Going back for a moment, to a consideration of the earliest recorded
religion of Japan, we find that Sintoism means literally "the way of the
gods," meaning the way in which men who have become god-like, found the
path that led thereunto, but as to exactly what conditions are represented
by godhood, how indeed, is it possible for man to _know_, much less to
express?
Since we are conscious of a divine and irresistible urge toward the
attainment of this state of being, it is hardly consistent with what we
know of merely _human_ nature, that the way lies in the direction of loss
of identity, or in other words, in what is popularly comprehended as
_absorption_. That this idea prevails in many Oriental sects of Buddhism
and Vedanta we are aware, but we are confident that this idea is erroneous,
and comes from the fact that it is impossible to describe the condition of
consciousness enjoyed by the initiate into Nirvana, which term we believe,
is identical, or at least comparable with cosmic consciousness.
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