"O Bhagavat, the idea of a self is no idea; and the idea of a being, or a living person, or a person, is no idea. And why? Because the blessed Buddhas are freed from all ideas."--_The Diamond-Cutter._
And now let us try to understand what it is that dies, and what it is that is reborn,--what it is that commits faults and what it is that suffers penalties,--what passes from states of woe to states of bliss,--what enters into Nirvana after the destruction of self-consciousness,--what survives "extinction" and has power to return out of Nirvana,--what experiences the Four Infinite Feelings after all finite feeling has been annihilated.
It is not the sentient and conscious Self that enters Nirvana. The Ego is only a temporary aggregate of countless illusions, a phantom-shell, a bubble sure to break. It is a creation of Karma,--or rather, as a Buddhist friend insists, it _is_ Karma. To comprehend the statement fully, the reader should know that, in this Oriental philosophy, acts and thoughts are forces integrating themselves into material and mental phenomena,--into what we call objective and subjective appearances. The very earth we tread upon,--the mountains and forests, the rivers and seas, the world and its moon, the visible universe in short,--_is the integration of acts and thoughts,_ is Karma, or, at least, Being conditioned by Karma.[1]
[Footnote 1: "The aggregate actions of all sentient beings give birth to the varieties of mountains, rivers, countries, etc. ... Their eyes, nostrils, ears, tongues, bodies,--as well as their gardens, woods, farms, residences, servants, and maids,--men imagine to be their own possessions; but they are, in truth, only results produced by innumerable actions."
"Grass, trees, earth,--all these shall become Buddha."
"Even swords and things of metal are manifestations of spirit: within them exist all virtues (or '_power_') in their fullest development and perfection."--HIZŌ-HŌ-YAKU.
"When called sentient or non-sentient, matter is Law-Body (or '_spiritual body_')."--CHISHŌ-HISHŌ.
"The Apparent Doctrine treats of the four great elements _[earth, fire, water, air]_ as non-sentient. But in the Hidden Doctrine these are said to be the Sammya-Shin (_Samya-Kaya_), or Body-Accordant of the Nyōrai (Tathâgata)."--SOKU-SHIN-JŌ-BUTSU-GI.