BUDDHISM, AND ''THE LIGHT OF ASIA." 165 



away and be used up, than one Abbuda hell ; and as the 

 time passed in the Paduma hell is almost infinitely greater 

 than the time passed in the Abbuda hell, the duration of 

 such a state of existence is at least very considerable (Sutta 

 Nipdta, M. 10.) The antithesis to this is, of course, Nirvana. 

 If Buddha really taught that hell was almost endlessly pro- 

 longed existence, why should he have taught that Nirvana 

 was a state of unconsciousness, or a negation of being ? 

 The fact is Nirvana is rather spoken of as a state of perfect 

 existence ; what is put off, or annihilated, is the earthly 

 body and the earthly state. We may take a few examples :— 

 " Earnestness is the path of immortality (araritPb) ; thought- 

 lessness, the path of death. Those who are earnest do not 

 die ; those who are thoughtless are as if dead already '' 

 (Dhaminapada, 21). "Rouse thyself! do not be idle! 

 Follow the law of virtue ! The virtuous rests in bliss in 

 this world and in the next " {Dham., 168), " This world is 

 dark, fcAV only can see here ; a few only go to heaven, like 

 birds escaped from the net " (Dham., 174). " The Bhikkhu, 

 full of delight, who is calm in the doctrine of Buddha, will 

 reach the quiet place; cessation of natural desires and 

 happiness" (Dlicav., 381). "Him I call indeed a Brahmana 

 who has traversed this miry road, the impassable world and 

 its vanity, who has gone through, and reached the other 

 shore" (Dham., 414). "Such a Bhikkhu who has turned 

 away from desire and attachment, and is possessed of 

 understanding in this world, has gone to the immortal 

 peace, the unchangeable state of Nibbana " ( Uragavaaga, 

 203). These passages are taken almost at hapliazard, 

 chiefly from one book ; and in them we find the Nirvana 

 described as " immortality," an escape from death, " rest in 

 bliss" in the next world, "heaven," "the quiet place," "the 

 other shore," " the immortal peace." There is no idea of 

 the cessation of existence, except earthly existence. And 

 nowhere, so far as I know, is Nirvana represented as a sleep 

 or a state of unconsciousness. The end of Buddha's original 

 teaching "v\ras evidently emancipation ffom the evils of 

 existence, and his method of obtaining that end was a 

 purified and moral life. Whatever was added to those 

 simple elements was added, I suspect, in what we. perhaps, 

 might venture to call the Spencerian phases of subsequent 

 Buddhist philosophy. 



The late Professor Childers, in his Pali Dictionary, in a dis- 

 sertation on Nibbana, adduced a number of passages to sup-^- 



