IYSTICAL BUDDHISM. 23 
highly efficacious.* In a similar manner among Northern 
Buddhists the six-syllabled sentence: ‘Om mani padme 
him ”—“ Reverence to the jewel in the lotus. Amen’’—is 
used as a charm against the sixfold course of transmigration. 
The Jewel may mean Avalokitesvara, the patron saint of 
Tibet, fabled to have sprung from a lotus, or 1t may contain a 
double-entendre—an occult allusion to the Sankhya Purusha 
and Prakriti, or to the Linga and Yoni of Saivism, as 
symbolising the generative force of Nature. No other prayer- 
formula in the world is repeated so often. 
Other mystical syllables (such as sam, yam, ram, lam) are 
supposed to contain some occult virtue. 
The third requisite—posture—would appear to us a some- 
what trivial aid to the union of the human spirit with the 
divine ; but with Hindi it is an important auxiliary, fraught 
with great benefit to the Yogi. 
The alleged reason is that certain sitting postures (asana) 
and cramping of the lower limbs are peculiarly efficacious 
in producing bodily quietude and preventing restlessness. 
Some of the postures have curious names, for example :— 
Padmasana, “the lotus posture” ; virasana, “the heroic 
posture”; sinhasana, “the lion posture’”?; kirmasana, 
“the tortoise posture”; kukkutasana, ‘‘ the cock posture ”’; 
dhanur-asana, ‘‘ bow posture”’?; mayurasana, “ peacock pos- 
ture.’ In the first the right foot is placed on the left thigh, 
and the left on the right thigh. 
In short, the idea is that compression of the icwer 
limbs, in such a way as to prevent the possibility of the 
slightest movement, is most important as a preparation for 
complete abstraction of soul. 
Then, as another aid, particular twistings (called: mudra) of 
the upper limbs—of the arms, hands, and fingers—are enjoined. 
in Europe violent movements of the limbs are practised 
by devotees with the view of uniting the human spirit with 
the Divine. Those who have seen the whirling and “ howl- 
ing ” dervishes of Cairo can testify to this. The fainting fits 
which result from their violent exertions, inspirations, expi- 
rations, and utterances of the name of God are believed to 
be ecstatic states in which such union is effected. 
The fourth requisite—regulation and suppression of the 
breath—is perhaps the one of all the eight which it is most 
difficult for Huropeans to understand or appreciate; yet with 
Hindis it is all-important (bemg called Hatha-vidya). Nor 
are the ideas connected with it wholly unknown in Kurope. 
* See my Brahmanism and Hindzism (John Murray), p. 105. 
