The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE SEVEN PORTALS student. If he went on long enough he was bound to suc- ceed, and he might reasonably infer a causal connection be- tween his work and its result. The Bhikkhu was not un- willing to admit that this might be so in such elementary stages as Jhana, but with regard to the attaining of Arhat- ship he argued that it depended rather on universal Karma than on that created by the aspirant. Avoiding metaphysi- cal quibbles as to whether these two kinds of Karma are not identical, he figured the situation in this manner. There are two wheels, one of which is the wheel of Nibbana, and the other that of the attainment of the Adept. These two wheels only touch at one point. Now the Arhat may reach the cir- cumference of his wheel, that is, the summit of his attain- ment, as often as he likes, but unless he happens to do so at the moment when that point touches the wheel of Nibbana, he will not become an Arhat, and it is therefore necessary for him to remain at that summit as long as possible, in fact always, in order that bye and bye—it might be after many incarnations of perfection—these two might coincide. This perfection he regarded not as that of spiritual experience, but as the attainment of Sila, and by Sila he meant the strict observance of all the rules laid down by the Buddha for the Bhikkhu. He continued that the Buddha had apparently attached far more importance to virtue than to any degree of spiritual attainment, placing the well-behaved Bhikkhu not only above the gods, but above the greatest Yogis. (It is obvious, to the Buddhist, that Hindu Yogis, however emi- nent, are not Arhats.) He said that the rules laid down for Bhikkhus created the conditions necessary. A good Bhik- khu, with no spiritual experience, had at least some chance, whereas the bad Bhikkhu or Non-Bhikkhu, although every 83