Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/72

 a consciousness of his higher dignity. And the ambassador could not sufficiently praise the regent for his noble bearing and passionless repose. The preceding Lama, too, had been a discerning, worthy, high-minded man. That, however, an individual should have substance concentrated in himself, and should outwardly display this worthy and noble character, are two things which are in close relation to each other.

In so far as the stillness of Being-within-itself is the extinction of all that is particular, is nothingness, this state of annihilation is the highest state for man, and his destiny is to immerse himself in this non-existence, eternal repose, in nothingness—in fact, in the substantial, where all determinations cease, and there is no will, no intelligence. By persistent immersion and meditation within himself man is supposed to become like to this principle, to come to be without passion, without inclination, without action, and to arrive at a condition in which he desires nothing and does nothing.

There is no question here of virtue, vice, reconciliation, immortality; the holiness of a man consists in his uniting himself in this extinction, in this silence, with God, with nothingness, with the Absolute. The highest state consists in the cessation of all bodily motion, of all movement of the soul. When this level has been reached, there is no descent to a lower grade, no further change, and man has no migration to fear after death, for he is then identical with God. Here, therefore, we have expressed the theoretical moment that man is something substantial, exists for himself. The practical element is that he wills; if he wills, then that which is is an object for him which he alters, upon which he impresses his form. The practical value of religious feeling is determined in accordance with the content of that which is regarded as the True. In this religion, however, this theoretical element is still present, namely, that this unity, purity, nothingness is absolutely independent in relation to