ABSTRACT
The prevalence in Indian religions of a doctrine of release (moksha, vimukti) from the ills of existence was a natural result of the conception of the universe as a world of change and rebirth. Each school had its own special teaching, and the Buddhist doctrine stands out in its originality and in the ethical character of the whole scheme. The disciple advances not by accumulating good deeds, but by quenching those tendencies which lead him to do evil. The perfected monk reaches a stage not beyond good and evil, but a state in which his moral training is so perfected that it is impossible for him to commit murder, theft, lying, and other sins. 1 Its greatest contrast is perhaps with Jainism, to which in externals it has many resemblances. The Jain doctrine, says Jacobi, is that “ liberated souls will be embodied no more ; they have accomplished absolute purity ; they dwell in the state of perfection at the top of the universe, and have no more to do with worldly affairs ; they have reached nirvāṇa (nivṛti, or mukti). Metaphysically the difference between the mundane (the still transmigrating) and the liberated soul consists in this, that the former is entirely filled with subtle matter, as a bag is filled with sand, while the latter is absolutely pure and free from any material alloy.” 2
