Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish: Buddha and the gospel of buddhism (London, 1916)

Buddha the Gospel of Buddhism
‘ deliverance,’ and those who have attained this salvation
are called Arahats, adept, whilst the state of adeptship is
called Arahatta. Other terms and definitions include the
‘end of suffering,’ the ‘medicine for all evil,’ ‘living
water,’ the ‘imperishable,’ the ‘abiding,’ the ‘ineffable,’
the ‘ detachment,’ the ‘endless security.’
The Nibbana of which we have so far spoken, it will be
seen, is essentially ethical; but this Nibbana involves,
and is often used as a synonym for, ‘the cessation of
becoming ’;1 and this, of course, is the great desideratum,
of which the ethical ‘ extinction ’ is merely the means and
the outward sign. Salvation (yimutti) has thus also a
psychological aspect, of which the most essential element
is the release from individuality. Thus we find defined
the following Eight Stations of Deliverance : (i) Having
oneself external form, one sees forms; (2) unaware of one’s
own external form, one sees forms external to oneself;
(3) aesthetic hypnosis; (4) abiding in the sphere of space
regarded as infinite; (5) abiding in the sphere of cognition
regarded as infinite; (6) abiding in the sphere of nothing-
ness; (7) abiding in the sphere of neither ideation nor
non-ideation; and (8) abiding in the state where both
sensations and ideas have ceased to be.2
Another way to realize the practical connotation of the
Buddhist Nibbana, is to consider the witness of those
Arahats who, beside Gautama, have attained thereto.
Two of Gautama’s disciples are said to have testified as
follows: “ Lord, he who is Arahant, who . . . has won
his own salvation, has utterly destroyed the fetters of
1 Samyutta Nikaya, ii, 115.
2 Maha Nidana Sutta, 35; Mahaparinibbana Sutta, 33. The
4th~7th stations are identical with the Four Arupa Jhanas by which
the Formless heavens are attained—see pp. in, 147.
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