266
THE STAR IN THE WEST
BUDDHISM
As regards the beginning
of
all
things
the
Buddh
ist
is
discreetly
silent
,
he
(
as
Crowley
says
)
neither
prevaricates
like
the
Hindu
,
nor openly lies like
the
Christian
.
In
the Is'a Upanishad
we read
:
Into dense darkness he enters
Who has conceived becoming
to
be
naught
,
Into yet denser
he
Who has conceived becoming
to
be
aught
.
In
the
second
discourse
of
the
Bhagavad
-
Gītā
we
also read
:
Uncleavable
He
,
incombustible He
,
and indeed
neither
to
be
wetted
nor
dried
away
;
perpetual
,
all
-
pervasive
,
stable
,
immovable
,
ancient
,
unmanifest
,
unthinkable
,
im
mutable
He
is
called
.
This
is
very much like the Athanasian
Creed
,
after
having
defined
God
in
every
possible way
,
to
end
up
by
describing him
as
“
incomprehensible
.”
Not
so
the
Buddhist
who
went
back
to
the
older
vedic
con
ception
:
In
the
beginning
there
is
existence blind and without
knowledge
;
and
in
this sea
of
ignorance there are appet
ences
formative and organizing
.
–
The Questions
of
King
Milinda
.
We must
,
however
,
pass
by
the question
of
begin
ning
,
and see how the Buddhistic
ideals have affected
the poetry and philosophy
of
Aleister Crowley
.
According
to
Buddhism
,
existence
is
sorrow
,
the
cause
of
sorrow
is
desire
,
the
cessation
of
sorrow
is