Spring 1959, Houston.
According to the Katha Upanishad (1), there is a city of seven gates. The first ten are the apertures of the body (there being two each of the eyes, ears, and nostrils), while the eleventh is an invisible and intangible opening at the top of the head, through which the soul escapes after death.
Let this eleventh gate represent the access to an ultimate truth. In the Orient the Search for Truth is made a way of life, and such disciplines as the Vedanta, the Yoga, and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism are devised; they represent the religious approach to philosophy. In the lands of Europe, philosophy is less a way of life and more a scientific method of logic. In either event, thinkers fall into disagreement and false dogma. Even with these errors, one thing remains: this tale of the eleventh gate represents one of the noblest efforts of mankind — to free the intellect of its material surroundings and of the psychological framework of the mind, to break the veil which hides the ultimate reality. Metaphysics, though its practical importance is not immediately apparent, may become, for him to whom life is insufficient without a knowledge of the absolute and eternal, a hope and faith.
This eleventh opening may be the size of a pinhole and the chances the intellect has of reaching it may be almost nil — the mind often swims frantically to locate the exit and extrude itself into outer realms. Sometimes a piece of the mind-stuff may trickle through, only to lose itself into outer realms. Truth-seeking is like searching for spiders in a dungeon filled with cobwebs. Often the will to truth loses its way and yields itself to the vanities of its owner; thus does the thinker fall very short of his own ideals.
Let it be supposed that all thought and systems have their origin in a non-material network of Idea (2), independent of all time and space. The fine tufts of this web of Idea stretch from a single point to infinity; such a spectacle mat be compared to a great oak tree or to a cobweb of gold. The structure is continuous and fluid, however; categories are “pervading substances” rather than solid threads or isolated crypts. When physical bodies obey laws claimed by science, they do so because they are cast from the molding Idea; the thoughts of man are imperfect approximations of this perfect image. It is absurd to argue, as pragmatists do, that truth is relative, for here is the objective Idea. It is, of course, unlike the visible world — it is quite static and stationary. If one wants to admire it, he may rightfully say that its beauty is that of the Gothic and Oriental.
One aspect of truth is to analyze the universe further and to see its fundamental parts. Let the inherent quality of the universe be called Existence and let Truth be the ultimate knowlege of Existence. Existence must be irrational, in that there is no higher reason to which one may appeal. Truth and Existence, however, are, thus far, but empty notions; there must be an origin to all things real. This origin need not be a beginning, for it is not necessary that the universe ever came into reality at any given time; the origin is an underlying essence for all matter and energy. In physics one sees that all substance is of the same nature and also that the fundamental nature of mtter is very unlike the usual notions of it. (3)
The ultimate reality (or realities) which pervades the universe may be known as the Absolute, the abstract form of the general idea of God. When one first examines the Absolute, he finds no qualities in it to guide him and does not know whether it is one or several. The Absolute is more nearly Brahman than Jehovah. The Isa Upanishad says, “Brahman is smaller than the nail of your thumb, but larger than the universe. It is like an instantaneous flash, yet like eternity. It moves and It does not move. It has no eyes, ears, or attributes.” The Absolute is like Brahman in that it is a link between a dynamic material realm and a static Ideal realm. It must be simple, homogeneous, eternal, and undivided. This state, however, is greatly at variance with the world in which we live. The theory of a single Absolute must be modified. A monistic world is inactive and incompatible with the relative universe; dualistic and dialectic conceptions of the world both lead to determinism; a pluralistic universe is chaos. A theory of qualified pluralism must suffice.
Let there be four Absolutes, arranged in a permanent but diffractive system. The first Absolute is substance, the basis of the material world. It is solid with potential force, but lies passive unless influenced by a second Absolute extraneous to it — quality, the agent of time and space and the cause of the visible universe. Absolute quality has the power of measuring off portions of unqualified substance and of transforming them into the germs of material reams. Two other Absolutes bring about the evolution of these cosmic buds and are responsible for the existence of Idea; they are diffusion, the force behind uncertainty and diversity, and particularity — the cause of Truth, the subject of all other Absolutes, indirectly responsible for the existence of the human soul. The Absolutes can be named and numbered but a physical picture of them is something which can never be given. One can only say that the Absolutes exist simultaneously in a state of perpetual harmony and in state of perpetual discord, and that where there is one Absolute there is always a trace of the other three.
Absolutes are neutral and meaningless, however, unless colored by the tincture of human perception. Even though they explain the existence of the universe, they do not give man a reason for his existence. It is the purpose of religion, and of religious philosophy, to provide this reason. There are many such reasons, suitable for different individuals, but these are all forms of the will to Truth. In Hinduism, for example, the object of life is complete objectivity, while in Christianity it is the Word of revelation in the Gospel of St. John. This will to Truth is called inspiration when it is the cause of the forces of art, morality, and the principal force, faith — all being forms of Truth. Most men prefer to believe in Truth as God, a personal and psychological representative of the Absolute. Faith of some sort is necessary to the life of every individual; it may be called the protector of a person’s individuality.
Different persons need different protectors, but even then there are good protectors and bad. One should strive to find the best sort for himself. The artist may possibly find himself only in his art ans a philosopher only in his studies, but many such individuals observe creeds quite distinct from their vocations. Indeed, a position of philosophic atheism can be held only by isolated individuals; in a nation such a belief would lead either to modification or to corruption and a denial of morality. In all forms of organized Buddhism, for example, there is now some sort of theism or polytheism. In another extreme, Communism, all morality is denied for the State and freedom is therefore denied too — this example clearly demonstrates that morality is necessary and cannot be denied. Peripheral things and ideas, it is true, are relative, but to every husk there must be an absolute kernel. Values are absolute in a relative sense, and even the sage must have certain duties. Man’s destiny is to try to live by good and to keep evil in check by proper knowledge of it.
Notes
(1) The Upanishads are treatises of wisdom which form part of the literature appended to the Hindu Veda (scriptures).
(2) Like the German term Vorstellung, “idea”, “representation”, “conception”, i. e. an objective representation of all subjective ideas.
(3) The endless variety of transformations through which energy and elementary particles can go is evidence that the absolute composition of every piece of matter is the same. Even the distinction between positive and negative particles can be destroyed. The dual nature of matter is composed both of particles and waves, a seemingly absurd idea, argues the transcendental nature of substance. Spinoza held this view. More than once philosophers have held views later confirmed by scientific investigation.