Those of the second series belong to the beings located in the sixteen seats of the Brahmas, including those who have entered into the current of perfection, by following the four Meggas, and enjoying the merits and rewards connected with the condition of the perfect.
The ideas of the third series are the happy lot of those superior beings who soar high in the regions of pure spiritualism, leaving below them all the things that have a reference to this world, such as we see it.
The Tsedathits, or results essentially connected with ideas, are fifty-two in number. The seven enumerated at the end of this article are: contact, sensation, perception, inclination, fixity, command over self, and remembrance: they are inherent in all ideas. Six Tsedathits are connected with the act of perception, viz., thought, reflection, decision, energy, pleasure, and liberty. Fourteen others are connected with the ideas of demerits, viz., impudence, audacity in evil, unsteadiness, concupiscence, pride, boasting, grievous offence, envy, anxiety, want of respect, lowness of feelings, doubt or indecision, covetousness.
The Tsedathits connected with merits are: affection for all that refers to religion, remembrance of all that is good, shame of all that is bad, fear of evil, exemption from concupiscence and from anger, serenity of soul, freedom from evil inclinations and evil thoughts, swiftness of the body and of the mind, good habits of the body and of the soul, uprightness in the feelings and the thoughts, good words, good actions, good behaviour, compassion, joy at the prosperity of others, wisdom, or the acquirement of the knowledge of truth by reflection.
[51] Having in two previous notes explained what regards the ideas, and the results from or the things connected with ideas, we must come to the third great principle, viz., Rupa, or form, or matter, and state further the curious divisions of our Burmese metaphysicians. 1. The form of all that is visible is found in the four elements: earth, water, fire, and air. 2. The form for coming in contact are the five senses, the eyes, the ear, the nose, the tongue, and the body, or rather the skin of the body. 3. The form of the objects of the senses is likewise divided into five parts, essentially connected with the five above-enumerated senses. 4. The forms peculiar to the living beings are the male and female sexes. 5. The forms of life taken abstractedly are the life of the body and the life of language or uttered words. 6. The forms in which appearance exhibits itself are swiftness, softness, and acting. 7. The forms of the signs of being are: the appearance of being, on coming into being, the remaining into being, the fulness of the state of being, and the destruction of being.
The last great principle is Neibban, that is to say, the exemption from the action of the influence originating from merits and demerits, from the volitions of the mind, from the seasons or time, and from nourishment, which are the causes of mutability; it is the end of existence.
As regards the state of man and that of other rational beings, there are several notions which are arranged in a curious manner under several heads, which it is thought necessary to notice as briefly as possible. 1. The five Khandas, or supports of man’s being: materiality, sensation, perception, mutability, and intellect or thought. 2. The inward five Ayatana, or seats of the senses of seeing, of hearing, of smelling, of tasting, and of feeling. 3. The outward five Ayatana, or seats of what is perceived by the senses, viz., appearance or form, sound, odour, taste, tangibility, and idea. 4. The ten Dat, or constitutive parts of the five senses, and of the five results of the perception of the five senses, as above enumerated. 5. The four Thitsa, or truths: the truth of the miseries attending existence; the truth of concupiscence or passions, the cause of all miseries; the truth of the Neibban of passions, or the destruction of passions, the summit of which is Neibban, the truth of the Megga or ways to Neibban. 6. The twenty-two Indray, or dispositions or capacities for acting, viz., the capacity of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, of uniting one sex with the other, of thinking, of enjoying peace, of bearing pain, of yielding to anger, of enjoying pleasure, of remaining indifferent, of using exertions, of being attentive, of adhering to true doctrine, of putting on sentiments of benevolence, of searching after wisdom, of using meekness, of entering the four ways of perfection, and of enjoying the happiness resulting from following those ways. 7. The nine Phola, or rewards resulting from walking in the path of perfection are: intensity of benevolence, of diligence, of attention, of fixity of wisdom, of shame of all that is bad, of fear for all that is bad, of diligence in avoiding evil, and the fear of hardness in sin. 8. The Megga, or ways, are: good doctrine, good thinking, good language, and good actions. What follows is but a completive of the above, viz., good conduct, good diligence, good attention, and good fixity. 9. The Dzan, or meditation, have five parts, viz., thought of the object, reflection on the object, satisfaction resulting therefrom, affectionate inclination for the object, fixity in the object.
The writer craves the reader’s indulgence in setting before him such a dry nomenclature; but no one can understand the language of Buddhist metaphysicians, unless he has made himself familiar with the terms they use, and the arbitrary distinctions they have adopted.
[52] In this latter part our author clearly explains his opinion on this world, that is to say, on all that exists. He states at first, in general terms, that what we see and perceive by means of our senses, possesses no reality; it is a mere illusion. Our ignorance of the real state of things deceives us, by making us believe in the reality of objects that have nothing but an ephemeral and illusory existence. He proceeds a little farther, and treats our senses in like manner. They are the instruments that procure unto us a general illusion. But the senses, what are they? They are distinct from us. By a strict analysis we find them to be but a compound of the four elements, liable to dissolution and destruction. A living being has certain attributes which are the supports of his existence; but those attributes are equally a compound of the elements, subjected to the same modifications of reproduction and destruction and deprived of consistence. The attributes of the living beings being disposed of in this manner, the being itself vanishes away. There remain but name and form. But does what we call form possess a real existence? Undoubtedly not. It is a mere phantom, an illusion. Our author comes to the necessary and final consequence that there is no world really existing. In fact, he denies the existence of matter and spirit. With such an abuse of the powers of reasoning, there is no wonder that he looks upon Neibban, or annihilation, as the only end to be arrived at. Man in his opinion being but a compound of the four elements, which have no real existence, cannot be himself but an illusion without a reality. Gracious Heavens! what an excess of mental aberration will man reach when he is left to himself, deprived of the light from above! Never has the writer witnessed such a total eclipse of human intellect.
[53] The word Talapoin, imported into Europe by the writings of early Portuguese authors in the East Indies, derives its origin probably from two Pali words, Tala-pat, meaning the leaf of the palm-tree. These two words, coupled together, are used by the Siamese to designate the large fan made of palm-leaves, set in a slender wooden frame, which Talapoins carry with them on certain occasions when they go abroad.