the world, we shall see that it is not only difficult but
absolutely impossible
to
express in our language the true relationships of things of the
real
world.
This difficulty can be overcome only by the formation of new concepts and
expanded analogies.
Later I shall make clear the principles and methods of this expansion,
methods and principles which we already possess and which can be extracted
from the store of our knowledge. For the moment it is important to establish
one
thing -
THE NEED OF UNIFORMITY
- the monistic character of the universe. .
. .
As a matter of principle,
it is immaterial what to regard as
the beginning:
spirit or matter. What is important is to admit their
oneness.
But what then is matter?
On the one side it is a
logical concept,
i.e. a
form of thinking.
No one has
ever seen
matter,
nor will he ever see it: matter can only be
thought.
On the
other hand it is -
illusion
taken for reality.
Matter is a section of
something,
a
non-existent, imaginary section. But that of which matter is a section does
exist. It is the real,
four-dimensional world,
perhaps a many-dimensional
world.
Wood, the substance from which a table is made, exists but we do not know
the true nature of its existence. All we know about it is the form of our
perception of it.
And, if we are no longer there,
it will continue to exist, but only for a
perception working in the same way as ours.
But
in itself this
substance exists in some entirely different manner,
HOW
,
we do not know.
One thing is certain; it does not exist in space and time
these forms we impose on it. Probably all
similar wood
of different centuries
and different parts of the world forms one mass -one body, perhaps
one being.
It is certain that the particular substance (or part of substance) from which this
table is made, has
no separate existence other than in our perception.
We do
not
understand that a
thing
is only an artificial
definition
by our senses of
some undefinable cause which infinitely transcends the
thing.
But a
thing
may acquire an individual and separate soul of its own. And in
that case a thing exists independently of our perception. Many things possess
such souls, especially
old things,
old houses, old books, works of art, etc.
But what grounds have we for thinking that there
exists in the world a mind
other than our human one and that of animals and plants?
First of all, of course, the thought that everything in the world is alive and
animated and that manifestations of life and animation must exist on all
planes and in all forms. But we can see mind only in forms analogous to ours.
The most important thing is that we have no reason to consider our mind as
the only and highest form existing in the universe.
The question stands thus How could we learn about the existence of the
mind of other
sections of the world, if they exist?
By two methods, through
COMMUNICATION
,
EXCHANGE OF THOUGHTS
and by
means of
CONCLUSIONS BY ANALOGY
.
For the first it is necessary that our mental life should itself become similar
to theirs, should transcend the limits of the three-dimensional world, i.e. a
change of our form of perception and representation is required.
The second may result from a gradual expansion of the faculty of drawing
analogies. In trying to think outside
the usual categories, in trying to look at
things and ourselves from a new angle, and simultaneously from many
angles, in trying to liberate our thinking from the customary partitions of time
and space, we gradually begin to notice analogies between things, where
previously we had seen nothing at all. Our mind grows, and with it grows the
capacity of drawing analogies. With every new degree reached,
this capacity
broadens and enriches our mind. Each moment we advance more rapidly,
each new step becomes easier. Our mental life becomes
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