The Equinox (Volume I, Number II)

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH nature of the observer, and his tendency (Sankhara) to per- ceive. The oyster gets no fun out of the rose. This state establishes a dualistic conception, such as Mansel was unable to transcend, and at the same time places the original rose in its cosmic place. The creative forces that have made the rose and the observer what they are, and established their relation to one another, are now the sole consciousness. Here lives the philosopher. Easily enough, this state passes into one of pure con- sciousness (Vififianam). The rose and the observer and their tendencies and relations have somehow vanished. The phenomenon (not the original phenomenon, “a rose,” but the phenomenon of the tendency to perceive the sensation of a rose) becomes a cloudless light; a static, no longer a dynamic conception. One has somehow got behind the veil of the universe. Here live the mystic and the true artist. The Buddhist, however, does not stop here; for he alleges that even this consciousness is false; that like all things it has the Three Characteristics of Sorrow, Change, and Unsubstantiality. Now all this analysis is a purely intellectual one, though perhaps it may be admitted that few philosophers have been capable of so profound and acute a resolution of phenomena. It has nothing to do with mysticism as such, but its rational truth makes it a suitable basis for our proposed classification of the mystic states which result from the many religious and magical methods in use among men. 59