3.6.10. Memory

The king said: ‘By what, Nāgasena, does one recollect what is past and done long ago?’

‘By memory.’

‘But is it not by the mind, not by the memory, that we recollect?’

‘Do you recollect any business, O king, that you have done and then forgotten?’

‘Yes.’

‘What then? Were you then without a mind?’

‘No. But my memory failed me.’

‘Then why do you say that it is by the mind, not by the memory, that we recollect?’

‘Very good, Nāgasena ’

The Questions of King Milinda, translated from the Pali by T.W. Rhys Davids.

Part 1 (to section 5.4.10) was originally published as Volume xxxv of “The Sacred Books of the East”, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1890.

Part 2 (from section 5.5.1) was originally published as Volume xxxvi of “The Sacred Books of the East”, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1894.

This SuttaCentral edition was prepared by Bhikkhu Sujato based on the digital text of the Internet Sacred Text Archive. The work of the Sacred Text Archive to make this text publically available is gratefully acknowledged.

In preparing this edition minor editorial changes have been made. The structure has been adapted to agree with the Mahāsaṅgīti Pali text as found on SuttaCentral. In addition, the corrections proposed by the translator in the “Addenda et Corrigenda” of the original editions have for the most part been adopted.

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Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.