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39 intercorrelations of Akâsa-Prakriti, guided by the unconscions regular pulsations of Sakti—the breath or power of a conscious deity, the theists would say,—the eternal energy of an eternal, unconscious Law, say the Buddhists. Space then, or "Fan, Bar-nang" (Mâha Sûnyatâ) or, as it is called by Lao-tze, the "Emptiness" is the nature of the Buddhist Absolute. (See Confucius' "Praise of the Abyss.") The word jîva, then could never be applied by the Arahats to the Seventh Principle, since it is only through its correlation or contact with matter that Fohat (the Buddhist active energy) can develop active conscious life; and that to the question "how can Unconsciousness generate consciousness?" the answer would be "Was the seed which generated a Bacon or a Newton self-conscious?"

To our European readers: Deceived by the phonetic similarity, it must not be thought that the name "Brahman" is identical in this connection with Brahma or Iswara—the personal God. The Upanishads—the Vedânta Scriptures—mention no such God and one would vainly seek in them any allusions to a conscious deity. The Brahmam, or Parabrahm, the of the Vedantins, is neuter and unconscious, and has no connection with the masculine Brahmâ of the Hindu Triad, or Trimûrti. Some Orientalists rightly believe the name derived from the verb "Brih," to grow or increase, and to be in this sense, the universal expansive force of nature, the vivifying and spiritual principle, or power, spread throughout the universe and which in its collectivity is the one Absoluteness, the one Life and the only Reality.