APPENDIX VIIL Nirvana. When, In writing my manual of Buddhism, I was endeavouring to reconcile the apparently discrepant descriptions of Nirvana which had led some scholars to the conclusion that it meant the annihi- lation of being or the annihilation of the soul, and others to the contrary conclusion, that it meant the eternal existence of the soul in a state of bliss, and was gradually led to the startling conclusion that Gotama, in his description of Nirvana, was expressing no opi- nion at all, either one way or the other, as to existence after death, hut was proclaiming a salvation from the sorrows of life which was to ho reached here on earth in a changed state of mind, I saw indeed that this explanation would remove all the previous difficul- ties in the passages then before me, hut I little thought that further research in the Pali Scriptures would disclose any passages in which the misunderstandings of European investigators would he clearly and authoritatively met This has, however, been the case. Every day, as new portions of the Pali Fitakas are being made accessible, fresh confirmation is being afforded to the truth of the view I had ventured to put forward, and Dr. Frankfurter has been the first to point out three important passages in the Sagyutta Nikaya which would be decisive on the point if it were still open to doubt. In two of these passages Sariputta, and in the third Gotama himself, are represented as stating, in answer to a direct question what Nir- vana is, that it is the destruction of passion, malice, and delusion (raga, dosa, and moha). The context may be seen in Dr. Frank- furter's paper in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1880, in which the full Pali texts are given, with summarized translations and notes.