The king said: ‘Is a pleasant sensation, Nāgasena, good or evil or indifferent?’

‘It may be any one of the three.’

‘But surely, Sir, if good conditions are not painful, and painful ones not good, then there can arise no good condition that is at the same time painful.’

‘Now, what do you think, great king? Suppose a man were to hold in one hand a red-hot ball of iron, and in the other a lump of icy snow, would they both hurt him?’

‘Yes; they both would.’

‘But are they both hot?’

‘Certainly not.’

‘But are they both cold?’

‘No.’

‘Then acknowledge yourself put in the wrong! If the heat hurts, and they are not both hot, the pain cannot come from the heat. If the cold hurts, and they are not both cold, the pain cannot come from the cold. How then, O king, can they both hurt you, since they are not both hot, nor both cold, and (as one is hot and the other cold) the pain comes neither from the hot nor from the cold?’

‘I am not equal to argument with you. Be so good, Sir, as to explain how the matter stands.’

Then the Elder reasoned with king Milinda, persuading him by talk on the subject drawn from the Abhidhamma, such as: ‘There are these six pleasures, O king, connected with life in the world, and these other six with renunciation. There are six griefs connected with life in the world, and six with renunciation. There are six kinds of indifference to pleasure and to grief connected with life in the world, and six with renunciation. Altogether there are thus six series of six, that is to say, thirty-six kinds of sensations in the present, and the like number in the past, and the like in the future. And adding all these up in one total we arrive at one hundred and eight kinds of sensation.’

‘Well put, Nāgasena!’