An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism: The Essentials of Buddhist Spirituality by William Stoddart, Joseph A. Fitzgerald Read Free Book Online Page B

Sanskrit, Buddhi ),although “created”, is supra-formal and “universal”. It is directly touched
    by the “Nirvanic” or the Divine. The soul, on the other hand, is formal
    and “individual”. Pertaining to the Intellect are such things as our con-
    science and our sense of justice. Above al , the Intellect is the faculty
    which enables man to conceive the Absolute, and to know the Truth.
    It is the source of his capacity for objectivity, of his ability—in contra-
    distinction from the animals—to free himself from imprisonment in
    subjectivity. It is the very definition of the human state.
    The term “Intellect” must not be confused with “mind” (faculty of
    discursive reason) which, along with imagination, memory, sentiment,
    and wil , is one of the contents of the soul ( anima or psyche ).
    The Spirit or Intellect belongs to the “angelic” realm, the realm of
    the Platonic archetypes. It supplies the only “archetypal” or objective
    element in the constitution of man. The Intellect is thus the “measure”
    of the soul; the soul can never be the “measure” of the Intellect. Spirit
    and Intellect are the two sides of the same coin, the latter pertaining to
    Truth (or doctrine) and the former to Being (or realization).

    The Nature and the Teachings of Buddhism
    49
    Rock-cut statue of the Buddha,
    Gal Vihara, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, 11th century

    50
    An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism
    It is perhaps worth mentioning in passing that the fatal error of
    the modern psychologists (notably Jung) is their hopeless confusion of
    Spirit and soul, which in practice amounts to the “abolition” of Spirit.
    This is the “abolition” of the Absolute—and the objective—with a ven-
    geance, and it has had disastrous consequences for religion and spiri-
    tuality.
    Without the concept—and the reality—of the Spirit or Intellect,
    no contact whatsoever between God and man would be possible. This
    indeed seems to be the position of the Deists. The Spirit or Intellect in
    fact corresponds to the created Logos , while God as “Being” is the un-
    created Logos . It is thus that the Logos , with its two “Faces” (created and
    uncreated), constitutes the “bridge” between man and God.
    The uncreated Logos is the prefiguration of the relative in the Ab-
    solute (this is God as Creator) and the created Logos is the reflection
    of the Absolute in the relative (this is, on the one hand, Truth and Vir-
    tue, Symbol and Sacrament; and, on the other, Avatāra , Tathāgata ,Redeemer, or Prophet).
    In Buddhism, these five levels of reality appear in the form of the three
    “hypostases” or “bodies” ( trikāya )of the Buddha. These are as follows:
    (1) Divine Essence “Beyond-Being”

    D
    harmakāy a

    “universal body”
    (2) Personal God
    “Being”
    (uncreated Logos )
    Sambhogakāya
    “body of felicity”
    (3) Spirit or Intellect SPIRITUS,
    ( Logos )
    (created Logos ) INTELLECTUS
    (4) soul

    ANIMA
    Nirmānakāya
    “body of
    (5) body

    CORPUS
    permanence”

    The Nature and the Teachings of Buddhism
    51
    Level (1), “Beyond-Being” or the Divine Essence, is the Absolute.
    Level (2), “Being” or the Personal God, is the first autodetermination
    of the Absolute and the beginning of relativity. In Hindu terms, this is
    the distinction between Ātmā and Māyā .Levels (3), (4), and (5) taken together constitute creation, existence, or manifestation.
    In the metaphysical terminology of René Guénon, one can say
    that, macrocosmical y, level (3) is “supra-formal manifestation” (the
    Paradisal or angelic realm). Levels (2) and (3) taken together have been
    called “higher Māyā ”.There is an intimation of “higher Māyā ” in the world seen as theophany.
    Macrocosmical y, levels (4) and (5) taken together constitute “for-
    mal manifestation” (the “world” or samsāra ).This is “lower māyā ”—
    the world as exile and separation from God.
    Although, metaphysical y, “lower