Collected Works (Vol. II)

AN ESSAY IN ONTOLOGY 241 my former attitude, I feel constrained to deny. The consciousness of the Absolute- wala! is really extended infinitely rather than diminished infinitely, as he will himself assure you. True, Hegel says: ‘‘ Pure being is pure nothing!” and it is true that the infinite heat and cold, joy and sorrow, light and darkness, and all the other pairs of opposites,” cancel one another out: yet I feel rather afraid of this Absolute! Maybe its joy and sorrow are represented in phases, just as 0° and finity are phases of an iden- tical expression, and I have an even chance only of being on the right side of the fence! The Buddhist leaves no chances of this kind; in all his categories he is infinitely un- extended; though the categories themselves exist; he is in fact 04+8+C+D+4+.+% and capable of no conceivable change, unless we imagine Nirvana to be. incomprehensibly divided by Nirvana, which would (supposing the two Nirvanas to possess identical cate- gories) result in the production of the original 0°. Buta further change would be necessary even then before serious mischief could result. In short, I think we may dismiss from our minds any alarm in respect of this contingency. On mature consideration, therefore, I con- fidently and deliberately take my refuge in the Triple Gem. Namo Tasso Bhagavato Arahato Samma- sambuddhasa !3 Let there be hereafter no discussion of the classical problems of philosophy and_re- ligion! In the light of this exposition the 1 Wala, one whose business is connected with anything. #.g. Jangli-wala, one who lives in, or has business with, a jungle, z.e. a wild man, or a Forest Conservator. 2 The Hindus see this as well as any one, and call Atman Sat-chit-ananda, these being above the pairs of opposites, rather on the Hegelian lines of the reconciliation (rather than the identity) of opposites in a master-idea. We have dismissed infinity as the figment of a morbid mathematic: but in any case the same disproof applies to it as to God.—A. C. 3 Hail unto Thee, the Blessed One, the Perfect One, the Enlightened One ! VOL. If. antitheses of noumenon and phenomenon, unity and multiplicity, and their kind, are all reconciled, and the only question that re- mains is that of finding the most satisfactory means of attaining Nirvana—extinction of all that exists, knows, or feels; extinction final and complete, utter and absolute ex- tinction. For by these words only can we indicate Nirvaria: a 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 annihilation. Pray observe in the first place that my solution of the Great Problem permits the co-existence of an indefinite number of means: they need not even be compatible; Karma, rebirth, Providence, prayer, sacri- fice, baptism, there is room for all. On the old and, I hope, now finally discre- dited hypothesis of an infinite being, the supporters of these various ideas, while ex- plicitly affirming them, implicitly denied. Similarly, note that the Qabalistic idea of a supreme God (and innumerable hier- archies) 1s quite compatible with this theory, provided that the supreme God is not in- finite. Now as to our weapons. The more ad- vanced Yogis of the East, like the Noncon- formists at home, have practically abandoned ceremonial as idle. I have yet to learn, however, by what dissenters have replaced it! I take this to be an error, except in the case of the very advanced Yogi. For there exists a true magical ceremonial, vital and direct, whose purpose has, however, at any rate of recent times, been hopelessly mis- understood. Nobody any longer supposes that any means but that of meditation is of avail to grasp the immediate causes of our being; if some person retort that he prefers to rely on a Glorified Redeemer, I simply answer Q