The Sword of Song

SCIENCE AND BUDDHISM 109 grandeur of our edifice by jimcrack pinnacles of stucco—as who should hang the Taj Mahal with fairy lamps and chintz. It is sim ple. The m ind is com pelled to fix its attention on a single thought; while the controlling power is exercised and a profound watchfulness kept up lest the thought should for a moment stray .1 The latter portion is, to m y m ind, the essential one. The work is comparable to that of an electrician who should sit for hours with h is finger on a delicately adjusted resistance-box and his eye on the spot of light of a galvanometer, charged with the duty of keeping the spot still, at least that it should never move bey ond a certain number of degrees, and of recording the more impor- tant details of his experiment. Our work is identical in design, though worked with subtler—if less com plex—means. For the finger on the resistance-box we substitute the Will ; and its control extends but to the Mind ; for the ey e we substitute the Introspective Faculty with its keen observa- tion of the most minute disturbance, while the spot of light is the Consciousness itself, the central point of the galvanometer scale the predetermined object, and the other figures on the scale, other objects, c onnected with the primary by order and degree, sometimes obviously, sometimes obscurely, perhaps even untraceably , s o that we have no real right to predicate their connection.2 1 Huxley, Essays, V., 136. 2 This last sentence will be best understood by those who have practised up to a cer tain point. At first it is easy to trace back by a connected chain of thoughts fr om the thought which awakes us to the fact that we are wandering to the original thought. Later, and notably as we im prove, this becomes first difficult, then im possible. At first sight this fact suggests that we are injuring our brains by the practice, but the explanation is as follows: Suppose we figur e the central con- sciousness as the Sun, intent on seeing that nothing falls into him . Fir st the near planets are carefully arranged, so th at no collision can occur; afterwards Jupiter and Saturn, until his whole system is safe. If then any body fall upon the Sun, he knows that it is not fr om any of those planets How any sane person can describe this process as delusive and unhealthy passes my comprehension; that any scientist should do so implies an ignorance on his part of the facts. I may add that the most rigid necessity exists for perfect health of body and mind before this practice can begin; as ceticism is as sternly discouraged as indulgence. How would the electrician do his work after a Guildhall Banquet? The strain of watching would be too much, and he would go off to sleep. So with the meditatior. If, on the other hand, he had been without food for twenty-four hours, he might—indeed, it has been done often—perform prodigies of work for the necessary period; but a reaction must follow of proportionate severity. Nobody will pretend that the best work is done starving.1 Now to such an observer certain pheno- mena present themselves sooner or later which have the qualities above predicated of our im aginary “ dream” preceded by a transition-state very like total loss of consciousness. Are these fatigue phenomena? Is it that this practice for som e as y et unknown reason stimulates some special nerve-centre ? P erhaps; the subject re- quires investigation; I am not a phy sio- logist. Whatever phy siology may say, it is at least clear that if this s tate is accom - panied with an intense and passionles bliss beyond any thing that the normal man can conceive of, and unaccom panied with the slightest prejudice to the mental and physical health, it is most highly desirable. And to the scientist is presen ts a m agnificent field of research. with which he is fam iliar, and, lord of his own system, cannot trace the course or divine the cause of the accident which has disturbed him. And he will accept this ignorance as a proof of how well his own sy stem is going, since he no longer receives shocks from it.—A. C. 1 Hallucination especially is to be f eared. Light-headedness from want of food is quite sufficient explanation for many “Mystic raptures.” I do not car e to invoke hysteria and epilepsy without positive evidence.—A. C.