Note 7 — Sútra

These four distinctions (lakshaṅa) are constantly referred to in this Sútra as the “four Canons,” or “Rules.” The idea seems to be this: if a man so destroy all marks of his individual character as to act without any reference to himself, or men, or other states of being, or continuance in the condition of a living creature, then he has arrived at the desired state of non-individuality, and must be lost in the ocean of Universal Life. This is the Pari nirváṅa, the condition of absolute rest—the desired repose of the Buddhist disciple.