Elliot and Budda

T. S.
Eliot and Buddhism

Author(s): Harold E. McCarthy
Source: Philosophy East and West, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Apr., 1952), pp. 31-55
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1397461
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HAROLD E. McCARTHY
T. S. Eliot and Buddhism

Although a great many short essays and sev-
eral very excellent books have been written in recent years for the purp
of elucidating and evaluating the poetry of T. S. Eliot, very few critics
really attempted to do complete justice to the Indian philosophical th
which are given expression (directly or indirectly) in his poetry. A
survey of the literature affords us ample evidence in support of this sta
ment.
In a recently published volume of collected essays, T. S. Eliot: A

Critique, Eliot is approached in a great variety of ways by the thirty-
tributors, but not one contributor approaches Eliot from the point o
of Indian philosophy except quite incidentally. Thus, for instance
Brooks, in his penetrating analysis of The Waste Land, remarks t
Eliot) the wisdom of the East and the West comes to the same
the issue of asceticism, namely, that there must be "something to ch
drive of desire.") He also tells us that the Sanskrit words datta, daya
damyata, used by Eliot in the concluding section of The Waste L
only serve the poetical function of onomatopoeia, but also "con
oldest and most permanent truth of the race."2 These suggestions
tainly pertinent, but they are not fully developed and are left to sta
and large, as suggestions only.
In the recent symposium T. S. Eliot, compiled by Richard March an
bimuttu and containing contributions from forty-seven well-kno
and critics, there is no essay written exclusively from the point of
Indian philosophy. Montgomery Belgion casually remarks in his
"Irving Babbitt and the Continent" that the Buddhism of The Wa
may well have come from Irving Babbitt. The observation is a sh
but Belgion drops the matter there. E. F. C. Ludowyk, in his essa
Eliot in Ceylon," suggests that Eliot's "readiness, to see the object
is, but in its symbolic setting, would appeal to readers to whom the
Maya is familiar" and adds in a most candid and straightforward fash
SCleanth Brooks, "The Waste Land: Critique of the Myth," in T. S. Eliot: A Selected
ed. Leonard Unger (New York and Toronto: Rinehart and Company, Inc., 1948), p.
2 Ibid., p. 343.
31
32 HAROLD E. McCARTHY
"what Krishna meant no

the original Fire Sermo
wyk could have said a g
gested themes are left u
In the well-known volu
ings by Several Hands,
Eastern philosophy and
of the Quartets" remar
the third section of "Th
Section three begins badly

physics" and his wanderin
that it is possible to defen
ingenious associational circu
the language of the past
and to my mind it cannot
half of this section .. .4
Philip Wheelwright, on
Indian philosophical th
The mention of Krishna in
Eastern philosophy adumb
tets .... Eliot's sure catalyt
of the poem, has been to s
and reverent concentratio
every temporal moment.5
Wheelwright's analysis
and stands in need of
be one of the few critic
Turning from essays to
Drew's T. S. Eliot, The
gestions and valuable
the time Eliot set abo
sorbed the whole literar
deal of Asiatic religion
mysticism is neither di
' E. F. C. Ludowyk, "T. S. El

Tambimuttu (London: Editio
'Balachandra Rajan, "The Un
His Writings by Several Han
* Philip Wheelwright, "Eliot
" Elizabeth Drew, T. S. Eliot,
1949), p. 64.
T. S. ELIOT AND BUDDHISM 33
the tradition of those Christ

moments of intuitive insight
to 'prayer, observance, disci
Drew's general approach to
pletely incorporates Eliot's
is left with the feeling (perh
with Indian philosophy in g
F. O. Matthiessen, whose A
achievement in critical writin
that no reading of Buddha's
the poem, and that he himsel
Eliot borrowed the onomatop
Matthiessen is an excellent cr
somewhat formalistic point
though Eliot's poems are self-
cally, upon their own feet (an
do not contain themselves i
they stand within the frame
this context has Indian stran
Just as Elizabeth Drew and
themes in Eliot's poems, so
Art of T. S. Eliot. But unlik
Gardner is clearly upset by E
Though it is perfectly in conson
these great scriptures which bea
be objected that to introduce Kris
tive harmony of the poem, since
process that Christianity and Hi
She concludes by confessing

leaves her "in a state of enlig
gests that "the reason for th
contains so much of Mr Eliot
metaphysics find a place in it
the sort of explanation one e
more than saying that if a
kitchen sink, don't be surpri
7 Ibid., p. 144.
' F. O. Matthiessen, The Achievem
versity Press, 1947), p. 51.
'Helen Gardner, The Art of T. S.
"Loc. cit.
moment. Though Miss G

be admitted that she does
Among the uncollected
books and journals, one m
Indian philosophy and r
tion here. William Blis
Quartets" raises the qu
Eastern religions releva
tells us, "inevitably occu
has heard them read, an
underestimated.""1 Mr.
biguous; his conclusion
Quartets are Christian w
whole, incompatible wi
his chapter on Eliot in
feeling that the third
ened by its dependence o
buted to Krishna may be
the element of negative
one since the main them
cludes practical action, bu
ment. And if there are e
are also such elements in
ruled out by definition
not too familiar with In
II
Considering the relatively slight attention that has been given to Eliot
from the point of view of Indian philosophy, it might appear that such an
approach would necessarily turn out to be irrelevant and beside the point,
misguided rather than positively illuminating. Indeed, Eliot himself might
concur in this opinion, for it is simple enough to quote Eliot against any
attempt to bring together and to amalgamate in any serious fashion Eastern
and Western ideologies.
Although Eliot, by his own testimony, spent two years "in the study of
Sanskrit under Charles Lanman, and a year in the mazes of Patanjali's meta-
' William Blissett, "'The Argument of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets," University of Toronto
Quarterly, XV, No. 2 (January, 1946), 122.
11Hyatt Howe Waggoner, The Heel of Elohim (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1950), p. 43.
physics under the guidanc

of this study as consisting,
what Eliot means by the exp
to say. Unfortunately, the e
able. It is not too hazardou
mystification is something
superficial reading of the
livered by a traveling swam
at no time does he claim to
admits that Irving Babbitt,
fucius and Buddha than he
an expression of simple mo
to the study of Eastern ph
regarded as one of the spiri
While disclaiming, then, th
tate to express skepticism
bring Eastern philosophy in
an attempt with which Babb
A good half of the effort of un

and their subtleties make most
boys-lay in trying to erase fro
common to European philosoph
comitant study of European ph
to the conclusion-seeing also th
upon Europe, as in Schopenhau
romantic misunderstanding-th
the mystery would lie in forge
pean: which, for practical as
And I cannot but feel that in so
has merely made matters worse
This statement, which is n

ignorance, is sobering, to sa
who is intent upon finding i
philosophical views. It is s
"'T. S. Eliot, After Strange God
" Ibid., pp. 43-44. It is significan
judgment of Schopenhauer. "They
subrationally. The ... tendency is p
upon a distinctly subrational type o
of sympathy with Buddha and w
little about the authentic teaching
whether he would have corrected
Babbitt, The Dhammapada (New
interested in bringing tog

diverse traditions of Eas
that Schopenhauer, Hart
respect to Eastern philos
penetrating Eastern phil
and spiritually) an Eastern
East-West penetration, i
unhappy delusion.
If Eliot is sincere in thes
to his graduate-student d
to do in his poetry what
yet we must not assume,
plete harmony between c
Eliot. Many artists, it w
they have achieved it, w
different directions. Wha
bring East and West tog
cannot ignore his direct
gion. These explicit refe
important at least in th
dents, errors, or inconsis
need not claim perfection
as deliberately and care
Eliot's Eastern reference
mystification.
Although most of Eliot's
ready been noted, indirec
The third section of Th
inevitable reference (altho
Buddha's "Fire Sermon"
acknowledged by Eliot i
burning") of The Waste
(which corresponds in i
which these words are t
Clarke Warren's Buddhi
Mr. Warren was one of th
dent." In connection wi
Carthage then I came")
notes that the "collocation
asceticism, as the culminatio

The joining of Buddha and S
would seem to indicate th
grasped something which
misunderstanding," but whi
this, or Eliot (thanks to his
has become hoist with his ow
Just as "The Fire Sermon"
the Mahi-vagga, so the fifth
Thunder Said," makes an eq
Brhaddranyaka Upanisad.
line 401 ("Datta: what hav
(Give, sympathise, control
found in the Brihadarany
Deussen's Sechzig Upanisha
the Thunder Said" ("Shant
"Shantih. Repeated as here
which passeth understanding
In the Four Quartets the en
seven lines in all) involves a
point (as Philip Wheelwrig
an almost literal translatio
teristically, the translation
what he wants, twists it g
the texture of the poem.
In The Cocktail Party, Eliot
reference in Act II to the "
the line addressed by Sir He
Go in peace. And work out y
A variant of the same state

Celia:
Go in peace, my daughter.
Work out your salvation with diligence.
And the statement occurs a third time when Reilly and Julia are discussing
Celia's fate:
And when I say to one like her
'Work out your salvation with diligence', I do not understand
What I myself am saying.
The reference here is to the well-known account of the death of the Buddha:
Then The Blessed One add

"And now, O priests, I t
transitory; work out your
And this was the last wor
Though Eliot's reference

erence to Philippians 2
trembling") is also inv
Reilly does not expect s
what a quotation from t
The Cocktail Party is a
is merely showing off h
tions.
So far as direct and obvious references go, this is the general picture, al-
though no claim is made that this is the total picture. If these references
were incidental only, decorative features which were not organically incor-
porated into the poetry, our conclusion could be that of the multitudinous
references Eliot makes some are references to Indian philosophy and reli-
gion. If, however, the Indian references are organic parts of larger wholes,
then they must be regarded as signs, symptoms, guides which suggest a
direction of interpretation but which leave the real penetration to the reader
himself. It is well to remember here that creative penetration which moves
in the right direction is difficult. It is all too easy to mold an interpretation
which fits certain assumed concepts and categories at the expense of distort-
ing completely the artist's intentions. Eliot points out that "the meaning
of a poem may be something larger than its author's conscious purpose, and
something remote from its origins."'6 But whatever leeway for interpreta-
tion is given, the leeway, even for Eliot, is short of absolute; and one can,
it is hoped, distinguish between a reasonably adequate interpretation (of
which there may be several) and an interpretation which is forced, awkward,
or simply irrelevant. Being aware, then, of the dangers of interpretation, it
would be well to set forth some of the assumptions, convictions, and limita-
tions in terms of which, as a framework of analysis, the rest of the paper
will be written:
1. At no time will it be contended that the poetry of Eliot is deliberately
didactic in character. Eliot is not concerned with developing an intellectual
and systematic world view of any kind, Eastern or Western. Although ably
m From the "Mahiparinibbina-sutta" of the Digha-nika~ya, in Henry Clarke Warren, Buddhism
in Translations, Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. III (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1922),
p. 109.
~ T. S. Eliot, "The Music of Poetry," Partisan Revieww, IX, No. 6 (November-December,
1942), 456.
trained in formal philoso

artist. He is not concerne
rather, he is concerned w
tional or spiritual vision, e
in an individual form. Eliot himself has been concerned with the distinc-
tion between philosophy and poetry, coming at one time to the conclusion
that poetry is not a substitute for philosophy, the poet and the philosopher
being concerned with different problems. One should be wary, then, of
finding in any of Eliot's poems systematic philosophical construction; and
one should keep in mind that what might be contradictory on the level of
logical analysis may be complementary on the level of integral vision.
2. In considering the Indian philosophical themes which seem to be at
work in some of Eliot's poetry, I shall limit myself to those themes which
have been singled out as characterizing Buddhism. Buddhism is, of course,
Indian in its origins; and although it differs from other Indian systems it
has much in common with them. The metaphysics implied in the Gits, for
instance, is rather remote from Buddhism and also rather remote, I believe,
from the central emphases of Eliot. But the Gmti in its "ethical" aspects is
quite close to the general spirit of Buddhism, both being concerned with
emancipation from the fire of desire and the attainment of peace without
attachment and longing.
3. Although I shall be concerned with viewing the poetry of Eliot from
the general point of view of Indian Buddhism, I shall certainly not hold
that this point of view is the only significant point of view. I agree with
most critics that much of Eliot's work remains obscure unless seen within
the context of the Christian tradition. But I am also convinced that an ap-
proach from the point of view of Buddhism can be peculiarly illuminating.
4. In this analysis of Eliot's poetry, my main concern will be with the Four
Quartets ("Burnt Norton," "East Coker," "The Dry Salvages," "Little Gid-
ding"). Such a self-imposed limitation calls for no special apology. Short
of an entire volume, one could not discuss all of Eliot's poetry from any
point of view. The Four Quartets is, I believe, Eliot's masterpiece, a work
which brings together in a concentrated form a lifetime of thought, reflec-
tion, feeling, hope, and despair; and of all Eliot's works, taken separately,
it is the Four Quartets which is closest to the spirit of Buddhism.
III
Systematic philosophies are the expressions of emotional visions. Emotional

visions grow out of key intuitions which must somehow be recaptured if
the emotional visions th

philosophies actually und
the form of deductive sy
intuitions are immediat
these intuitions: they gr
of their own. Systema
elaborate world views wh
mulated in terms of a
or complex theologies. E
concrete poems, related
losophy, religion, and po
recognized as different.
erably; and thus a poem,
ture, may have both re
their highest and best, p
mental intuitions which
One approach to the phil
The key intuition of Bu
permanence and the deep
Impermanence, when f
subjective; in the langu
immediate, cannot be d
permanence rules out th
stratum or ego. Sufferin
more than human suffer
one would understand Bu
completely share) the k
In actual accounts of Bu
or suffering is underst
given a derived status.
notion of impermanence
that the empirical self is
which is something oth
denying that there is an
at all, seem to neglect th
of suffering on a cosmic
1 Throughout this paper, wh

exclusively. Mahiyina Buddhi
Theravida Buddhism became.
West through the writings of
the less said about it the bette

do justice to both impermanenc
Buddhism (as well as in Hindu
tified with suffering."'s He th
why impermanence of life sp
portant one. It may be granted
ing cannot be deduced from th
added that in Buddhism we are
intuition is an intuition of suff
of which suffering and imperm
need not argue from one to the
be no real evidence that the B
impermanence, proceeded to de
eyes to see and the spirit to r
in which we live is a world of
hope and equally endless frust
a scene of suffering and repeti
ever repeated.
This key intuition of Buddhism
the poetry of T. S. Eliot. It is
which has led the superficial re
or at least pessimistic up unti
really pessimistic or not (and
profoundly pessimistic), there
intuition of impermanence and
it is impermanence, flux, or ch
is stressed. But in the end, th
sides of the same situation. One seems to hear echoed and re-echoed the
famous statements attributed to the Buddha:
Whether Buddhas arise, O priests, or whether Buddhas do not arise, it remains a

fact and the fixed and necessary constitution of being, that all its constituents are
transitory.
Whether Buddhas arise, O priests, or whether Buddhas do not arise, it remains a
fact and the fixed and necessary constitution of being, that all its constituents are
misery.
Whether Buddhas arise, O priests, or whether Buddhas do not arise, it remains a fact
and the fixed and necessary constitution of being, that all its elements are lacking in
an Ego.'e
m Wing-tsit Chan, "The Spirit of Oriental Philosophy," in Philosophy--East and West, ed.
Charles A. Moore (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1944), p. 157.
" From the Aiguttara-nikaya iii. 134, in Buddhism in Translations, p. xx.
In the Four Quartets the

sented from a variety of
is undoubtedly Heraclitu
Heraclitean fragments. B
of Heraclitus and Buddhis
and if Buddhism is more
no philosopher in the W
gone further in the direc
and change than Heraclitu
ties above or behind the a
and the philosophy of H
conformist.20 The them
world is given profound
Coker":
In my beginning is my en
Houses rise and fall, crum
Are removed, destroyed, re
Is an open field, or a factor
Old stone to new building
Old fires to ashes, and ashe
Which is already flesh, fur
Bone of man and beast, c
Not only does perpetual c

characterize physical natu
tains to human nature,
events there is not even
above the ceaseless chang
spoken of as the doctrine
inevitable extension to th
is some evidence that He
his flux. But if so, it is cl
as thoroughly insubstant
this theme is often indi
theme is expressed with d
When the train starts, an
To fruit, periodicals, and b
(And those who saw them
Their faces relax from gri
" For a brief discussion of Budd
"The Kinetic Existence of an
1951), 33-39.
To the sleepy rhythm of a hun

Fare forward, travellers! not e
Into different lives, or into any
You are not the same people w
Or who will arrive at any term
You are not those who saw th
Receding, or those who will d
Somewhat more dramaticall

Cocktail Party, Act I, scene 3:
Ah, but we die to each other d

What we know of other peop
Is only our memory of the mo
During which we knew them
To pretend that they and we a
Is a useful and convenient social convention
Which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember
That at every meeting we are meeting a stranger.
In these lines, the fact of impermanence, both objective and subjective,

is expressed as a fact. There are overtones of pathos, but these overtones are
not stressed. However, for both Buddhism and Eliot the other side of im-
permanence is suffering; and the theme of human and cosmic suffering is,
if anything, almost more central to Eliot's poetry than the theme of flux. In
the earlier poems, before the publication of The Waste Land, suffering takes
the form of the recognition of human loneliness, frustration, and impotence,
of the emptiness and futility of life amidst the smoke and fog of December
afternoons. With The Waste Land, the vision spreads and deepens, and
suffering seems to become a universal characteristic, enacted again and again,
whether in the lives of primitive peoples, in the lives of heroes and saints
of antiquity, or in the twentieth-century flats of tired typists. But nowhere
in all of Eliot's work is the theme of suffering on a cosmic scale given more
poignant expression than in the Four Quartets, particularly in the sestina in
the second section of "The Dry Salvages":
Where is there an end of it, the soundless wailing,

The silent withering of autumn flowers
Dropping their petals and remaining motionless;
Where is there an end to the drifting wreckage,
The prayer of the bone on the beach, the unprayable
Prayer at the calamitous annunciation?
There is no end of it, the v

No end to the withering o
To the movement of pain t
To the drift of the sea and
The bone's prayer to Death
Prayer of the one Annunc
The same vision of suffe

presented in The Family
illustrates a point which
the world as a suffering
vision created in another
all, it is grasped immedia
completeness: humankind
scene 1, of The Family Re
borrowings from Dante:
You are all p

To whom nothing has hap
Of external events. You h
Never woken to the night
If you were wide awake.
The sudden solitude in a cr

In a thick smoke, many c
Without direction, for no
Leads anywhere but round
Without purpose, and with
In flickering intervals of li
The partial anaesthesia of s
The partial observation of
While the slow stain sinks
Tainting the flesh and disc
This is what matters, but i
Untranslatable: I talk in ge
Because the particular has
If, then, suffering is om

smile, but the agony abid
" Christmas Humphreys sees thi
poetic enthusiasm: "Dukkha, then
knows it, realizes for himself it
lives are sufficiently unhappy, or
ance of happiness in their own o
the night or above the turmoil
blindly groping, sorrow-laden w
guin Books, 1951), p. 82.
the garden points to the ag

of suffering can be disclose
(tanha). The word desire is n
It is better to speak of appe
to material existence and a
Moreover, although desire
exclusively, when properl
inherent characteristic of n
This concept of desire, ex
matter what, appears severa
spring, an image of spring
sentiments of hope and jo
spring as rebirth are twiste
"Oh, to be in England / N
we have the incomparable
April is the cruellest month

Lilacs out of the dead land,
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, cover
Earth in forgetful snow...
The same image of the painf

up again in The Family Re
of the dramatic:
The cold spring now is the t

For the ache in the moving
The agony in the dark
The slow flow throbbing the
The pain of the breaking bu
These are the ones that suffe
The aconite under the snow
And the snowdrop crying fo
This particular image of s

to express the Buddhist not
the Four Quartets. In its
peculiarly complex image of
birth is really abortion and
image, birth and death, hop
What is the late Novemb

With the disturbance of
And creatures of the sum
And snowdrops writhing
And hollyhocks that aim
Red into grey and tumbl
Late roses filled with ear
Desire for Eliot, then,

desire just as suffering
as well as the desire whi
total process of nature
"Burnt Norton," it is th
In appetency, on its meta
Of time past and time fu
If all Eliot presented u

ing, his vision would be
Eliot, had seen into th
horror would admire th
the poet. Those who di
presentation, but in th
so pessimistic and so hea
would be a vision of de
and any resolution of th
be asked), given the fo
could there be any sort
the inevitable conclusion
Indeed, the message of
Men, may have been pre
out.22 But in the later p
appears to suggest a wa
(involving, we are told
point in Eliot's career, a
Actually there are few criti
Usually Eliot is viewed as preo
to use Elizabeth Drew's termin
would take an entire paper to
vision of suffering is cosmic a
familiar with, and too close to
the former days were better
in "Thoughts After Lambeth"
all times are corrupt." I would
wood, Eliot has told us that wh
is that of the human misery a
difficulty accepting the objecti
tunate or unfortunate, depen

case, however, the feeling m
of the failure-of-doubt or
everything that has gone bef
or a peculiar and paradoxica
profound hope.
However paradoxical the sit
truncation, the same combin
of Buddhism. As Junjiro T
of knowing and regarding r
are, Buddhism then goes on
desirable within the context
the first two "noble truths"
presence of suffering and th
inform us concerning the po
path which leads to the dest
still true that for Buddhism
and omnipresent and altho
birth and death (sasizira), m
find deliverance from suffer
and the peace which passes u
sara is to be understood has
Various interpretations have
ing paradox is the assertion
existence, of a resting place i
ing and confusion.
Monks, there exists that conditi
wherein is neither the sphere o
nothingness nor of neither-cons
this world nor a world beyond n
I declare is no coming to birth;
tion; thence is no falling; there
on, it is not based on anything.
easier to attribute such a vision to

limited to a particular period--oft
of Celia's statement in The Cocktail
think there's something wrong w
wrong / Or at least, very differen
that's much more frightening! / T
thing wrong with me, that could
normality."
" Junjiro Takakusu, The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy, ed. W. T. Chan and Charles A.
Moore (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1947), p. 22.
* Udina VIII. 1. The Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon, Part II, tr. F. L. Woodward, Sacred
Books of the Buddhists, Vol. VIII (London: Oxford University Press, 1935), p. 97.
In a quite similar way, Eli

trast or a tension betwee
("That's all the facts whe
somehow transcends both
is that of a still point in t
At the
still point of the tu
Neither from nor towards; a
But neither arrest nor move
Where past and future are
Neither ascent nor decline. E
There would be no dance,
I can only say, there we hav
And I cannot say, how long,
The inner freedom from t
The release from action and
And the outer compulsion,
By a grace of sense, a whi
Erhebang without motion,
Without elimination, both
And the old made explicit,
In the completion of its par
The resolution of its partia
Only through time time is
The thought which is her

but no more complex than
writings. The mode of exp
paradox, is not distinctiv
Buddhism. The image of th
sage is a basic image in Bu
is used sometimes as a sym
sara) and sometimes as a
viously quite impossible t
we grant that what he is s
of philosophy. Even a detai
crucial themes and qualifi
Eliot is attempting to poin
how is other than the wor
tion at least three theme
is, in some manner, both
present where past and f
a state or condition of spiritu

ing; (3) the "still point" is s
life itself: in the last analysis
is time conquered. These th
clear that they are complexly
are picked up again and again
upon, qualified, added to, and
seriously, lead us into the c
speaking, these themes cann
consideration of any one lea
Though formal separation i
must be integrated analysis.
The central emphasis in Bud
dition of peace to be achiev
bliss to be achieved after deat
concerning life after death f
ment, he always remained sil
as affirmation or negation ac
goal of peace can be achieved
death. But if peace can be a
emancipation from change an
time, it would follow that tim
and that for man, at least, th
time.25 This being the case, t
ship of time to eternity, an
becomes a crucial problem.
of intersection which is, as it
thing given but, rather, som
Buddhism that would indica
it is actually achieved by the
In the Four Quartets it is cle
Norton," that Eliot is very m
both time and eternity. (Inde
tionship, properly understood
the core of Christian revela
" The problem of man's relationsh
Buddhism has been discussed ably
1949), pp. 58-107. Actually, it was
gested this paper. As Suzuki writes,
us of the presence of Him who is alw
present, 'the still point of the turni
of us live in complete b
plants and animals, part
the past and equally co
Suzuki has written:
We regret the past and wo

our laughing pure laughin
is, the present has lost its
the present and suffocate i
Such an existence, maim

animals, being mainly u
most of them are only f
this mode of time-condi
Here is a place of disaffe

Time before and time aft
In a dim light....
Neither plenitude nor v

Over the strained time-ri
Distracted from distract
Filled with fancies and e
Tumid apathy with no co
Men and bits of paper, w
That blows before and af
The image, though bleak

Even in this mode of ex
us, there may be momen
These moments, intens
aesthetic moments in w
plation or rapture: the m
where the rain beat, the
Eliot writes in "The Dr
For most of us, there is

Moment, the moment in
The distraction fit, lost in
The wild thyme unseen,
Or the waterfall, or mus
That it is not heard at all
While the music lasts.
2 Ibid., p. 73.
Even in the place of disaffe

may represent the closest m
of events and bondage to ti
profound, is not the still po
such moments of contempla
are only hints and
Hints followed by guesses; a
Is prayer, observance, discip
Though Eliot here suggests

which may remind us of, e
dhist eight-fold path, we ar
of birth and death is at bes
to apprehend
The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint-
No occupation either, but something given
And taken, in a lifetime's death in love,
Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.
From one point of view, then, the still point is the paradoxical point of
intersection (the impossible union) of time and eternity; it is both tem-
poral and timeless, both in and out of time. From another point of view,
the still point is a state of peace, freedom from attachment and suffering, a
condition of spiritual poise and equanimity. This state of peace which tran-
scends time has been and can be pursued in two ways-positively and nega-
tively. Negatively there is the via negativa, the extreme ascetic way of de-
liberate and studied indifference that would seek to transcend time, change,
and desire by cutting off all relations with them and settling down in the
darkness of total renunciation. Such total renunciation, although it has ap-
peared in all religious traditions, with and without the sanction of the various
religious authorities, is an extreme measure. We are told that the Buddha
was always opposed to this sort of asceticism--as much opposed to it as he
was opposed to the fragmentary and suffering life of bondage to conflicting
desires. And it would appear that Eliot, in his way, is equally opposed to the
via negativa, regarding it as an escape from, and not a mode of transcend-
ing, the place of disaffection. His description of the via negativa in "Burnt
Norton" is grim:
Descend lower, descend only
Into the world of perpetual solitude,
World not world, but that which is not world,
Internal darkness, deprivation
And destitution of all pr

Desiccation of the world
Evacuationof the world o
Inoperancy of the world
This is the one way, and
Is the same, not in move
But abstention from mo
In appetency, on its met
Of time past and time fu
If this is the negative p

end it is not different f
neither plenitude nor va
sibility is to transcend b
rock.27
Contrasted with this negative way, Eliot envisions a positive way which,
however difficult it may be, does lead to the still point of the turning world
where past and future are gathered. Thus it is that Eliot, in the third section
of "Little Gidding" (the last of the four Quartets), contrasts in an explicit
fashion and with a sense of completion the three conditions of life he sets
side by side in "Burnt Norton" (the first of the four Quartets):
There are three conditions which often look alike
Yet differ completely, flourish in the same hedgerow:
Attachment to self and to things and to persons; detachment
From self and from things and from persons; and, growing
between them, indifference
Which resembles the others as death resembles life,
Being between two lives--unflowering, between
The live and the dead nettle.
The image here is complex, and one cannot approach it too literally or press
it too far; indeed, to remove the content without the form is to destroy the
image completely. But it would seem that the negative condition of in-
difference is seen lying between the living and the dead. It grows but it
does not flower. It strives but it is impotent. It gives the illusion of life but
an illusion which may be worse than death because it is also deceitful. All
appearances to the contrary, the way of indifference is not the way of eman-
cipation; and the still point, the peace which passes understanding, is not
- Extreme asceticism is not uncommon in the Buddhist tradition itself. Bodhidharma is sup-
posed to have said: "Those Buddhists who discipline themselves in the doctrine of absolute
Buddhahood should make their minds like a piece of rock, be darkly ignorant, remain unaware
[of all things), have no discrimination, behave unconcernedly with all things, resembling an
idiot." Quoted by D. T. Suzuki, The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind (London: Rider and Company,
1949), p. 113.
to be found in insensibility
self and from things and fr
at the heart of Eliot's vision
Buddhism.
Just how, in positive terms, this detachment is to be understood is not
made clear in the Four Quartets. The poet's task is that of evocation, not
explication; and, strictly speaking, the still point is not something to be
understood but something to be achieved: I can only say, there we have been,
but I cannot say where. Hints are given, but the process of piecing these
scattered fragments together is treacherous. It seems to be suggested that
the detachment of the still point is a "liberation / From the future as well as
the past," but liberation is not negation, and we are liberated from time
when we "consider the future / And the past with an equal mind," when
past and future are conquered by being reconciled. The condition of detach-
ment is a condition of "inner freedom from the practical desire"; but free-
dom from desire is not a state of desirelessness, for there is still the "un-
attached devotion which might pass for devotionless," and the "expanding
of love beyond desire." Detachment is "release from the inner / And the
outer compulsion," but detachment does not mean cessation of action, for
"right action is freedom / From past and future also," and one acts freely
when one has the source of movement within. The still point, then, is not
freedom from time as such, but freedom from bondage to the temporality of
time; not freedom from desire as such, but freedom from enslavement to
blind and shifting desires; not freedom from agony as such, but-with un-
derstanding and compassion-freedom from the agony of agony; not free-
dom from death as such-for "the time of death is every moment"-but
freedom from the fear of death. In such a condition, in which one lives un-
attached and clings to nothing in the world, one rises above, without negat-
ing, the basic facts of impermanence and suffering. As Iqbal Singh has
written within the context of Buddhism:
Here we are in a universe which is devoid of tension--not because contrarieties and

conflicts have ceased to operate, but because they have somehow become intelligible.
Here, in the very contemplation of transiency, we receive a measure of eternity....
Here the wheel turns and does not turn. Here the paradox is no longer a paradox, but
rather a luminous certitude. Here we are in the very heart of peace.28
IV
In this analysis we have exhibited certain parallels between Buddhism and

the philosophical-spiritual orientation of Eliot. In both there is a penetrat-
" Iqbal Singh, Gasuama Buddha, quoted by Christmas Humphreys, op cit., p. 215.
ing awareness of the u

and suffering, a realiza
through particular abno
the deeper design is th
versal."29 In both there
suffering cannot be neg
in the midst of birth an
both there is the recogn
created objects and sur
same worm."31 But for
sibility of indifferenc
comes with knowledge
the realization that det
path to the goal is--an
one's own salvation wi
but one must realize at t
as they are rare.
In spite of these paralle
is deliberately and exhau
mines the deeper design
relationship to both ti
human bondage and th
versal and has been giv
ditions of both the Eas
Four Quartets; but it is
"Fire Sermon," in the w
the "Sermon on the Mo
manner in which Eliot
Christian writings is tes
Wheelwright points out
fundamental problems
Ludowyk), must have a
selves, but in their symb
Although Eliot's gener
rightly so) that his part
ilar to that of Buddhism
" T. S. Eliot, Introduction t
Company, 1937).
' See D. T. Suzuki, "The Phi
(July, 1951), 9.
" Eliot, Introduction to Night
or poetical, grow out of an

genuine, are direct respons
out qualification of East or
what Cleanth Brooks speak
the race," the race involved
or anthropological subdivis
mysticism bridges traditio
self up as a deliberate synth
meaning when approached
itself (now that the glow
come more poignantly real
poetry.
In the end, of course, it is the vision that counts and what one does about
the vision. One must never mistake the sign for the thing signified, the par-
ticular manifestation for the universal reality.

Elliot and Budda

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T. S.

Eliot and Buddhism

T. S. Eliot and Buddhism

In a recently published volume of collected essays, T. S. Eliot: A

"what Krishna meant no

Section three begins badly

' E. F. C. Ludowyk, "T. S. El

the tradition of those Christ

She concludes by confessing

moment. Though Miss G

physics under the guidanc

A good half of the effort of un

This statement, which is n

interested in bringing tog

asceticism, as the culminatio

A variant of the same state

Then The Blessed One add

Though Eliot's reference

trained in formal philoso

Systematic philosophies are the expressions of emotional visions. Emotional

the emotional visions th

1 Throughout this paper, wh

the less said about it the bette

Whether Buddhas arise, O priests, or whether Buddhas do not arise, it remains a

In the Four Quartets the

Not only does perpetual c

To the sleepy rhythm of a hun

Somewhat more dramaticall

Ah, but we die to each other d

In these lines, the fact of impermanence, both objective and subjective,

Where is there an end of it, the soundless wailing,

There is no end of it, the v

The same vision of suffe

You are all p

The sudden solitude in a cr

If, then, suffering is om

the garden points to the ag

April is the cruellest month

The same image of the painf

The cold spring now is the t

This particular image of s

What is the late Novemb

Desire for Eliot, then,

If all Eliot presented u

tunate or unfortunate, depen

easier to attribute such a vision to

In a quite similar way, Eli

Only through time time is

The thought which is her

a state or condition of spiritu

We regret the past and wo

Such an existence, maim

Here is a place of disaffe

Neither plenitude nor v

The image, though bleak

For most of us, there is

Even in the place of disaffe

Though Eliot here suggests

And destitution of all pr

If this is the negative p

Here we are in a universe which is devoid of tension--not because contrarieties and

In this analysis we have exhibited certain parallels between Buddhism and

ing awareness of the u

or poetical, grow out of an