7.8.5. Medicine

Mil 7.8.5

A few rosewood leaves resting on a stone beneath a leafy grove.

PTS cs 10 PTS vp Pali 417 ‘Venerable Nāgasena, those two qualities of medicine you say he ought. to take, which are they?’

‘Just, O king, as vermin are not produced in medicine; just so, O king, should no evil dispositions be allowed to arise in the mind of the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort. This, O king, is the first of the qualities of medicine he ought to have.

PTS cs 11 ‘And again, O king, just as medicine is an antidote to whatever poison may have been imparted by bites or contact, by eating or by drinking in any way; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, counteract in himself the poison of lusts, and malice, and dullness, and pride, and wrong belief, This, O king, is the second of the qualities of medicine he ought to have. For it was said, O king, by the Blessed One, the god over all the gods:

“The strenuous recluse who longs to see
Into the nature, and the meaning true,
Of the constituent elements of things,
Must as it were an antidote become,
To the destruction of all evil thoughts.”’

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.

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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.