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Page 1 of 11903 · PDF PAGE 21
…cause however small the little circle becomes, its relation with the big circle is still finite. But even allowing for a moment that the Absolute is really attainable, is the nothingness of the finity related to it really identical with that attained directly by the Buddhist Arahat? This, consistently with my former attitude, I feel constrained to deny. The consciousness of the Absolute-wala really extended infinitely rather than diminished infinitely, as he will himself assure you. True, Hegel says: “ Pure being is pure nothing!” and it is tru…
1903 · PDF PAGE 13
…ORIES, FOR THERE COULD HAVE BEEN NO CATEGORIES IN WHICH IT COULD EXTEND| [f our 0 was the ordinary 0 of mathematics, there was not truly absolute 0, for 0 is, as I have shown, dependent on the idea of categories. If these existed, then the whole question is merely thrown back; we must reach a state in which the 0 is absolute. Not only must we get rid of all subjects, but of all predicates. By 0 (in mathematics) we really mean 0°, where n is the final term ofa natural scale of dimensions, categories, or predicates. Our Cosmic Egg, then, from whi…
1903 · PDF PAGE 20
… unpromising as such material must sound to intelligent ears. The esoteric Christian or Hindu adopts a middle path. Having projected the Absolute from his mind, he endeavours to unite his consciousness with that of his Absolute, and of course his personality is destroyed in the process. Yet it is to be feared that such an adept too often starts on the path with the hideous idea of aggrandizing his own personality to the utmost. But his method is so near to the true one that this tendency is soon corrected, as it were automatically. (The mathema…
1903 · PDF PAGE 24
…will-power is a still earlier qualifi- cation. By meditation I do not mean merely “thinking about” anything, however profoundly, but the absolute restraint of the mind to the contemplation of a single object, whether gross, fine, or altogether spiritual. Now true magical ceremonial is entirely directed to attain this end, and forms a magnificent gymnasium for those who are not already finished mental athletes. By act, word, and thought, both in quantity and quality, the one object of the ceremony is being constantly indicated. Every fumigation,…
1903 · PDF PAGE 22
…e most satisfactory means of attaining Nirvana —extinction of all that exists, knows, or feels; extinction final and complete, utter and absolute extinction. For by these words only can we indicate Nirvana: @ state which transcends thought cannot be described in thought’s language. But from the point of view of thought extinction is complete: we have no data for discussing that which is unthinkable, and must decline to do so. This is the answer to those who accuse the Buddha of hurling his Arahats (and himself) from Samma Samadhi to annihilatio…
1903 · PDF PAGE 15
13 perfect and absolute parallel in logic. Thus: let us convert twice the proposition “some books are on the table”. By negativing both terms we get “Absence-of- book is not on the table”, which is precisely my equation backwards, and a thinkable thing, To reverse. the process, what do I mean when I say “some pigs, but not the black pig, are not in the sty"? I imply that the black pig is im the sty. All I have done is to represent the conversion as a change, rather than as merely another way of expressing the same thing. And “change” is really …
1903 · PDF PAGE 14
…a finite universe ; its categories are themselves finite, and the expression “infinite space” isa contradiction in terms. The idea of an-absolute and ofan infinite God, is relegated to the limbo of all similar idle and pernicious perversions of truth. Infinity remains, but only as a mathematical conception, as impossible in nature as the square root of— 1. Against all this mathema- tical, or semi-mathematical, reasoning, it may doubtless be objected that our whole system of numbers, and of manipulating them, is merely a series of conventions. W…
1903 · PDF PAGE 19
…ate their own personality. The Buddhist aims directly at extinction; the Hindu denies and abolishes his own finity by the creation of an absolute, As this cannot be done in reality, the process is illusory, yet itis useful in the early stages—as far at any rate, as the fourth stage of Dhyana, where the Buddha places it, though the Yogis claim to attain to Nirvikalpa- Samadhi, and that Moksha is identical with Nirvana; the former claim I see no reason to deny them the latter statement I must decline at present to accept. The task of the Buddhist…