he had found sitting with her a young girl, whose aspect

[18] The bhikshunis are the female monks or nuns, subject to the same rules as the bhikshus, and also to special ordinances of restraint. See Hardy's E. M., chap. 17. See also Sacred Books of the East, vol. xx, p. 321.

[19] The Sramaneras are the novices, male or female, who have vowed to observe the Shikshapada, or ten commandments. Fa-hien was himself one of them from his childhood. Having heard the Trisharana, or threefold formula of Refuge,--"I take refuge in Buddha; the Law; the Church,-- the novice undertakes to observe the ten precepts that forbid --(1) destroying life; (2) stealing; (3) impurity; (4) lying; (5) intoxicating drinks; (6) eating after midday; (7) dancing, singing, music, and stage-plays; (8) garlands, scents, unguents, and ornaments; (9) high or broad couches; (10) receiving gold or silver." Davids' Manual, p. 160; Hardy's E. M., pp. 23, 24.

[20] The eldest son of Sakyamuni by Yasodhara. Converted to Buddhism, he followed his father as an attendant; and after Buddha's death became the founder of a philosophical realistic school (vaibhashika). He is now revered as the patron saint of all novices, and is to be reborn as the eldest son of every future Buddha. Eitel, p. 101. His mother also is to be reborn as Buddha.

[21] There are six (sometimes increased to ten) paramitas, "means of passing to nirvana:--Charity; morality; patience; energy; tranquil contemplation; wisdom (prajna); made up to ten by use of the proper means; science; pious vows; and force of purpose. But it is only prajna which carries men across the samsara to the shores of nirvana." Eitel, p. 90.

[22] According to Eitel (pp. 71, 72), "A famous Bodhisattva, now specially worshipped in Shan-se, whose antecedents are a hopeless jumble of history and fable. Fa-hien found him here worshipped by followers of the mahayana school; but Hsuan-chwang connects his worship with the yogachara or tantra-magic school. The mahayana school regard him as the apotheosis of perfect wisdom. His most common titles are Mahamati, "Great wisdom," and Kumara-raja, "King of teaching, with a thousand arms and a hundred alms-bowls."

[23] Kwan-she-yin and the dogmas about him or her are as great a mystery as Manjusri. The Chinese name is a mistranslation of the Sanskrit name Avalokitesvra, "On-looking Sovereign," or even "On- looking Self-Existent," and means "Regarding or Looking on the sounds of the world,"="Hearer of Prayer." Originally, and still in Thibet, Avalokitesvara had only male attributes, but in China and Japan (Kwannon), this deity (such popularly she is) is represented as a woman, "Kwan-yin, the greatly gentle, with a thousand arms and a thousand eyes;" and has her principal seat in the island of P'oo-t'oo, on the China coast, which is a regular place of pilgrimage. To the worshippers of whom Fa-hien speaks, Kwan-she-yin would only be Avalokitesvara. How he was converted into the "goddess of mercy," and her worship took the place which it now has in China, is a difficult inquiry, which would take much time and space, and not be brought after all, so far as I see, to a satisfactory conclusion. See Eitel's Handbook, pp. 18-20, and his Three Lectures on Buddhism (third edition), pp. 124-131. I was talking on the subject once with an intelligent Chinese gentleman, when he remarked, "Have you not much the same thing in Europe in the worship of Mary?"

[24] Compare what is said in chap. v.

[25] This nirvana of Buddha must be--not his death, but his attaining to Buddhaship.

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