Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/69

 This substantiality of the &nu;&omicron;&upsilon;&sigmaf;, this absorption represented in one individual, is not the meditation of a king, who has in his consciousness the thought of the administration of his empire; but rather implies that this absorption in self is as abstract thought potentially active substantiality, the creation and preservation of the world.

The subjective form is not as yet exclusive here: only in the interpenetration of spirituality, subjectivity, and substance does God become essentially One. Thus Substance is certainly One; but Subjectivity, these outward embodiments, are several, and it is their very nature to be several: for this assumption of outward form is conceived of as itself in relation to substantiality, as something essential in fact, while yet at the same time it is also conceived of as something that is accidental.

For opposition, contradiction, first appears only in consciousness, in will, in a particular act of intelligence, and for this reason there cannot be several worldly rulers in one land. But this spiritual activity, although it has spiritual form for its definite existence or actual embodiment, is yet merely activity of substance, and does not appear as conscious activity, as conscious will.

Thus there are several, that is to say, three principal Lamas: the first, Dalailama, is to be found in Lassa, to the north of the Himalayas. There is another Lama in Little Thibet, in Tischu-Lombu. in the neighbourhood of Nepaul. Finally, in Mongolia there is yet a third Lama.

Spirit can, indeed, have one outward form only, and this is man, the sensuous manifestation of Spirit. But if the inner element is not determined as Spirit, the form at once becomes accidental or indifferent. The eternal life of the Christian is the Spirit of God itself, and the Spirit of God just consists in self-consciousness of oneself as the Divine Spirit. At this stage, on the other hand, Being-within-itself is still devoid of determination, is not as yet Spirit. It is immediate Being-within-itself; the eternal as this Being-within-itself has as yet no content,