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Homage to that Blessed One, the Arahant, the Perfectly Enlightened One. A Boundary Clarification Bestowing boons, bestowing the highest, shining, shining like a lotus; Awakening, awakening life, the god of gods, I bow. Peaceful, peaceful, always round, born of offspring in existence; Extinguished, extinguished, saving, I bow to the excellent Dhamma. Heard, heard in the abode, worthy of bowing, bowing; Men and non-men always did, I bow to the excellent Sangha. Thus, with utmost reverence, bowing to the Triple Gem; Having attained a great increase of merit, may obstacles be removed by its power. When the Vinaya is present and established, the Teaching is well-established; When the Vinaya is absent and destroyed, the Teaching is destroyed. Therefore, now shining brightly, illuminating the Teaching; Breaking the division of views, I will make unity. Self-praise, and disparaging others; Having removed the mind from these, for the great growth of the Teaching. If such a mind should arise in me, evil thoughts; I would fear falling into hell, because of base intentions. Wishing for the easy attainment of the Teaching, with virtuous conduct; I will now examine, for the long-lasting purity of the true Dhamma. Having attained the very rare, going forth in the Teaching of the Conqueror; Having made the excellent doctrine of the Buddha, the division into one. A Boundary Clarification by name, collected from various texts; I will do, may the wise and learned listen to me. The Pāli and the Commentary, the Matrix and the Analysis of Terms; Having plunged into all that, again and again, completely. In texts according to my own understanding, in sub-commentaries and glosses; In judgments and doubts, in the Matrix and Commentaries. Having made all complete, having examined and unified; This explanation proceeds, pleasing the discerning. Rare indeed is the arising of a Buddha, rarer still is going forth and higher ordination, as it is said: Rare is a Buddha in the world, and hearing the true Dhamma; Rare is the Sangha in the world, and good people are very rare. Rare is human existence, too. And rare is the arising of a Buddha; Rare is the attainment of favorable circumstances, supremely rare is the true Dhamma. 1. The Chapter on Ordination Indeed, while staying in this place, if a discourse connected with the virtues of the Buddha is spoken, it would cause joy and delight in the minds of the virtuous, and it would also be like speaking in a state of madness about this very subject. And if speaking in a state of madness is established, they will think it is worth listening to. Therefore, we will praise the virtues of the Buddha. It is said that our Blessed One, beginning with Brahmadeva Buddha and going back to the ancient Sakya Gotama, through mental aspiration, and beginning with the Wood-Carrier Jataka and going up to the Middle Dipankara, through verbal declaration, and from the feet of the Middle Dipankara, through bodily and verbal declaration, altogether, until the state of being Vessantara, while fulfilling the perfections for twenty incalculable eons, the head adorned for the sake of omniscience, when cut off and given, was more abundant than the dust of Jambudipa. The eye, painted with collyrium, when plucked out and given, was more abundant than the multitude of stars in the unobstructed sky. The flesh of the heart or the right arm, when cut off and given, was more abundant than Mount Sineru, which is measured at one hundred and eight thousand leagues. The blood, when drawn out and given, was more abundant than the water in the four great oceans. And Maddi-like wives and Jali and Kanhajina-like sons, when given as slaves to others, exceeded the path of calculation. Thus, while he was fulfilling the perfections: Seven incalculable eons by thought, nine incalculable by word; Four declared by body and speech, he attained Buddhahood. In the manner described, seven incalculable eons passed while he was thinking of becoming a Buddha without being a hero. Nine incalculable eons passed while he was only speaking without being a great hero. Four incalculable eons passed while he was fulfilling it with bodily and verbal declaration, being a great hero. These four incalculable eons should be understood as beginning from the feet of Dipankara. i. But at the head of a hundred thousand aeons, it should be understood that the intrinsic perfections were fulfilled. And as Vessantara, having given the seven great gifts, having caused the earth to quake seven times, having gone to Mount Vaṅka, having given his two sons, like his own eyes, to a brahmin as slaves, on the second day, having given his wife Maddi, equal to himself, to Sakka, king of gods, who came in the guise of a brahmin, having done countless meritorious deeds in that existence, then having gone to Tusita heaven, having stayed there for the duration of his life, having come with ten thousand world-systems, by special deities: "The time, O Great Hero, to be born in your mother's womb is here; Rescuing the world with gods, awaken to the deathless state." Being entreated, having looked at the five great observations: the time, the continent, the country, the family, and the mother, having departed from Tusita heaven, having heard of the marriage alliance of the daughters with the sons of King Okkāka, born of the Mahāsammatavaṃsa, fearing a division of merit, having made the statement of King Okkāka, "Indeed, these royal princes are capable," the cause for the name Sakya, having been born in the womb of Sirimahāmāyā, the chief queen of King Suddhodana, who reigned among the kings who had obtained the name Sakya, having emerged from his mother's womb in the Lumbini Grove between Devadaha and Kapilavatthu after ten months, at the moment of birth, having gone seven paces facing north, having uttered a fearless speech, having caused his father to worship him, gradually having experienced royal glory at the age of sixteen, having left on the day of Rāhula's birth, having practiced severe austerities for six years, having awakened to unsurpassed perfect enlightenment on the Vesākha full moon day, having caused the rain of the jewel of the Dhamma to fall for forty-five years, like stringing together a garland of jewels for gods and humans, having completed the Buddha's work until the conversion of Subhadda the wandering ascetic, at dawn on the Vesākha full moon day, in the sāla grove of the Mallas in Upavaṭṭana near Kusinārā, he attained the nibbāna without remainder. When the World-Protector, the Blessed One, had attained Nibbana in the sphere of immateriality, the words spoken by the elderly ascetic Subhadda were noted: "Enough, friends, do not grieve, do not lament. We are well rid of that Great Ascetic. We were oppressed by 'This is allowable for you, this is not allowable for you.' Now we will do what we want, and we will not do what we do not want." Reflecting on these words, the Sangha Elder, the venerable Mahākassapa, the leader of the groups, convened the Dhamma Council of seven hundred thousand monks, establishing the pure Dhamma and Discipline. Thereafter, a century after that, in Vesali, the Vajjiputtaka monks, presenting ten points, caused a decline in the Teaching. Seeing this, the venerable Yasa, son of Kākaṇḍaka, being urged, convened the Second Council. Thereafter, eighteen years over two centuries after the Tathagata's Nibbana, King Dhammāsoka, having attained sole sovereignty over the entire Jambudīpa, caused great gain and honor to arise for the Buddha's Teaching. The sectarians, their gains and honor diminished, not obtaining even the bare necessities of food and clothing, desiring gain and honor, ordained in the Teaching and proclaimed their own views, causing great chaos and impurity in the Teaching. Then, in the seventeenth year of King Dhammāsoka's coronation, the Sangha Elder, Moggalliputtatissa, taking a thousand monks from among sixty thousand monks, having refuted the doctrines of others at the Great Pavāraṇā, preached the Kathāvatthu, convened the Third Dhamma Council, and established the pure Dhamma and Discipline. While preserving the Buddha's word with its commentaries, they took the essence of the meaning in the Pali commentaries and, according to their own opinions, composed various special treatises. Taking the essence of the meaning according to their own opinions, making what was unsuitable appear suitable, reflecting on the words spoken in essence, they abandoned the Sutta-Suttānuloma-Ācariyavāda, the Pali of the commentary, and the commentary of the Pali, which was the explanation of that. Not comparing the Sāratthadīpanī and other special texts, without considering the order of things by their own opinions, merely establishing arguments, some monks, without throwing water into the river, treat heavy things as light, even when they should be treated as heavy. Thus, they are divided into two factions in the Dispensation. And this division is a hundredfold, a thousandfold stronger than the division in the Kosambaka Khandhaka, because it causes the downfall of the Dispensation. Indeed, this happens not only among monks in the human world, but also among monks, lay devotees, guardian deities, their helpers, earth-dwelling deities, their helpers, tree-dwelling deities, their helpers, sky-dwelling deities, their helpers, the Four Great Kings deities, their helpers, the Tāvatiṃsa deities, thus, through a lineage of friends, even the six sensual-sphere deities, and their friends, the Brahma attendants, thus, up to the Akaniṭṭha Brahma world, except for the noble individuals, all ordinary beings, gods and humans, are divided. Because of their division, much evil is produced. Therefore, comparing the Pāli with the commentary, and the commentary with the Pāli, and gathering those special texts together, like mixing the water of the Ganges without the water of the Yamuna, making them one,