The Inner Light; A Study of the Significance, Character, and Primary Content of the Religious Consciousness - Softcover
Inhaltsangabe
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND CREATION Instead of taking up the argument where we left it at the end of the last chapter, let us now start from a different point and work our way towards conclusions which may supplement and confirm those already reached. A few remarks on the difficult subject of self-consciousness will, it is hoped, further elucidate the question of the relation of our being to that of God, and also help us to understand a little better the import and validity of one great Theistic conception to which philosophy has done scant justice. § i. Two Imperfect Ways of regarding Self-Consciousness (l) As Reflection, or Introspection There are two symbolic modes of expressing what is meant by self-consciousness, both which, being really no more than physical metaphors, must be used with great caution, and have no claim to be regarded as a solution of the problem. There is firstly the idea of reflection, or the bending back of the Ego upon itself. This implies that the Ego, looking away from the outer world, turns inward and so gains a direct view of itself in abstraction from the world of which it is a member. The metaphor depends upon a sharp line of demarcation between outer and inner experience. This distinction, unlike that of subject and object, receives compromising assistance from a physical category. The cognition of our own selfhood, obtained by thus isolating it from the whole of which it is a member leads to the self-hypnotism of the Indian devotee, the killing of thought by thought. More will be said on this point in a moment. § 2. (2) Self-Consciousness as a Projection of Self The other way of explaining self-consciousness is to say that the Ego has the power of making itself its own object, of setting self before self. ...
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