Book 4 (Part II)

122 If any person were to gain access to V.V.V.V.V.,^ and ask Him to discourse upon any subject, there is little doubt that He could only comply by an unbroken silence, and even that might not be wholly satisfactory, since the Tao Teh King says that the Tao cannot be de- clared either by silence or by speech. In this preliminary task of collecting materials, the idea of the Ego is not of such great moment; all impressions are phases of the non-ego, and the Ego serves merely as a receptacle. In fact, to the well regu- lated mind, there is no question but that the impressions are real, and that the mind, if not a tabula fasa, is only not so because of the "ten- dencies " or " innate ideas " which prevent some ideas from being received as readily as others.' These "tendencies" must be combated: distasteful facts should be insisted upon until the Ego is perfectly indifferent to the nature of its food. " Even as the diamond shall glow red for the rose, and green for the rose-leaf, so shalt thou abide apart from the Impressions." This great task of separating the self from the impressions or "vrit- ^ The Motto of the Chief of the A.-. A.'., "the Light of the World Him- self.'' - It does not occur to a newly-hatched chicken to behave in the same way as a new-born child.