Gleanings in Buddha-Fields; Studies of Hand and Soul in the Far East - Softcover
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ... IX. NIRVANA. A STUDY IN SYNTHETIC BUDDHISM. I. "It is not possible, O Subhuti, that this treatise of the Law should be heard by beings of little faith,--by those who believe in Self, in beings, in living beings, and in persons."--The DiamondCutter. There still widely prevails in Europe and America the idea that Nirvana signifies, to Buddhist minds, neither more nor less than absolute nothingness,--complete annihilation. This idea is erroneous. But it is erroneous only because it contains half of a truth. This half of a truth has no value or interest, or even intelligibility, unless joined with the other half. And of the other half no suspicion yet exists in the average Western mind. Nirvana, indeed, signifies an extinction. But if by this extinction of individual being we understand souldeath, our conception of Nirvana is wrong. Or if we take Nirvana to mean such reabsorption of the finite into the infinite as that predicted by Indian pantheism, again our idea is foreign to Buddhism. Buddhist reasoning pronounces the greatest of all illusions, and even the source of all sorrow and sin. "The mind, the thoughts, and all the senses are subject to the law of life and death. With knowledge of Self and the laws of birth and death, there is no grasping, and no sense-perception. Knowing oneself and knowing how the senses act, there is no room for the idea of 'I,' or the ground for framing it. The thought of 'Self gives rise to all sorrows,--binding the world as with fetters; but having found there is no 'I' that can be bound, then all these bonds are severed."* Nevertheless, if we declare that Nirvana means the extinction of individual sensation, emotion, thought, the final disintegration of conscious personality, the annihilation of everything...
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About the Author:
Hearn (1850-1904) was born in Levkas, Greece, as the son of Greek and British parents. In 1869 he went to the United States and did various work, finally as a journalist. In 1890 he came to Japan and taught English in Japanese schools, and became a Japanese citizen under the name of Koizumi Yakuma. He died in Tokyo.
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- PublisherTheClassics.us
- Publication date2013
- ISBN 10 1230344802
- ISBN 13 9781230344805
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages54
- Rating
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