The Sword of Song

AN ESSAY IN ONTOLOGY 99 my former attitude, I feel constrained to deny. The consciousness of the Absolute- wala1 is really extended infinitely rather than diminished infinitely, as he will h imself assure you. True, Hegel say s: “Pure being is pure nothing !” and it is true that the infinite heat and cold, joy and sorrow, light and darkness, and all the other pairs of opposites,2 cancel one another out: yet I feel rather afraid of this Absolute ! May be i ts joy and sorrow are represented in phases, just as 0 0 and finity are phas es of an iden-tical expression, and I have an even chance only of being on the right side of the fence! The Buddhist leaves no chances of this kind; in all his categories he is infinitely unextended; though the categories t hemselves exist; he is in fact 0A+B+C+D+E+ +N and capable of no conceivable change, unless w e imagine Nirvana to b e i ncomprehensibly divided by Nirvana, w hich w ould (supposing the two Nirvanas to pos sess identical cate-g ories) result in the production of the o riginal 00. But a further change would be necessary even then before serious mischief could result. In short, I think we may dismiss from our minds any alarm in res pect of this contingency. On mature consideration, therefore, I con- fidently and deliberately take my refuge in the Triple Gem. Namo Tasso Bhagavato Arahato Samma- sambuddhasa!3 Let there be hereafter no discussion of the classical problems of philosophy and religion! In the light of this exposition the 1 Wala, one whose business is connected with anything. E.g. Jangli-wala, one who lives in, or has business with, a jungle, i.e. a wild m an, or a Forest Conservator. 2 The Hindus see this as well as any one, and call Atm an Sat-chit-ananda, these being above the pairs of opposites, r ather on the Hegelian lines of the reconciliation (rather than the identity ) of opposites in a m aster-idea. We have dismissed infinity as the figment of a morbid mathematic: but in any case the same disproof applies to it as to God.—A.C. 3 Hail unto Thee, the Blessed One, the Perfect One, the Enlightened One! antitheses of noum enon and phenomenon, unity and multiplicity, and their kind, are all reconciled, and the only question that re- mains is that of finding the most satisfactory means of attaining Nirvana—extinction of all that exists, knows, or feels; extinction final and com plete, utter and absolute ex- tinction. For by these words only can we indicate Nirvana: a s tate which transcends thought cannot be described in thought’s language. But from the point of view of thought extinction is complete: we have no data for discussing that which is unthinkable, and must decline to do so. This is the answer to those who accuse the Buddha of hurling his Arahats (and himself) from Samma Samadhi to annihilation. Pray obs erve in the firs t place that my solution of the Great Problem perm its the co-existence of an indefinite number of means: they need not even be com patible; Karma, rebirth, Providence, pray er, sacri- fice, baptism, there is room for all. On the old and, I hope, now finally discredited hypothesis of an infinite being, the supporters of these various ideas, while ex- plicitly affirm ing them , im plicitly denied. Similarly, note that the Qabalistic idea of a supreme God (and innumerable hier- archies) is quite com patible with this theory, provided that the supreme God is not in- finite. Now as to our weapons. The more ad- vanced Yogis of the East, like the Noncon- formists at home, have practically abandoned ceremonial as idle. I have y et to learn, however, by what dis senters have replaced it! I take this to be an error, except in the case of a very advanced Yogi. For there exists a true m agical cerem onial, vital and direct, whose purpose has, however, at any rate of recent tim es, been hopelessly m is- understood. Nobody any longer supposes that any means but that of m editation is of avail to grasp the immediate causes of our being ; if some person retort that he prefers to rely on a Glorified Redeem er, I simply answer