The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE EQUINOX or Soul; and a Selecting Power, which however is strenuously denied by the rigid law of Cause and Effect. However the mental eyes of the vast majority of his followers were not so clear as to pierce far into the darkness of metaphysical philosophy, and so it happened that, where the idealism of the Vedanta had failed the realism of Buddhism succeeded.* This denial ofa Universal Atman, and a personal Atman, soon brought the ethical and philosophical arguments of Gotama up against a brick wall (Kant’s “a priori”). As we have seen he could not prop up a fictitious beginning by the supposition of the former, and he dared not use Nibbana as such, though in truth the Beginning is just as incompre- hensible with or without an Atman. But, in spite of his having denied the latter, he had to account for Causality and the transmission of his Good and Evil (Karma) by some means or another. Now, according to Nagasena, the Blessed One refused to answer any such questions as “Is the universe everlasting?” “Is it not everlasting?” ‘‘Has it an end?” “Has it not an end?” “Is it both ending and unending?” “Is it neither the one nor the other?” And further all such questions as “Are the soul and the body the same thing?” “Is the soul distinct from the body?” ‘Does a Tathagata exist after death?” ‘Does he not exist after death?” “Does * In spite of the fact that Buddhism urges that “the whole world is under the Law of Causation,” it commands its followers to lead pure and noble lives, in place of dishonourable ones, in spite of their having no freedom of choice between good and evil. “Let us not lose ourselves in vain speculations of profit- less subtleties,” says the Dhammapada, “let us surrender self and all selfish- ness, and as all things are fixed by causation, let us practise good so that good may result from our actions.” Just as if it could possibly be done if “ all things are fixed.” The Buddhist, in theory having postulated that all fowls lay hard- boiled eggs, adds, the ideal man is he who can only make omelettes. 132