SIE MONIEE MONIER- WILLIAMS. 7 



It is clear, then, from all we have stated, that, supposing 

 Gautama to have made up his mind to renounce the world 

 and devote himself to a religious life, his adoption of a course 

 of Yoga was a most ordinary proceeding. 



In the first instance, as we have seen, he tested the value 

 of painful self-mortification by a long sexennial fast. Then, 

 after discovering the uselessness of mere bodily austerities, 

 he took food naturally, and adopting the second method, 

 applied himself to profound abstract meditation. 



A large number of the images of Buddha represent him 

 sitting on a raised seat, with his legs folded under his body, 

 and his eyes half -closed, in this condition of abstraction 

 (samadhi) sometimes called Yoga-nidra ; that is, a trance-like 

 state, compared to profound sleep, or a kind of hypnotism. 



According to the account given in the Mahd-vagga (i. 1), 

 he seated himself in this way under four trees in succession, 

 remaining absorbed in thought for seven days and nights 

 under each tree, till he was, so to speak, re-born as Buddha 

 " the Enlightened." Till then he had no right to that title. 



And those four successive seats probably symbolised the 

 four recognised stages of meditation* (dhyana) rising one above 

 another, till thought itself was converted into non-thought. 



We know, too, that the Buddha went through still higher 

 progressive stages of meditation at the moment of his death 

 or final decease (Pari-nirvana), thus described in the Mahd- 

 parinibbdna sutta (vi. 11) : 



" Then the Venerable One entered into the first stage of 

 meditation (pathamajjhanam) ; and rising out of the first 

 stage, he passed into the second; and rising out of the 

 second, he passed into the third ; and rising out of the third, 

 he passed into the fourth ; and rising out of the fourth stage, 

 he attained the conception of the infinity of space (akasanan- 

 cayatanam) ; and rising out of the conception of the infinity 

 of space, he attained the conception of the infinity of intelli- 

 gence (or second Arupa-brahma-loka). And rising out of 

 the idea of the infinity of intelligence, he attained the 

 conception of absolute nonentity (akincannayatanara) ; and 

 rising out of the idea of nonentity, he entered the region 

 where there is neither consciousness nor unconsciousness ; 

 and rising out of that region, he entered the state in which 

 all sensation and all perception of ideas had wholly ceased." 



This strange passage shows that even four progressive 



* I give this as a theory of my own. M. Senarfc considers that the sun's 

 progress is symbolised. I am no believer in the sun theory as applicable to 

 this point. 



