Paul Brunton Philosophic Foundation homepage > Notebooks of Paul Brunton



But if we say that every attempt of the intellect to judge the nature of reality involves it in a maze of contradictions, that in short the Overself is impenetrable to thinking, this is not to say that thinking is useless and metaphysics is sterile. For the negative knowledge which they provide enables us to confirm the validity of ultramystic insight as well as to reject the validity of lower-mystic intuition. Moreover, there is a certain chaotic vagueness about the lower-mystic experience, into which philosophic enquiry introduces the cleansing breeze of system and understanding and thus brings into the clear light of self-consciousness what is genuinely real in that experience.

-- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect > Chapter 7 : Metaphysics of Truth > # 133