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Page 1 of 11903 · PDF PAGE 20
…em, however, believing erroneously that they are being “unselfish,” do fill their hearts with devotion for the beloved Saviour, and this process is, in its ultimation, so similar to the earlier stages of the Great Work itself, that some confusion has, stupidly enough, arisen; but for all that the practice has been the means of bringing some devotees on to the true Path of the Wise, 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 en…
1903 · PDF PAGE 16
…so that in a few years Chicago may be importing suffering in the raw state and turning it into tinned salmon: but at present the reverse process is alone practicable. How, then, shall we escape? Can we expect the entire universe to resolve itself back into the phase of 0°? Surely not. In the first place, there is no reason why the whole should do so; * is just as convertible as =. But worse, the category of causality hes been formed, and its inertia is sufficient to oppose a most serious stumbling-block to so gigantic a process. The task before…
1903 · PDF PAGE 13
… categories, or, graphically, 0°. This expression is in its present form meaningless. Let us discover its value by a simple mathematical process! 0! P=0.4=9, Multiply by 1 =" Then > xGo0xe Now the multiplying of the infinitely great by the infinitely small results in SOME UNKNOWN FINITE NUMBER EXTENDED IN AN UNKNOWN NUMBER OF CATEGORIES. It happened, when this our Great Inversion took place, from the essence of all nothingness to finity extended in innumerable categories, that an incalculably vast system was produced. Merely
1903 · PDF PAGE 9
… both representing intelligible and diverse ideas to our minds (and this is the point!) though identical in reality and convertible by a process of reason which simulates or replaces that apprehension which we can never attain to. Let us apply this idea to the Beginning of all things, about which the Christians lie frankly, the Hindus preva- ricate, and the Buddhists are discreetly silent, while not contradicting even the gross and ridiculous accounts of the more fantastic Hindu visionaries. 7 Ratiocination may perhaps not take us far. But perh…
1903 · PDF PAGE 15
…th 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 not my meaning either; for change, to our minds, involves the idea of time. But the whole thing is incon- ceivable — to ratiocination…
1903 · PDF PAGE 19
…ctly 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 recluse is roughly as follows; He must plunge ev…
1903 · PDF PAGE 21
…tself limited by the little one. But to take away the little circle, that is the method of the esoteric Christian or the mystic. But the process is never perfect, because 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 Abso…