[3] Dr. McGovern tells me that Zen would seem to be more immediately derived from the Nihilistic School of Nāgārjuna (1st century A.D.). Yet though his whole teaching turned on this “meditation” or “Zen,” he left behind him no exact directions for the practice of it. Having shown the end, he left it to each individual to find his own means. Rules, dogmas and definitions were precisely what he set out to destroy. Less than a hundred years after his death another Indian, Buddhapriya, came to China and there defined with exactitude and blunt materiality the various forms of meditation. The transition from the spirituality of Bodhidharma to the grossness of his follower is, however, typical of religious history. The poetry of Christ turns into the theology of Paul; the hovel of Saint Francis into the mansion of Brother Elias. BUDDHAPRIYA. He first describes the different attitudes in which Zen may be practised, with an exact account of the correct position for hands, feet, head, etc. The normal attitude of meditation, cross-legged, with upright back and hands locked over the knees is familiar to every one. Zen could also be practised while walking and, in cases of sickness, while lying down. Buddhapriya’s instructions are in the form of question and answer. _Question._--How does the Zen practised by heretics and by the other schools of Buddhism differ from our Zen? _Answer._--The Zen of the heretics is not impersonal. The Zen of the Lesser Vehicle is material. The Zen of the Greater Vehicle only abstracts man and phenomena. _Question._--How ought one to set about practising Zen? _Answer._--First put far away from you all anger and malice, and fill your heart with kindness and compassion. _Question._--Can the beginner at once proceed to the contemplation of non-Being? _Answer._--By no means! He must by stratagems gradually enter in. I have never yet seen one who straightway achieved the vision of non-Reality. If for example he were meditating in this room he must first banish from his mind every part of the world except the city of Ch’ang-an. Next every building in the city except this monastery. Next, every room in the monastery except this cell, every object but himself, every part of himself except the end of his nose. Finally the end of his nose hangs in space like a drop of dew and on this nose-end he concentrates his mind. This is only a preliminary exercise. There are others of the same kind. For example--persuade yourself that your navel is a minute rivulet running through the sands. When this conception is firmly achieved, you will see a bright light and ultimately, the body growing transparent, you will behold the working of your bowels.