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Article MASONIC PHILOSOPHY. ← Page 5 of 9 →
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Masonic Philosophy.
and characterized by attributes which belong to no other substances , and which , consequently , establish the special existence of the being in whom they are organized . Amongst the variety of souls , he preeminently distinguishes the Supreme Soul as the seat of eternal knowledge . After the soul comes the body , the seat of effort or of
intentional action ; of the organs of sensation , of pain , and of pleasure ; it is composed of terrestrial particles , and participates in the qualities of the earth , as expressly affirmed in more than one passage of the Vedas . The organs of sensation are the instruments of intelligence associated to the body , and are themselves imperceptible to
the senses . The Nyayan philosophy , therefore , is eminently spiritual , although its researches are extended to the material part of the immaterial soul , for the intelligent substance is the object of knowledge with which it is essentially occupied , Its direct application is ,
to analyze the faculties of recognition , comprehension , recollection , and the principle of activity , which renders man capable of virtue 01 * vice , and which excites in him desire , passion , aversion , fear , & c . It endeavours to penetrate through all questions relative to the condition of the immortal soul , and raises the hypothesis of transmigration , retribution , pains and penalties , deliverance or enfranchisement
from all evil , which , as we have seen , was considered the last state of perfect beatitude . To this discipline every candidate was submitted in his passage through the valley of the shadow of death , until he was purified to emerge into the region of light , where he took his First Degree . We next come to the philosophy of Vaiseshika , or Yelchiska , a
Hindoo word signifying distinction . This system , founded by Kauadi , or Canada , embraces the science of physics , or the distinction of sensible objects and the study of their distinctive qualities , and this system also rests upon the authority of the Vedas . It adopts the same starting-point as that of Nyaya , recognises the same categories , admits the same rules of logic , the same conditions , and the same
characteristics of proof So far the two schools are scarcely distinguishable from each other ; and by expounding the first part of the doctrines of Kanadi , we should only repeat what we have said before . " . But however analogous these two systems may appear in their common origin , they are as widely separated in their development and in the application of their common principles . Wo have already seen , that as soon as the Nyayan philosophy attached itself to researches upon the essential objects of knowledge , it stopped on the
very threshold with man , and made his spiritual portion , or the soul , its more particular study . It attempted to discover all the categories here below which could essentially aid it in this inquiry into its state of intelligence alone ; whilst the system of Kanadi selects , as its principal object of knowledge , a dominion of research which the school of G autainu wholly neglected . Without entirely laying aside matters connected only with human intelligence , it more especially attaches itself to study the objects of our sensations . The phono-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Philosophy.
and characterized by attributes which belong to no other substances , and which , consequently , establish the special existence of the being in whom they are organized . Amongst the variety of souls , he preeminently distinguishes the Supreme Soul as the seat of eternal knowledge . After the soul comes the body , the seat of effort or of
intentional action ; of the organs of sensation , of pain , and of pleasure ; it is composed of terrestrial particles , and participates in the qualities of the earth , as expressly affirmed in more than one passage of the Vedas . The organs of sensation are the instruments of intelligence associated to the body , and are themselves imperceptible to
the senses . The Nyayan philosophy , therefore , is eminently spiritual , although its researches are extended to the material part of the immaterial soul , for the intelligent substance is the object of knowledge with which it is essentially occupied , Its direct application is ,
to analyze the faculties of recognition , comprehension , recollection , and the principle of activity , which renders man capable of virtue 01 * vice , and which excites in him desire , passion , aversion , fear , & c . It endeavours to penetrate through all questions relative to the condition of the immortal soul , and raises the hypothesis of transmigration , retribution , pains and penalties , deliverance or enfranchisement
from all evil , which , as we have seen , was considered the last state of perfect beatitude . To this discipline every candidate was submitted in his passage through the valley of the shadow of death , until he was purified to emerge into the region of light , where he took his First Degree . We next come to the philosophy of Vaiseshika , or Yelchiska , a
Hindoo word signifying distinction . This system , founded by Kauadi , or Canada , embraces the science of physics , or the distinction of sensible objects and the study of their distinctive qualities , and this system also rests upon the authority of the Vedas . It adopts the same starting-point as that of Nyaya , recognises the same categories , admits the same rules of logic , the same conditions , and the same
characteristics of proof So far the two schools are scarcely distinguishable from each other ; and by expounding the first part of the doctrines of Kanadi , we should only repeat what we have said before . " . But however analogous these two systems may appear in their common origin , they are as widely separated in their development and in the application of their common principles . Wo have already seen , that as soon as the Nyayan philosophy attached itself to researches upon the essential objects of knowledge , it stopped on the
very threshold with man , and made his spiritual portion , or the soul , its more particular study . It attempted to discover all the categories here below which could essentially aid it in this inquiry into its state of intelligence alone ; whilst the system of Kanadi selects , as its principal object of knowledge , a dominion of research which the school of G autainu wholly neglected . Without entirely laying aside matters connected only with human intelligence , it more especially attaches itself to study the objects of our sensations . The phono-