And that when this difference is once removed--according to
the Greeks and Aryans by abstract contemplation, producing the temporary
liberation of the imprisoned soul, and according to spiritualists,
through mediumship--such a union between embodied and disembodied
spirits becomes possible. Thus was it that Patanjali's Yogis, and,
following in their steps, Plotinus, Porphyry and other Neo-Platonists,
maintained that in their hours of ecstasy, they had been united to, or
rather become as one with, God several times during the course of their
lives. This idea, erroneous as it may seem in its application to the
Universal Spirit, was, and is, claimed by too many great philosophers to
be put aside as entirely chimerical. In the case of the Theodidaktoi,
the only controvertible point, the dark spot on this philosophy of
extreme mysticism, was its claim to include that which is simply
ecstatic illumination, under the head of sensuous perception. In the
case of the Yogis, who maintained their ability to see Iswara "face to
face," this claim was successfully overthrown by the stern logic of the
followers of Kapila, the founder of the Sankhya philosophy.
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