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Page 1 of 11909 · PDF PAGE 16
…icism intact—and I keep my Samadhi intact. The one balances the other; I care nothing for the vulgar brawling of these two varlets of my mind! . Vil If, however, you would really like to know what might be said on the soldierly side of the question, I shall endeavour to oblige. It is necessary if a question is to be intelligibly put that the querent should be on the same plane as the quesited. Answer is impossible if you ask: Are round squares triangular? or Is butter virtuous? or How many ounces go to the shilling? for the “questions” are not …
1909 · PDF PAGE 8
…t easy to image an act without an agent; I am not so clever. It may be possible for a sane man; but I should like to know more about his mind before I gave a final opinion. But apart from purely formal objections, we may still inquire: Is this Cogétatur true? Yes; reply the sages; for to deny it implies thought; Negatur is only a sub-section of Cogitatur. This involves, however, an axiom that the part is of the same nature as the whole; or (at the very least) an axiom that Ais A. Now, I do not wish to deny that 4 is 4, or may occa- sionally be …
1909 · PDF PAGE 9
…nswer. The most profound meditation only leads to an exasperating sense of impotence. There is, it seems, no simple rational idea in the mind which corresponds to the word. It is easy of course to drown the question in definitions, leading us to further complexity—but “ Existence is the gift of Divine Providence,” “ Existence is the opposite of Non-Existence,” do not help us much ! The plain Existence is Existence of the Hebrews goes farther. It is the most sceptical of statements, in spite of its form. Existence is just existence, and there’s …
1909 · PDF PAGE 6
…mately to the blank wall—what is matter? and an infinity of physiological researches, each (similarly) leading to the blank wall—what is mind ? Even so, the relation between the two ideas is unthink- able; causality is itself unthinkable; it depends, for one thing, upon experience—and what, in God’s name, is experi- 114
1909 · PDF PAGE 15
…hat of Prometheus or Elijah. I am now writing by the light that Franklin’s discovery enabled men to use. Practically, “I concentrated my mind upon a white radiant triangle in whose centre was a shining eye, for 22 minutes and 10 seconds, my attention wandering 45 times” is a scientific and valuable statement. ‘I prayed fervently to the Lord for the space of many days ” means anything or nothing. Anybody who cares to do so may imitate my experiment and compare his result with mine. In the latter case one would always be wondering what “fervently…
1909 · PDF PAGE 22
…in) the nature of Samadhi. Ah, say the adepts, Samadhi is not the end, but the beginning. You must regard Samadhi as the normal state of mind which enables you to begin your researches, just as waking is the state from which you rise to Samadhi, sleep the state from which you rose to waking. And only from Sammasamadhi—continuous trance of the right kind—can you rise up as it were on tiptoe and peer through the clouds unto the mountains. Now of course it is really awfully decent of the adepts to take all that trouble over us, and to put it so ni…