The Lifelong Quest for Absolute Vacuity: Emulation of Buddha's, Feat of Taking Two Pounds of Medicine Daily:
Seven Good Things in a Wickede World From Our Own Tachienlu, Oct. 28.
The Lamaism of Tibet is probably. the most num eric religion in existence. Evesything connected with this mystic cult bears the strange Jdevice-numbers. The lamas in this, mysterious land who devote themselves to Lamaism groan beneath a burden expressed very simply by the word-numbers. There is a terrific ity in the. daily menu of the simple lama; a cherry-bow! is all requires and it meets his every meditation, seven ph; fare requisite. The lama who would apply himself seriously to his daily task.must firmly bear in mind, the proper placing of his han Joints of one hand should be carefully placed over the joints of the other and the thumbs religiously He must be extremely priest is supposed to erossed thunder-bolt, that in the posture in which the soles of the feet are seen turned upwards, The feet of the common people when they sit at food are not seen. When meditating, he must carefully observe and sce that his back is ax straight as an arrow. The bod should be held gracefully and the shoulders poised like a bird. To ensure successful meditation, the eyes should be directed towards the of the nose. The lips must be carefully set, indicating a mind engaged in meditation. The tongue should be pressed on the roof of the mouth, hhever to eat after noon; to live only food collected from door to door a wooden bowl; to have no other elter but the leaves of trees; to sit and not to lie down on the carpet during sleep; to sit with no other support than the trunk of a tree, ete, The Mystic Three Inthe Lamaism of. Tibet the commonest numeral is the number three, Why it should be may be somewhat difficult to explain, In Lama land there are three. main sects, namely, the black," the riginal but now heterodox religion; the yellow," the reformed religion and the sect of the Dalai Lama; "the red," the popular religion and the most ancient sect in Tibet, Here in Tachienlu and in practically every part of Tibet, these three scots dominate the lives of the peopl In popular journalism, Tibet ha been depicted under "three very picturesque names—"The land of the Lamas," "the roof of the world," and "the forbidden land. Under each of those striking titles the land has been graphically and interestingly described, The land of the Lumas expresses ethnologically the nature of the people who inhabit this dark, mysterious land; the roof of the world describes the ly physical and geographic condition of this great Asiatic plateau anti the forbidden land depicts Tibet from a purely political and religious standpoint. Tibet has a very clear-marked political border over Which it is still difficult to travel, To the traveller Tibet is full of interest, full of diiculties, and full While the patient lama maintains. this rigidity of attitude he devotes his mind diligently to three things, "Absolute vacuity" is the chief product of the philoso! tions of the Buddhists, The "formless" also is one of the vital topies upon which the lama seeks to meditate, and, whil doing 80, the conception "desireless" also engages his attention, These are known as the "three ascetic notions"
—"emptiness, formless, desireless, and they are the summar bonus of all the meditations of all the lamas in Tibet. The lama, by assiduous meditation and carefully bearing in mind the 32 chief characteristics and the 80 distinguishing marks of the itly man and by diligently applying himself to the 12 deeds and by adhering sedulously to the "Noble eight-fold "path," namely, "right belief," "right" thoughts," "right actions," "right, "right application to study,"
clit memory, the devoted lama will some time, some where, some how reach that' blessed state of "formless, desiveless emptiness"—Nirvana.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.