hat he transcends his limitation, the circle of his interest is
widened; more actualities and existing phenomena are admitted, and come
into sympathy with himself. All things mingle with and extend his own
'ego;' and that can be so widened as to embrace the interests of the
whole world, until man can be in as much sympathy with a grain of sand,
or the most distant star, and take as much share in the ant, and in the
dwellers on Saturn, as in his own stomach and toes. In this way the
whole universe becomes a constituent part of his 'ego;' thus his
desires cease individually to exist, and are assimilated with the
entire phenomenal world, and he longs for nothing beyond this. The
'ego' ceases because nothing is left outside the individual 'ego;' but
this Nirvana, this highest step in the perfection of humanity, is, as
you can see, not the negation of everything, but the absorption of
everything; not something immovable, but rather the wonderful,
ceaseless movement of the world's life. Men will not attain to Nirvana
through quiet and indifference, but through strenuous labor, not by
withdrawing into their 'ego,' but by going outside it. The true Nirvana
of the pandits is the exact opposite of your Schopenhauer's Nirvana."

"But how can this conception of the seer's Nirvana coincide with their
inactivity and renunciation of the world?"

"People misunderstand the fakir's belief. The Indian wise men think
that the work of perfection is performed by the spirit alone, and that
the activity of the body disturbs it; therefore the body must rest
while the soul accomplishes its full measure of work, while it widens
the circle of its interest, and absorbs into itself the phenomenal
world. The clumsy understanding of the crowd thereupon comes to the
conclusion that to become holy and attain to Nirvana, one must not stir
a finger, not even to support oneself."

Wilhelm thought over this new point of view, but Schrotter went on:

"Believe me, true wisdom is neither that of the fakir nor of the man of
the world; but as it appears to me, it neither despises the world nor
admires it. One must not depend on oneself too much, neither on others.
One must always be saying to oneself that one has no lasting importance
in the world, but that in this transitory state eternal forces are at
work, the same forces which drive the earth round the sun, and which
operate on all men and things. Do not let us individualize too much; we
are only a piece