THE EQUINOX
in appearance, without discovering an universe. So, as I
set myself to discuss the character of mystic states, it is
immediately evident that if I am to render myself at all
intelligible to English readers, a totally new system of
classification must be thought out.
The classical Eight Jhanas will be useless to us; the
Hindu system is almost as bad; the Qabalistic requires a
preliminary knowledge of the Tree of Life whose explanation
would require a volume to itself; but fortunately we have,
in the Buddhist Skandhas and the Three Characteristics
which deny them, a scheme easily assimilable to Western
psychology.
In “Science and Buddhism” I dealt in some detail with
these Skandhas; but I will briefly recapitulate.
In examining any phenomenon and analysing it we first
notice its Name and Form (Nama and Rupa). “Here is a
Rose,” we say. In such a world live the entirely vulgar.
Next (with Berkeley) we perceive that this statement is
false. There is an optical sensation (Vedana) of red; an
olfactory sensation of fragrance; and so on. Even its weight,
its space, are modifications of sense; and the whole statement
is transformed into “ Here is a pleasurable set of sensations
which we group under the name of a rose.” In such a world
lives the sensuous artist.
Next, these modifications of sense are found to be but
percepts; the pleasure or pain vanishes; and the sensations
are observed coldly and clearly without allowing the mind
to be affected. This perception (Saiifia) is the world of the
surgeon or the man of science.
Next, the perception itself is seen to be dependent on the
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