PRIZE OF DIVINITY

THE PRIZE OF DIVINITY “It will be discovered finally, perhaps , that the energy spent in elaborating complicate series of analytic curiosities has been misappropriated. It will then be necessary to turn the attention definitely to the study of that which lies not at the terminus of the intellect’s ‘modus vivendi’, but which is both the origin of the intellect and its eternal sustainer—the intuition, or life itself. This can result in nothing less than the complete spiritualization of man’s mental outlook and the consequent inevitable recognition of the underlying and ever-sustaining one-ness of all vital manifestations... “Just as the tide flowing in flows out again, thereby restoring the ocean’s equilibrium , so the mind ascending in one generation beyond the safety mark has its equilibrium restored in the next century by a relinquishment of the follies of the former.... “There is but one life, one mind, one extension , one quantity , one quality , one being, one state, one condition, one mood, one affection , one desire, one feeling, one consciousness. There is also but one number and that is unity. All so-called integers are but fractional parts of this kosmic unity. The idea by the word ‘two’ really connotes two parts of one unity and the same is true of a decillion, or any number of parts. These are merely the infinitesimals of unity and they grow less in size and consequence as the divisions increase in number. The analysis of unity into an infinity of parts is purely an ‘a posteriori’ procedure. That it is an inherent mind process is a fallacy. All our common quantities, as the mile, kilometer , yard, foot, inch, gallon, quart, are conventional and arbitrary and susceptible of wide variations. As the basis of all physical phenomena is unity; it is only in the ephemeral manifestations of sensuous objects that they appear as separate and distinct quantities.... “Under the most charitable allowances, therefore, there can be but two quantities—unity and diversity; and yet not two , for these are one. Unity is the one quantity and diversity is the division of unity into a transfinity of parts. Unity is infinite, absolute, and all-inclusive. Diversity is finite although it may be admitted to the transfinite, or greater than any assignable value. Unity alone is incomprehensible . In order to understand of its nature, we divide into a diversity of parts; and because we fail to understand the transfinity of the multiple of parts we mistakenly call them infinite. “When analysis shall have proceeded far enough into the abysmal mysteries of diversity; when the mathematical mind shall have been overcome by the overwhelming perplexity of the maze of diverse parts, it shall then fall asleep and upon awakening shall find that wonderfully simple thing—‘unity.’ It is the one quantity that is endowed with a magnitude which is both inconceivable and irresolvable. The one ineluctable fact in the universe is the incomprehensibility and all-inclusivity of ‘one-ness.’ It is incomprehensible, inconceivable and infinite at the present stage of mind development. But the goal of the mind is to understand the essential character of unity, of life. Its evolution will then stop, for it will have reached the prize of divinity itself whereupon the intellect exalted by and united with the intuition shall also become one with the divine consciousness.” P. 41-44, “Prologue,” THE MYSTERY OF SPACE (1919, 1977) by Robert T. Browne