The Archer

‘Venerable Nāgasena, those four qualities of the archer you say he ought to take, which are they?’
Just, O king, as the archer, when discharging his arrows, plants both his feet firmly on the ground, keeps his knees straight, hangs his quiver against the narrow part of his waist, keeps his whole body steady, places both his hands firmly on the point of junction (of the arrow on the bow), closes his fists, leaves no openings between his fingers, stretches out his neck, shuts his mouth and one eye, and takes aim in joy at the thought: “I shall hit it ;” just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, plant firmly the feet of his zeal on the basis of righteousness, keep intact his kindness and tenderness of heart, fix his mind on subjugation of the senses, keep himself steady by self-restraint and performance of duty, suppress excitement and sense of faintness, by continual thoughtfulness let no openings remain in his mind, reach forward in zeal, shut the six doors (of the five senses and the mind), and continue mindful and thoughtful in joy at the thought: “By the javelin of my knowledge will I slay all my evil dispositions.” This, O king, is the first of the qualities of the archer he ought to have.
‘And again, O king, as the archer carries a vice for straightening out bent and crooked and uneven arrows; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, carry about with him, so long as he is in the body, the vice of mindfulness and thoughtfulness, wherewith he may straighten out any crooked and bent and shifty ideas. This, O king, is the second of the qualities of the archer he ought to have.
‘And again, O king, as the archer practises at a target; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, practise, so long as he is in the body. And how, O king, should he practise? He should practise himself in the idea of the impermanence of all things, of the sorrow inherent in individuality, in the absence in any thing or creature of any abiding principle (any soul); in the ideas of the diseases, sores, pains, aches, and ailments of the body that follow in the train of the necessary conditions of individuality; in the ideas of its dependence on others, and of its certain disintegration ; in the ideas of the calamities, dangers, fears, and misfortunes to which it is subject; of its instability under the changing conditions of life; of its liability to dissolution, its want of firmness, its being no true place of refuge, no cave of security, no home of protection, no right object of trust; of its vanity, emptiness, danger, and insubstantiality ; of its being the source of pains and subject to punishments and full of impurity, a mongrel compound of conditions and qualities that have no coherence; of its being the food alike of evil and of the Evil One ; of its inherent liability to rebirths, old age, disease, and death, to griefs, lamentations, despair; and of the corruption of the cravings and delusions that are never absent from it. This, O king, is the third of the qualities of the archer he ought to have.
‘And again, O king, just as the archer practises early and late; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, practise meditation early and late. For it was said, O king, by Sāriputta, the Elder, the Commander of the Faith:

“Early and late the true archer will practise,
’Tis only by never neglecting his art,
That he earns the reward and the wage of his skill.
So the sons of the Buddha, too, practise their art.
It is just by never neglecting in thought
The conditions of life in this bodily frame
That they gain the rich fruits which the Arahats love.”’

Here ends the fifth riddle, the riddle of the archer.
Here end the two hundred and sixty-two questions of Milinda, as handed down in the Book 1n its six parts, adorned with twenty-two chapters. Now those which have not been handed down are forty- two. Taking together all those that have been, and those that have not been, handed down, there are three hundred plus four, all of which are reckoned as ‘Questions of Milinda.’