The Star in the West

280 THE STAR IN THE WEST and Spencerian Agnosticism— “The absence of an Ego. ” In support of this assertion , Crowley quotes from Huxley's “ Evolution and Ethics ," and considers it to be an admirable summary of the Buddhist doctrine . ' The Ego does not exist . It is morning ; I walk down the hill to catch a train ; as I walk I literally leave shreds of myself behind me . I am no longer the “ I ” of five minutes ago , fleeting I pass along life's way . A minute gone by my footstep crushed a daisy , there is woe in the land of flowers ; yet a few seconds past and I slew a fly , there is weeping in the land of insects . I speed to catch the train , I slip , and in a dazzling flash am converted into a glutinous mass of jelly and crushed bones . Crumpled as some much written palimpsest I am thrown to the basket of the dead , a useless manuscript . When was I, “ I”; in the morning when I crushed the daisy , when I slew the fly , or when I was converted into pulp ? Which ? The Buddhist answers , “ you were never ‘ 1,' ” the Agnostic answers , You were never ‘I,' ” both merely state , -- see that on the papyrus of thy life thou in scribest what is good , what is beautiful , for others must read it, it is thy soul . Change , change , no stability . The “ is " is not as was ,” and the “ was ” is not as the “ will be "; every cause has its effect : “ Freewill ” is the postu late of Morality , “ Determination " of Science . Thus in Buddhism we find Anikka , Dukkha , and Anatta , and in Agnosticism Change , Sorrow , and Absence of an Ego ; and in both : That to deny all religions is a sublime act of faith . the so · The Sword of Song , Science and Buddhism , vol . ii, p . 246 .