Notwithstanding the important place this doctrine holds in Buddhist speculative philosophy and theoretical ethics, it was neither understood nor adopted by the masses. It was developed in the schools, but the people in general held to their old Brahmanic belief in the soul and its transmigrations, so that in most Buddhist lands to-day belief in a conscious personal existence after death is the prevailing one.[274] [Sidenote: Nirvana and the different senses in which the term is used] The other philosophical doctrine of which we have to speak is that of Nirvana. This term is used with many different meanings. Often it denotes merely the extinguishment in the soul of lust and hate and ignorance, and the state of quiet contentment and blissful repose which results from such self-mastery. Buddha himself, says Rhys Davids, meant by the term just what Christ meant by the kingdom of God, that kingdom within the soul of calm and abiding peace.[275] Again, it is used to express a state of eternal, unchanging, blissful rest and ineffable peace beyond all the realms--heavens and hells--of transmigration. Still again the term is used to denote the absolute extinction of existence, annihilation. This is the view of Nirvana held to-day by the Buddhists of Ceylon, Siam, and Burma who claim to hold the ancient faith in its primitive purity.[276] II. THE IDEAL [Sidenote: The truth of the eightfold path] The ethics of Buddhism is summed up in the formula of the truth of the eightfold path.[277] The truth of the eight-membered way is this: the only path which leads to the quieting of pain is the eightfold holy path--right belief, right resolve, right speech, right behavior, right occupation, right effort, right thought, right concentration.[278] The essence of all this expressed in familiar ethical phrase is that the demands of morality are right thoughts, right words, and right deeds. As the eight requirements are interpreted and expounded by Buddhist teachers, they demand a mind free from all evil passions and unholy desires (and, according to the thoroughgoing Buddhist, of every desire whatsoever)[279] and “a heart of love far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure.” This is the path leading to deliverance from transmigration, this the path leading to the quieting of pain, this the path leading to the sweet rest and peace of Nirvana. It will be worth our while to note with some attention some of the special primary duties and virtues which are included in these general demands of self-conquest and unmeasured love. [Sidenote: Particular virtues and duties of the ideal]