What  can  the  "  extinction "  be  to  which  such  "  non-
existence "  can  lead?  The  shadowy  word-play  can
prove  only  that  entity  and  nonentity  had  no  such
strictness  of  meaning  in  this  contemplative  devotion
as  they  have  in  the  analytic  mind  of  the  West.
The  endless  repetitions  and  recurrences  of  numbers
in  Buddhist  mythology  are  not  to  be  taken  in

Meaning  of  J  "J  ,

these  stages  a  literal  sense :  they  indicate  simply  the  per-
of  devotlon-  petual  monotone  by  which  the  dreamer's  imagi-
nation is  limited,  and  to  which  it  perpetually  returns.
So  these  successive  stages  in  the  path  of  liberation,
ever  returning  to  some  new  formula  of  the  same
constant  idea  of  "  nonentity,"  and  again  and  again
attempting  closer  approximation  to  the  statement  of  it,
can  hardly  be  supposed  to  indicate  real  processes  of
transition,  a  definite  order  and  series  of  experiences.
They  seem  to  mean  that  the  dreamer's  soul  was  for
ever  haunted  by  boundless  discontent  with  all  defi-
nite forms  under  which    life  could  present  itself  to

1  For  these  stages,  see  account  given  in  Koeppen,  I.  587-592.     Burnouf 's  Lotus,  814,
543,  S24.     St.  Hilaire  (p.  158)  omits  the  fifth  stage.
