ion of
the world from its great error.

That the whole world-process is nothing but an illusion, a confused
and troubled dream passing over the mind of Brahma, who himself alone
is real, this is the cardinal doctrine of Brahmanism, from which
Buddhism also, as we shall see, sets out. The world is really nothing
but an apparent world; and the true wisdom, the only salvation
consists in knowing this, and in living a life in accordance with
that knowledge. The wise man should regard a world which he knows to
be illusion, with complete indifference; it can do nothing to him, he
can do nothing for it; it affects him only with an ineradicable
regret that it exists at all, and with a longing for its
disappearance. The practical outcome of the state of matters which he
recognises is firstly negative, that he must not allow the world to
influence him at all, and, secondly, positive, that he must strive to
be united with Brahma. The negative task is performed by withdrawing
the mind from all particular things, and letting it be filled with
the general, the absolute alone; and similarly by forbidding the
desires to fasten on any worldly objects, by extinguishing desire and
ceasing to be affected in any way by worldly things. The positive
task is performed by means of a mental process which we cannot here
describe, but by which the mind returns to the self that is within
and realises it as it is, cleared from all particular thoughts and
affections. These exercises cannot be called moral; where all is
illusion morality disappears. There is no good, no evil, no effort to
promote the good and lessen the evil. It is not because the world is
bad that it is condemned, but because it exists. The energy which in
other faiths is devoted to a moral struggle, is here poured into the
ascetic discipline by which the individual looks to escape altogether
from the world as it is. There are no good works, what is good is to
abstain from all works; there is no benevolence further than that the
mind must be kept clear of all that confuses or degrades; the
salvation of the individual alone is sought after; there is no desire
to spread the light and save others, since few are capable of that
knowledge of the illusive nature of all things by which alone
salvation is possible.

This, it is plain, could never be a popular religion. Brahma, the
abstract one, does not appeal to the imagination; he could not drive
out the popular nature-gods with their d