This chapter shows that while Brahmanism rested on a kind of sacramental and mantric ritual, Buddhism did not encourage such rites. Buddhism looked mostly on concentration, involving the purification of consciousness. The Buddhist theory of causation was inimical to both mantric causation and the use of ritual other than in a psychological manner. There could not be any strict revelatory...
Summary Professor R. C. Zaehner's distinction between panenhenic, monistic and theistic mysticism will be examined. It will be argued that there is no necessary reason to suppose that the latter two types involve different sorts of experience: the difference lies rather in the way the experience is interpreted. Likewise it will be argued that the Theravādin experience of nirvana, which is...