into the lowest heaven, and can continue to ascend until they attain the final goal of Buddhistic salvation, i. e. until they pass into nirvana. The signification of this term became early a source of hot controversy among the various schools of Buddhists. It comes from the Sanscrit root vd' (to bloic), and nir (out, away from) ; and all agree that it means the highest enfran- chisement from evil ; but the schools disagree whether this liberation of the soul takes place by absorption into God or into naught. The prevalent view seems to be that nirvana is not only an emancipation from suffer- ing, but also cessation of existence. "Penetrated with the idea that existence, though a natural conse- quence of a natural law, is mere misery — that the nat- ural man is wretched as well as evil — Gotama declared that if man, by subduing all the natural affections, could, as it were, break the chain, kill the updddna, or attachment to sensuous things, he would, as a re- ward, pass out of existence — would either cease to be. or — for this is doubtful — cease to be conscious of be- ing. The popular notion that nirvana is absorption is incorrect, for there is nothing to be absorbed into, no supreme spirit, no supreme universe, nothing, and into this nothing the man who has attained nirvana necessarily passes. To attain it he may have to pass through a myriad states or forms, each less attached to sense than the last, hence transmigration ; but when it is reached the perfect result is simply annihilation, or, rather, the loss of being, for the components of be- ing, if we understand. Buddha, could not die. A drear- ier system of thought was never devised, and we can account for its rapid spread only by assuming what we believe to be the fact, that the Asiatic who was below philosophy understood by nirvana not annihilation, but that state of suspended being in which one ex- ists, but neither hop s, fears, thinks, nor feels" (Spec- tator, March 10, 1866). (c) Ethics. — The prominent characteristic which distinguished primitive Buddhism from Brahmaism was the importance attributed to mo- rality. The main object of a Buddhist was to acquire merit. For the great germinating power (karmma), which determines whether the new being to be pro- duced shall be an insect or a worm, a fowl, a beast, a man, or a deva (the highest of sentient beings), is the sum of merit and demerit. Each soul inherits the fruits of the karmma, and the office of liberating and purifying its predecessors. As evil was considered to be connected with all passing phenomena, asceticism (celibacy, poverty, mortification of the senses) was in- culcated as indispensable for salvation. The Five Com- mandments of Buddhism are, not to kill any living be- ing; not to steal ; not to commit adultery ; not to lie, slander, or swear ; to avoid drunkenness. These five commandments are obligator}' upon all men ; there are other five, specially binding upon sramanas (i. e. upon persons who give themselves up to a religious life in order to a direct attainment of 7iirvana), viz., ' ' to abstain from food out of season — that is, after midday ; to abstain from dances, theatrical representa- tions, songs, and music ; to abstain from personal or- naments and perfumes ; to abstain from a lofty and luxurious couch ; to abstain from taking gold and sil- ver. For the regular ascetics or monks there are a number of special observances of a very severe kind. They are to dress only in rags, sewed together with their own hands, and to have a yellow cloak thrown over the rags. They are to eat only the simplest food, and to possess nothing except what they get by col- lecting alms from door to door in their wooden bowl. The}' are allowed only one meal, and that must be eaten before midday. For a part of the year they are to live in forests, with no other shelter except the shadow of a tree, and there they must sit on their car- pet even during sleep, to lie down being forbidden. They are allowed to enter the nearest village or town to beg food, but they must return to their forests before night." (Chambers's Encyclopedia, s. v.) As to the
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