The History of Buddhist Thought c16.15

c16.15

We see here the difficulty of rising beyond the old conception which expressed everything in spatial terms. Plato having described the soul as something entirely different from anything perceptible to the senses was able to reach the concept of something to which spatial terms do not apply. To speak of the size of the soul is meaningless. The Upanishads are feeling after this, but have to express it in contradictory terms : “more minute than the minute, greater than the great, is the ātman placed in the cavity (of the heart) of the creature.” In the same way the imagery of going to the world of Brahma is continued. The emancipated one is a river entering the ocean :