128. Q. Emancipation, then, from what?

A. Emancipation from the miseries of earthly existence and of re-births, all of which are due to. ignorance and impure lusts and cravings.

129. Q. And when this salvation or emancipation is attained, what do we reach?

A. NIRVanA.

130. Q. What is Nirvana?

A. A condition of total cessation of changes, of perfect rest; of the absence of desire and illusion and sorrow; of the total obliteration of everything that goes to make up the physical man. Before reaching NIRVanA man is constantly being re-born: when he reaches NIRVanA he is re-born no more.

131. Q. Where can be found a learned discussion of the word Nirvana, and a list of the other names by which the old Pali writers attempted to define it?

A. In the famous Dictionary of the Pali Language, by the late Mr. R. C. Childers, is a complete list. [**]

132. Q. But some people imagine that Nirvana is some sort of heavenly place, a Paradise. Does Buddhism teach that?

A. No. When Kutadanta asked the Buddha "Where is Nirvana," he replied that it was "Wherever the precepts are obeyed."

133. Q. What causes us to be re-born?

A. The unsatisfied selfish desire (Sk., trishna; Pali, tanha) for things that belong to the state of personal existence in the material world. This unquenched thirst for physical existence (bhava) is a force, and has a creative power in itself so strong that it draws the being back into mundane life.

134. Q. Are our re-births in any way affected by the nature of our unsatisfied desires?

A. Yes; and by our individual merits or demerits.

135. Q. Does our merit or demerit control the state, condition or form in which we shall be re-born?

A. It does. The broad rule is that if we have an excess of merit we shall be well and happily born the next time; if an excess of demerit, our next birth will be wretched and full of suffering.

136. Q. One chief pillar of Buddhistic doctrine is, then, the idea that every effect is the result of an actual cause, is it not?

A. It is; of a cause either immediate or remote.

137. Q. What do we call this causation?

A. Applied to individuals, it is Karma, that is, action. It means that our own actions or deeds bring upon us whatever of joy or misery we experience.

138. Q. Can a bad man escape from the out-workings of his Karma?

A. The Dhammapada says: "There exists no spot on the earth, or in the sky, or in the sea, neither is there any in the mountain-clefts, where an (evil) deed does not bring trouble (to the doer)."

139. Q. Can a good man escape?

A. As the result of deeds of peculiar merit, a man may attain certain advantages of place, body, environment and teaching in his next stage of progress, which ward off the effects of bad Karma and help his higher evolution.

140. What are they called?