The History of Buddhist Thought c18.49

c18.49

There are two collections of verses attributed to several hundreds of monks and nuns, all of whom were held to have attained enlightenment. They contain no more guessing or theorizing about the ineffable and inexpressible than the words attributed to Buddha himself. As Mrs. Rhys Davids says of the nuns, “ their verses do not seem to betray anything that can be construed as a consciousness that hidden glories, more wonderful than the brief span of ‘cool’ and calm that they now know as Arahants, are awaiting them.”¹