They are eight degrees of self-
inanition, and apparently eight stages on the way to nirvana. The tope
in the text would be emblematic in some way of the general idea of the
mental progress conducting to the Buddhistic consummation of
existence.
[8] This incense would be in long "sticks," small and large, such as
are sold to-day throughout China, as you enter the temples.
[9] "The illuminating Buddha," the twenty-fourth predecessor of
Sakyamuni, and who, so long before, gave him the assurance that he
would by-and-by be Buddha. See Jataka Tales, p. 23.
[10] The staff was, as immediately appears, of Gosirsha Chandana, or
"sandal-wood from the Cow's-head mountain," a species of copper-brown
sandal-wood, said to be produced most abundantly on a mountain of (the
fabulous continent) Ullarakuru, north of mount Meru, which resembles
in shape the head of a cow (E. H., pp. 42, 43). It is called a "pewter
staff" from having on it a head and rings and pewter. See Watters,
"China Review," viii, pp. 227, 228, and Williams' Dictionary, under
{.}.
[11] Or Sanghati, the double or composite robe, part of a monk's
attire, reaching from the shoulders to the knees, and fastened round
the waist (E. H., p. 118).
[12] These were the "marks and beauties" on the person of a supreme
Buddha.