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