Collected Works (Vol. II)

SCIENCE AND BUDDHISM 253 Psychology,” ii. 404). The breathing, motions of walking, &c., are merely observed and recorded; for instance, one may sit down quietly and say: ‘‘ There is an indrawing of the breath.” ‘‘ There is an expiration,” &c. Or, walking, ‘‘ There is a raising of the right foot,” and so on, just as it happens. The thought is of course not quick enough to note all the movements or their subtle causes. For example, we cannot describe the compli- cated muscular contractions, &c. ; but this is not necessary. Concentrate on some series of simple movements. When this through habit becomes intuitive so that the thought is vea//y ‘‘ There is a raising,” as opposed to ‘‘I raise” (the latter being in reality a complex and adult idea, as philosophers have often shown, ever since Descartes fell into the trap), one may begin to analyse, as explained above, and the second stage is ‘‘ There is a sensation (Vedana) ofa raising, &c.’’ Sensations are further classed as pleasant or unpleasant. When this is the true intuitive instantaneous testimony of consciousness (so that ‘‘ There is a raising, &c.” is rejected as a palpable lie),! we proceed to Safifia, perception. ‘* There is a perception of a (pleasant or unpleasant) sensation of a raising, &c.” When this has become intuitive—why! here’s a Strange result! The emotions of pain and pleasure have vanished. They are subincludéd in the lesser skandha of Vedana, and Sajfifia is free from them. And to him who can live in this third stage, and live so for ever, there is no more pain; only an intense interest similar to that which has enabled men of science to watch and note the progress of thelr own death-agony. Un- ' «Why should you expect Vedana to make Rupa appear illusory ?”’ asked afriend of mine, on reading through the MS. of this essay. The reason of my omission to explain is that to me it seemed obvious. ‘The fact had been assimilated. To meditate on anything is to perceive its unreal nature. Notably this is so in concentrating on parts of the body, such as the nose. On this phenomenon the Hindus have based their famous aphorism, ‘ ‘Uhat which can be thought is not true."—A. C. fortunately the living in such a state is conditional on sound mental health, and terminable by disease or death at any moment. Were it not so, the First Noble Truth would | be a lie. The two further stages Sankhara and Viii- fianam pursue the analysis to its ultimation, ‘‘There is a consciousness of a tendency to perceive the (pleasant or unpleasant) sensa- tion of a raising of a right foot” being the final form. And I suppose no psychologist of any standing will quarrel with this.! Reasoning in fact leads us to this analysis; the Buddhist goes further only so far as he may be said to knock down the scaffolding of reasoning processes, and to assimilate the actual truth of the matter. It is the difference between the schoolboy who painfully construes ‘“ Balbus murum zedi- ficavit,”’ and the Roman who announces that historic fact without a thought of his grammar. I have called this meditation the most famous of the Buddhist meditations, because it is stated by the Buddha himself that if one oractises it honestly‘and intelligently a result is certain. And he says this of no other. I have personally not found time to de- vote myself seriously to this Mahasati- pa¢fhana, and the statements here made are those derived from reason and not from ex- perience. But I can say that the unreality of the grosser (rupa) relatively to the subtler Vedana and still more subtle Sajifia be- comes rapidly apparent, and I can only con- clude that with time and trouble the process would continue. What will occur when one reaches the final stage of Vififianam, and finds no Atman behind it? Surely the Vififianam stage will soon seem as unreal as the former have be- come. It is idle to speculate; but if I may escape the imputation of explaining the ob- scure by the more obscure, I may hint that such a person must be very near the state called Nirvana, whatever may be meant by 1 T deal with Mr. Spencer and ‘‘ Transfigured Realism " in a note at the end of this section. —A, C,