Woodstown register. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 187?-1892, 1884-01-08

40 Hiil the laHO, VINO once was SIAM,
All blessing and honor and glory be given,
The Christ, the Redeemer, the Savior IN
Heaven.
THE BUDDHIST HEAVEN.
The general name of the Buddhist
heaven is Nirvana, This term means,
not place, but state. 1t is name.
rather than local habitation. When
devout Buddhist is asked what is the end
and aim of all his hopes for the hereafter,
he answers, "Nirvana." II you ask him
what is Nirvana, he will reply, "nsthlng,"
meaning thereby no thing. Buddhist
philosophers are not much more explicit,
but some of their ideas are worth men
tioning, and, we may say, worth studying.
"The state that is peaceful, free from
body, from passion and from fear, where
birth or death is not-that is Nirvana."
Nirvana puts an end to coming and going
(transmigration of the soul is probably
meant) and there is no other happiness"
at is calm wherein no wind blows"
"There is no different in Nirvana; it is
the humiliation of all the principles of ex
istence." "Nirvana is the completion
and opposite shore of existence, free from
decay. tranquil, knowing no restraint, and
of great blessedeess." "Nirvana is un-
mixed satisfaction, entirely free from sor.
row." "The wind cannot be squeezed in
the hand, nor can its color be told. Yet
the wind is. Even SO Nirvana is, but its
properties cannot be told" "NIryana,
like space. is causeless, does not live nor
die, and has no locality. 1t is the abode
of those liberated from existence" "Nlr-
vana is not, except to the being who at
tains it," Mr.. Alger, in his "Critical
History Of the Doctrine of Future Life,',
altogether the best book on that subject
yet written, says = "The genealogical
force of the word Nirvana is extinction, as
when the sun has set. fire burned out, or
lamp is extinguished. = But
take the term before US in its strictest
sense and mark the result. When fire
is extinguished it is obvious that, while
the fame has disappeared, the substance
OF the fame, whatever it was, has not
| been actually anplhilated. 1t has only
ceased to be in certain visible form in
which it existed before; but still survives
| under altered conditions Now, to COM
| pare the putting out of a lamp to the death
OF man, extinction is not actual destruc-
! ton, but transition of the fame into an
other state of being. That other state, IN
ahe case of the soul, is Nirvana.
Edwin Arnold, in "The Light of ASIA"
puts it thus;
~ take my refuge in thy Law of Goodl
take my refuge in thy Order ON!
The Dew is on the lotus !-rise, Great SUM-
And lift my leaf and mix me with the wave
ON MANI PApME HUM, the Sunrise comes
The Dewdrop slips into the shining Sea-
In other words, the absorption of the
individual soul into the rnv-rsal soul
God. Burnouf's conclusion is: "For
Buddhist theiss, Nirvana is the absorption
of the individual life in God for atheists,
absorption of this individual life IN the
| nothing"-or humiliation. Such emf
nent scholars as Max Muller, Turnour,
Smidt, Hardy and St. Hilare hold that
Nirvana means humiliation pure and sim
pie. Bunsen and others think it Is not
properly humiliation, but ga state in
which all desires Cease and all passions
die" SIN TIE same way" says Freeman
Clarke, "the Buddhist denies God. He
is the unknowable. He is the impossible
to be conceived off," Goethe, in s.Faust,"
unconsciousy phrases this peculiar form Or
theism, or atheism:
"Who shall name Him
And dare to say,
Il believe in Him.
Who shall deny Him,
And venture to.afirm,
Il believe in Him not?'"
Perhaps. however, an anonymous Eng
lish poet touches the prevailing conception
OF Nnvana in Europe and America more
nearly than any one else,
As an infant seeks to rest,
Nestled on its mothers breast,
Let me on thy bosom lie,
Lovei and only Deity!
Let there refuge find
From the motions of the mind
From the strfes Of men and brothers;
From life all born for others;
From night vigils dark and lonely,
Shared with doubling demons only:
From the flames Of passions FIRE;
From the cravings of desire;
From the tortures ofdespairs
From the black companion Care
From the slumher couched with sorrow i:
From the waking on the morrow.
y
| Rest untroubled, tranquil deep,
| Where no souls their vgils keep
Rest in sleep that knows not waking,
| ThirstinR, hunger or heart-breaking,
| Where the pain to be shall cease,
! In Nirvana, perfect peace I
|
The small boy who hangs around the
parlor and makes faces at his sisters beau
should be punished for contempt Of court.
BUcKLEN's ARNIcA SALvE.