162 THE REV. R. COLLINS, ON 



which Nh'vana is to be reached, we find that it is not merely, 

 after all, by a rightly regulated life, but by absolute destruc- 

 tion of desire, lust, clinging to existence ; by the " noble 

 truth," in words put into the mouth of Buddha, " of the 

 cessation of sufi'ering, which ceases with the complete 

 cessation of the thirst that leads to re-birth, a cessation 

 which consists in the absence of every passion — with the 

 abandoning of this thirst, with the doing away with it, 

 with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of 

 desire" {Mahdvagga, i, 6, 21). To reach this, the devotee 

 must pass through experiences, and reach results, which, to 

 say the least, are, in practice, impossible to human nature. 

 Now, this superhuman power of effort, discipline, and result 

 is frequently described as earning merely the extinction of 

 the doom of re-birth. Thus in the Mahdvagga, where prob- 

 ably we have as ancient a record as any of the conversa- 

 tions of Buddha, he is made to say, " A learned, noble 

 hearer of the word becomes weary of body, weary of sensa- 

 tion, weary of perception, weary of the Sankharas {i.e., 

 the elements and properties of bodily existence), weary of 

 consciousness. Becoming weary of all that, he divests 

 himself of passion ; by absence of passion he is made free ; 

 when he is free, he becomes aware that he is free ; and he 

 realises that re-birth is exhausted ; that holiness is com- 

 pleted ; that duty is fulfilled ; and that there is no further 

 return to this world" {Mahavagga, i, 6, 46). He also says of 

 himself, " This knowledge and insight arose in my mind, the 

 emancipation of my mind cannot be lost, this is my last 

 birth, hence 1 shall not be born again." And similarly in 

 very many other passages. This doctrine of the re-birth 

 had long been held in India. Thus one of the Upanishads 

 says, " Those whose conduct has been good will quickly 

 attain some good birth, the birth of a Brahman, or a 

 Kshatriya, or a Vaisya. But those whose conduct has been 

 evil, will quickly attain evil birth, the birth o± a dog, or a 

 hog, or a Chandala." {Chdndogi/a Upanishad, v, 10, 7.) 

 This was the doctrine as to the futm-e, which held the 

 popular mind, when Buddha was born. Could it have been 

 only against this prospect of future birth that Buddha 

 strove ? Should the merit gained by a moral life, and the 

 absolute destruction of the passions, secure an immunity 

 from the doom of re-birth, what then ? What lay beyond ? 

 This question could not escape, or appear of inferior 

 moment to, the acute mind of a Hindu, such as Buddha. 



