Word: nirvanas
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...world for millions of Americans in the leisurely years before radio and the airliner. "I am not an explorer," said Holmes. "The South Pole belongs to Byrd and Amundsen, and they can have it." He filled his Manhattan apartment with exotic curios and burnished idols, and called it Nirvana; his wife called it Buddha-pest...
Painter Dali called his creation Crisalida and explained in his notes: "The outer structure of Miltown is that of a chrysalis, maximum symbol of the vital nirvana which paves the way for the dazzling dawn of the butterfly, in its turn the symbol of the human soul." Any resemblance between Miltown and a chrysalis, doctors agreed, was confined to Dali's fancy. Still, the word chrysalis is derived from the Greek for gold, and no matter how untranquilizing Dali's work might be, as an attention-getter it was worth its weight in gold to Miltown...
Almost as arresting as the nirvana caterpillar was a weird, 12-ft. high representation of the cell, basic unit of life, presented by Kalamazoo's Upjohn Co. Its shell was a fantastic latticework of clear plastic tubes. Inside were equally ingenious, sausage-shaped plastic gadgets representing mitochondria and fat globules. There was also a gaudy red nucleus, like a gang of tortured octopuses outdoing Laocoön's serpents, with centrosomes that made it look as though it had just landed from outer space...
...cure is the elimination of desire, 4) desire can be eliminated by following the Noble Eightfold Path. The Path: 1) Right knowledge, 2) Right intention, 3) Right speech, 4) Right conduct, 5) Right livelihood, 6) Right effort, 7) Right mindfulness, 8) Right concentration. At the end is nirvana. But Buddha, who talked not at all of God, refused ever to go into details about what is meant by nirvana. His dying words underlined his emphasis on human effort rather than on grace or magic: "Work out your salvation with diligence...
...Souls in Nirvana. By the millions, the Japanese went to the polls to elect a new parliament. The last blandishments blared from loudspeaker trucks. An enormous white vinyl balloon in the shape of a pigeon bobbed in the sunshine over Tokyo, soliciting votes for the Democratic Party of Ichiro Hatoyama, the caretaker Premier who aspired to a longer lease on the job. The election was as orderly as any in the West, but with occasional trimmings that were made in Japan. In the templed city of Nara, officials rejected the request of eleven Buddhists who, engaged in a religious retreat...