Order is to be preferred, for in this way Nirvana may be gained in the present life.

The bonds that keep people from attaining Nirvana are called the Ten Fetters. They are:

1. The Delusion of Self. If a man believes in an ego, he is certain to feel either love or hate toward it. This feeling leads him to do things that are detrimental to "himself": he either begins some sort of self-mortification to purify his ego or, due to his hatred of the idea of an ego, he convinces himself of its non-existence, and so, believing that there is no entity to which evil deeds may attach themselves, he strives for sensual pleasure through any and every form, mostly bad, and lays up for himself thereby an immense store of bad Karma which he will have to work off. But if he considers himself as nothing more or less than the sum total of his faculties, all of which have the form they possess because of an infinite series of causes behind them, he finds nothing in himself to love or to hate. In the destruction of this fetter the way is opened to perfectly altruistic action, to universal love, the keynote of Buddhism. (Action for the good of all beings is emphasized in the Gita too, but the way of carrying it out is exactly the opposite of the Buddhist way, namely, by unwavering attachment to the self, which is the Self of the Universe.)

2. Doubt of the Teacher, the Dhamma (the Law), the Order, the System of Training, past, future, and present action of Karma, and the qualities which arise from Karma. One must have faith, not in the ability of the Teacher to save, for man may only save himself, but in the method of attaining salvation as laid down by him.

3. Belief in the Efficacy of Morality and Ceremonies. The mere performance of good works and sacrifices does not help one on the road to salvation, but only to a good future life. Krishna does not hold this view. With him, even the voluntary renunciation of the fruits of action was a step on the path to salvation. Sacrifice to the gods should be performed by those who worship the gods, and sacrifice of their whole life to Krishna by those who are devoted to him. As a matter of fact, the Buddhist ideal of the priest is of one who has turned

his life into a sacrifice to all living creatures, remaining on earth solely for their benefit, since Nirvana awaits him at death.

4. Love and Hate. One should never love or hate any individual thing to such an extent that it interferes with one's own best interests; but benevolence toward all things and the fulfilment of one's duty toward them is required. In the matter of retiring from the world the priest does not act selfishly, for a priest is of more value to the world as a whole than a layman. Both asceticism and passion are decried. The Buddha asserts that both are evil and harmful. Neither should the mind be occupied with the satisfaction or the violent suppression of desire. In Buddhism such practices do not even lead to a good future life-but probably Krishna would have allowed them some reward.

5. Ill-will. To do away with this, one quarter of the world at a time should be pervaded, first with love, then pity, sympathy, and equanimity. (Compare the Gita, 12:13, 14: "He who is without hate toward all creatures, friendly, without 'mine,' without the 'I-maker,' equal in pain and pleasure, patient-he is beloved of me.") 6. Love of things earthly. 7. Love of things heavenly.

8. Pride in being one of the elect.

9. Self-righteousness.

10. Ignorance, or Stupidity, which, being the beginning of Dependent Origination, has had a longer time to establish itself, and is harder to get rid of.

When the Four Noble Truths have been fully realized, the Ten Fetters broken, Dependent Origination understood, and the three characteristics, transitoriness, misery, and soullessness, perceived everywhere in the elements of being, arahat-ship (saintship) is the reward. This is the Discipline in Wisdom, but there are also the Disciplines in Conduct and Concentration. All three of these are called the Way of Purity, and are followed by the arahat or saint. In the Discipline of Concentration are included the Forty Subjects of Meditation and the Four Trance States, which the Buddha recognized as

good for diminishing passion, but not resulting in its complete extirpation. The Discipline in Conduct simply implies the "non-performance of any wickedness." It is plain that intellectual understanding is the most important requirement for a man who wishes to tread the Way of Purity.

Concerning Nirvana, the aim of ethics, little definite information is given in either the Buddhist writings or in the Gita. The Buddha, like Jesus, realized that such speculations did not lead to Nirvana, and discouraged them. Concerning Nirvana he said, "There is, ye disciples, an abode where there is neither earth nor water, neither air nor light, neither infinity of space nor infinity of time, neither any being, neither representation, neither this world nor yonder world. There is neither beginning nor end, neither death nor birth, neither cause nor effect, neither change nor stagnation. There is, ye disciples, an unborn state, an unarisen; a state not yet existing, not yet formed. If this were not so, there would be no escape from the world existing, arisen, formed."

In the Gita, Nirvana is the state, for the Vedantist, in which one's self is understood to be identical with the Self of the universe. For the Sankhyan, it is the state in which the soul is completely freed from all connection with matter, through the realization by means of the intellect that the soul is purely passive. Since the Sankya and the Yoga are really the same, as we are told, this must be the end of the Yoga too, though in some way the Yogin also acquires the vision of Krishna as the whole universe through devotion to him.

In both Buddhism and the Gita, Nirvana is to be attained through knowledge, either as won by the individual himself or as bestowed upon him. Both are absolutely mechanistic, Buddhism and the Sankhya making the individual capacity of choice subject to the law of cause and effect. The Yoga follows the Sankhya. For both, non-attachment is the basis of all truly right action,

and all actions are to be performed ultimately for the good of all. Salvation is the result of one's own actions, and is not arbitrarily bestowed.

The most important differences between the two are that, in Buddhism, knowledge must be gained before salvation is reached, while in the Gita salvation may be reached first and knowledge attained afterward. Buddhism denies the existence of any permanent entity anywhere in the universe, the plurality of methods of attaining salvation that are really practical, and asserts the essential evil of everything in the known universe, Nirvana being the only good.

I fear that this paper has been rather dull, so I feel it my duty to try to refresh the reader with a story. I have chosen that of "The Serpent Who Wanted to Become a Priest," which is light enough for my purpose, yet sufficiently illustrative of the Buddhist virtues not to be out of place.

The Serpent Who Wanted to Become a Priest -Now at that time a certain serpent was distressed at, ashamed of, and loathed his state as a serpent.

Then it occurred to the serpent as follows:

"How can I become a human being? Now here are these Sakyaputta monks. If I retired from the world under them, I might gain release from my state as a serpent and quickly become a human being."

So he went to the priests in the guise of a youth, and they received him into the order. The serpent dwelt with a certain priest in a cell on the outskirts of the monastery. When the priest had gone out the serpent felt safe and went to sleep. Then the whole cell became filled with the snake and his coils hung out at the windows.

And the priest, wishing to enter the dwelling, pushed open the door and saw that the whole house was filled with the snake. So he shrieked.

The Brothers came running up and said, "Brother, why did you shriek?"

"Brethren, this whole house is filled with a snake, and its coils are hanging out the window."

Then the serpent woke, and the priests said to him, "Who are you, brother?”

"Reverend sirs, I am a serpent."

"But wherefore, brother, have you behaved in this manner?"

Then the serpent explained to the brethren, and the brethren to the Blessed One. The Blessed One said:

"You, verily, are a serpent, and not capable of growth in this Doctrine and Discipline; go you, remain in your state as a serpent, and keep fast-day on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and eighth days of the half month; thus shall you gain release from your state as a serpent, and quickly become a human being."

"He says I am not capable of growth in this Doctrine and Discipline," said the serpent; and with tears and shrieks he sorrowfully and dejectedly departed.

-Buddhism in Translations, 401.