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Page 1 of 11909 · PDF PAGE 12
THE EQUINOX —any question is the great question—does indeed treat us thus cavalierly, the disenchanted Sceptic is too prone to think! Well, shall we define Him as a loving Father, as a jealous priest, as a gleam of light upon the holy Ark? What does it matter? All these images are of wood and stone, the wood and stone of our own stupid brains! The Fatherhood of God is but a human type; the idea of a human father con- joined with the idea of immensity. Two for One again! No combination of thoughts can be greater than the think- ing brain itself;…
1909 · PDF PAGE 6
THE EQUINOX tration, vigilance—all these I include in the connotation of “sceptic.” Such questioning as has been called “vital scepticism” is but a device to avoid true questioning, and therefore its very antithesis, the devil disguised as an angel of light. [Or vice versd, friend, if you are a Satanist; ’tis a matter of words—words—words. You may write x for y in your equations, so long as you consistently write y for x. They remain unchanged—and unsolved. Is not all our “knowledge” an example of this fallacy of writing one unknown for another…
1909 · PDF PAGE 23
…cause you want to get on, and even to seem to progress is better than standing still. A treadmill is admittedly good exercise. True, the question, “Why become an Arahat?” should precede, “‘ How become an Arahat ?” but an unbiassed man will easily cancel the first question with “ Why not?”—the How is not so easy to get rid of. Then, from the standpoint of the Arahat himself, perhaps this “Why did I become an Arahat ?” and “ How did I become an Arahat?” have but a single solution! In any case, we are wasting our time—we are as ridiculous with our…
1909 · PDF PAGE 9
THE SOLDIER AND THE HUNCHBACK What is Existence? The question is so fundamental that it finds no answer. 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…
1909 · PDF PAGE 20
…e 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 i…
1909 · PDF PAGE 11
…s One, and Thought is One, and Law is One—until we ask What is that One? Then again we spin words—words—words. And we have got no single question answered in any ultimate sense. What is the moon made of? Science replies ‘Green Cheese.” For our one moon we have now two ideas: Greenness, and Cheese. Greenness depends on the sunlight, and the eye, and a thousand other things. Cheese depends on bacteria and fermentation and the nature of the cow. “Deeper, ever deeper, into the mire of things !” Shall we cut the Gordian knot? shall we say “There is …
1909 · PDF PAGE 16
…awling 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 really questions at all. So if you ask me Is Samadhi real? I reply: First, I pray you, establish a conn…
1909 · PDF PAGE 10
…e made it, it is tenfold more the child of mystery than ourselves. We cannot here discuss the whole problem of the validity (the surface-question of the logical validity) of the syllogism; though one may throw out the hint that the doctrine of distributed middle seems to assume a knowledge of a Calculus of Infinites which is certainly beyond my own poor attain- ments, and hardly impregnable to the simple reflection that all mathematics is conventional, and not essential; relative, and not absolute. We go deeper and deeper, then, it seems, from …
1909 · PDF PAGE 19
…d into a pre- sentable soldier. The digression will not have been all digression, either; for it will have thrown a deal of light on the question of the limitations of scepticism. We have questioned the Malkuth point of view ; it appears absurd, be it agreed. But the Tiphereth position is unshaken ; Tiphereth needs no telling that Malkuth is absurd. When we turn our artillery against Tiphereth, that too crumbles; but Kether frowns above us. Attack Kether, and it falls ; but the Yetziratic Malkuth is 127
1909 · PDF PAGE 24
…“1 do not ask to see The distant path ; one step’s enough for me.” But (you will doubtless say) I pith your ? itself with another ?: Why question life at all? Why not remain “a clean-living Irish gentleman” content with his handicap, and contemptuous of card and pencil? Is not the Buddha’s goad “ Everything is sorrow” little better than a currish whine? What do I care for old age, disease, and death? I’m a man, and a Celt at that. I spit on your snivelling Hindu prince, emasculate with debauchery in the first place, and asceticism in the second…
1909 · PDF PAGE 14
…e world. If your mystic becomes Dante, well; if Tennyson, a fig for his trances! But how does this tower of Samadhi stand the assault of Question-time? Is not the idea of Samadhi just as dependent on all the other ideas—man, time, being, thought, logic? If I seek to explain Samadhi by analogy, am I not often found talking as if we knew all about Evolution, and Mathematics, and His- tory? Complex and unscientific studies, mere straws before the blast of our hunchback friend! Well, one of the buttresses is just the small matter of common sense. T…
1909 · PDF PAGE 25
…nd the glory, the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. And to whosoever hath attained that height will I put a further Question, announce a further Glory. 133