Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c7.s2.15

c7.s2.15

The same scholasticism and desire to work in other parts of the Buddhist doctrine are seen in the next five views, which hold that in this present world the living being can attain complete salvation. The first of these views is the Cārvāka opinion that in the pleasures of the five senses is the highest and only good that man can claim; the remaining four place it in the four Jhānas which, with the four already mentioned, make up the eight perfections or attainments (samāpatti), which, if we may believe the Jātaka commentary, were constantly practised by pre-Buddhist recluses. In the first of these there is investigation and reflection accompanied by zest and pleasure; in the second zest and pleasure; in the third pleasure; and in the fourth complete indifference, a state which suggests the Nirvāṇa, but is deliberately distinguished from it, however evanescent such a distinction may seem to us be.