Franklin Merrell-Wolff discusses our difficulty in understanding the Buddhist conception of “voidness” and suggests that the meaning of this notion may be clarified by considering it from the perspective of those philosophical systems in the West that make a distinction between appearance and substance. He affirms that Root Consciousness is the ultimate nature of all things, and that there is no non-conscious existent that enters into relationship with this consciousness. He concludes that if all that is consists simply of the stuff of consciousness, it may very well be said to be “empty.”

Franklin Merrell-Wolff offers an approach to yogic method growing out of the development of mathematics and the story of Western philosophy. He discusses the significance of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and affirms that the basis for metaphysical knowledge rests on the Realization of a third form of cognition hat he calls “introception.” He explains how symbolic logic and the use of transfinite numbers can point to a transcendental meaning.

Yoga and Psychotherapy. He examines the aesthetic and theoretic approach to yoga and points out that the ultimate end of the yogic path is not an image nor a concept, but another way of cognition altogether. He maintains that there is no one path which satisfies the needs of all men and that one’s psychological type is an important determining factor. He reviews Northrop’s thesis and suggests that the step from the determinate theoretic component to an indeterminate theoretic component may represent a possible yoga that more truly fits the psyche of Western man.

Franklin Merrell-Wolff presents an abstract of the five realizations upon which his philosophy is grounded. He makes a distinction between his philosophical orientation and that of Shankara and the Buddha and emphasizes that he is not simply making a transformation of Oriental philosophy into Western language, but that he uses the language of Western philosophy, science, and mathematics to produce a statement in terms that are indigenous to the West in order to reflect the meaning and the way of Realization.

Franklin Merrell-Wolff offers a clarification of the “High Indifference.” He reviews the occasion when he first imperienced this Consciousness and gives a lengthy description of its immediate quale and the values and knowledge that precipitated into his relative consciousness from this transcendental modulus.

Franklin Merrell-Wolff raises the question as to how far it is possible to give clear definition to the concepts that he employs in his philosophic formulations. He maintains that humans are essentially triune beings and rejects the view that evolution is only an autonomous process. He discusses three functions of cognition; namely, sense perception, conceptual cognition, and introceptual cognition. He then describes the use of “pointer concepts” to arouse the power of introceptual cognition.

Franklin Merrell-Wolff continues his discussion of the contrast between aesthetic and noetic yoga. He asserts that the yogic search need not be a regression to the sensuous or animal nature, but can be in the form of a progression through the conceptual being toward that which transcends the conceptual as well as the sensational. He relates that his own yogic search was motivated by an interest in attaining philosophical knowledge rather than by a dedication to resolve the problem of suffering, and he stresses the importance of the epistemological approach to the yogic Realization. He affirms that the discovery of the right conception may be the key to a state of consciousness that is a source of philosophic knowledge transcending sensuality and conceptuality. Wolff concludes by asserting that in the West mathematics plays a yogic role in realizing what might be called the indeterminate theoretic continuum analogous to that which aesthetic means plays in realizing the indeterminate aesthetic continuum in Eastern forms of yoga such as Tantra and Zen Buddhism.

Franklin Merrell-Wolff reviews the occasion that led to his search for Realization and the formulation of his philosophy. He discusses the importance of the epistemological analysis of a third function of cognition in addition to sense perception and conceptual cognition, and notes that it is this function that makes metaphysical knowledge possible. He calls this third function “introception” and the immediate content realized through it as gained by “knowledge through identity.” He goes on to make a distinction between the immediate content experienced through sense perception and the immediate content “imperienced” through introception. He concludes with a brief presentation of the three fundamental principles of his philosophy.

Franklin Merrell-Wolff reflects on the value of his fourth Realization. He discusses the nature of its ineffability and how the use of “pointer” versus “container” concepts can focus attention on and arouse the Realization of a transcendent or introceptual meaning in which thoughts think themselves without words, concepts, or images. He then offers the concept of the nuclear sun as a metaphor for this “transcriptive” thought process.

Franklin Merrell-Wolff continues his analysis of the meaning of paradox by contrasting the Buddhistic point of view outlined in the previous discourse with the Vedantic orientation outlined here. He then goes on to examine how these standpoints can be considered as paradoxical and that the ultimate meaning intended here is not simply a one-sided positivism or a one-sided substantialism, but rather a “positivistic-substantialism.” He then proceeds to consider a fourth form of the paradox growing out of the self-analysis of Shankara and concludes that the end of the yoga is the Realization of “knowledge that can never be known.”