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aspects. During Pralaya it is the sum total of the energy of the Infinite Universe, and during the peroid of Cosmic activity it manifests itself as the motion in Cosmic matter, which is the basis of Life, in all its forms and aspects. And this, again, is atheistic in Mr. Maitland's opinion.
III.It is more difficult to perceive how the third reason is intended to prove the charge of atheism. The author has stated that the consciousness realized in Nirvana is "absolute conscionsness," which is "non"—consciousness. It is absolute consciousness, because the soul is fully en rapport with the universal mind—the Adam Kadmon of the Kabalists, and the Adonai of the Jews;—and it is non-consciousness, because it is not consciousness in any way similar to the consciousness realized by us in any of the conditions with which we are familiar. But we are once more informed that this also is an atheistical doctrine. In Mr. Maitland's opinion, therefore, a doctrine is said to be atheistical when it declares that the consciousness realized in Nirvana, or the highest paradise,*[1] is not similar to the consciousness realized by man in his objective condition of existence, because, according to our opponent's Esoteric Philosophy, the case is entirely different. In his ideas, it seems, even in Heaven we are not going to be deprived of our enjoyments and amusements of our picnics, theatres and fashionable dress-parties.
IV.The fourth and the last reason, in support of the allegation made, has no foundation whatever, except in the imagination of the learned Vice-President of the "London Lodge." On p. 185 of his work, the author merely points out that the doctrines propounded therein are free from the difficulties generally raised in connection with the doctrine of free will and pre-destination, in the ordinary theological sense. To this Mr. Sinnett's opponent replies that the Esoteric Buddhist
- ↑ * It is very unfortunate that the English language has no word to indicate a higher state of existence than what is realized in Swaraga, or Devachan.
