ference between the individual soul and the All Soul depends upon an
error which we can overcome. The goal of salvation is the ascent into the
universal spirit Brahma (in the nirvana of the Buddhists there is the same
thought). Whoever has entered into the highest spirit, there is no longer
any "other" for him. Brhadaranyaka-Upanishad, IV, 3: (23) "If he does not
then [The man in the deep sleep (susupti),] see, he is yet seeing although
he sees not, for there is no interruption of vision for the seeing,
because he is imperishable; but there is no second beside him, no other
different from him that he could see. (24.) If he does not smell, he is
yet smelling although he smells not, for there is for the smelling
[person] no interruption of smelling because he is imperishable; but there
is no second thing beside him, no other thing different from him that he
could smell.... (32.) He stands like water [i.e., so pure] seer alone and
without a second ... he whose world is Brahm. This is his highest goal,
this is his highest fortune, this is his highest world, this is his
highest joy; through a minute particle of only this joy the other
creatures have their life."

If I compare the hermetic teachings on the one hand with the vedanta, and
on the other with the Samkhya-Yoga, I do not lose sight of the fundamental
antagonism of both--Vedanta is monistic, Samkhya is dualistic--but in
appreciation of the doctrine of salvation which is common to both. That
the mystic finds the same germ in both systems is shown by the
Bhagavad-Gita. For him the theoretical difference is trivial, whether the
materia is dissolved as mere illusion, when he has attained his mystic
goal, or whether, as an eternal substance, it is as something overcome,
simply withdrawn, never more to be seen. According to the Samkhya
doctrine, too, the saved soul enters into its own being, and every
connection with objects of knowledge ceases.

In Yogavasistha it is written: "So serene as would the light appear if all
that is illumined, i.e., space, earth, ether, did not exist, such is the
isolated state of the seer, of the pure self, when the threefold world,
you and I, in brief, all that is visible, is gone. As the state of a
mirror is, in which no reflection falls, neither of statues nor of
anything else--only representing in itself the being [of the mirror]--such
is the isolation of the seer, who remains without seeing, after the jumble
of phenomena, I, you, the worl