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The Fifth Lesson: The One and the Many.773
The Fifth Lesson: The One and the Many.
As we have stated in previous Lessons, all philosophies which thinkers
have considered worthy of respect, find their final expression of Truth
in the fundamental thought that there is but One Reality, underlying all the
manifold manifestations of shape and form. It is true that the philosophers
have differed widely in their conception of that One, but, nevertheless, they
have all agreed upon the logical necessity of the fundamental conception
that there is, at least, but One Reality, underlying All.
Even the Materialists have conceded this conclusion, and they speak and
think of a something called “Matter,” as the One—holding that, inherent in
Matter, is the potentiality of all Life. The school of Energists, holding that
Matter in itself is non-existent, and that it is merely a mode of manifestation
of a something called “Energy,” asserts that this something called Energy is
One, fundamental, real, and self-sufficient.
The various forms of Western religious thought, which hold to the various
conceptions of a Personal Deity, also hold to a Oneness, inasmuch as they
teach that in the beginning there was God, only, and that all the Universe has
been created by Him. They do not go into details regarding this creation, and,
unlike the Oriental teachers, they fail to distinguish between the conception
of the creation of shape and form, on the one hand; and the creation of the