48 NOTES 



inevitably to be dissolved." (Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, 



p. 211.) " 



The self is nothing but a group of phenomena held together by 

 the desire of life ; when that desire shall have ceased " the 

 Karma of that particular chain of lives will cease to influence 

 any longer any distinct individual, and there will be no more 

 birth ; for birth, decay, and death, grief, lamentation, and despair 

 will have come, so far as regards that chain of lives, for ever to 

 an end." 



The state of mind of the Arahat in which the desire of life has 

 ceased is Nirvana. Dr. Oldenberg has very acutely and patiently 

 considered the various interpretations which have been attached 

 to ' Nirvana ' in the work to which I have referred (p. 285 et 

 se q^ The result of his and other discussions of the question may 

 I think be briefly stated thus : 



1. Logical deduction from the predicates attached to the 

 term ' Nirvana ' strips it of all reality, conceivability, or per- 

 ceivability, whether by gods or men. For all practical purposes 

 therefore, it comes to exactly the same thing as annihilation. 



2. But it is not annihilation in the ordinary sense, inasmuch 

 as it could take place in the living Arahat or Buddha. 



3. And, since, for the faithful Buddhist, that which was 

 abolished in the Arahat was the possibility of further pain, 

 sorrow, or sin ; and that which was attained was perfect peace ; 

 his mind directed itself exclusively to this joyful consummation, 

 and personified the negation of all conceivable existence and of all 

 pain into a positive bliss. This was all the more easy, as 

 Gautama refused to give any dogmatic definition of Nirvana. 

 There is something analogous in the way in which people 

 commonly talk of the ' happy release ' of a man who has been 

 long suffering from mortal disease. According to their own 

 views, it must always be extremely doubtful whether the man 

 will be any happier after the ' release ' than before. But they 

 do not choose to look at the matter in this light. 



The popular notion that, with practical, if not metaphysical, 

 annihilation in view, Buddhism must needs be a sad and gloomy 

 faith seems to be inconsistent with fact ; on the contrary, the 

 prospect of Nirvana fills the true believer, not merely with 

 cheerfulness but with an ecstatic desire to reach it. 



