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.Whilst, however, Spencer and the Agnostic School hold that the Reality behind these phenomena is unknowable, the Vedanta affirms that it is knowable and is Consciousness itself.This is the Self than which nothing can be more intimately known.Force is blind.We discover consciousness in the Universe.It is reasonable to suppose that if the first cause is of the nature of either Consciousness or Matter, and not of both, it must be of the nature of the former and not of the latter.Unconsciousness or object may be conceived to modify Consciousness, but not to produce Consciousness out of its unconscious Self.According to Indian ideas, Spirit which is the cause of the Universe is pure Consciousness.This is Nishkala Shiva: and, as the Creator, the great Mother or Devi.The existence of pure consciousness in the Indian sense has been decried by some thinkers in the West, where generally to its pragmatic eye, Consciousness is always particular having a particular direction and form.It assumes this particularity, however, through Maya.We must distinguish between Consciousness as such and modes in consciousness.Consciousness is the unity behind all forms of consciousness, whether sensation, emotion, instinct, will or reason.The claim that Consciousness as such exists can only be verified by spiritual experience.All high mystic experiences, whether in East or West, have been experiences of unity in differing forms and degrees.Even, however, in normal life as well as in abnormal pathological states, we have occasional stretches of experience in which it becomes almost structure-less.Secondly, the discovery of the subliminal http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas16.htm (2 of 6)07/03/2005 16:03:18Chapter Sixteen: Matter and ConsciousnessConsciousness aids Shastric doctrine, in so far as it shows that behind the surface consciousness of which we are ordinarily aware, there is yet another mysterious field in which all its operations grow.It is the Buddhi which here manifests.Well-established occult powers and phenomena now generally accepted such as telepathy, thought-reading, hypnotism and the like are only explainable on hypotheses which approach more nearly Eastern doctrine than any other theory which has in modern times prevailed in the West.Thirdly, as bearing on this subject, we have now the scientific recognition that from its materia prima all forms have evolved; that there is life or its potency in all things: and that there are no breaks in nature.There is the same matter and Consciousness throughout.There is unity of life.There is no such thing as "dead" matter.The well-known experiments of Dr.Jagadish Bose establish response to stimuli in inorganic matter.This response may be interpreted to indicate the existence of that Sattva Guna which Vedanta and Samkhya affirm to exist in all things organic or inorganic.It is the play of Cit in this Sattva, so muffled in Tamas as not to be recognizable except by delicate scientific experiment, which appears as the so-called "mechanical" response.Consciousness is here veiled and imprisoned by Tamas.Inorganic matter displays it in the form of that seed or rudiment of sentiency which, enlarging into the simple pulses of feeling of the lowest degrees of organized life, at length emerges in the developed self-conscious sensations of human life.Consciousness is throughout the same.What varies is its wrappings.There is, thus, a progressive release of Consciousness from gross matter, through plants and animals to man.This evolution, Indian doctrine has taught in its 84 lakhs of previous births.According to the Hindu books, plants have a dormant consciousness.The Mahabharata says that plants can see and thus they reach the light.Such power of vision would have been ridiculed not long ago, but Professor Haberlandt, the well-known botanist, has established that plants possess an organ of vision in the shape of a convex lens on the upper surface of the leaf.The animal consciousness is greater, but seems to display itself almost entirely in the satisfaction of animal's wants.In man, we reach the world of ideas, but these are a superstructure on consciousness, and not its foundation or basis.It is in this modeless basis that the various modes of consciousness with which we are familiar in our waking and dreaming states arise.The question then arises as to the relation of this principle of Form with Formlessness; the unconscious finite with infinite consciousness.It is noteworthy that in the Thomistic philosophy, Matter, like Prakriti, is the particularizing or finitizing principle.By their definition, however, they are opposed.How then can the two be one?Samkhya denies that they are one, and says they are two separate independent principles.This, Vedanta in its turn denies for it says that there is in fact only one true Reality, though from the empirical, dualistic standpoint there seem to be two.The question then is asked, Is dualism, pluralism, or monism to be accepted? For the Vedantist the answer of Shruti is that it is the last [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Whilst, however, Spencer and the Agnostic School hold that the Reality behind these phenomena is unknowable, the Vedanta affirms that it is knowable and is Consciousness itself.This is the Self than which nothing can be more intimately known.Force is blind.We discover consciousness in the Universe.It is reasonable to suppose that if the first cause is of the nature of either Consciousness or Matter, and not of both, it must be of the nature of the former and not of the latter.Unconsciousness or object may be conceived to modify Consciousness, but not to produce Consciousness out of its unconscious Self.According to Indian ideas, Spirit which is the cause of the Universe is pure Consciousness.This is Nishkala Shiva: and, as the Creator, the great Mother or Devi.The existence of pure consciousness in the Indian sense has been decried by some thinkers in the West, where generally to its pragmatic eye, Consciousness is always particular having a particular direction and form.It assumes this particularity, however, through Maya.We must distinguish between Consciousness as such and modes in consciousness.Consciousness is the unity behind all forms of consciousness, whether sensation, emotion, instinct, will or reason.The claim that Consciousness as such exists can only be verified by spiritual experience.All high mystic experiences, whether in East or West, have been experiences of unity in differing forms and degrees.Even, however, in normal life as well as in abnormal pathological states, we have occasional stretches of experience in which it becomes almost structure-less.Secondly, the discovery of the subliminal http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas16.htm (2 of 6)07/03/2005 16:03:18Chapter Sixteen: Matter and ConsciousnessConsciousness aids Shastric doctrine, in so far as it shows that behind the surface consciousness of which we are ordinarily aware, there is yet another mysterious field in which all its operations grow.It is the Buddhi which here manifests.Well-established occult powers and phenomena now generally accepted such as telepathy, thought-reading, hypnotism and the like are only explainable on hypotheses which approach more nearly Eastern doctrine than any other theory which has in modern times prevailed in the West.Thirdly, as bearing on this subject, we have now the scientific recognition that from its materia prima all forms have evolved; that there is life or its potency in all things: and that there are no breaks in nature.There is the same matter and Consciousness throughout.There is unity of life.There is no such thing as "dead" matter.The well-known experiments of Dr.Jagadish Bose establish response to stimuli in inorganic matter.This response may be interpreted to indicate the existence of that Sattva Guna which Vedanta and Samkhya affirm to exist in all things organic or inorganic.It is the play of Cit in this Sattva, so muffled in Tamas as not to be recognizable except by delicate scientific experiment, which appears as the so-called "mechanical" response.Consciousness is here veiled and imprisoned by Tamas.Inorganic matter displays it in the form of that seed or rudiment of sentiency which, enlarging into the simple pulses of feeling of the lowest degrees of organized life, at length emerges in the developed self-conscious sensations of human life.Consciousness is throughout the same.What varies is its wrappings.There is, thus, a progressive release of Consciousness from gross matter, through plants and animals to man.This evolution, Indian doctrine has taught in its 84 lakhs of previous births.According to the Hindu books, plants have a dormant consciousness.The Mahabharata says that plants can see and thus they reach the light.Such power of vision would have been ridiculed not long ago, but Professor Haberlandt, the well-known botanist, has established that plants possess an organ of vision in the shape of a convex lens on the upper surface of the leaf.The animal consciousness is greater, but seems to display itself almost entirely in the satisfaction of animal's wants.In man, we reach the world of ideas, but these are a superstructure on consciousness, and not its foundation or basis.It is in this modeless basis that the various modes of consciousness with which we are familiar in our waking and dreaming states arise.The question then arises as to the relation of this principle of Form with Formlessness; the unconscious finite with infinite consciousness.It is noteworthy that in the Thomistic philosophy, Matter, like Prakriti, is the particularizing or finitizing principle.By their definition, however, they are opposed.How then can the two be one?Samkhya denies that they are one, and says they are two separate independent principles.This, Vedanta in its turn denies for it says that there is in fact only one true Reality, though from the empirical, dualistic standpoint there seem to be two.The question then is asked, Is dualism, pluralism, or monism to be accepted? For the Vedantist the answer of Shruti is that it is the last [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]