ENDS AND MEANS
certain qualified favour. True, he may recognize very
clearly that such practices do not help men to attain to
the highest forms of human development, but are actually
impediments in the path. The Buddha put down ritualism
as one of the Ten Fetters which bind men to illusion and
prevent them from attaining enlightenment. Nevertheless,
in view of the fact that most individuals will certainly not
wish to attain enlightenment—in other words, develop
themselves to the limits of human capacity—there may be
something to be said in favour of ritualism. Attachment
to traditional ceremonials and belief in the magical efficacy
of ritual may prevent men from attaining to enlightenment;
but, on the other hand, they may help such individuals as
have neither the desire nor the capacity for enlightenment
to behave a little better than they otherwise would have
done.
It is impossible to discuss the value of rites and symbolic
ceremonials without reopening a question already touched
upon in the chapters on Inequality, and Education: the
question of psychological types and degrees of mental
development. Significantly enough, most of the historical
founders of religions and a majority of religious philosophers
have been in agreement upon this matter. They have
divided human beings into a minority of individuals,
capable of making the efforts required to 'attain enlighten-
ment,* and a great majority incapable of making such
efforts. This conception is fundamental in Hinduism,
Buddhism and, in general, all Indian philosophy* It is
implicit in the teaching of Lao Tsu, and again in that of
the Stoics, Jesus of Nazareth taught that 'many are
called, but few are chosen' and that there were certain
people who constituted 'the salt of the earth' and who
were therefore able to preserve the world, to prevent it
from decaying. The Gnostic .sects believed in the existence
of esoteric and exoteric teaching, the latter reserved for
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