Note 7 — Chapter XIII · NAGARA. FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA’S SKULL-BONE. OTHER RELICS, AND HIS SHADOW.

(7) See Eitel’s Handbook under the name vimoksha, which is explained as “the act of self-liberation,” and “the dwelling or state of liberty.” There are eight acts of liberating one’s self from all subjective and objective trammels, and as many states of liberty (vimukti) resulting therefrom. They are eight degrees of self-inanition, and apparently eight stages on the way to nirvâna. The tope in the text would be emblematic in some way of the general idea of the mental progress conducting to the Buddhistic consummation of existence.