Reading section 50

[Footnote 678: Chândog. Up. VIII. 15.]

[Footnote 679: As also to the Saṃhitâs of the Vaishṇavas and the Âgamic literature of the Śaivas. The six cakras are: (1) Mûladhâra at the base of the spinal cord, (2) Svâdhishṭhâna below the navel, (3) Maṇipûra near the navel, (4) Anâhata in the heart, (5) Viśuddha at the lower end of the throat, (6) Âjñâ between the eyebrows. See Avalon, _Tantric Texts_, II. Shaṭcakranirûpana. Ib. _Tantra of Great Liberation_, pp. lvii ff., cxxxii ff. Ib. _Principles of Tantra_, pp. cvii ff. Gopinatha Ras, _Indian Iconography_, pp. 328 ff. See also "Manual of a Mystic" (_Pali Text Soc._) for something apparently similar, though not very intelligible, in Hinayanist Buddhism.]

[Footnote 680: For the later Yoga see further Book V. I have recently received A. Avalon, _The Serpent Power_, from which it appears that the danger of the process lies in the fact that as Kuṇḍalinî ascends, the lower parts of the body which she leaves become cold. The preliminary note on Yoga in Grieraon and Barnett's Lallâ-Vâkyâni (_Asiat. Soc.'s Monographs_, vol. XVII. 1920) contains much valuable information, but both works arrived too late for me to make use of them.]

[Footnote 681: Maj. Nik. 36 and 85, but not in 26.]

[Footnote 682: Dig. Nik. 2. For the methods of Buddhist meditation, the reader may consult the "Manual of a Mystic," edited (1896) and translated (1916) by the _Pali Text Society_. But he will not find it easy reading.]

[Footnote 683: See Ang. Nik. 1. 20 for a long list of the various kinds of meditation. A conspectus of the system of meditation is given in Seidenstücker, _Pali-Buddhismus_, pp. 344-356.]

[Footnote 684: Dig. Nik. XXII. _ad. in._]

[Footnote 685: Dig. Nik. I. 21-26.]

[Footnote 686: See, for instance, Dig. Nik. II. 75. Sometimes five Jhânas are enumerated. This means that reasoning and investigation are eliminated successively and not simultaneously, so that an additional stage is created.]

[Footnote 687: See _Dhamma-Sangaṇi_; Mrs Rhys Davids' translation, pp. 45-6 and notes. Also _Journal of Pali Text Society_, 1885, p. 32, for meaning of the difficult word Ekodibhâva.]

[Footnote 688: _E.g._ Maj. Nik. 77; Ang. Nik. 1. XX. 63.]

[Footnote 689: Hardy, _Eastern Monachism_, pp. 252 ff.]

[Footnote 690: But also without shape, colour or outward appearance, so this statement must not be taken too literally.]

[Footnote 691: Such procedure has not received much countenance in Christian mysticism but the contemplation of a burnished pewter dish and of running water induced ecstasy in Jacob Boehme and Ignatius Loyola respectively. See Underhill, _Mysticism_, p. 69.]

[Footnote 692: Maj. Nik. 62 end.]

[Footnote 693: The analysis means to analyze all things as consisting alike of the four elements. The one perception is the perception that all nourishment is impure.]

[Footnote 694: See Dig. Nik. 13 and Rhys Davids' introduction to it. In spite of their name, they seem to be purely Buddhist and have not been found in Brahmanic literature. The four states are characterized respectively by love, sympathy with sorrow, sympathy with joy, and equanimity.]

[Footnote 695: Dig. Nik. XIII. 76.]

[Footnote 696: Dig. Nik. XVII. 2-4.]

[Footnote 697: Christian mystics also, such as St Angela and St Theresa, had "formless visions." See Underhill, _Myst._ pp. 338 ff.]

[Footnote 698: Attha vimokkhâ. See Mahâparinib. sut. in Rhys Davids' _Dialogues of the Buddha,_ II. 119.]

[Footnote 699: Akiñcaññâyatanam.]

[Footnote 700: Nevasaññânâsaññâyatanam.]

[Footnote 701: Saññavedâyita nirodhasamâpatti. The Buddha when dying (Dig. XVI. V. 8, 9) passes through this state, but does not go from it to Parinibbâna. This perhaps means that it was regarded as a purification of the mind, but not on the direct road to the final goal.]

[Footnote 702: See Maj. Nik. 43. But the point of the discussion seems to be not so much special commendation of this form of trance as an explanation of its origin, namely that it, like other mental states, is bound to ensue when certain preliminary conditions both moral and intellectual have been realized. See also Sam. Nik. XXXVI. ii. 5. See for examples of this cataleptic form of Samâdhi Max Müller's _Life of Ramakrishna_, pp. 49,59, etc. Christian mystics (_e.g._ St Catharine of Siena and St Theresa) were also subject to deathlike trances lasting for hours and St Theresa is said once to have been in this condition for some days.]

[Footnote 703: Maj. Nik. 86.]

[Footnote 704: This is known to European mystics, particularly Suso. St Francis of Assisi, St Catharine of Siena and Richard Rolle are also cited. See Underhill. _Mysticism_, p. 332.]

[Footnote 705: Christian visions of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise are another instance of the divine eye, which thinks it can see the whole scheme of things.]

[Footnote 706: Tales about such powers, are still very common in the East, for instance the Chinese story (in the _Liao Chai_) of the man who learnt from a Taoist how to walk through a wall but failed ignominiously when he tried to give an exhibition to his family. Educated Chinese seem to think there is something in the story and say that he failed because his motives were bad.]

[Footnote 707: Bernheim, _La Suggestion_, chap. I. Quand j'ai éloigné de son esprit la préoccupation que fait naître l'idée de magnétisme ... je lui dis "Regardez-moi bien et ne songez qu'à dormir. Vous allez sentir une lourdeur dans les paupières, une fatigue dans vos yeux: ils clignotent, ils vont se mouiller; la vue devient confuse: ils se ferment." Quelques sujets ferment les yeux et dorment immédiatement.... _C'est le sommeil par la suggestion, c'est l'image du sommeil_ que je suggère, que j'insinue dans le cerveau. Les passes, la fixation des yeux ou des doigts de l'opérateur, propres seulement à concentrer l'attention, ne sont pas absolument necéssaires.]

[Footnote 708: Thus in the drama Ratnâvalî a magician makes the characters see an imaginary conflagration of the palace and also a vision of heaven. His performance seems to be accepted as merely a remarkable piece of conjuring.]

[Footnote 709: Ang. Nik. xvi. 1. In spite of his magic power he could not prevent himself being murdered. The Milinda-Pañha explains this as the result of Karma, which is stronger than magic and everything else.]

[Footnote 710: _E.g._ Maj. Nik. 77. ]

[Footnote 711: Cullavag. v. 8.]

[Footnote 712: Dig. Nik. xi.]

[Footnote 713: Visuddhi Magga, xii. in Warren, _Buddhism in Translation_, pp. 315 ff.]

[Footnote 714: R.V. II. 12. 5.]

[Footnote 715: Yet Tennyson can say "And at their feet the crocus brake like fire," but in a mythological poem.]

[Footnote 716: Mahâv. V. i.]

[Footnote 717: E.g. Dig. Nik. XI. and Cullavag. V. 8.]

[Footnote 718: Even in the Upanishads the gods are not given a very high position. They are powerless against Brahman (e.g. Kena Up. 14-28) and are not naturally in possession of true knowledge, though they may acquire it (e.g. Chând. Up. VIII. 7).]

[Footnote 719: Dig. Nik. XI.]

[Footnote 720: Dig. Nik. I. chap. 2, 1-6. The radiant gods are the Abhassara, cf. Dhammap 200.]

[Footnote 721: Watters, II. p. 160.]

[Footnote 722: The legends of both Râma and Krishna occur in the _Book of Jâtakas_ in a somewhat altered form, nos. 641 and 454.]

[Footnote 723: Thus Helios the Sun passes into St Elias.]

[Footnote 724: He is often called Brahmâ Sahampati, a title of doubtful meaning and not found in Brahmanic writings. The Pitakas often speak of Brahmâs and worlds of Brahmâ in the plural, as if there were a whole class of Brahmâs. See especially the Suttas collected in book I, chap. vi. of the Saṃyutta-Nikâya where we even hear of Pacceka Brahmâs, apparently corresponding in some way to Pacceka Buddhas.]

[Footnote 725: Maj. Nik. 49. The meaning of the title Baka is not clear and may be ironical. Another ironical name is manopadosikâ (debauched in mind) invented as the title of a class of gods in Dig. Nik. I. and XX. The idea that sages can instruct the gods is anterior to Buddhism, See e.g. Bṛihad-Âr. Up. II. 5. 17, and ib. IV. 3. 33, and the parallel passage in the Tait. Chând. Kaush. Upanishads and Śat. Brâhmaṇa for the idea that a Śrotriya is equal to the highest deities.]

[Footnote 726: Six Manvantaras of the present Kalpa have elapsed and we are in the seventh.]

[Footnote 727: We are in the Kali or worst age of the present mahâyuga. The Kali lasts 432,000 years and began 3102 B.C.

In their number and in many other points of cosmography the various accounts differ greatly. The account given above is taken from the Vishnu Purâna, book II. but the details in it are not entirely consistent.]

[Footnote 728: The detailed formulation of this cosmography was naturally gradual but its chief features are known to the Nikâyas. Dig. Nik. XIV. 17 and 30 seem to imply the theory of spheres. For Heavens, see Maj. Nik. 49, Dig. Nik. XI. 68-79 and for Hells Sut. Nip. III. 10, Maj. Nik. 129. See too De la Vallée Poussin's article, _Cosmology Buddhist_, in _E.R.E._]

[Footnote 729: See for the Asuras Sam. Nik. I. xi. 1.]

[Footnote 730: See a Tibetan representation in Waddell's _Buddhism of Tibet_, p. 79.]

[Footnote 731: The question of whether the universe is infinite in space or not is according to the Pitakas one of those problems which cannot be answered.]

[Footnote 732: Dig. Nik. XXVII.]

[Footnote 733: Mâro pâpimâ. See especially Windisch, _Mâra and Buddha_, 1895, and Sam. Nik. I. iv.]

[Footnote 734: We sometimes hear of Mâras in the plural. Like Brahmâ he is sometimes a personality, sometimes the type of a class of gods. We also hear that he has obtained his present exalted though not virtuous post by his liberality in former births. Thus, like Sakka and other Buddhist Devas, Mâra is really an office held by successive occupants. He is said to be worshipped by some Tibetan sects. It is possible that the legends about Mâra and his daughters and about Krishna and the Gopîs may have a common origin for Mâra is called Kaṇha (the Prakrit equivalent of Krishna) in Sutta-Nipâta, 439.]

[Footnote 735: Ang. Nik. III. 35.]

[Footnote 736: This seems to be the correct doctrine, though it is hard to understand how the popular idea of continual torture is compatible with the performance of good deeds. The Kathâ-vatthu, XIII. 2, states that a man in purgatory can do good. See too Ang. Nik. 1. 19.]