The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING Suffering.” These consist of the above Three Characteristics with the addition of the Noble Eightfold Path, which contains as we shall presently see the whole of Canonical Buddhism. Up to this point, save for the denial of the Ego, the whole of the above doctrine might have been extracted from almost any of the Upanishads. But there is a difference, and the difference is this. Though the Vedantist realized that Ignor- ance (Avidy4) was the foundation of all Sorrow, and that all, possessing the essence of Change, was but illusion or Maya, a matter of name and form;* Buddha now pointed out that the true path of deliverance was through the Reason (Ruach) and not through the senses (Nephesh), as many of the Upanishads would give one to believe. Further, this was the path that Gotama had trod, and therefore, naturally he besought others to tread it. The Vedantist attempted to attain unity with the Atman (Kether) {+ by means of his Emotions (Nephesh) inter- mingled with his Reason (Ruach), but the Buddha by means of his Reason (Ruach) alone. Buddha attempted to cut off all joy from the world, substituting in its place an implacable rationalism, a stern and inflexible morality, little seeing that the sorrows of Earth which his system substituted in place of the joys of Heaven, though they might not ruffle his self- conquered self, must perturb the minds of his followers, * We have seen how in the Chandogya Upanishad that all things, including even the four Vedas, are called “nama eva”—mere name. Now in “The Ques- tions of King Milinda” we find Nagasena stating that all things but “name and form,” the difference between which lies in that “Whatever is gross therein is form:’” whatever is subtle, mental, is “name.” But that both are dependent on each other, and spring up, not separately, but together. “The Questions of King Milinda,” ii. 2. 8, + It must not be forgotten that in its ultimate interpretation the Atman is the Ain, however we use this reading as seldom as possible, as it is so very vague. 127