I must seem
IT

must seem strange to those who take an interest in Buddhism that the scholars most competent to judge are not yet agreed as to the meaning of what is rightly considered as its most important doctrine, its summum bonum, its Nirvana; that while some take it to be a complete extinction of the soul at death. others would rather regard it as an eternal existence of the soul in a kind of trance, indifferent alike to sorrow and to joy. The reason perhaps is not far to seek. The attempt has been made to take the citadel of Nirvana by assault, without first being in possession of the outworks; to understand Nirvana without understanding the system of thought of which Nirvana is the last conclusion, and in the nomenclature of which it is necessarily expressed. To discuss and compare what Buddhist-much less what European-authors have said on the subject must be of little use, so long as a previous study of undisputed, and perhaps easier, questions has not taught us what sense to attach to the words they use, and what other ideas about the nature and condition and destiny of man underlie their views of Nirvana. It is intended therefore in the present paper to approach the question indirectly; by means of, and subsequent to, the discussion of one or two other points of doctrine, which will also, it is hoped, be found to be by no means without interest of their own. Never, perhaps, in the history of the world has the bare and barren tree of metaphysical inquiry put forth, where one would least expect

it, a more lovely flower than one, at least, of these doctrines seems, to the writer, to be-that flower of the "Noble Eightfold Path," which grew into "the fruit" which gave "the nectar of Nirvana."

At the outset of our inquiry we are met by an encouraging fact, which promises to lighten our labour. Buddhism does not attempt to solve the problem of the primary origin of all things:

“When Mālunka asked the Buddha whether the existence of the world is eternal or not eternal, he made him no reply; but the reason of this was that it was considered by the Teacher as an inquiry that tended to no profit."*

Buddhism takes as its ultimate fact the existence of the material world and of conscious beings living within it; and it holds that everything is subject to the law of cause and effect, and that everything is constantly, though perhaps imperceptibly, changing. There is no place where this law does not operate; no heaven or hell therefore in the ordinary sense. There are worlds where gods or angels live whose existence is more or less material, according to the lower or higher degree of holiness reached by them in their previous lives; but the gods and angels die, and the worlds they inhabit pass away. There are places of torment, where the evil actions of men or angels produce unhappy beings; but when the active power of the evil that produced them is exhausted, they will vanish; and the worlds they inhabit are not eternal. The whole kosmos-earth and heavens and hells-is always tending to renovation or destruction, is always in a course of change, a series of revolutions or of cycles, of which the beginning and the end are, alike, unknowable. To this universal law of composition and dissolution men and angels form no exception. The unity of forces which constitutes a sentient being must sooner or later be dissolved; and it is only through ignorance and delusion that such a being indulges in the dream that it is a separate and self-existent entity. A watchman on a lofty tower sees a charioteer urging his horse along the plain: the driver thinks he is moving rapidly; and the horse, in the pride of life, seems to scorn the earth from which it thinks itself so separate; but to the watchman above horse and chariot and driver seem to crawl along the ground, and to be as much a part of the earth as the horse's mane, waving in the wind, is a part of the horse itself. As a child grows up its mind reflects, as in a dim mirror, the occurrences of the world around it; and practically, though unconsciously, it regards itself as the centre round which the universe turns. Gradually its circle widens somewhat; but the grown man never escapes from the delusion of self, and spends

Spence Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, p. 375.

his life in a constant round of desires and cares, always engaged in the pursuit of some fancied good to call his own, always longing for something which when obtained produces, not happiness, but fresh desires and cares.

Such teachings are by no means peculiar to Buddhism; and similar ideas lay at the foundation of earlier Indian philosophies. They are to be found, indeed, in other systems widely separated from these in time and place; and Buddhism, in dealing with the truth which they contain, might have given a more decisive and more lasting utterance if it had not also borrowed a belief in the curious doctrine of transmigration; a doctrine which seems to have arisen independently in the valley of the Ganges and the valley of the Nile. The word transmigration has been used, however, in different times and at different places for very diverse, though similar, theories; and Buddhism, in adopting the general idea from post-Vedic Brahminism, so modified it as to produce, in fact, a new hypothesis.

The modification thus introduced into the idea of transmigration was necessitated by the early Buddhist theories as to the nature of the constituent parts and powers of man, which it divides into five Skandhas or "Groups;" and as the point is of vital importance for a right appreciation of Buddhist teaching, while the enumeration is not without interest for its own sake, a few words must be devoted to the details of each of these five aggregates or "Groups." They are Material Qualities, Sensations, Abstract Ideas, Tendencies (mental and moral), and Reason; each of which are again subdivided as follows:*

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1. The Material properties or attributes (Rūpa) are twenty-eight in number.

2. The Sensations (Vedanā), which are divided into six classes,

I add the most important Pali names, under which all the authorities will be found in Professor Childers's Pali Dictionary.

† According to Colebrooke, the Buddhists taught that these elements of matter consist of atoms; and that compound bodies consist of conjoint primary atoms. Essays, vol. i. 416 (ed. Cowell).

according as they are originated immediately by contact through each of the five senses (1-5), or sixthly by the mind, through memory; and further into eighteen classes, as each of these six kinds of sensation may be either pleasant, or unpleasant, or neither.

3. The Abstract Ideas (Sañña), which are divided into six classes, corresponding to the six classes of sensation; for instance, the ideas blue, a tree, are referred to sight; the idea sweetness to taste.

4. The Tendencies, Dispositions, Potentialities (Pāli Sankhāra, Sanskrit Sanskara, confection), which are fifty-two in number, the divisions not being mutually exclusive. Some of them also include, or are identical with, divisions of the previous Groups; but whereas the previous Groups are arranged, as it were, from an objective, this Group is arranged from a subjective point of view.

1. Contact (Phassa)

2. Sensation, resulting from No. 1,
3. Abstract Ideas, formed on No. 2,

=

=

Group 2 (Vedanā)
Group 3 (Saññā)

4. Thought, the regrouping of ideas, No. 3 (Cetanā)
5. Reflection, dwelling on thoughts, No. 4 (Manasikāra)
6. Memory (Sati)

7. Vitality (Jivitindriya; also in Group 1)

8. Individuality (Ekaggatā)

9. Attention (Vitakka, which may cause contact, No. 1) 10. Investigation (Vicūra,

continued attention, No. 9)

11. Effort, (Viriya, which assists all other faculties)

12. Steadfastness, (Adhimokkha, continued effort, No. 11) 13. Joy (Piti)

14. Impulse (Chanda)

15. Indifference (Majjhattatā)

16, 17. Sleep and Torpor (Thina and Middha; the opposites of Nos. 9 and 10, and of Nos. 33 and 34)

18, 19. Stupidity and Intelligence (Moha and Рaññā)

20, 21. Covetousness and Content (Lobha, and Alobha) 22, 23. Fear and Rashness (Otappa and Anottappa)

24, 25. Shame and Shamelessness (Hiri and Ahirika)

26, 27. Hatred and Affection (Dosa and Adosa)

28-30. Doubt, Faith, Delusion (Vicikiccha, Saddhā, Diṭṭhi)

31, 32. Repose, Calm; of body or mind (Pasiddhi)

33, 34. Lightness, Activity; of body or mind (Lahutā, also in

Group 1)

35, 36. Softness, Elasticity; of body or mind (Muduta, also in

Group 1)

37, 38. Adaptability Pliancy; of body or mind (Kammaññatā, also in Group 1)

39, 40. Dexterity, Experience; of body or mind (Paguññatā) 41, 42. Straightness, Uprightness; of body or mind (Ujjukatā) 43-45. Propriety; of speech, action, and life (Sammā)

46. Pity; sorrow for the sorrow of others (Karunā)

47. Glad Sympathy; rejoicing in the joy of others (Mudita) 48. Envy; sorrow at the joy of others (Issa)

49. Selfishness; dislike to share one's joy with others (Macchariyā)

50. Moroseness (Kukkucca)

51. Vanity (Uddhacca)

52. Pride (Mano)

5. Thought, Reason (Viññāna), is really an amplification from another point of view of No. 4 in the last Group, which is inherent in all the "Tendencies." It is divided, from the point of view of the resulting merit or demerit, into eighty-nine classes-a division which throws no light on the Buddhist scheme of the constituent elements of being, and does not therefore concern us here.

It is for its historical interest, not for its scientific value, that attention is claimed for this doctrine of the Groups or Skandhas. Modern classifications would not overlap as Buddhist lists so often do: perhaps those lists are not so much classifications as explanations, intended to assist the understanding and the memory, and they are not constructed to avoid redundance or tautology. As explanations they are often very successful; and the enumeration of "the Groups" will enable us at least to understand the meaning of the words Skandha and Sanskara, when we find them in the definition of Nirvana.

These "Five Groups" include all the bodily and mental parts and powers of man, and neither any one group, nor any one division of any group, is permanent; they are constantly changing, are never for two consecutive moments the same; their nature is to arise and pass away.

"The first Group (the bodily qualities) are like a mass of foam, that gradually forms and then vanishes. The second Group (the sensations) are like a bubble dancing on the face of the water. The third Group (the ideas) are like the uncertain mirage that appears in the sunshine. The fourth Group (the tendencies) are like the plantain stalk, without firmness or solidity; and the fifth Group (the reason) is like a spectre or magical illusion. In this manner is declared the impermanency of the five Groups."*

The body, and all its functions, produced by the contact of external objects with the organs of sense, will decay and be dissolved; and there is in man no soul, no abiding principle whatever. This important doctrine is repeatedly and distinctly laid down

* Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 424. He gives his authorities at page 399.