The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE EQUINOX the “thing in itself” is very certain, for it is only what “WE see.” Yet nevertheless we renounce this as being absurd, or not renouncing it, at least do not live up to our assertion; for, we name that which is a reality to a child, and a deceit or illusion to a man, an apparition or a shadow. Thus, little by little, we beget a new reality upon the old reality, a new false- hood upon the old falsehood, namely, that the thing we see is “an illusion” and is not “a reality,” seldom considering that the true difference between the one and the other is but the difference of name. Then after a little do we begin to believe in “the illusion” as firmly and concretely as we once believed in “the reality,” seldom considering that all belief is illu- sionary, and that knowledge is only true as long as it remains unknown.* Now knowledge is identification, not with the inner or outer of a thing, but with that which cannot be explained by either, and which is the essence of the thing in itself, and which the Upanishads name the Atman. Identification with this Atman (Emerson’s “ Oversoul ”) is therefore the end of Religion and Philosophy alike. “Verily he who has seen, heard, comprehended and known the Atman, by him is this entire universe known.”{| Because there is but one Atman and not many Atmans. * Once the Unknown becomes known it becomes untrue, it loses its Virginity, that mysterious power of attraction the Unknown always possesses; it no longer represents our ideal, though it may form an excellent foundation for the next ideal; and so on until Knowledge and Nescience are out-stepped. General and popular Knowledge is like a common prostitute, the toy of any man. To main- tain this purity, this virginity, are the mysteries kept secret from the multitude. + And yet again this is a sheer deceit, as every conceit must be. + Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 2. 4. 5b. 54