Chronology Entry
Year
1938
Text
Yeats, W.B. Introduction. Patanjali, Bhagwân Shree. Aphorisms of Yôga (London: Faber & Faber, 1938).
V
"That experience, accessible to all who adopt a traditional technique and habit of life, has become the central experience of Indian civilization, perhaps of all Far-Eastern civilization, that wherein all thoughts and all emotions expect their satisfaction and rest. The technique in China and Japan is different, but not that experience. In the Upanishads and in Pantanjali the Self and the One are reality. There are other books, Indian or Chinese, where the Self or the Not-Self, the One and the Many, are alike illusion. Whatever is known to the logical intellect is this and not that, here and not there, before and not after, or confined to one wing or another of some antinomy. It became no longer possible to identify the One and the Self with reality, the method of meditation had to be changed. Some years ago, that I might understand its influence upon Chinese and Japanese landscape painting, I sought that method in vain through encyclopedias and histories ; it certainly prepared an escape from all that the intellect holds true, and that escape, as described in the Scriptures and the legends of Zen Buddhism, is precipitated by a shock, often produced artificially by the teacher".
V
"That experience, accessible to all who adopt a traditional technique and habit of life, has become the central experience of Indian civilization, perhaps of all Far-Eastern civilization, that wherein all thoughts and all emotions expect their satisfaction and rest. The technique in China and Japan is different, but not that experience. In the Upanishads and in Pantanjali the Self and the One are reality. There are other books, Indian or Chinese, where the Self or the Not-Self, the One and the Many, are alike illusion. Whatever is known to the logical intellect is this and not that, here and not there, before and not after, or confined to one wing or another of some antinomy. It became no longer possible to identify the One and the Self with reality, the method of meditation had to be changed. Some years ago, that I might understand its influence upon Chinese and Japanese landscape painting, I sought that method in vain through encyclopedias and histories ; it certainly prepared an escape from all that the intellect holds true, and that escape, as described in the Scriptures and the legends of Zen Buddhism, is precipitated by a shock, often produced artificially by the teacher".
Mentioned People (1)
Yeats, William Butler
(Dublin 1865-1939 Hotel Ideal Séjour, Menton) : Dichter, Dramatiker, Schriftsteller, Nobelpreisträger
Subjects
Literature : Occident : Ireland
Documents (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1994 | Yeats, W.B. Later essays. Ed. by William H. O’Donnell. (New York, N.Y. : C. Scribner’s sons, 1994). (The collected works of W.B. Yeats ; vol. 5). | Publication / Yea22 |
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