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These considerations respecting the forbidden desires are taken from the discourses of the Great- conveyance (Maha yana) School ; and in these also we find the follow- ing . — Alas ! for the miseries which all creatures endure constantly from these five desires ! And still they seek after their indulgence, and are never satisfied ! These five desires conduce to our continuance in misery, as fuel which revives and supports a fire. These five desires can bring no satis- faction, as a dog gnawing a rotten bone; they produce quarrels and fights, as birds contending for a bit of flesh ; they burn, as the flame of a torch, when the wind is contrary, burns the hand ; they are poisonous, as the poison of snakes; their benefit is no more than that of a dream ; they last but for a moment, as the spark from the flint, and are utterly vain ! — The wise man, again, considers them as hateful robbers, which hold in their bonds the foolish men of the world till they die, and after death entail on them endless miseries ; these lusts are shared in common with the beasts; by their indulgence we are brought into the condition of abject slavery ; these miserable lusts immerse us in the filth of the three worlds. I, then, preparing the exercise of dhyana (religious abstraction), should drive away these hindrances, as robbers arc driven away and expelled, accord- ing to the Gathas in the Dhyana Sutra, SCRIPTUEES FROM THE CHINESE. 2G1 "We are still tangled iu the coil of Life and Death, Because we still indulge our taste for sinful pleasures • We treasure up for ourselves vengeance when we die ; Vain as these pleasures are, they entail nothing but sorrow," etc. 3. CASTING AWAY HINDKANCES. The hindrances here spoken of are five : viz., covetous- ness, anger, sloth, restlessness, unbelief. In the previous section we spoke of desire for external gratification, the object being in one of the five categories of sense. But now we are speaking, in brief, of the desires which are originated in the mind itself, viz., when engaged in the prac- tice of religious duties ; (1) a covetous desire ; for instance, after complete wisdom ; the thoughts about this will so inter- twine as to becloud and impede the virtuous intentions (heart), and result in the production of an imperfect wisdom . For con- sider ! if the animal desires, strengthening in the heart, are able (as it were) to consume the body, how much more will not the fire, which the heart itself produces by its desires, burn up every virtuous principle ? The man who encourages this covetous disposition banishes reason, and drives it away ; he makes the foundation of misery ever broader and broader; the heart that entertains it can never approach the border of wisdom, as it is said in the followino- Gathas which relate to the subject, "The man who has entered on the path of Reason, ashamed and wearied (of sin). Who has taken the alms-bowl, able to confer happiness on all crea- tures. How can such an one again become subject to covetous desires, Or be soiled and besotted by the five passions ? Having once let go the indulgence of such things, He discards them, nor ever looks back. The man who returns to the gratification of these desires, Is like a fool returning to his vomit ; For these desires, whilst the search lasts, are bitter, And when gratified bring distraction and fear. 262 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST And when not obtained result in disappointment and chagrin. There is no foundation for any happiness in them. Such is the misery of these Desires ! But when a man has been able to give them all up, Having gained the joys of deep mental abstraction, There is no room left for any further delusion. The second tindrance to be cast away is '' anger •!' this is indeed the origin of all religious failure ; the cause of a man's falling into every evil way of existence ; it is the enemy of all peace^ and the great robber of the virtuous heart ; the fruitful source of the gravest sins of the mouth. For thus it is the disciple^ when sitting in the very act of religious contemplation, thinking on such and such a man, considers thus in his mind : '^ that man is a continual nui- sance to me and to my friends; he seems to court my enmity;" and then he considers about past circumstances and future ones, and so he is filled with vexation, and this generates anger, and this produces hatred, and this results in a deter- mination to retaliate ; thus it is auger beclouds the heart, and so it is called a " hindrance," and should be cast away at once ; and so Sakra Devana in a vei'se puts this question to Buddha : "What is it destroys tranquillity and joy? What is it destroys all contentment? What is the root of bitterness (poison), Which destroys every vii"tuous principle?" To which Buddha replied ia the following verse : — " Destroy anger, there will be Rest and joy ; Destroy anger, there will be contentment : Anger is the root of bitterness (poison) ; Auger destroys every virtuous principle." Thus we may gather just this, that we ought to cultivate a loving and patient disposition, and by destroj'ing and for- saking every remnant (of anger), induce a perfect tranquillity of mind. The third hindrance is slothful indolence. The darkness that tlvvells within the heart is called sloth, and the heaviness SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 263 wliicli pervades every part of the corporeal system, invitiuo- to sleep and laziness, this is called indolence ; and hence the name slothful indolence. It is this disposition that prevents all present or future attainment of solid happiness, and stands opposed both to the happiness of heaven and the attainment of Nirvana, so great is the destructive power of this wicked principle. So that whilst the other hindrances cause one to lose ground, this indolence makes one like a dead person, un- able to hold any ground, and for this reason it is difficult to ex- tirpate and destroy. As Buddha, when enlarging on this very subject in the presence of the Bodhisatwas, says in verse : " Rise from thy bed ! embrace not the stinking corpse of sleep! Suppose the arrows of grievous disease penetrated thy body, And the whole collection of miseries consequent thereon, could thei"e then be peaceful Rest ?" etc.i Thus, by various arguments, he chides the hindrance of slothfulness, and warns us, by shortening our hours of rest, to get rid of the cloudy influences that darken the mind, and, if necessary, to devote ourselves more and more to the practice of fixed contemplation, in order to curb and destroy the inclination to indolence. The fourth hindrance to be cast away is restlessness and vexation. This restlessness is threefold : (1 .) Restlessness of body; when one cannot be still in any position, but there is a constant inclination to get about something else, either to walk about, or to sit or to change position. (2.) Restless- ness of the vocal organs, as when one is always humming or singing, or chattering or arguing. (3.) Restlessness of mind, as when one is always thinking how to excel in worldly knowledge. This is the "love of change" of which we speak, destructive of all true religion ; for if the mind of the re- ligious person cannot be firmly fixed in contemplation, when governed by the ordinary rules used by men for this purpose, how much less when this restlessness is allowed to dissipate 1 I have not thought it necessary to translate the whole of these verses. They are mere repetitions of the previous argument. 264 A CATENA OV BUDDHIST its strength ? it is like trying to liook a mad elephant, or to restrain a camel without catching him by the nose, as the Gatha says : *' You have shaved your head and assumed the soiled garments (of a priest) ; You have taken the earthen ahns-dish, and gone begging your daily food. What pleasure, then, can there be now in indulging yourself in rest- lessness ? For if you let loose and indulge such feelings as these, you lose all profit in Religion." Surely, then, to lose all profit in religion, and at the same time all worldly pleasures, such a condition is a sad one ! and that which causes it should be, once for all, cast away. But what is the vexation of which we spoke ? This vexation fills up the measure of the ''hindrance" of Restlessness. How is it, then ?