འཕགས་པ་སྲད་པ་འཕ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 2

2

and venerated by an audience of many hundreds of thousands, taught the Dharma. He expounded the wholesome conduct that is virtuous in the beginning, virtuous in the middle, and virtuous in the end, and that is excellent in meaning, excellent in words, distinctive, perfect, completely pure, and thoroughly refined.

At that time King Śreṇya Bimbisāra of Magadha set out from the great city of Rājagṛha. With great royal pomp and power, he arrived at the Veṇuvana before the Blessed One. He bowed his head to the feet of the Blessed One, circumambulated him three times, and sat to one side.

Seated to one side, King Śreṇya Bimbisāra of Magadha inquired of the Blessed One,²⁵ “Blessed One, how does an action, performed and accumulated, having ceased and ceased for a long while, manifest in the mind when the moment of death is imminent?²⁶ Since all formations are empty, how are actions not lost?”

The Blessed One replied to King Śreṇya Bimbisāra of Magadha,²⁷ “Great king, it is like this: To give an analogy, a man has dreamed that he has cavorted with the most beautiful woman in the land,²⁸ and then upon waking he keeps recollecting that most beautiful woman in the land. What do you think, king? Does that most beautiful woman in the land from the dream exist?”

“No, Blessed One, she does not,” he replied.

The Blessed One then asked, “Great king, what do you think? In that case, is that person who has become fixated on the most beautiful woman in the land wise in nature?”²⁹

“No, Blessed One, he is not,” he replied. “Why is that? Blessed One, the most beautiful woman in the land from the dream is utterly nonexistent and cannot be