7.6.5. The Owl

Mil 7.6.5

A mountain trail rising through grassy terraces.

PTS cs 14 ‘Venerable Nāgasena, those two qualities of the owl you say he ought to take, which are they?’

‘Just, O king, as the owl, being at enmity with the crows, goes at night where the flocks of crows are, and kills numbers of them; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, be PTS vp En 345 at enmity with ignorance; seated alone and in secret, he should crush it out of existence, cut it off at the root. This, O king, is the first quality of the owl he ought to have.

PTS cs 15 ‘And again, O king, as the owl is a solitary bird; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, be devoted to solitude, take delight in solitude. This, O king, is the second quality of the owl he ought to have. For it was said, O king, by the Blessed One, the god over all gods, in the most excellent Saṁyutta Nikāya:

“Let the Bhikshu, my brethren, be devoted to solitude, take delight in solitude, to the end that he may realise what sorrow really is, and what the origin of sorrow really is, PTS vp Pali 404 and what the cessation of sorrow really is, and what the path that leads to the cessation of sorrow really is.”’

Connections

Collection & context

MilindapañhaThe collection containing this text
The Pāli canonCanonical collection in which this edition is preserved
Theravāda traditionsTransmission and study context
The early Buddhist communityHistorical and traditional setting

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.