Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1885-10-17
WHAT Is NIRVANA2

A correspondent of the Intelligencer
in reporting a wedding in the county
by wishing that the pathway
in life, of the young people. "may be
with flowers of rarest beauty
and fragrance, and thronged with low
and faithful friends, and at last lead
up, quietly and peacefully to 'nirvana''
the final goal Of every faithful, hoping
In another newspaper b
same writer spoke of nirvana as "tne
Christians hope" These expressions
called from the Intelligencer this short
criticism sNirvana' is not heaven,
by a great deal, friend F. I. 1t may
to turn a period, but it will not
do for a Christian man or woman's
Careless use of words often
leads to much mischief" To this
correspondent demurs, and in a commu-
nication, elsewhere. defends the use OF
the term, and takes the position that
and nirvana are identical,
and that consequently the terms are
synonymous. If he is writing from a
stand point his conclusion
may be satisfactory to himself, but no
could well agree with hlm.
Our correspondent takes the ground
that every religion contemplates a flu
ture state, which Is in itself somewhat
q fallacy, and concludes from his pos
that the place in which this
future condition is to be passed is nee
essarily the same. Here is confusion
enough to lead us into an interminable
controversy. AS interesting as it might
prove to US, we have neither the time
nor space to pursue the subject far. 1t
will suggest itself to F. T., upon reflec-
ton, however, that heaven is hardly
what this or that misguided religion
may have asserted it to be, ideas OF 1t
often growing out OF tho most sensuous
and debased natures.
What, in Gods providence, is to be-
come of the myriads who have died
without the pale of His word and His
law we cannot stop here to inquire, but
as believers in revelation we must hold
that heaven is reserved for those
human souls only which are saved by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
whether before or after His immolation
upon the cross. 1t is for this reason
that we did not like to pass by without
protest the implied idea that a Budd-
histic fancy, the nature of which is
not even yet agreed upon by scholars,
could properly be spoken of as ''the
Christians hope"
The light manner in which our cores
pondent plays upon the words nirvana
and heaven, as to being blown into the
one and heaved into the other, and his
cool assertion that seven the legends
say that Gautama once said," as proof
of anything, show to US that his rever-
ence for the Christians God is very
light, and it follows as a not unnatural
sequence that one heaven is quite as
good as another in his estimation.
But as a Christian man and a Christian
woman we hope to see the young peo-
pie who were recently married look
ing for salvation, in heaven, through
Jesus Christ the Lord.
Nirvana is the term employed by the
Buddhist philosophers to signify the
highest good attainable by mortals, and
their idea of the highest good seems TO
have been humiliation. Buddhists be-
lieve in TRANSPORTATION of life, or con-
tinual births, from the highest divinity
to the lowest a%nimalcule; that life, with
its pains and its Disappointment, is an
evil; and that by the practice of GER
tain virtues their votaries may at last
enter into MISREPRESENTATION. 1t has
recently been asserted that this may not
be "the Buddhist's hope" and that be
really expects, not to be annihilated.
but simply to be released from the law
of continual births, but this view is by
the ablest scholars held to be errone
GUS. One of the best, if not the very
best authority upon the subject, is T
w. Rhys Davids. He says:-
A not unnatural confusion has arisen from
the fact that the rusult Of each mans actioni
is held net to be dissipated as 1t were into
many streams, but concentrated together il
the formation of one new ~sentient being
This link of connection between the two 9TH
erwise distinct individuals has led to expires
sions in Buddhist writings which, when reat
by Christians, seemed to infer the existenc'
of q soul. Phrases used of those living saint
who have entered the fourth path, and hav'
practically attained nlrvana, have also beef
itself. And when further nirvana has beef
described In glowing terms as the happy seat
the excellent eternal place of bliss, wher'
there is nc more death, neither decay the eli
of suffering; the home of peace; the othe
side of the ocean Of existence; the shore 0
salvation; the hsrbor of refuge; the medicine
for all evil; the tr~anscendent, formless, tran
quill state; the Truth, the Infinite, the I'm
speakabIe, the Everlssting,-it has heen sup
posed by some European scholars to mean
blissful state in which the soul (D still ex
lists In an everlasting trance. There car
however, now be no longer any doubt on tn
point. spence Hardy and Bigandet find II
the modern Sinhales and Burmese books tn
same opinion as Avis and Gogerly and espec
tally Childers have found In the more ancien
authorities; and though the modern books 0
the northern Buddhists are doubtful, Eugenu
Burnouf has clearly proved that their olde
te KITS contain only the same doctrine as tina
held In the south. Buddhism does no
acknowledge the existence Of u soul as
thing distinct from the parts and powers 0
man which are dissolved at death, and tn
nlrvana OF Buddhism is simply extinction.
We submit that this is not heaven
| As a matter of fact Buddhism ignore
the existence of a God, and denies tn
existence of the soul.
But heaven; what is that?
Instead of thinking that life is al
evil, because of its burdens, ant
its cares, its pains and its disappoint
meuts, the Christian believes there /
sufficient happiness for him there t
make of life a precious blessing it'll
span of probation, which is to serve a
a stepping-stone into eternal peace an
joy. No matter where 1t is; leave this
to God. He has sufficiently told us WhO