Buddha and the gospel of Buddhism . l of thy imagination and thy senses;forasmuch as hereby thou mayst arrive at length to seethe great Salvation of God, being made capable of allmanner of divine sensations and heavenly communica-tions. Since it is nought indeed but thine own hearingand willing that do hinder thee. Just as the mystic seeksto be abstracted from mental activity, in order the betterto know the One Reality, in just the same way the Bud-dhist makes a practice of abstraction that he may bedelivered from self-thinking; and may come to knowthings as they really are. If we omit the two
Buddha and the gospel of Buddhism . l of thy imagination and thy senses;forasmuch as hereby thou mayst arrive at length to seethe great Salvation of God, being made capable of allmanner of divine sensations and heavenly communica-tions. Since it is nought indeed but thine own hearingand willing that do hinder thee. Just as the mystic seeksto be abstracted from mental activity, in order the betterto know the One Reality, in just the same way the Bud-dhist makes a practice of abstraction that he may bedelivered from self-thinking; and may come to knowthings as they really are. If we omit the two words ofGod in the above quotation, or remember that God isNo-thing, it will exactly explain the character and ultimatepurpose of the Buddhist Jhanas. One series of these consists in meditation upon certainset objects—for example, a circle of smooth earth—insuch a way as to separate oneself from all appetite or im-pulse in connexion with them. This exercise recalls thedisinterestedness of aesthetic contemplation, where the 146. Plate K THE BUDDHA IN SAMADHI Colossal image at Anuradhapura, Ceylon, ca. 2nd century 146 Jh ana spectator is from himself set free ; the Buddhist Jhanaaims to attain the same result in a more mechanical contemplation prepares the way for higher things,and by itself leads to favourable rebirth in the Heaven ofIdeal Form {ritpaloka). The resulting trance is dividedinto four or five phases. A further series, which secure rebirth in the Heaven ofNo-form (ariLfialoka), consists in the successive realizationof the stations of the Infinity of Space, of the Infinity ofIntellection, of Emptiness, and of Neither-consciousness-nor-unconsciousness. In these exercises the aspirantexperiences, as it were, a foretaste of the worlds of re-becoming to which his character will lead after death;for the moment, indeed, he already enters those exercises, however, do not lead directly and imme-diately to Nibbana, but only to re-becoming in the
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