Evidently, without a preliminary solution of the riddles offered by such texts, any effort to learn the meaning of Nirvana is hopeless. Before being able to comprehend the true meaning of those sutras now made familiar to English readers by translation, it is necessary to understand that the common Occidental ideas of God and Soul, of matter, of spirit, have no existence in Buddhist philosophy; their places being occupied by concepts having no real counterparts in Western religious thought. Above all, it is. necessary that the reader should expel from his mind the theological idea of Soul. The texts already quoted should have made it clear that in Buddhist philosophy there is no personal transmigration, and no individual Permanent Soul.

II

O Bhagavat, the idea of a self is no idea; and the idea; and of a being, or a living person, or a person, is no idea. And why? Because the blessed Buddhas are freed from all ideas."--The Diamond-Cutter.

And now let us try to understand what it is that dies, and what it is that is reborn,--what it is that commits faults and what it is that suffers penalties,--what passes from states of woe to states of bliss,--what enters into Nirvana after the destruction of self-consciousness,--what survives "extinction" and has power to return out of Nirvana,--what experiences the Four Infinite Feelings after all finite feeling has been annihilated.

It is not the sentient and conscious Self that enters Nirvana. The Ego is only a temporary aggregate of countless illusions, a phantom-shell, a bubble sure to break. It is a creation of Karma,--or rather, as a Buddhist friend insists, it is Karma. To comprehend the statement fully, the reader should know that, in this Oriental philosophy, acts and thoughts are forces integrating themselves into material and mental phenomena,

--into what we call objective and subjective appearances. The very earth we tread upon,--the mountains and forests, the rivers and seas, the world and its moon, the visible universe in short,--is the integration of acts and thoughts, is Karma, or, at least, Being conditioned by Karma.[1]

[1. "The aggregate actions of all sentient beings give birth to the varieties of mountains, rivers, countries, etc. . . . Their eyes, nostrils, ears, tongues, bodies,--as well as their gardens, woods, farms, residences, servants, and maids,--men imagine to be their own possessions; but they are, in truth, only results produced by innumerable actions."--KURODA, Outlines of the Mahayana.

"Grass, trees, earth,--all these shall become Buddha."--CHU-IN-KYO."

"Even swords and things of metal are manifestations of spirit: within them exist all virtues [or 'power'] in their fullest development and perfection."--HIZO-HO-YAKU.

"When called sentient or non-sentient, matter is Law-Body [or 'spiritual body']."--CHISHO-HISHO).