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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
THIRD LECTURE.
Jain Education International
SCIENCE
(B)
How do I, then, account for the lesions of the brain affecting recollection? Well, the explanation is this conscious life is like a current composed of diverse kinds of forces of desires, passions, emotions and inclinations which are constantly being modified as a result of the contact with the outer world, in other words, by experience. These are purely active forces, usually bent on action, so that if their function is not arrested or cancelled by deliberation they will constantly engage themselves in action and sensation, except when unable to do so from one cause or another. Intellectualism which is the other branch of conscious functioning, however, requires, as already pointed out a little earlier, a more or less complete suspension of this ceaseless action to obtain a pause for deliberation. Intellectualism thus signifies the stoppage of the current of life's tendencies and inclinations, and reflection requires its being reflected (in the fullest etymological sense of the word) on itself, to obtain a principle of guidance in the experience of the past. This is accomplished by the merest change of attention, by its not running with the present, but lingering over a moment that is passing or by turning to the past. Now, memory
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