Note f48 — ENLIGHTENMENT AND IGNORANCE

The story of Enlightenment is told in the Dīgha-Nikāya, XIV., and also in the Introduction to the Jātaka Tales, in the Mahāvastu, and the Majjhima-Nikāya, XXVI. and XXXVI., and again in the Samyutta-Nikāya, XII. In detail they vary more or less, but not materially. The Chinese translation of the Sutra on the Cause and Effect in the Past and Present, which seems to be a later version than the Pali Mahāpadāna, gives a somewhat different story, but as far as my point of argument is concerned, the main issue remains practically the same. Aśvaghosha’s Buddhacarita is highly poetical. The Lalita-vistara belongs to the Mahayana. In this Essay I have tried to take my material chiefly from The Dialogues of the Buddha, translated by Rhys Davids, The Kindred Sayings, translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids, Majjhima-Nikāya, translated by Sīlācāra, and the same by Neumann, the Chinese Āgamas and others.