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The Debate of King Milinda
The Milinda Paha is, with good reason, a famous work of Buddhist literature, probably compiled in the first century B.C. It presents Buddhist doctrine in a very attractive and memorable form as a dialogue between a Bactrian Greek king, Milinda, who plays the ‘Devil’s Advocate’ and a Buddhist sage, Nàgasena. The topics covered include most of those questions commonly asked by Westerners such as “If there is no soul, what is it that is reborn?” and “If there is no soul, who is talking to you now?”
This abridgement provides a concise presentation of this masterpiece of Buddhist literature. The introduction outlines the historical background against which the dialogues took place, indicating the meeting of two great cultures, that of ancient Greece and the Buddhism of the Indus valley, which was a legacy of the great Emperor Asoka. It is hoped that the adequate references, glossary, and list of Pali quotations will provide readers with an incentive to read further from the translations of the Pali texts.
This abridgement provides a concise presentation of this masterpiece of Buddhist literature. The introduction outlines the historical background against which the dialogues took place, indicating the meeting of two great cultures, that of ancient Greece and the Buddhism of the Indus valley, which was a legacy of the great Emperor Asoka. It is hoped that the adequate references, glossary, and list of Pali quotations will provide readers with an incentive to read further from the translations of the Pali texts.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 101
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 19, 2015
One of the most astounding exposition of the Buddha's teachings I have ever come across. it resonates with the spirit of the modern inquirer, with his/her ceaseless probing into the depths of the nature of reality, with an endless stream of questions that answers to the apparent contradictions in the teachings, and the answers of Nagasena to the great king Milinda are as relevant today as they were in those days. The version I'm reading (by bhikkhu Pesala) is a quick read which adds to the dynamism of the debate between an atypical monk and a disciple king.
March 10, 2026
TRANSLATED PALI FIRST CONTACT
One first observation is that one is less likely to encounter texts associated with the Pali canon, or early Sarvāstivādan ("the theory of all that exists") Buddhist sages such as Nāgasena (who lived 150 BC approximately.) than Mahayana, be it Tibetan (Milarepa, Naropa, Tilopa hagiographies in my case) or Chan school publication. It is not false to see this as a sort of hegemonic hierarchisation of the Buddhist schools. So to paraphrase from a recent excellent article by Alex Taek-Gwang Lee in e-flux , searching "For Another Buddhism" is necessary - in a search for routes of Buddhist transmission, cross-cultural fertilisation and internal diversification ("Indian Buddhism becomes Chinese Chan and later Korean Seon and Japanese Zen"). This early Kushan or Indo-Greek phase is quite interesting and hard to avoid. Milinda/Menander I Soter, according to legend, embraced the Buddhist teachings and converted to Buddhism. Here is a fragment that gives some biographical notes:
"King of the city of Euthymedia in India, Milinda by name, learned, eloquent, wise, and able; and a faithful observer, and that at the right time, of all the various acts of devotion and ceremony enjoined by his own sacred hymns concerning things past, present, and to come. Many were the arts and sciences he knew--holy tradition and secular law; the Sânkhya, Yoga, Nyâya, and Vaisheshika systems of philosophy; arithmetic; music; medicine; the four Vedas, the Purânas, and the Itihâsas; astronomy, magic, causation, and magic spells; the art of war; poetry; conveyancing in a word, the whole nineteen. As a disputant he was hard to equal, harder still to overcome; the acknowledged superior of all the founders of the various schools of thought. And as in wisdom so in strength of body, swiftness, and valour there was found none equal to Milinda in all India. He was rich too, mighty in wealth and prosperity, and the number of his armed hosts knew no end."
BUDDHIST CORPUS AND CROSS-CULTURAL EXCHANGE
This text is valuable because it provides a comprehensive account of the curriculum of that time, as well as its philosophical underpinnings. Even if we ignore the later developments it is not hard to imagine what a vast corpus Buddhism was already building upon. Even when thiking about the old guang'an aphorism of Emperor Wu of Liang being asked Bodhidharma, What is the first principle of the holy teachings?" Bodhidharma saying "Emptiness, no holiness." one gest the sense that there is a lot out there, a lot of canonical and scholastic accumulation.
Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna (Madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness), and Āryadeva later built on a long a varied philosophical and metaphysical experimentation and speculation. One could say that Buddhists were already champions in exploring sentience and cognition, confronting the fundamental weirdness of reality (The Weirdness of the World) and taking on the hard question of consciousness, by constant and assiduous mental training. Following a contermporay philosopher like Schwitzgebel (that was influenced by Taoist Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentariesclassics), the philosphy of mind, metaphysics and cosmology is much stranger and weirder than we care to admit.
INTER PENETRATION
And Buddhist traditions were not isolated and were historically specific. Even the antique laboratory of Hermetic and Gnostic traditions - Alexandria apparently gets a mention. One has the feeling that the author/authors of this text were part of a wider very cosmopolitan premodern world that seems intangible to us (see for this the essential The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World), brimming with commercial, material and cultural exchanges across the Graeco-Roman, Persian and Indian/Chinese Turkestan heartland.
The doctrinal relations btw these early Buddhist schools and later Mūlasarvāstivāda and Sautrāntika or even the birth of the important school of Yogācāra Buddhism (one of the most influential traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhism) is still pretty much open for debate.
Ties that particularly pivoted from the Indo-Roman commercial spice axis to a SE Asian South China Sea shoreline along (pretty much ignored) monsoon winds and sea routes that also probably took Bodhidharma to Southern China's Guangzhou (Canton) during the Liang dynasty (520–527 AD).
The text really seems to be influenced by Plato's Dialogues, and one can also feel the later, very vivid Tibetan formalised debate tradition stomping their foot, that seem to have both a logician's ardour and the Sophist oratory & Socratic dialectical method in its philosophical and metaphysical toolkit. The debate btw Milinda/Menander and the divine Nāgasena (he appears to be a divine avatar summoned by the Indian gods to finally best the unbeatable debater Milinda) also seems to prepare, anticipate and influence the later formulation of Chan gong'an 公案 (koans) paradoxical exchanges btw master and disciple. What can be more exciting than imagining how this lively debate btw a Yavana (Greek) king and an Indian Buddhist sage Nāgasena? It is also a good comparison with the Dead Sea Scrolls attributed to the Hebrew Essene ascetic proto-communist sect that lived around Qumran near the Eastern Mediterranean, roughly at the same time.
DEBATE
The somewhat repetitive and ritualistic exchange in this short extract from Milindapanha is full of symbolism and allegory - and it is suprising maybe that a lot have to deal with statecraft, warfare and other very non-arhat like activities, until one remember how much Buddhism actually depended on these kingly patrons, and how some of them actually tried to repay their violent actions with a turn towards Buddhist support and patronage. One always had to engage in such spiritual and philosophical athletics, because let's not forget there was such a multitude of schools, directions, schisms and religious traditions to contend with. As part of the heterodox, independent traditions (Sramanic), one had to debate with other emerging Hindu movements, such as Shaivism. Winning debates was essential even in Xuangzang's life, much later on during China's Tang period, and your life, reputation and safety as a monk depended on these matches.
This is not just besting your spiritual or doctrinal competitors; debate and dialectics are also a way to assess a student's or a monk's integration of the various "sciences" and proficiency with the Buddhist scriptures. In Kanauj, Xuanzang allegedly defeated 500 Brahmins, Jains, and other spiritual opponents, cementing his reputation as a master of Buddhist metaphysics and oratory. Overall, Milindapanha is a window into how complex and highly structured Buddhist epistemology, doctrine and phenomenology were at the time. I am sorry to use the Western philosophical terms for categories that had a specific Pali terminology (I am not very familiar, and I imagine they do not cover or overlap completely, specifically after listening to a lecture by Chinese philosophy scholar Roger T. Ames).
There is so much about perception, time, the origin of durée, characteristics of reason, consciousness, meditation, inferno (!), non-dualism, asceticism, and the non-existence of the self in these few pages that one feels much of Buddhism already had its principal orientation in place.
1990s SPIRITUALIST WAVE
On a more personal note I read this short booklet that I bought back in the 1990s when a wave of esoterica, scripture, meditation and pretty shabby translations hit post-1989 Romania, a time when MISA yoga cult membership and neo-orthodox conservative revival, where Philocalia publications and so-called Desert Fathers advice literature by Sorin Dumitrescu's (very important and forgotten) Anastasia-publishing house boomed next to stands with Osho volumes. Later, there was also lots of Allan Watts and even various Zen master translations. Gone were the days of the editura Politica, Idei Contemporane eco-socialist degrowth socialism collection where Galbraith, Barry Commoner and Club of Rome report anti-capitalist and in came the spiritualist/perennialist classics.
I was keenly interested in everything - from Maimonide, to Zohar/Kabbalah, to comparative histories of Buddhism and Christianity published by the history of Ideas imprint of Humanitas (that became the preeminent publishing house for philosophical texts after 1989, an almost unchallenged status till the Idea publishing in Cluj). Never managed to get to the book as it waited on my shelves during the last 30 years or so, even if it is a rather slim volume based on the "Institutul European" from a French edition from 1923, translated by Louis Finot.
Dear departed friend, Mircea Nicolae aka Ionut Cioana was an avid reader of translated Buddhist text, mostly Pali I guess and at least once we talked about Milindapanha. But since he practically went and exited his current reincarnation in the most unlikely way in a Bucharest neighborhood form of "Sokushinbutsu" (a form of self-mummification) during the COVID era. One can also say that he was affected not just by COVID but by the way the local scene started eating him alive.
So anyway, this book has probably been one of the most rapid entries into the core of what Buddhism is all about.
One first observation is that one is less likely to encounter texts associated with the Pali canon, or early Sarvāstivādan ("the theory of all that exists") Buddhist sages such as Nāgasena (who lived 150 BC approximately.) than Mahayana, be it Tibetan (Milarepa, Naropa, Tilopa hagiographies in my case) or Chan school publication. It is not false to see this as a sort of hegemonic hierarchisation of the Buddhist schools. So to paraphrase from a recent excellent article by Alex Taek-Gwang Lee in e-flux , searching "For Another Buddhism" is necessary - in a search for routes of Buddhist transmission, cross-cultural fertilisation and internal diversification ("Indian Buddhism becomes Chinese Chan and later Korean Seon and Japanese Zen"). This early Kushan or Indo-Greek phase is quite interesting and hard to avoid. Milinda/Menander I Soter, according to legend, embraced the Buddhist teachings and converted to Buddhism. Here is a fragment that gives some biographical notes:
"King of the city of Euthymedia in India, Milinda by name, learned, eloquent, wise, and able; and a faithful observer, and that at the right time, of all the various acts of devotion and ceremony enjoined by his own sacred hymns concerning things past, present, and to come. Many were the arts and sciences he knew--holy tradition and secular law; the Sânkhya, Yoga, Nyâya, and Vaisheshika systems of philosophy; arithmetic; music; medicine; the four Vedas, the Purânas, and the Itihâsas; astronomy, magic, causation, and magic spells; the art of war; poetry; conveyancing in a word, the whole nineteen. As a disputant he was hard to equal, harder still to overcome; the acknowledged superior of all the founders of the various schools of thought. And as in wisdom so in strength of body, swiftness, and valour there was found none equal to Milinda in all India. He was rich too, mighty in wealth and prosperity, and the number of his armed hosts knew no end."
BUDDHIST CORPUS AND CROSS-CULTURAL EXCHANGE
This text is valuable because it provides a comprehensive account of the curriculum of that time, as well as its philosophical underpinnings. Even if we ignore the later developments it is not hard to imagine what a vast corpus Buddhism was already building upon. Even when thiking about the old guang'an aphorism of Emperor Wu of Liang being asked Bodhidharma, What is the first principle of the holy teachings?" Bodhidharma saying "Emptiness, no holiness." one gest the sense that there is a lot out there, a lot of canonical and scholastic accumulation.
Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna (Madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness), and Āryadeva later built on a long a varied philosophical and metaphysical experimentation and speculation. One could say that Buddhists were already champions in exploring sentience and cognition, confronting the fundamental weirdness of reality (The Weirdness of the World) and taking on the hard question of consciousness, by constant and assiduous mental training. Following a contermporay philosopher like Schwitzgebel (that was influenced by Taoist Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentariesclassics), the philosphy of mind, metaphysics and cosmology is much stranger and weirder than we care to admit.
INTER PENETRATION
And Buddhist traditions were not isolated and were historically specific. Even the antique laboratory of Hermetic and Gnostic traditions - Alexandria apparently gets a mention. One has the feeling that the author/authors of this text were part of a wider very cosmopolitan premodern world that seems intangible to us (see for this the essential The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World), brimming with commercial, material and cultural exchanges across the Graeco-Roman, Persian and Indian/Chinese Turkestan heartland.
The doctrinal relations btw these early Buddhist schools and later Mūlasarvāstivāda and Sautrāntika or even the birth of the important school of Yogācāra Buddhism (one of the most influential traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhism) is still pretty much open for debate.
Ties that particularly pivoted from the Indo-Roman commercial spice axis to a SE Asian South China Sea shoreline along (pretty much ignored) monsoon winds and sea routes that also probably took Bodhidharma to Southern China's Guangzhou (Canton) during the Liang dynasty (520–527 AD).
The text really seems to be influenced by Plato's Dialogues, and one can also feel the later, very vivid Tibetan formalised debate tradition stomping their foot, that seem to have both a logician's ardour and the Sophist oratory & Socratic dialectical method in its philosophical and metaphysical toolkit. The debate btw Milinda/Menander and the divine Nāgasena (he appears to be a divine avatar summoned by the Indian gods to finally best the unbeatable debater Milinda) also seems to prepare, anticipate and influence the later formulation of Chan gong'an 公案 (koans) paradoxical exchanges btw master and disciple. What can be more exciting than imagining how this lively debate btw a Yavana (Greek) king and an Indian Buddhist sage Nāgasena? It is also a good comparison with the Dead Sea Scrolls attributed to the Hebrew Essene ascetic proto-communist sect that lived around Qumran near the Eastern Mediterranean, roughly at the same time.
DEBATE
The somewhat repetitive and ritualistic exchange in this short extract from Milindapanha is full of symbolism and allegory - and it is suprising maybe that a lot have to deal with statecraft, warfare and other very non-arhat like activities, until one remember how much Buddhism actually depended on these kingly patrons, and how some of them actually tried to repay their violent actions with a turn towards Buddhist support and patronage. One always had to engage in such spiritual and philosophical athletics, because let's not forget there was such a multitude of schools, directions, schisms and religious traditions to contend with. As part of the heterodox, independent traditions (Sramanic), one had to debate with other emerging Hindu movements, such as Shaivism. Winning debates was essential even in Xuangzang's life, much later on during China's Tang period, and your life, reputation and safety as a monk depended on these matches.
This is not just besting your spiritual or doctrinal competitors; debate and dialectics are also a way to assess a student's or a monk's integration of the various "sciences" and proficiency with the Buddhist scriptures. In Kanauj, Xuanzang allegedly defeated 500 Brahmins, Jains, and other spiritual opponents, cementing his reputation as a master of Buddhist metaphysics and oratory. Overall, Milindapanha is a window into how complex and highly structured Buddhist epistemology, doctrine and phenomenology were at the time. I am sorry to use the Western philosophical terms for categories that had a specific Pali terminology (I am not very familiar, and I imagine they do not cover or overlap completely, specifically after listening to a lecture by Chinese philosophy scholar Roger T. Ames).
There is so much about perception, time, the origin of durée, characteristics of reason, consciousness, meditation, inferno (!), non-dualism, asceticism, and the non-existence of the self in these few pages that one feels much of Buddhism already had its principal orientation in place.
1990s SPIRITUALIST WAVE
On a more personal note I read this short booklet that I bought back in the 1990s when a wave of esoterica, scripture, meditation and pretty shabby translations hit post-1989 Romania, a time when MISA yoga cult membership and neo-orthodox conservative revival, where Philocalia publications and so-called Desert Fathers advice literature by Sorin Dumitrescu's (very important and forgotten) Anastasia-publishing house boomed next to stands with Osho volumes. Later, there was also lots of Allan Watts and even various Zen master translations. Gone were the days of the editura Politica, Idei Contemporane eco-socialist degrowth socialism collection where Galbraith, Barry Commoner and Club of Rome report anti-capitalist and in came the spiritualist/perennialist classics.
I was keenly interested in everything - from Maimonide, to Zohar/Kabbalah, to comparative histories of Buddhism and Christianity published by the history of Ideas imprint of Humanitas (that became the preeminent publishing house for philosophical texts after 1989, an almost unchallenged status till the Idea publishing in Cluj). Never managed to get to the book as it waited on my shelves during the last 30 years or so, even if it is a rather slim volume based on the "Institutul European" from a French edition from 1923, translated by Louis Finot.
Dear departed friend, Mircea Nicolae aka Ionut Cioana was an avid reader of translated Buddhist text, mostly Pali I guess and at least once we talked about Milindapanha. But since he practically went and exited his current reincarnation in the most unlikely way in a Bucharest neighborhood form of "Sokushinbutsu" (a form of self-mummification) during the COVID era. One can also say that he was affected not just by COVID but by the way the local scene started eating him alive.
So anyway, this book has probably been one of the most rapid entries into the core of what Buddhism is all about.
March 1, 2022
Giving a very good insight into the Buddhist beliefs and practices, the debate clears doubts even a non follower has.
Helps your stranded mind from confusion and ficklesness.
Helps your stranded mind from confusion and ficklesness.
January 14, 2017
I believe every great religion - with one exception - searches for God and instills a discipline of loving kindness to make this world a better place. This book is a classic in the Pali Canon of the lesser vehicle of Buddhism - Theravada. Supposedly a dialogue between the Bactrian Greek King Milinda and a Buddhist sage, Nagasena, it explains Buddhist doctrine to a civilized Greek proficient in the dialectic to arrive at truth. Apart from advocating Theravada's basic truths, I find this book disappointing. To anyone conversant with philosopy, it obviously was written by someone who had no exposure to that broad subject. Instead of arriving at basic truth through a true dialogue between a philosopher and an advocate, Milinda is in awe at simple similes by Nagasena that never answer his questions. Why it has canonical status bewilders me. Yet, as I've said before, it espouses in its own way, a uniform creed shared by nearly all religions. Some similies are easily remembered for their universal application.
October 29, 2025
First contact between a Greek king and an Indian buddhist monk, really cool stuff !
My favorite aphorism :
The Marks of Attention and Wisdom (I,8)
King Milinda said: "What is the distinguishing mark of attention and what is the distinguishing mark of wisdom?" "Examination is the distinguishing mark of attention and
cutting off is the distinguishing mark of wisdom." "How is this so? Make a simile."
"Do you know about barley-reapers, sire?" "Yes. revered sir. I do."
"How, sire, do barley-reapers reap barley?"
"Revered sir, grasping a handful of barley in the left hand and a sickle in the right, they cut it off with the sickle.
"Even so, sire, does one who is devoted to mental training take hold of the mind with attention and cut off the defile- ments with wisdom."
"You are dexterous, revered Nāgasena."
My favorite aphorism :
The Marks of Attention and Wisdom (I,8)
King Milinda said: "What is the distinguishing mark of attention and what is the distinguishing mark of wisdom?" "Examination is the distinguishing mark of attention and
cutting off is the distinguishing mark of wisdom." "How is this so? Make a simile."
"Do you know about barley-reapers, sire?" "Yes. revered sir. I do."
"How, sire, do barley-reapers reap barley?"
"Revered sir, grasping a handful of barley in the left hand and a sickle in the right, they cut it off with the sickle.
"Even so, sire, does one who is devoted to mental training take hold of the mind with attention and cut off the defile- ments with wisdom."
"You are dexterous, revered Nāgasena."
January 8, 2019
There are some useful answers in here to questions a practitioner is likely to be asked, and also some questions and answers which are clearly a product of their time.
I'm presently comparing this edition to Rhys David's more direct translation. I can't, at this time, recommend one over the other.
I'm presently comparing this edition to Rhys David's more direct translation. I can't, at this time, recommend one over the other.
February 28, 2024
Ancient wisdom
September 4, 2025
An interesting and simple rendition of the Milindapanna. Exemplary demonstration of question-and-answer mode of education.
October 25, 2022
Un'edizione ottimamente curata, con un apparato di note e commenti che aiutano ad apprezzare compiutamente questo testo della letteratura buddista.
March 5, 2016
(IN SPANISH BELOW)
The Questions of King Milinda collects the series of questions and answers (allegedly) posed by the historical greek King Melandro to Nagasena, a Buddhist monk. The topics cover all the spectrum of the Mulasarvastivadin Buddhist philosophy (one of the Shravakayanas schools of thought), including what is Nirvana, the aggregates, the ultimate nature of things, the Four Noble Truths, reincarnation and the (non)existence of a soul.
The questions are clever and the answers sparkle full of lucid metaphors and similes that help convey the deep meaning of the Buddhadharma. Moreover, the book is written in such a way that you can almost feel like you're witnessing the debate between these two great figures, eagerly reading and flipping the pages to see whether Nagasena does convince the always inquiring, never satisfied King. In this regard, I very much appreciate that the first book (out of the three that compose this volume) is devoted to tracing the origins of these two great men, their knowing each other dating back to the Buddha Kashyapa's dispensation, when they were both monks who, because of their pledges at that time, came to know each other again in our time to set an ancestral intelectual dispute.
I recommend this book to any student of Buddhism, regardless of their being in the Shavaka or the Mahayana system, for its clarity, straightforward explanations of the Buddhist teachings, aswell as for the historical value that it has, being one of the few (if not only) documents recording one of the first contacts in spiritual terms between East and West.
Las preguntas del rey Milinda recoge la serie de preguntas y respuestas supuestamente planteadas por el histórico rey griego Melandro a Nagasena, un monje budista. Los temas tratados cubren todo el espectro de la filosofía Mulasarvastivadin de filosofía budista (una de las escuelas de pensamiento Shravakayana), incluyendo qué es el Nirvana, los agregados, la naturaleza úlitma de las cosas, las Cuatro Nobles Verdades, la reencarnación y la (no) existencia de un alma.
Las preguntas son ingeniosas y las respuestas brillan llenas de lúcidas metáforas y símiles que ayudan a transmitir el significado profundo del Buddhadharma. Además, el libro está escrito de tal manera que casi puedes sentirte com si estuvieras siendo testigo del debate entre estas dos grandes figuras, leyendo con avidez y pasando las páginas para ver si Nagasena termina convenciendo al siempre inquisitivo y nunca satisfecho Rey. En este aspecto, he apreciado mucho que el primer libro (de los tres que componen este volumen) esté dedicado a trazar los orígenes de estos dos grandes hombres, ya que se explica cómo se conocen desde las enseñanzas del Buda Kashyapa, cuando ambos eran monjes que, por las promesas que hicieron entonces, llegaron a encontrarse de nuevo en nuestra época para zanjar una ancestral disputa intelectual.
Recomiendo este libro a cualquier estudiante de Budismo, independientemente de si pertenecen al sistema Shravaka o Mahayana, por sus claras explicaciones de las enseñanzas budistas, así como por el valor histórico que posee, siendo uno de los pocos (si no el único) documentos dejando constancia de uno de los primeros contactos entre Oriente y Occidente en términos espirituales.
The Questions of King Milinda collects the series of questions and answers (allegedly) posed by the historical greek King Melandro to Nagasena, a Buddhist monk. The topics cover all the spectrum of the Mulasarvastivadin Buddhist philosophy (one of the Shravakayanas schools of thought), including what is Nirvana, the aggregates, the ultimate nature of things, the Four Noble Truths, reincarnation and the (non)existence of a soul.
The questions are clever and the answers sparkle full of lucid metaphors and similes that help convey the deep meaning of the Buddhadharma. Moreover, the book is written in such a way that you can almost feel like you're witnessing the debate between these two great figures, eagerly reading and flipping the pages to see whether Nagasena does convince the always inquiring, never satisfied King. In this regard, I very much appreciate that the first book (out of the three that compose this volume) is devoted to tracing the origins of these two great men, their knowing each other dating back to the Buddha Kashyapa's dispensation, when they were both monks who, because of their pledges at that time, came to know each other again in our time to set an ancestral intelectual dispute.
I recommend this book to any student of Buddhism, regardless of their being in the Shavaka or the Mahayana system, for its clarity, straightforward explanations of the Buddhist teachings, aswell as for the historical value that it has, being one of the few (if not only) documents recording one of the first contacts in spiritual terms between East and West.
Las preguntas del rey Milinda recoge la serie de preguntas y respuestas supuestamente planteadas por el histórico rey griego Melandro a Nagasena, un monje budista. Los temas tratados cubren todo el espectro de la filosofía Mulasarvastivadin de filosofía budista (una de las escuelas de pensamiento Shravakayana), incluyendo qué es el Nirvana, los agregados, la naturaleza úlitma de las cosas, las Cuatro Nobles Verdades, la reencarnación y la (no) existencia de un alma.
Las preguntas son ingeniosas y las respuestas brillan llenas de lúcidas metáforas y símiles que ayudan a transmitir el significado profundo del Buddhadharma. Además, el libro está escrito de tal manera que casi puedes sentirte com si estuvieras siendo testigo del debate entre estas dos grandes figuras, leyendo con avidez y pasando las páginas para ver si Nagasena termina convenciendo al siempre inquisitivo y nunca satisfecho Rey. En este aspecto, he apreciado mucho que el primer libro (de los tres que componen este volumen) esté dedicado a trazar los orígenes de estos dos grandes hombres, ya que se explica cómo se conocen desde las enseñanzas del Buda Kashyapa, cuando ambos eran monjes que, por las promesas que hicieron entonces, llegaron a encontrarse de nuevo en nuestra época para zanjar una ancestral disputa intelectual.
Recomiendo este libro a cualquier estudiante de Budismo, independientemente de si pertenecen al sistema Shravaka o Mahayana, por sus claras explicaciones de las enseñanzas budistas, así como por el valor histórico que posee, siendo uno de los pocos (si no el único) documentos dejando constancia de uno de los primeros contactos entre Oriente y Occidente en términos espirituales.
June 9, 2012
This is a freely available translation of the Milinda Pahna, which is an ancient Buddhist text from about 100 BC. The Milinda Pahna itself is constructed as a dialogue between the King Milinda and Buddhist monk Nagasena, in which the king asks many probing questions about Buddhist history, practices, and metaphysics, allowing Nagasena to illustrate these aspects of Buddhism with his answers. Many of these answers illustrate concepts by simile, a common technique in this time period.
This specific translation is described as abridged by the author, because it cuts down on some of the simile and flourish in favor of directness. This makes the answers read quickly and easily, but I think I appreciate a full translation. Cutting the simile to the core removes some of the beauty in the comparison, in the same way that shorting all instances of simile to the Illiad to single sentences would make them seem shallow.
I think what the text does best is to bring some of the foreign or irrational sounding concepts of Buddhism into familiar terms, rather than providing precisely metaphysical explanations. Experiences we feel to be true carry these concepts into the realm of understanding.
This specific translation is described as abridged by the author, because it cuts down on some of the simile and flourish in favor of directness. This makes the answers read quickly and easily, but I think I appreciate a full translation. Cutting the simile to the core removes some of the beauty in the comparison, in the same way that shorting all instances of simile to the Illiad to single sentences would make them seem shallow.
I think what the text does best is to bring some of the foreign or irrational sounding concepts of Buddhism into familiar terms, rather than providing precisely metaphysical explanations. Experiences we feel to be true carry these concepts into the realm of understanding.
September 25, 2015
I learned a lot from this abridged translation. Thank you so much, bhante..._/\_
September 17, 2024
Couldn't finish it yet...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews