FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION
Search the corpus.
Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
16 matching pages
Page 1 of 11906 · PDF PAGE 282
…and colourless liquid. So it might be absurd to assert either that Subject or Object disappears in Dhyana to the advantage of the other. Scept. But at least this glorification of the consciousness is a proof that reality (as shown in Dhyana) is more glorious than illusion (as shown in consciousness). Myst. Or, that illusion Scept. Of course! We are then no further than before. Myst. Indeed we are. Glory, real or false, is desirable. ing ‘‘real or false,” by virtue of our previous agreement that the Subjective is the Know- able, and that deeper …
1906 · PDF PAGE 281
…nce childhood : it is part of your identity, ashape or defining idea of your mind: but you have forgotten the picnic at—-where you will. Scept. There is something to be thankful for in that. Then, there are incidents of sport Alyst. Mysteries of initiation —— Scept. Narrow escapes Myst. The presence of death —— Scept. Shocks-—— Myst. Some incidents of earliest child- hood Scept. Memories which can be classed, and therefore fall under great headings; in- tellectual victories—-- Myst. Religious emotions Scepi. Ah! this minute too, for I group the…
1906 · PDF PAGE 284
278 TIME Myst. To be secretive is to be blatant. Scept. To be frank is to be mysterious. Adyst. I wish your poet-martyr! (I do not refer to Chatterton) could hear us. Scept. To return, I would have you note the paradox that unconsciousness must be reckoned as a-form of consciousness, since otherwise the last state of consciousness of a dying person is for him eternity. That this is not so is-shown by the phenomena of anzesthesia. Myst. Is it, though? Is the analogy so certain? Is there nothing in the attempt of all religions to secure that a ma…
1906 · PDF PAGE 288
282 TIME other research: such is the object of my life. . Myst. But of mine the research itself. Scept. IT applaud you. You are the happy one. I am the martyr. I shall sow, but not reap; my eyes shall hardly see the first- fruits of my labour; yet something I shall see. Also, to construct one must clear the ground: to harvest, the plough and harrow are required. First we must rid us of false phrase and lying assumption, of knavery and.ignorance, of bigotry and shirk- ing. Let us pull down the church and the Free Library ;! with each stone torn …
1906 · PDF PAGE 280
…o all controversy, then. How shall we obtain the best from life? It is this form of the question that should give you a clue to my goal. Scept. It is so difficult to determine whether Sherlock Holmes? is dead or no that I will take no risks. But the answer to your query is obvious. He “eves the longest who remembers most. Myst. Insufficient. There are lives full of the dreariest incident, like a farmyard novel, or a window in Thrums, or the autobiography of the Master of a College,* who lives ninety years and begets sons and daughters, and ther…
1906 · PDF PAGE 285
… The final factor is always unknowable—yet it is the one thing known. Afyst. And because it is always present, therefore it is unkenned. Scept. We are now nearer Spencer than appeared. For the fact that it must be there, unchanging in function, while con- sciousness persists, gives the idea of a definite substratum to subserve that function. Myst. I cannot but agree; and I would further observe that when, in Dhyana, it ceases to examine, and apperceives, the ‘‘ relative eternity,’ z.¢., the intense vividness of the phenomenon gives us a further…
1906 · PDF PAGE 274
…rence of caste and race, custom and language, in the supreme unity, that of the ultimate force of which this universe is the expression. Scept. I have listened with patience to what is after all (you must admit) a rather spiteful tirade—— Myst. Forgive me if I interrupt. Do me the honour to remember that it was said in self-blame. I tried to give your honour “the giltie’’ (as one of your worst poets has said) ‘“to see yoursel as ithers see you,” the ‘‘ithers”’ in this case being average Hindus, as ignorant of your real character as you confess …
1906 · PDF PAGE 287
…ous, I am but-one of millions in the like strait. Nor dol perceive that any other line of action offers even a remote chance of success. Scept. The problem is perennial. It must be attacked on scientific: lines, and if the pioneers fall,—well, who expects more from a forlorn hope? Time will show. Myst. We have wandered far from this question of time. Scept. Even from that of consciousness; itselfa digression, though a necessary one. Myst. An elusive fellow, this conscious- ness! Is he continuous, you, who declare him permanent? Scept. Do I, ind…
1906 · PDF PAGE 279
…e blow being struck. Myst. Tam glad you join me in ridicule of the scheme ; but do you quite grasp how serious the situation has become? Scept. I confess I do not see whither you would lead me. Your own computation strikes one as fantastic in the extreme. Myst, Who knows? Think, yourself, of certain abnormal and pathological pheno- mena, whose consideration might lay down the bases for a possible argument. Scept. There are several things that spring instantly into the mind. First and foremost is the wonderfully suggestive work, misnamed fiction…
1906 · PDF PAGE 283
…main point, however, there is no doubt. These Westerns did, more or less, pursue our methods. Why doubt that they attained our results ? Scept. I never did doubt it. our philosophers have even imagined that ‘self-consciousness,”’ as they style it, is the very purpose of the Universe. Myst. They were so enamoured of the Ananda—the bliss Scept. Presumably. Far be it from me to set myself up against them; but I may more modestly take the position that ‘‘self- consciousness” is a mere phenomenon; a bye-product, and no more, in the laboratory of lif…
1906 · PDF PAGE 275
… when I say real Zo us, I say real absolutely, since all things lie to me in the radius of my sensorium. ‘‘ To others” is a vain phrase, Scept. True; for those ‘‘ others” only exist for you inasmuch as, and in so far as, they are modifications of your own thought-stuff.! . Myst. Agreed, then; instead of looking through the glasses of the metaphysician, we will content ourselves with the simpler task of measuring our thoughts by the only stan- dard which is unquestionably valid, consciousness. Scept. But if that consciousness deceive us ? Myst. …
1906 · PDF PAGE 278
…time. Myst. A strange measure! What is the comparison in one of your poets between ‘Fifty years of Europe” and ‘‘a cycle of Cathay ” ? | Scept. You know our poets well. * Myst. Among my loose tags of thought are several thousand useless quotations. I would give much to have my memory swept and garnished. Scept. Seven other devils wait at the door. But you were saying? Myst. That an astronomer might perhaps justly compute the time during which his eye was actually at the telescope by the motion of the planets, or by the clockwork of his re- flec…
1906 · PDF PAGE 273
TIME * -A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A BRITISH SCEPTIC AND AN. | INDIAN MYSTIC ‘‘ He (Shelley) used to say that he had lived three times as long as the calendar gave out, which he would prove between jest and earnest by some remarks on Time— ~~ ‘That would have puzzled that stout Stagyrite. >)? —Prefix to the ‘‘ Wandering Jew” in “ Fraser's Magazine.” [The philosophical premisses of this and the other essays in this volume should be studied in ; Keynes. Formal Logic. Erdmann. History of Philosophy. Berkeley. Three Dialogues «.r-.A. Hume. Works. Kant. Pro…
1906 · PDF PAGE 286
…she will do well! And what dividends do you promise? AJyst. In the first year. Dhyana; in the second, Samadhi; and inthe third, Nirvana. Scept, It is not the first year yet. Is this coin current? Afyst. Ah! I remember now your phrase ‘Dhyana a debaucn.’’ You are of course familiar with the name of Maudsley, perhaps the greatest living authority on the brain? Scept, None greater. Afjst. By rare gocd fortune, at the very moment when this aspect of the question was confronting me, and I was (so any one would have imagined) many thousand miles from…
1906 · PDF PAGE 276
270 TIME not easily grasp Western ideas. What is a “year”? Scept. Hm! Well, ah, the earth moves round importance of believing the truth? But Mr. Crowley has got something into his soul stronger even than the beautiful passion of the man who believes in Buddhism; he has the passion of the man who does not believe in Christianity. He adds one more testimony to the endless series of testimonies to the fas- cination and vitality of the faith. For some mysterious reason no man can contrive to be agnostic about Christianity. He always tries to prove …
1906 · PDF PAGE 277
TIME 271 Scept, 1? soul, no! Myst. Then how do you know all. this about the earth? Goodness gracious bless my How few among us can reach the supreme sanity of Dr. Henry Maudsley in such a book ‘¢ Life in Mind and Conduct ”! ” Hence I regard Agnosticism as little more than a basis of new research into spiritual facts, to be conducted by the methods won for us by men of science. I would define myself as an agnostic with a future. But to the enthymeme itself. enough to expose it. Other things have been hated before and since Christ lived —if he li…