Nyaya Science of Thought

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 21

THE SCIENCE OF THOUGHT.
15
same rhythm as the incoming stimulus. It is thus evident that an impression in or on consciousness differs from a statue in marble in so far as it does not signify the chiselling off or removal of any part of its bulk, but resembles it inasmuch as it is brought into manifestation from within the soul's consciousness itself. Thus, while all impressions may be said to lie dormant in the
* That an impression is in reality a kind of rhythm is clear from the nature of recollection which implies a revived impression, Memory, it will be seen, is not a picture gallery containing ready-made photos or reprints of past events, for the memory-images that arise in recollection are, in many instances, bigger than the perceiver thereof. This is especially the case with dreams which, at times, reproduce large cities, oceans and the like. It follows from this that recollections do not lie stored up in the form of ready-made images in the body or brain or the soul-substance, but are formed and projected outside there and then. But the only other thing that visual memory can be, if not a collection of ready made images, is the capacity to produce images, that is to say, the power to mould the material which enters into the composition of memory-images into characteristic shapes and forms. This means neither more nor less than the capacity to vibrate at different intensities or rhythm which by acting on a kind of very fine matter give rise to forms. The same is the case with respect to the recollection of impressions formed through the media of senses other than sight. They are not images in their inception, and cannot but exist in memory as so many different kinds of potencies or possibilities of recollection. It is these potencies of recollection which we have designated as different intensities of rhythm for the want of a more suitable term.