第7章 神秘主義 n.5 - 神秘主義者達が同意する信条
(1)全ての分割や分離は非現実的なもの(架空のもの)である。宇宙は一つの不可分な統一体である (2)悪は幻影である。幻影は誤って部分を自立したもの(実体)と考えることにより生じる。 (3)時間は実在しない。実在は,永続という意味においてではなく,全く時間の外にあると言う意味において永遠である。 私は,この三つが神秘主義者たちが皆同意する事柄を完全に説明しつくしていると言うつもりはないが,私の指摘した三つの命題は全体の特質を現わすのに役立つだろう。我々は,今,法廷にいる陪審員であると仮定しよう。その仕事は上述のような三つの幾分驚くべき主張をなす証人の信頼性を判定することである。 |
Chapter 7: Mysticism, n.5The chief argument in favour of the mystics is their agreement with each other. "I know nothing more remarkable," says Dean Inge, "than the unanimity of the mystics, ancient, mediaeval, and modern, Protestant, Catholic, and even Buddhist or Mohammedan, though the Christian mystics are the most trustworthy." I do not wish to underrate the force of this argument, which I acknowledged long ago in a book called Mysticism and Logic. The mystics vary greatly in their capacity for giving verbal expression to their experiences, but I think we may take it that those who succeeded best all maintain : (i) that all division and separateness is unreal, and that the universe is a single indivisible unity ; (2) that evil is illusory, and that the illusion arises through falsely regarding a part as self-subsistent ; (3) that time is unreal, and that reality is eternal, not in the sense of being everlasting, but in the sense of being wholly outside time. I do not pretend that this is a complete account of the matters on which all mystics concur, but the three propositions that I have mentioned may serve as representatives of the whole. Let us now imagine ourselves a jury in a law-court, whose business it is to decide on the credibility of the witnesses who make these three somewhat surprising assertions. |