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would have enabled them to record those when A=A may be no longer true ; and this
results in an intelligible, orderly form. by no Hegelian word-juggle ; but by direct
Others deliberately set their face against apperception as clear as the sun at noon.
such an attempt. I am not of them; Therefore; no work more, but to the
humanity has grown up; if the knowledge be work !
dangerous in unexpected ways, what of
bacteriology? I have obtained one result; a
XII.
result striking at the very condition of
consciousness; which I may formulate as
THE THREE REFUGES.
follows:
If a single state of consciousness persist Buddham Saranangachami.
unchanged for a period exceeding a very few Dhammam Saranangachami.
seconds, its duality is annihilated; its nature Sangham Saranangachami.
is violently overthrown; this phenomenon is I take my refuge in the Buddha.
accompanied by an indescribable sensation I take my refuge in the Dhamma.
of bliss. I take my refuge in the Sangha.
Very well! but I want this formula verified This formula of adhesion to Buddhism
a hundred times, a thousand times, by is daily repeated by countless millions of
independent investigators. I want it better humanity; what does it mean? It is no vain
stated; its conditions modified, defined ex- profession of reliance on others; no cowardly
actly. I want it to leave its humble station as shirking of burdens burdens which cannot
my observation, and put into the class of be shirked. It is a plain estimate of our
regular phenomena. auxiliaries in the battle; the cosmic facts on
But I am verging back towards Hindu which we may rely, just as a scientist relies
philosophy, and it is a reminder well needed on the conservation of energy in making an
at this moment. For this experience of the experiment.
destruction of duality, this first phenomenon Were that principle of uncertain applica-
in the series, has, in all its illusory beauty, tion, the simplest quantitative experiment
been seized upon, generalised from, by philo- would break hopelessly down.
sophers, and it is to this basis of partial and So for the Buddhist.
therefore deceptive fact that we owe the I take my refuge in the Buddha. That
systems of Vedanta and Idealism, with there was once a man who found the Way
their grotesque assumptions and muddle- is my encouragement.
headed reconcilements all complete. I take my refuge in the Dhamma. The Law
One fact, O Sri Çankaracharya, does not underlying phenomena and its unchanging
make a theory; let us remember your fate, certainty; the Law given by the Buddha to
and avoid generalising on insufficient evi- show us the Way, the inevitable tendency to
dence. With this word of warning, I leave Persistence in Motion or Rest and Persist-
the metaphysician to wallow in his mire, ence, even in Motion, negates change in
and look toward better times for the great consciousness these observed orders of
problems of philosophy. Remember that fact are our bases.
118
SCIENCE AND BUDDHISM
I take my refuge in the Sangha. gas is a network of mechanism, the main
These are not isolated efforts on my part; features and many details of which have
although in one sense isolation is eternally been made more or less obvious to the
perfect and can never be overcome,1 in wondering intelligence of mankind by the
another sense associates are possible and labour and ingenuity of scientific investi-
desirable. One third of humanity are gators. But no sane man has ever pre-
Buddhists; add men of Science and we form tended, since science became a definite body
an absolute majority ; among Buddhists a of doctrine, that we know or ever can hope
very large proportion have deliberately gone to know or conceive of the possibility of
out from social life of any kind to tread these knowing, whence this mechanism has come,
paths of Research. why it is there, whither it is going, and what
Is the Way very hard? Is the brain tired? there may or may not be beyond and beside
The results slow to come? Others are it which our senses are incapable
working, failing, struggling, crowned here of appreciating. These things are not
and there with rare garlands of success. explained by science, and never can be,
Success for ourselves, success for others; is he gives a curious example of that quaint
it not Compassion that binds us closer than scientific pride which knows the limits of its
all earthly ties? Ay, in joy and in sorrow, in powers, and refuses to entertain the hope of
weakness and in strength, do I take my transcending them. Unfortunately, he is as
refuge in the Sangha. one who, a hundred years ago, should have
declared any knowledge of the chemistry of
the fixed stars impossible. To invent new
methods, and to revolutionise the functions
XIII
of the senses by training or other-wise is the
routine work of to-morrow.1
CONCLUSION
But, alas ! he goes even further.
Let me give a rapid resumé of what we Similarly we seek by the study of
have gone through. cerebral disease to trace the genesis of the
(a) We have stripped Science and phenomena which are supposed by some
Buddhism of their accidental garments, and physicists who have strayed into biological
administered a rebuke to those who so fields to justify them in announcing the
swathe them. discovery of Telepathy and a belief
(b) We have shown the identity of Science in ghosts.
and Buddhism in respect of: To talk of cerebral disease as the char-
(1) Their fact. acteristic of one who merely differs from
(2) Their theory. you (and that because he has more know-
(3) Their method. ledge than yourself) is itself a symptom
(4) Their enemies. familiar to alienists. (I may say I hold no
(c) While thus admitting Buddhism to brief for Professor Lodge, here attacked.
be merely a branch of Science, we have I am not even interested in any of his
shown it to be a most important branch, results, as such of them as I am acquainted
since its promise is to break down the walls with deal with objective and trivial pheno-
at which Science stops. mena.)
When Professor Ray Lankester has to Of course, as long as what Darwin called
write, The whole order of nature, including variation is called disease by Professor Ray
living and lifeless matter man, animal, and Lankester, we shall (if we accept his views,
1 1
i.e., on normal planes See note p. 116
119
SCIENCE AND BUDDHISM
and it will go hard with us if we do not !) And the history of our Science is the
regard all progress in any direction as history of all Science. If you choose to ape
morbid. So (as with Lombroso) disease Christendom and put the pioneers of rational
will become a mere word, like its prede- investigation into the nature of
cessor infidelity, and cease to carry any consciousness on the rack (i.e. into lunatic
obloquy. asylums) I doubt not we shall find our
If Science is never to go beyond its Bruno. But it will add an additional pang
present limits; if the barriers which meta- that persecution should come from the house
physical speculation shows to exist are never of our friends.
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