by  a  supreme  spiritual  effort  could  he  elevate
　　   himself  and ultimately  unite  with the Brahman, the
　　   absolute pure ground of existence.  It was strictly a
　　   metaphysical idealism of the first order.
　　　　 The Buddha was influenced  by the Vedaantic view of
　　   life, to be sure, but in time he sensed its futility,
　　   its  inability   to  cope  with  the  hard  facts  of
　　   life-birth, disease, old age, and  death.  The answer
　　   lay not in the spiritual  unity, if that was possible
　　   at  all,  of  aatman-Brahman.  For  the  Buddha,  the
　　   illusory  (maayaa) nature  attributed  to man  was  a
　　   fictitious  metaphysical  cover.  In  this  condition
　　   there  were  no adequate  means  to describe  and  to
　　   alleviate  the  present  plight  of  man  within  his
　　   empirical  nature.  And  so the  Buddhist  literature
　　   dramatically records that the would-be Buddha set out
　　   to find the answers to
　　   _______________________________

　　   22. For  the treatment  of neologisms, see Adventures
　　　　  of Ideas, pp.294-301.

　　　　　　　　　　　　  p.310

　　   man's ills by taking  up traditional  yoga, but later
　　   experienced its inadequacy;  then he took a different
　　   meditative  tack  and  was awakened  to the truth  of
　　   things.
　　　　 The  ultimate   truth  he  gained  was  the  middle
　　   doctrine   (madhyamaa   pratipad) .(23)  It   is  the
　　   ontological  principle  in Buddhism, for it expresses
　　   the nature of the supreme moment of experience in the
　　   transient   nature   of  things.   It  is  also   the
　　   abandonment   of   abstract   metaphysical　　 notions
　　   unrelated to that moment. Thus the Buddha declares:

　　   This world, Kaccaayana, usually  bases  [its view] on
　　   two things: on existence and on non-existence.
　　　　 Now he, who with right insight sees the uprising of
　　   the world  as it really  is, does  not hold  with the
　　   non-existence  of the world.  But he, who with  right
　　   insight  sees  the passing  away  of the world  as it
　　   really  is, does not hold  with the existence  of the
　　   world.  Grasping after systems, imprisoned  by dogmas
　　   is this world, Kaccaayana, for the most part. And the
　　   man who does not go after  that system-grasping, that
　　   mental  standpoint, that dogmatic  bias, who does not
　　   grasp  at it, does  not take  up his stand  upon  it,
　　   [does  not  think]: 'It is my soul! (aatman)'...  who