erences, for the Yoga wishes to isolate a
soul which is complete and happy in its own nature if it can be
disentangled from its trammels, whereas Buddhism teaches that there is
no such soul awaiting release and that religious discipline should
create and foster good mental states. Just as the atmosphere of the
Pitakas is not that of the Brahmanas or Sutras, so are their ideas about
Jhana and Samadhi somewhat different. Though hypnotic and even
cataleptic phases are not wanting, the journey of the religious life, as
described in the Pitakas, is a progress of increasing peace, but also of
increasing intellectual power and activity. Gotama did not hold Jhana or
regulated meditation to be essential to nirvana or arhatship, for that
state was attainable by laymen and apparently through sudden
illumination. But such cases were the exception. His own mental
evolution which culminated in enlightenment comprised the four
Jhanas[681]. Also in the eightfold path which is essential to arhatship
and nirvana the last and highest stage is sammasamadhi, right rapture or
ecstasy.

Jhana is difficult for laymen, but it was the rule of the order to
devote at least the afternoon to it. We might compare this with the
solitary prayer of Christians, and there is real similarity in the
process and the result. It brought peace and strength to the mind and we
hear of the bright clear faces and the radiantly happy expression of
those who returned to their duties after such contemplation. But
Christian prayer involves the idea of self-surrender and throwing open
the doors and windows of the soul to an influence which streams into it.
Buddhist meditation is rather the upsoaring of the mind which rises from
ecstasy to ecstasy until it attains not some sphere where it can live
_in_ bliss but a state which is in itself satisfying and all-comprising.

All mental states to which such names as ecstasy, trance, and vision can
be applied involve a dangerous element which, if not actually
pathological, can easily become so. But the account of meditation put in
the Buddha's own mouth does not suggest either morbid dejection or
hysterical excitement[682] and it is stated expressly that the exercise
should be begun after the midday meal so that any visions which may come
cannot be laid to the charge of an empty stomach. Jhana is not the same
as Samadhi or concentration, though the Jhanas may be an instance of
Samadhi. This latter is capable of marvellous exte