Texts from the Buddhist canon : commonly known as Dhammapada

6 INTRODUCTION.
assertion of the Great Teacher, if a male or female disciple
should commit either of the unpardonable sins, he or she,
nevertheless, shall not be cast into hell. World-honoured
One ! how can this be, that such a disciple shall escape
though guilty of such sins ? ' To whom Buddha replied,
' Mah§,mati ! attend, and weigh my words weU. ! . . . .
What are these five unpardonable sins of which you speak ?
They are these, to slay father or mother, to wound a
Eahat, to offend (i.e., to place a stumbling-block in the
way .of) the members of the saSgha (church), to draw
the blood from the body of a Buddha. Mah§,mati ! say,
then, how a man committing these sins can be guilt-
less ? In this way;—^is not Love (Tanha) which covets
pleasure more and more, and so produces ' birth '—is not
this the mother (mdtd) of all ? And is not ' ignorance
{avidydb) the father {pitd) of all ? To destroy these two,
then, is to slay father and mother. And again, to cut off
and destroy those ten ' Meshas ' (Ch. shi) which like the rat,
or the secret poison, work invisibly, and to get rid of aU
the consequences of these faults (i.e., to destroy aU material
associations), this is to wound a Eahat. And so to cause
offence and overthrow a church or assembly, what is this
but to separate entirely the coimection of the five skan-
dhas ? (' five aggregates,' which is the same word as that
used above for the ' Church.') And again, to draw the blood
of a Buddha, what is this but to wound and get rid of the
seven-fold body by the three methods of escape. (The
seven-fold body, literally ' the body with seven kinds of
knowledge'—the number seven in this connection evi-
dently runs parallel with the seven Buddhas, whose blood
is supposed to be spHt; the three methods of escape
are the same as the three 'y^nas,' or vehicles; viz.
Sravakas, Bodhisatwas, Buddhas). Thus it is, Mah'amati'
the holy male or female disciple may slay father and'
mother, wound a Eahat, overthrow the assembly, draw the
blood of Buddha, and yet escape the punishment of the
lowest hell {avichi). And in order to explain and enforce
'