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Notes Bk. I
247
75. Five causes of the acquisition of karma that deludes vision have been named as follows : doubt, desire for heretical faith, wavering, split-understanding and spite.
76. A state of being transforms into a state of being, as a state of non-being transforms into a state of non-being. When lamp is burning, matter looks bright ; but the same matter looks dark when the lamp goes out. This does not take matter from a state of being into a state of non-being, which further means that darkness is noi the outcome of the absence of something, but only a transformation of what looked bright into what now looks dark. In contrast, when we say, for instance, that a donkey grows no horn, we state a truism about a state of non-being, which is, and ever remains, so. An interesting trait of a state of being and a state of non-being is that one is not contradictory to the other, but only complementary. A finger is in a state of being as a finger, with its substance, dimension, time and nature, and hence is in a state of non-being as a jar or any other thing.
77. When a lump of clay is turned into a jar, it is a transformation of a state of being into a state of being by conscious effort ; but when dark hair turns grey, a state of being transforms into a state of being by natural process. The same two, conscious effort and natural process, may also be operative in the transformation of a state of non-being into a state of nonbeing.
78. Can there be an exception in the face of some overwhelming force or consideration ? The Lord rejects this by stating that the fundamentals take no exception, and no consideration or force is too great. Of course, matter itself has many traits, and one need not feel that the most visible and dominant trait is the only one. The most dominant trait of fire is to burn, but it goes out in contact with water. The most dominant trait of water is to cool, but it boils when placed on fire. But this is no change in the basic trait, the fundamentals remaining as they are, and a state of being transforming into a state of being and a state of non-being transforming into a state of non-being.
