Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.183

c8.183

"As on a lotus stalk some water-roses, blue lotus flowers, white lotus flowers, generated in the water, growing up in the water, rise not out of the water, but bloom in the deep—other water roses, blue lotus flowers, white lotus flowers, generated in the water, growing up in the water, rise up to the surface of the water—and other water roses, blue lotus flowers, white lotus flowers, generated in the water, growing up in the water, rise up out of the water and the water damps not their blossoms: so likewise, when the Exalted One surveyed the universe with the glance of a Buddha, he saw beings whose souls were pure, and whose souls were not pure, from the dust of the earthly, with sharp faculties and with dull faculties, with noble natures and with ignoble natures, good hearers and wicked hearers, many who lived in fear of the world to come and of sin. When he saw this, he spake to Brahma Sahampati these words:—