The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana — Th. Stcherbatsky (1927)

3 idamsatya-abhinivesa, i. e. regards the dharmas as real.

4 karma , technically it means that blind biotic forces (karma) operate, seemingly through him.

5 yantra-kdra.

appendix: candrakirtts comment on relativity, i 129 a mechanical doll (with the form of) a beautiful young woman. It was not a real woman, (but the workmanship was so perfect) that it appeared as a real beauty, and an artist painter (really) fell in love with it. Just so is it that phenomena, although having no separate reality of their own, are nevertheless efficient producers either of moral pollution or moral purification for simple people#.

We find in the Ratnakutasutra 1 the following (story). «At that time 47. 1. there were five hundred monks who did not understand the preaching of the Buddha. They did not go deep into it. They had no fervour for it. They then stood up from their seats and went away. The Buddha on this occa¬ sion produced a magical vision of two recluses on the path by which the monks were receding. The five hundred monks then reached the place where 47. 5. the two apparitional recluses were standing. Having met them they spoke unto them. «Where are both the Reverend Fathers going»? The magical monks answered. «We are retiring to the woods. There we will live enjoying the de¬ lightful feeling of trance. We cannot penetrate the doctrine taught by the Bud¬ dha, we cannot go deep into it. We feel no devotion, we fear it, we are trembling before it». Then the five hundred monks spoke. ((Neither we can 47. 9 . penetrate into the doctrine taught by the Buddha, nor can we go deep into it, nor are we devoted to it. We fear, we tremble, we have got quite in a tremble. Therefore we too will go to the w 7 oods and live there enjoying the de¬ lightful feeling of trance». The magical monks spoke. ((Therefore, 0 Reve- 47. 11. rends, we shall be united, we shall not quarrel. Above all duties for the monk, not to quarrel is the paramount!)) «Whom do the Reverenus think to get rid of»? They answered. «We think to get rid of covetousness, of hatred and of infatuation». The two magical monks spoke. «But are the Reverends (really) possessed of those covetousness, hatred and infatuation which they want to forsake ?» They answered. «They are not to be perceived, neither in us internally, nor in the things externally, nor in the space between both. Nor can they indeed arise without having been imagined)). The magical 48. 3. monks spoke. ((Therefore, 0 Reverends, do not imagine them, do not fancy them.

And if the Reverends will not imagine, will not fancy them, they will neither love nor dislove. Tne man who neither loves nor disloves, is called dispassionate. 48. 5. Merit, 0 Reverends, neither migrates, nor finally disappears. Trance, Wis¬ dom, Deliverance, the intellectual awakening (of the first glimpse) of Nirvana 2 —they do not migrate, nor do they disappear, they are the ele-

1 Cp. AVassiliew. p. 157. 2 vimukti-jndna-dariana.

NIRVANA

APPENDIX: CANDRAKIR1TS COMMENT ON RELATIVITY, 1

48 . 7 . ments, o Reverends, through which Nirvana is suggested. But (in them¬ selves), o Reverends, these elements are also relative , 1 they have no essence. You must forget, o Reverends, even the idea of a (separate) Final Nirvana! Do not produce conceptions about what is only a conception, do not con¬ ceive an idea about what is only an idea! For him who very much thinks about an idea as an idea, this idea becomes a prison. 0 Reverends, you must en¬ ter that mystic condition where all concepts and all feelings are extinct! We tell you that a recluse who is merged in such a trance (has reached the 43 . 12. climax) after which no further progress is possible)). After that these five hundred recluses have got their minds delivered (from all bonds, even from) dis¬ passionate bonds. Having got their minds thus enlightened, they approached the place where the Buddha was dwelling. After having approached they saluted the feet of the Lord in touching the ground with their heads and sat aside».

49. l. «The Reverend Subhuti then spoke to the recluses thus. «C> Brethren,