A. A rich man may expend lakhs of rupees in building dāgobas or vihāras, in erecting statues of Buddha, in festivals and processions, in feeding priests, in giving alms to the poor, or in planting trees, digging tanks, or constructing rest-houses by the roadside for travellers, and yet have comparatively little merit if it be done for display, or to hear himself praised by men, or for any other selfish motives. But he who does the least of these things with a kind motive, such as love for his fellow-men, gains great merit. A good deed done with a bad motive benefits others, but not the doer. One who approves of a good deed when done by another shares in the merit, _if his sympathy is real, not pretended_. The same rule applies to evil deeds. 160. Q. _But which is said to be the greatest of all meritorious actions?_ A. The _Dhammapada_ declares that the merit of disseminating the Dharma, the Law of Righteousness, is greater than that of any other good work. 161. Q. _What books contain all the most excellent wisdom of the Buddha's teachings?_ A. The three collections of books called _Tripitakas_ or "_Three Baskets_". 162. Q. _What are the names of the three Pitakas, or groups of books?_ A. The _Vinaya Pitaka_, the _Sutta Pitaka_ and the _Abhidhamma Pitaka_. 163. Q. _What do they respectively contain?_ A. The first contains all that pertains to morality and the rules of discipline for the government of the Sangha, or Order; the second contains instructive discourses on ethics applicable to all; the third explains the psychological teachings of the Buddha, including the twenty-four transcendental laws explanatory of the workings of Nature. 164. Q. _Do Buddhists relieve these books to be inspired, or revealed, by a Divine Being?_ A. No; but they revere them as containing all the parts of that most Excellent Law, by the knowing of which man may break through the trammels of _Samsāra_. 165. Q. _In the whole text of the three Pitakas how many words are there?_ A. Dr. Rhys-Davids estimates them at 1,752,800. 166. Q. _When were the Pitakas first reduced to writing?_ A. In 88-76 B.C., under the Sinhalese King, Wattagamini, or three hundred and thirty years after the Paranirvāna of the Buddha. 167. Q. _Have we reason to believe that all the discourses of the Buddha are known to us?_ A. Probably not, and it would be strange if they were. Within the forty-five years of his public life he must have preached many hundreds of discourses. Of these, in times of war and persecution, many must have been lost, many scattered to distant countries, and many mutilated. History says that enemies of the Buddha Dharma burnt piles of our books as high as a coco-nut tree. 168. Q. _Do Buddhists consider the Buddha as one who by his own virtue can save us from the consequence of our individual sins?_