Collected Works (Vol. II)

194 THE SWORD OF SONG Dhyanic consciousness includes it and denies it. No doubt ‘‘something called” acts as a kind of caveat to the would-be sceptic, though the phrase is bad, implying a ‘‘ calling.” But we can guess what Huxley means, No doubt Buddha's scepticism does not openly go quite as far as mine—it must be remembered that ‘‘scepticism” is merely the indication of a possible attitude, not a belief, as so many good fool folk think; but Buddha not only denies ‘‘ Cogito, ergo sum"’ ; but ‘‘ Cogito, ergo nonsum.” See Sadsasava Sutta, par. 10.* At any rate Sakkyaditthi, the delusion of personality, is in the very forefront of his doctrines; and it is this delusion that is con- stantly and inevitably affirmed in all normal consciousness. That Dhyanic thought avoids it is doubtful; even so, Buddha is here repre- sented as giving precepts to ordinary people. And if personality be delusion, a lie is involved in the command of one to another. In short, we all lie all the time; we are compelled to it by the nature of things themselves — para- doxical as that seems—and the Buddha knew it | THE FIFTH PRECEPT. At last we arrive at the end of our weary journey—surely in this weather we may have a drink! East of Suez,+ Trombone-Macaulay (as I may surely say, when Browning writes Banjo-Byron {) tells us, a man may raise a Thirst. No, shrieks the Blessed One, the Perfected One, the Enlightened One, do not drink! It is like the streets of Paris when they were placarded with rival posters— Ne buvez pas de |’Alcool ! L’Alcool est un poison ! and Buvez de |’Alcool ! L’Alcool est un aliment ! We know now that alcohol is a food up to a certain amount; the precept, good enough for a rough rule as it stands, will not bear close inspection. What Buddha really commands, with that grim humour of his, is: Avoid Intoxi- cation. But what is intoxication? unless it be the loss o! power to use perfectly a truth-telling set of faculties. If I walk unsteadily it is owing to nervous lies—and so for all the phenomena of d:u.ukenness, But a lie involves the assump- * Quoted below, ‘‘Science and Buddhism,” note. t “Ship me somewhere East of Suez, where a man in raise a thirst.”—R. KIPLING. t ‘* While as for Quilp Hop o’ my Thumb there, Banjo-Byron that twangs the strum-strum there. —Browninec, Pachiarotto (said of A. Austin). tion of some true standard, and this can no- where be found. A doctor would tell you, moreover, that all food intoxicates: all, here as in all the universe, of every subject and in every predicate, is a matter of degree. Our faculties never tell us true; our eyes say flat when our fingers say round; our tongue sends a set of impressions to our brain which our hearing declares non-existent—and So on. - What is this delusion of personality but a profound and centrally-seated intoxication of the consciousness? I am intoxicated as I address these words; you are drunk—beastly drunk !—as you read them; Buddha was as drunk as a British officer when he uttered his besotted command. There, my dear children, is the conclusion to which we are brought if you insist that he was serious ! I answer No! Alone among men then liv- ing, the Buddha was sober, and saw Truth. He, who was freed from the coils of the great serpent Theli coiled round the universe, he knew how deep the slaver of that snake had entered into us, infecting us, rotting our very bones with poisonous drunkenness. And so his cutting irony—drink no intoxicating drinks ! When I go to take Pansil,* it is in no spirit of servile morality; it is with keen sorrow gnawing at my heart. ‘These five causes of sorrow are indeed the heads of the serpent of Desire. Four at least of them snap their fangs on me in and by virtue of my very act of re- ceiving the commands, and of promising to obey them; if there is a little difficulty about the fifth, it is an omission easily rectified -- and I think we should all make a point about that; there is great virtue in completeness. Yes! Do not believe that the Buddha was a fool; that he asked men to perform the impos- sible or the unwise.t Do not believe that the sorrow of existence is so trivial that easy rules * To “take Pansil” is to vow obedience to these Precepts. ; t I do not propose to dilate on the moral truth which Ibsen has so long laboured to make clear: that no hard and fast rule of life can be universally applicable. Also, as in the famous case of the lady who saved (successively) the lives of her husband, her father, and her brother, the precepts clash. To allow to die is to kill—all this is obvious to the most ordinary thinkers. These precepts are of course ex- cellent general guides for the vulgar and ignorant, but you and I, dear reader, are wise and clever, and know better. Nichtwar? Excuse my being so buried in ‘‘dear Immanuel Rant ” (as my friend Miss Br.c.1 would say) that this biting and pregnant phrase slipped out unaware. As a rule, of course, I hate the introduction of foreign tongues into an English essay.—A. C. 1 A fast woman who posed as a bluestocking.