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Milindapanha — Questions of King Milinda

c. 150 BCE – 200 CE · Post-Alexandrian Buddhism (c. 100 BCE – 200 CE) · North-west India (Punjab / Gandhara region)

The King Encounters the Sage

1Thus have I heard.
2In the city of Sagala there was a king named Milinda,
3learned, eloquent, wise, and able —
4a faithful observer, at the right time, of all the various acts of devotion enjoined by his sacred hymns.
5As a disputant he was hard to equal;
6and he was renowned as the foremost of all the founders of the various schools of thought.
7And amongst the people of the city, whether man or woman, wise or ignorant,
8there was no one who was not amazed at his subtlety in argument.
9Then Milinda the king went to Nagasena.
10And when he had come near, he exchanged with him the greetings and compliments of politeness and courtesy,
11and took his seat respectfully apart.

The Chariot — The Question of the Self

12"How is your reverence known?" asked the king. "What is your name, sir?"
13"I am known as Nagasena, O king. But though my parents gave me such a name,
14it is only a designation. There is no permanent individuality (no soul) involved."
15"If there be no permanent individuality," said the king, "who is it who gives you your robes and your food?
16Who lives a life of righteousness?
17Who devotes himself to meditation?
18Who reaches the Excellent Way, and the Nirvana of Arahatship?"
19Nagasena said: "Did your Majesty come here on foot, or in a chariot?"
20"I did not come on foot, sir. I came in a chariot."
21"If you came in a chariot, O king, explain to me what a chariot is.
22Is the pole the chariot?"
23"I did not say that."
24"Is the axle the chariot?"
25"Certainly not."
26"Is it the wheels, or the framework, or the ropes, or the yoke, or the spokes,
27or the goad, that are the chariot?"
28To all these the king answered no.
29"Then is it the sum of all these parts?"
30"No."
31"But without them, is it the chariot?"
32"No."
33"Then, ask as I may, I can discover no chariot at all. Chariot is a mere empty sound.
34What then is the chariot you say you came in? It is a wrong thing that you have said, an untruth."
35The king answered: "Well said, Nagasena! In dependence upon the pole, the axle, the wheels, the framework, and other things,
36there takes place this denomination 'chariot,' this designation, this concept, this current appellation, this name."
37"Very good, O king. Just so, on account of the thirty-two kinds of organic matter,
38and the five constituent groups of being, does there take place this denomination 'Nagasena.'
39But there is no permanent individuality involved."

What is Reborn?

40"But, sir Nagasena, is he who is reborn different from him who died — or the same?"
41"He is neither the same nor another, O king."
42"Give me an illustration."
43"Suppose a man were to light a lamp — would it burn the night through?"
44"Yes, it might."
45"Is the flame in the first watch the same as in the middle watch, or as in the last watch?"
46"No, sir."
47"Then are there different lamps for each watch?"
48"No — but the light comes from the same lamp all the night through."
49"So it is, O king, with the continuity of a person: as one comes into being, another passes away,
50as if simultaneously; and each successive consciousness, though not itself the previous one,
51arises depending on the previous one."

On Time

52"What is the root, sir Nagasena, of past time, and what of present time, and what of future time?"
53"Ignorance is the root, O king, of past and future and present time.
54"By reason of ignorance come the sankharas —
55by reason of sankharas, consciousness — by reason of consciousness, name-and-form —
56and so on the round of causes runs.
57"The beginning of that time cannot be perceived. But when it is broken up by wisdom,
58then no continuity is any longer possible."

The Two Kinds of Feeling

59"There are two kinds of feeling, O king — the bodily and the mental.
60"The Arahat — the perfected saint — feels bodily pain when the body is wounded,
61for he is still in a body. But he does not feel mental pain,
62for his mind is uncoloured by attachment or aversion."

Nirvana

63"Is Nirvana, sir, all bliss? Or has it a portion of pain?"
64"It is bliss unmixed, O king. There is no pain in it."
65"This is hard for us to accept, sir Nagasena.
66For we see that those who strive after Nirvana experience much pain, both of body and of mind."
67Nagasena replied: "The pain is not in Nirvana, O king. It is in the striving for it.
68Those who strive after Nirvana toil in their striving; but Nirvana itself is bliss.
69"It is like a great mountain. Those who wish to reach its summit toil in climbing it —
70but on the summit itself there is no toil, only breeze and quietness."

The King Becomes a Disciple

71Then Milinda the king said:
72"Well spoken, sir Nagasena. Now you have taught me the doctrine of the Buddha.
73I take my refuge in the Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Order.
74From this day forth, accept me as a disciple, as one who has taken his refuge, from this day forth, as long as life shall last."
75Thereafter Milinda handed over his kingdom to his son, retired from the world,
76became a member of the Sangha, and attained to Arahatship.

notes

The Milindapanha ("Questions of Milinda") is a Buddhist text preserved in Pali, recording a series of dialogues between the Greco-Bactrian king Menander I Soter (c. 165–130 BCE) and the Buddhist sage Nagasena. Menander (Milinda in Pali) ruled a substantial kingdom in what is now northern Pakistan and Punjab, in the successor Hellenistic realms established after Alexander's conquests. He is the only Greek king known to have converted to Buddhism, and his coinage bearing the Buddhist wheel of dharma has survived. The text is one of the great achievements of Buddhist philosophical dialogue. It systematically works through the most difficult questions of Buddhist doctrine — the nature of the self (anatta), rebirth without a transmigrating soul, the analysis of consciousness, the nature of Nirvana, the doctrine of dependent origination — using the vigorous cross-examination style characteristic of Hellenistic philosophy. The famous "chariot" dialogue in the earliest section (excerpted above) is the classical exposition of the Buddhist doctrine of anatta (no-self). Just as no single part of the chariot is the chariot, nor is the sum of all the parts the chariot in itself, so too there is no permanent self behind the ever-changing aggregates of body and mind. The Milindapanha was included in the Pali canon in Burma (though not in Sri Lanka or Thailand), and continues to be one of the most widely read introductions to Theravada Buddhist philosophy. Translation: T.W. Rhys Davids, "The Questions of King Milinda," Sacred Books of the East, vols. 35–36, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1890–1894. Public domain. Presented here as selected passages from key dialogues.

PhilosophyEmptinessBuddhistDharma

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