Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c8.s4.22

c8.s4.22

The conception, it is plain, is vague, and does not really advance further than the old Vedic idea of Ṛta or the later Brahmanic Dharma; it recognizes, however, that there is more than mere change based on causation in the world; there is immanent in reality the norm which makes the Arahant the highest of beings, and which in its special application to the classes of mankind secures them appropriate occupations. What is specially significant is that this norm has no vision of the progressive improvement of the world; the whole is pictured perfectly steadily as a process of evolution and involution, which persistently proceeds developing the same results; there is here no room for visions of a golden age to be attained on earth, nor material on which a reforming spirit could arise. The Arahant seeks and attains under the norm an enlightenment for himself, and thus subtracts himself for ever from the otherwise endless series of births and rebirths.