Original - Ordo Fratres Lucis

INTRODUCTION.
THE Virnfina-vatthu is a work that describes the splen
dour of the various celestial abodes belonging to the
Dewas, who became their fortunate owners in accordance
with the degree of merit they had each performed, and
who there spent their time in supreme bliss.
These Vimanas are graphically described in this little
work as column-supported palaces that could be moved at
the will of their owner. A Dewa could visit the earth in
these, and we read of their so descending on occasions
when they were summoned by the Buddha.
The lives of the Dewas in these vimfmas or palaces were
limited, and depended on the merits resulting from their
good acts. From all that we read of them we can well
infer that these habitations were the centres of supreme
felicity. It is doubtless with much forethought that
peculiar stress is laid, in our work, on the description of
these vimanas, in order to induce listeners to lead good
iind unblemished liveo, to be pure in their acts, and to be
zealous in the performance of their religious duties.
Stories from the Timftna-vatthu are not unfrequently
referred to in later doctrinal works, when a viruous career
in life is illustrated. Thus Mattakundall and Sirima
Vimfma are referred to in the Dhammapada Atthakathfi ;
Citta, Guttila, and Kewati are quoted in the Sutta Sangaha.
This treatise is the sixth book in the Khuddaka^Nikaya^
oflke, Sutta
Pitaka^ and I cannot furnish my readers with
a fuller or better
description of it than that given in the