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CEYLON BE ANCH-— ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



Another will reply and say, Friend, I do not deny that 

 there is such a state as you have mentioned, but the soul 

 Avill not then be annihilated. There is, Friend, another state 

 unknown and unperoeived by you, but known and perceiv- 

 ed by me : that state is far beyond the intellectual region ; 

 where there is nothing, (to disturb the profound tranquillity 

 of the soul) it is in the region of unoccupied space. When 

 that state is dissolved by death the being is cut off, destroy- 

 ed and no longer exists : at that time, Friend, the soul is 

 annihilated. Thus some teach the excision, the destruction, 

 the annihilation of a living being. 



Another will reply and say, Friend, I do not deny that 

 there is such a state as you have mentioned, but the soul 

 will not then be annihilated. There is, Friend, another 

 state unknown and unperceived by you but known and per- 

 ceived by me, that state is far beyond that of unoccupied 

 space ; there the existence is neither conscious nor yet un- 

 conscious. When that state is dissolved by death the being 

 is cut off, destroyed and no longer exists : at that time, Friend, 

 the soul is annihilated. Thus some teach the excision, the 

 destruction, the annihilation of a living being. («) 



Priests,, these Samanas and Bramins affirm that existence 

 is destroyed, and teach in seven modes that living beings 

 are cut off, destroyed and annihilated. If any Samanas or 

 Bramins affirm that existence is destroyed, and teach that 

 living beings are cutoff, destroyed and annihilated, it is ei- 

 ther in these seven modes or according to some of them : 

 there are no other modes besides these, 



These doctrines, Priests, are fully understood by the Ta~ 

 tagato : he knows the causes of their being held and the ex- 

 perience upon which they are founded. He also knows 

 other things far more excellent *than these, but that know- 

 ledge has not been derived from sensual impressions. He, 

 with knowledge not derived from the impressions on the 

 senses, is fully acquainted with that by which both the im- 

 pressions and their causes become extinct, and distinctly 

 perceiving the production, the cessation, the advantages, the 

 evils, and the extinction of the sensations, is perfectly free 



(a) The last four consti tute the Arupa Worlds, in which there 

 is no material form : the last and most exalted of these is the in- 

 definitely extended dreamy state, neither conscious nor yet alto- 

 gether without consciousness, a profound, undisturbed repose 

 which continues during 84,000 kalpas : but it is not Nirwana, 

 not the ultimate cessation of being, for the seed will produce a 

 new plant, and after 84,000 kalpas a fresh existence will com* 

 mence in some inferior stated 



