you will not find. That quality of anything, (organic or inorganic), which is not impermanent—that you will not find. And in the highest sense there is no such thing as being possessed of being.’ PTS vp En 103

‘Very good, Nāgasena! That is so, and I accept it as you say.’

Here ends the puzzle as to what is not in the world.

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About this edition

Translation by T.W. Rhys Davids · SuttaCentral · Public domain

The source expressly identifies this translation as public domain.

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.

This text is in the public domain. You are free to do whatever you wish with it.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.

Published source. Translation wording and order are preserved; source headings and notes are retained, with navigation and formatting adapted for this reader.

The opening image is AI-generated nature artwork for Buddhist Atlas, an evocative companion rather than a historical depiction.