He who can pass through these supersensual realms enters at once into the Mushiki-Kai,--the spheres of Formlessness. These are four. In the first state of the Mushiki-Kai, all sense of individuality is lost: even the thought of name and form becomes extinct, and there survives only the idea of Infinite Space, or Emptiness. In the second

[1. One is reminded by this conception of Mr. Spencer's beautiful definition of Equanimity:--"Equanimity may be compared to white light, which, though composed of numerous colors, is colorless; while pleasurable and painful moods of mind may be compared to the modifications of light that result from increasing the proportions of some rays, and decreasing the proportions of others."--Principles of Psychology.]

state of the Mushiki-Kai, this idea of space vanishes; and its place is filled by the Idea of Infinite Reason. But this idea of reason is anthropomorphic: it is an illusion; and it fades out in the third state of the Mushiki-Kai, which is called the "State-of-Nothing-to-take-hold-of," or Mu-sho-u-sho-jo. Here is only the Idea of Infinite Nothingness. But even this condition has been reached by the aid of the action of the personal mind. This action ceases: then the fourth state of the Mushiki-Kai is reached,--the Hiso-hihiso-sho, or the state of "neither-namelessness-nor-not-namelessness." Something of personal mentality continues to float vaguely here,--the very uttermost expiring vibration of Karma,--the last vanishing haze of being. It melts;--and the immeasurable revelation comes. The dreaming Buddha, freed from the last ghostly bond of Self, rises at once into the "infinite bliss" of Nirvana.[1]

But every being does not pass through all the states above enumerated: the power to

[1. The expression "infinite bliss" as synonymous with Nirvana is taken from the Questions of King Milinda.]

rise swiftly or slowly depends upon the acquisition of merit as well as upon the character of the Karma to be overcome. Some beings pass to Nirvana immediately after the present life; some after a single new birth; some after two or three births; while many rise directly from this world into one of the Supersensuous Heavens. All such are called Cho,--the Leapers,--of whom the highest class reach Nirvana at once after their death as men or women. There are two great divisions of Cho,--the Fu-Kwan, or Never-Returning-Ones,[1] and the Kwan, Returning Ones, or revenants. Sometimes the return may be in the nature of a prolonged retrogression; and, according to a Buddhist legend of the origin of the world, the first men were beings who had fallen from the Kwo-on-Ten, or Heaven of Sonorous Light. A remarkable fact about the whole theory of progression is that the progression is not conceived of