The Soldier and the Hunchback ! and ?

THE EQUINOX still there . . . . until we reach Kether of Atziluth and the Infinite Light, and Space, and Nothing. So then we retire up the path, fighting rear-guard actions ; at every moment a soldier is slain by a hunchback; but as we retire there is always a soldier just by us. Until the end. The end? Buddha thought the supply of hunchbacks infinite ; but why should not the soldiers them- selves be infinite in number? However that may be, here is the point; it takes a moment for a hunchback to kill his man, and the farther we get from our base the longer it takes. You may crumble to ashes the dream-world of a boy, as it were, between your fingers; but before you can bring the physical universe tumbling about a man’s ears he requires to drill his hunchbacks so devilish well that they are terribly like soldiers themselves. Anda question capable of shaking the consciousness of Samadhi could, I imagine, give long odds to one of Frederick’s grenadiers. It is useless to attack the mystic by asking him if he is quite sure Samadhi is good for his poor health; ’tis like asking the huntsman to be very careful, please, not to hurt the fox. The ultimate Question, the one that really knocks Samadhi to pieces, is such a stupendous Idea that it is far more of a! than all previous !’s whatever, for all its ? form. And the name of that Question is Nibbana. Take this matter of the soul. When Mr. Judas McCabbage asks the Man in the Street why he believes in a soul, the Man stammers out that he has always heard so; naturally McCabbage has no difficulty in proving to him by biological methods that he has no soul; and with a sunny smile each passes on his way. 128