Note 51 — THE SEVEN WAYS TO NEIBBAN.

Having in two previous notes explained what regards the ideas, and the results from or the things connected with ideas, we must come to the third great principle, viz., Rupa, or form, or matter, and state further the curious divisions of our Burmese metaphysicians. 1. The form of all that is visible is found in the four elements: earth, water, fire, and air. 2. The form for coming in contact are the five senses, the eyes, the ear, the nose, the tongue, and the body, or rather the skin of the body. 3. The form of the objects of the senses is likewise divided into five parts, essentially connected with the five above-enumerated senses. 4. The forms peculiar to the living beings are the male and female sexes. 5. The forms of life taken abstractedly are the life of the body and the life of language or uttered words. 6. The forms in which appearance exhibits itself are swiftness, softness, and acting. 7. The forms of the signs of being are: the appearance of being, on coming into being, the remaining into being, the fulness of the state of being, and the destruction of being.

The last great principle is Neibban, that is to say, the exemption from the action of the influence originating from merits and demerits, from the volitions of the mind, from the seasons or time, and from nourishment, which are the causes of mutability; it is the end of existence.

As regards the state of man and that of other rational beings, there are several notions which are arranged in a curious manner under several heads, which it is thought necessary to notice as briefly as possible. 1. The five Khandas, or supports of man’s being: materiality, sensation, perception, mutability, and intellect or thought. 2. The inward five Ayatana, or seats of the senses of seeing, of hearing, of smelling, of tasting, and of feeling. 3. The outward five Ayatana, or seats of what is perceived by the senses, viz., appearance or form, sound, odour, taste, tangibility, and idea. 4. The ten Dat, or constitutive parts of the five senses, and of the five results of the perception of the five senses, as above enumerated. 5. The four Thitsa, or truths: the truth of the miseries attending existence; the truth of concupiscence or passions, the cause of all miseries; the truth of the Neibban of passions, or the destruction of passions, the summit of which is Neibban, the truth of the Megga or ways to Neibban. 6. The twenty-two Indray, or dispositions or capacities for acting, viz., the capacity of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, of uniting one sex with the other, of thinking, of enjoying peace, of bearing pain, of yielding to anger, of enjoying pleasure, of remaining indifferent, of using exertions, of being attentive, of adhering to true doctrine, of putting on sentiments of benevolence, of searching after wisdom, of using meekness, of entering the four ways of perfection, and of enjoying the happiness resulting from following those ways. 7. The nine Phola, or rewards resulting from walking in the path of perfection are: intensity of benevolence, of diligence, of attention, of fixity of wisdom, of shame of all that is bad, of fear for all that is bad, of diligence in avoiding evil, and the fear of hardness in sin. 8. The Megga, or ways, are: good doctrine, good thinking, good language, and good actions. What follows is but a completive of the above, viz., good conduct, good diligence, good attention, and good fixity. 9. The Dzan, or meditation, have five parts, viz., thought of the object, reflection on the object, satisfaction resulting therefrom, affectionate inclination for the object, fixity in the object.

The writer craves the reader’s indulgence in setting before him such a dry nomenclature; but no one can understand the language of Buddhist metaphysicians, unless he has made himself familiar with the terms they use, and the arbitrary distinctions they have adopted.