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.