THE EQUINOX
descended a God-illumined Adept. He fully realized that to
admit into his argument the comment of God was to erase
all hope of deliverance from the text, and therefore, though
he had become The Buddha, nevertheless, in his selflessness
he stooped down to the level of the lowest of mankind, and
abandoning as dross the stupendous powers he had acquired,
helped his fellows to realize the right path by the most
universal of all symbols—the woe of the world, the sorrow
of mankind.
Like the Vedantist, he saw that the crux of the whole
trouble was Ignorance (Avijja). Dispel this ignorance, and
illumination would take its place, that insight into the real
nature of things, which, little by little, leads the Aspirant out
of the world of birth and death, the world of Samsara, into
that inscrutable Nibbana where things in themselves cease to
exist and with them the thoughts which go to build them up.
Ignorance is the greatest of all Fetters, and, “he who sins
inadvertently,” as Nagasena said, “has the greater demerit.”
Enquiring into the particular nature of Ignorance Buddha
discovered that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
had three main branches, namely: Lobha, Dosa and Moha;
Craving, Passion and the Delusion of Self, and that these
three forms of Ignorance alone could be conquered by right
understanding the Three Great Signs or Characteristics of all
Existence, namely: Change, Sorrow and Absence of an Ego—
Anikka, Dukkha, and Anatta, which were attained by medi-
tating on the inmost meaning of the Four Noble Truths:
“The Truth about Suffering; the Truth about the Cause
of Suffering; the Truth about the Cessation of Suffering; and
the Truth about the Path which leads to the Cessation of
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