Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c19.52

c19.52

³⁹ See MN. III. pp. 230-231 and mark the difference between the text (Uddesa) and the gloss (Vibhaṅga). The middle way is at one place explained by means of the illuminative lute-simile. Just as in order to obtain sweet notes one should neither tune too high nor too low, similarly should one avoid extremes in action (Mvg.-see Brewster op. cit. p. 105 f; AN. Nip. 6 Sutta 55; the simile occurs in the Sūtra of the Forty-two Sections which was early translated into Chinese (A. O. 1927 pp. 197-237).