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Theosophy House
Commentary on
The Voice of the Silence
By
Annie Besant and
C
Talks on the Path of Occultism - Vol. II
The
Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
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Theosophical Publishing House
Adyar,
Madras
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First
Edition 1
FOREWORD
THIS
book is merely a record of talks by Mr. C. W. Leadbeater and myself on
three
famous books—books small in size but great in contents. We both hope that
they
will prove useful to aspirants, and even to those above that stage, since
the
talkers were older than the listeners, and had more experience in the life
of
discipleship.
The
talks were not given at one place only; we chatted to our friends, at
different
times and places. chiefly at Adyar, London and Sydney. A vast quantity
of
notes were taken by the listeners. All that were available of these were
collected
and arranged. They were then condensed, and repetitions were
eliminated.
Unhappily
there were, found to be very few notes on The Voice of the Silence,
Fragment
I, so we have utilized notes made at a class held by our good
colleague,
Mr. Ernest Wood, in Sydney, and incorporated these into Bishop
Leadbeater's
talks in that section. No notes of my own talks on this book were
available;
though I have spoken much upon it, those talks are not recoverable.
None
of these talks have been published before, except some of Bishop
Leadbeater's
addresses to selected students on At the Feet of the Master. A book
entitled
Talks on "At the Feet of the Master" was published a few years ago,
containing
imperfect reports of some of these talks of his. That book will not
be
reprinted; the essential material in it finds its place here, carefully
condensed
and edited.
May
this book help some of our younger brothers to understand more of these
priceless
teachings. The more they are studied and lived, the more will be found
in
them.
ANNIE
BESANT
FRAGMENT I: THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE 1
1.The Preface
2.The Higher and the Lower Powers
3. The Slayer of the Real
4.
The Real and the Unreal
5.The Warning Voice
6.Self and All-Self
7. The Three Halls
8. The World's Mother
9.
The Seven Sounds
10. Become the Path
11.
The
12.
The Last Steps
13. The Goal
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FRAGMENT II: THE TWO PATHS1
1. The Open Gate.
2.
Head-Learning and Soul-Wisdom
3.
The Life of Action
4.
The Secret Path
5. The Wheel of Life
6.
The Way of the Arhat
FRAGMENT III: THE SEVEN PORTALS
1. The Paramita Heights
2.
Tuning the Heart
3.
The First Three Gates
4. The Fourth Gate
5.
The Fifth and Sixth Gates
6.
The Seventh Gate
7.
The Arya Path
8.
The Three Vestures
-------
FRAGMENT- I
THE PREFACE
C.W.L.—Even
from the superficial and wholly physical point of view, The Voice of
the
Silence is one of the most remarkable books in our Theosophical literature,
whether
we consider its contents, its style, or the manner of its production;
and
when we look a little deeper and call to our aid the power of clairvoyant
investigation,
our admiration is by no means diminished. Not that we should make
the
mistake of regarding it as a sacred-scripture, every word of which must be
accepted
without question. It is by no means that, for, as we shall presently
see,
various minor errors and misunderstandings have crept into it; but anyone
who
on that account regards it as unreliable or carelessly put together will be
making
an even less excusable mistake in the opposite direction.
Madame
Blavatsky was always very ready to admit, and even to emphasize, the fact
that
inaccuracies were to be found in all her works; and in the early days, when
we
came across some especially improbable statement of hers we not unnaturally
laid
it reverently aside as perhaps one of those inaccuracies. It was surprising
in
what a number of such cases further study showed us that Madame Blavatsky was
after
all correct, so that presently, taught by experience, we grew
much
more wary in this matter, and learnt to trust her extraordinarily
wide
and minute knowledge upon all sorts of out-of-the-way subjects.
Still
there is no reason to suspect a hidden meaning in an obvious misprint,
as
some too credulous students have done; and we need not hesitate to
admit
that our great Founder's profound knowledge in occult matters did not
prevent
her from sometimes misspelling a Tibetan word, or even misusing
an
English one.
She
gives us in her preface some information as to the origin of the
book—information
which at first seemed to involve some serious difficulties, but
in
the light of recent investigations becomes much more comprehensible. Much of
what
she wrote has been commonly understood in a wider sense than she intended
it,
and in that way it has been made to appear that she put forward extravagant
claims;
but when the facts of the case are stated it will be seen that there is
no
foundation for such a charge.
She
says: '' The following pages are derived from The Book of the Golden
Precepts,
one of the works put into the hands of mystic students in the East.
The
knowledge of them is obligatory in that school the teachings of which are
accepted
by many Theosophists. Therefore, as I know many of these Precepts by
heart,
the work of translating has been relatively an easy task for me." And,
further
on: " The work from which I here translate forms part of the same series
as
that from which the stanzas of The Book of Dzyan were taken, on which The
Secret
Doctrine is based." She also says: " The Book of the Golden Precepts
. . . contains about ninety distinct little treatises."
In
early days we read into this more than she meant, and we supposed that this
work
was put into the hands of .all mystic students in the East, and that "the
school
in which the knowledge of them is obligatory " meant the school of the
Great
White Brotherhood itself.1 Hence when we met with advanced occultists who
had
never heard of The Book of the Golden Precepts we were much surprised and a
little
inclined to look askance at them and doubt gravely whether they could
have
come altogether along the right lines, but since then we have learnt many
things,
and among them somewhat more of perspective than we had at first.
In
due course, too, we acquired further information about the Stanzas of Dzyan,
and
the more we learnt about them and their unique position the clearer it
became
to us that neither The Voice of the Silence nor any other book could
possibly
have in any real sense the same origin as they.
The
original of The Book of Dzyan is in the hands of the august Head of the
Occult
Hierarchy, and has been seen by none. None knows how old it is, but it is
rumoured
that the earlier part of it (consisting of the first six stanzas), has
an
origin altogether anterior to this world, and even that it is not a history,
but
a series of directions—rather a formula for creation than an account of it.
A
copy of it is kept in the museum of the Brotherhood,
1
This term is used to denote a great Brotherhood of Adepts, and is not related
to
color. and it is that copy (itself probably the oldest book produced on this
planet)
which
Madame Blavatsky and several of her pupils have seen—which she describes
so
graphically in The Secret Doctrine. The book has, however, several
peculiarities
which she does not there mention. It appears to be very highly
magnetized,
for as soon as a man takes a page into his hand he sees passing
before
his eyes a vision of the events which it is intended to portray, while at
the
same time he seems to hear a sort of rhythmic description of them in his own
language,
so far as that language will convey the ideas involved. Its pages
contain
no words whatever—-nothing but symbols.
When
we came to know this fully, it was somewhat startling to find another book
claiming
the same origin as the sacred Stanzas, and our first impulse was to
suppose
that some strange mistake must have arisen. Indeed, it was this
extraordinary
discrepancy that first led to our investigating the question of
the
real authorship of The Book of the Golden Precepts; and when this was done,
the
explanation proved to be exceedingly simple.
We
read in the various biographies of Madame Blavatsky that she once spent a
period
of some three years in
ah
unsuccessful attempt to penetrate into that forbidden land. On one or other
of
these visits she seems to have stayed for some considerable time at a certain
monastery
in the
Master
Morya. The place seems to me to be in
is
difficult to be sure of this. There she studied with great assiduity
and
also gained considerable psychic development; and it is at this period of
her
history that she learnt by heart the various treatises of which she makes
mention
in the Preface. The learning of them is obligatory upon the students of
that
particular monastery, and the book from which they are taken is regarded
there
as of exceeding value and holiness.
This
monastery is of great age. It was founded in the early centuries of the
Christian
era by the great preacher and reformer of Buddhism who is commonly
known
as Aryasanga. I think a claim is made that the building had already
existed
for two or three centuries before his time; but, however that may be,
its
history as far as we are concerned begins with his temporary occupancy of
it.
He was a man of great power and learning, already far advanced along the
Path
of Holiness; He had in a previous birth as Dharmajyoti been one of the
immediate
followers of the Lord Buddha, and after that, under the name of
Kleinias,
one of the leading disciples of our Master Kuthumi in his birth as
Pythagoras.
After the death of Pythagoras, Kleinias founded a school for the
study
of his philosophy at
Theosophical
members took advantage. Centuries later He took birth at
which
was then called Purushapura, under the name of Vasubandhu Kanushika. When
he
was admitted to the order of monks He took the name of Asanga—•" the man
without
hindrance "—and later in his life his admiring followers lengthened this
to-Aryasanga,
by which he is chiefly known as author and
preacher.
He is said to have lived to a very great age —nearly a hundred and
fifty
years, if tradition speaks truly—and to have died at Rajagriha.
He
was a voluminous writer: the principal work of his of which we hear is the
Yogacharya
Bhumishastra. He was the founder of the Yogacharya school of
Buddhism,
which seems to have begun with an attempt to fuse with Buddhism the
great
Yoga system of philosophy, or perhaps rather to adopt from the latter what
could
be used and interpreted Buddhistically. He travelled much and was a mighty
force
in the reform of Buddhism; in fact, his fame reached so high a level that
his
name is joined with those of Nagarjuna and Aryacleva, and these men have
been
called the three suns of Buddhism, because of their activity in pouring
forth
its light and glory upon the world. The date of Aryasanga is given vaguely
as
a thousand years after the Lord Buddha; European scholars seem uncertain as
to
when he lived, but none assign him a later date than the seventh century
after
Christ. To us in the Theosophical Society he is known in this life as a
specially
kind, patient and helpful teacher, the Master Djwal Kul—one who has
for
us an unique position, in that when some of us had the honour of knowing him
about
forty years ago, he had not yet taken the step which is the goal of human
evolution—
the Aseka Initiation. So that among our Masters he is the only one
whom
we knew in this present incarnation before he became an Adept, when he was
still
the head pupil of the Master Kuthumi. The fact that as Aryasanga he
carried
Buddhism into
9
reason
why in this life he has chosen to take a Tibetan body; there may have
been
karmic associations or links of which he wished to dispose before taking
the
final initiation as Adept.
In
the course of one of his great missionary journeys in his life as Aryasanga
he
came to this Himalayan monastery and took up his abode there. He stayed there
for
nearly a year, teaching the monks, organizing the religion generally over a
very
large section of the country, and making this monastery a kind of
headquarters
for the reformed faith, and he left upon the place an impression
and
a tradition which last until the present time. Among other relics of his is
preserved
a book, which is regarded with the greatest reverence; and this is the
scripture
to which Madame Blavatsky refers as The Book of the Golden Precepts.
Aryasanga
seems to have commenced it as a sort of common place book, or a book
of
extracts, in which he wrote down anything that he thought would be useful to
his
pupils, and he began with the Stanzas of Dzyan—not in symbol, as in the
original,
but in written words. Many other extracts he made—-some from the works
of
Nagarjuna, as Madame Blavatsky mentions. After his departure his pupils added
to
the book a number of reports (or perhaps rather abstracts) of his lectures or
sermons
to them, and these are the " little treatises" to which Madame
Blavatsky
refers.
It
was Alcyone, in his last life, who prepared and added to The Book of the
Golden
Precepts the reports of the discourses of Aryasanga, three of which form
Our
present subject of study. So we owe this priceless little volume to his care in
reporting,
just as in this life we owe to him our possession of the exquisite
companion
volume At the Feet of the Master. That life of Alcyone began in A.D.
624,
and was spent in
Buddhist
monks at an early age and became deeply attached to Aryasanga, who took
him
with him to the monastery in
the
studies of the community which he had re-organized—a service that Alcyone
performed
with distinguished success for about two years.1
It
is in this sense, and in this sense only, that The Voice of the Silence
claims
the same origin as the Stanzas of Dzyan—that the two are copied in the
same
book. We must not forget also that though we have undoubtedly much of
Aryasanga's
teaching in these treatises, it cannot but be coloured considerably
by
the prepossessions of those who reported it; and it is probable that at least
in
some passages they misunderstood him and failed to convey his real meaning.
As
we examine the work in detail we shall find verses here and there which
express
sentiments that Aryasanga could hardly have held, and show ignorance
which
for him would have been impossible.
It
will be noticed that Madame Blavatsky speaks of translating the precepts—a
remark
which raises some interesting questions, since we know that she was
unacquainted
with any Oriental tongue except Arabic. The book is written in a
script
with which I am 1 See The Lives of Alcyone.
11
unfamiliar,
nor do I know what language is used. The latter may be Sanskrit,
Pali,
or some Prakrit dialect, or possibly Nepalese or Tibetan; but the script
is
not any of those now commonly employed to write those languages. It is at any
rate
reasonably certain that on the physical plane neither script nor language
could
have been known to Madame Blavatsky.
For
one who can function freely in the mental body there are methods of getting
at
the meaning of a book, quite apart from the ordinary process of reading it.
The
simplest is to read from the mind of one who has studied it; but this is
open
to the objection that one gets not the real meaning of the work, but that
student's
conception of the meaning, which may be by no means the same thing. A
second
plan is to examine the aura of the book—a phrase which needs a little
explanation
for those not practically acquainted with the hidden side of things,
An
ancient manuscript stands in this respect in a somewhat different position
from
a modern book. If it is not the original work of the author himself, it has
at
any rate been copied word by word by some person of a certain education and
understanding,
who knew the subject of the book, and had his own opinions about
it.
It must be remembered that copying, done usually with a stylus, is almost as
slow
and emphatic as engraving; so that the writer inevitably impresses his
thought
strongly on his handiwork.
Any
manuscript, therefore, even a new one, has always some sort of thought-aura
about
it which conveys its general meaning, or rather, one man's idea of its
meaning
and his estimate of its value. Every time the book is read by any one an
addition
is made to that thought-aura, and if it be carefully studied the
addition
is naturally large and valuable. A book which has passed through many
hands
has an aura which is usually better balanced, rounded off and completed by
the
divergent views brought to it by its many readers; consequently the
psychometrization
of such a book generally yields a fairly full comprehension of
its
contents, though with a considerable fringe of opinions not expressed in the
book,
but held by its various readers.
With
a printed book the case is much the same, except that there is no original
copyist,
so that at the beginning of its career it usually carries nothing but
disjointed
fragments of the thoughts of the binder and the bookseller. Also few
readers
at the present day seem to study so thoughtfully and thoroughly as did
the
men of old, and for that reason the thought-forms connected with a modern
book
are rarely so precise and clear-cut as those which surround the manuscripts
of
the past.
A
third plan, requiring somewhat higher powers, is to go behind the book or
manuscript
altogether and get at the mind of the author. If the book is in some
foreign
language, its subject entirely unknown, and there is no aura round it to
give
any helpful suggestion, the only way is to follow back its history, to see
from
what it was copied (or set up in type, as the case may be) and so to trace
out
the line of its descent until one reaches its author. If the subject of the
work
is known, a less tedious method is to psychometrize that subject, get into
-------
the general current of thought about it, and so find the particular writer
required,
and see what he thinks. There is a sense in which all the ideas
connected
with a given subject may be said to be local—to be concentrated round
a
certain point in space, so that by mentally visiting that point one can come
into
touch with all the converging streams of thought about that subject, though
of
course these are linked by millions of lines with all sorts of other
subjects.
Supposing
her clairvoyant powers to have been at that time sufficient, Madame
Blavatsky
may have adopted any of these methods of getting at the meaning of the
treatises
from The Book of the Golden Precepts, though it would be a little
misleading
to describe any of them as translations without qualifying the
statement.
The only other possibilities are somewhat remote. There is at present
no
one in that Himalayan monastery who speaks any European language, but since
it
is probably at least forty years since Madame Blavatsky was there, there must
have
been many changes. It is recorded that Indian students have occasionally,
though
very rarely, come to drink from that fount of archaic learning, and if we
may
assume that the visit of some such student coincided with hers, it might
also
be that he happened to know both English and the language of the
manuscript,
or at least the language of other inmates of the monastery who could
read
the manuscript for themselves, and so could translate for her.
Strangely
enough, there is also just a possibility that she may have been taught
in
her own native tongue. In
-------
European
Russia, on the banks of the
of
Buddhist tribes, probably Tartar in their origin; and it appears that these
people,
though so far removed on the physical plane from
as
their holy land and occasionally undertake pilgrimages to it. Such pilgrims
sometimes
remain for years as pupils in Tibetan or Nepalese monasteries, and as
one
of them might very well know Russian as well as his own Mongolian dialect,
it
is obvious that we have here another possible method by which Madame
Blavatsky
may have communicated with her hosts.
In
any case it is obvious that we must not expect an exact verbal reproduction
of
what Aryasanga originally said to his disciples. Even in the archaic book
itself
we have not his words, but his pupils' recollection of them, and of that
recollection
we have now before us either a translation of a translation, or the
recording
of a general mental impression of the meaning. It would of course be
quite
easy for one of our Masters or for the author himself to make a direct and
accurate
translation into English; but as Madame Blavatsky distinctly claims the
work
of translation as her own, this evidently was not the plan adopted.
At
the same time, the account which we have from an eyewitness of the speed with
which
it was written down, does certainly seem to suggest the idea that some
assistance
was given to her, even though it may have been unconsciously to
herself.
Dr. Besant writes on this subject:
She wrote
it at
her,
and I sat in the room while she was writing
15
it.
I know that she did not write it referring to any books, but she wrote it
down
steadily, hour after hour, exactly as though she were writing either from
memory
or from reading it where no book was. She produced in the evening that
manuscript
that I saw her write as I sat with her, and asked me and others to
correct
it for English, for she said that she had written it so quickly that it
was
sure to be bad. We did not alter in that more than a few words, and it
remains
as a specimen of marvelously beautiful literary work.
Another
possibility is that she may have done the translation into English
beforehand
while at the monastery, and that at Fontaineblcau she may really have
been
reading it at a distance, just as Dr. Besant says she appeared to be. I
have
often seen her do that very thing on other occasions.
The
six schools of Hindu philosophy to which she refers on the first page of the
preface
are the Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta. She
states
that every Indian teacher has his own system of training, which he
usually
keeps very secret. It is natural that he should keep it secret, for he
does
not desire the responsibility of the results that would follow if it were
tried
(as, if known, it certainly would be), by all sorts of unsuitable,
ill-regulated
people. No real teacher in
unless
he can have him under his eye, so that when he prescribes for him a
certain
exercise, he can watch its effect and check the man instantly if he sees
that
anything is going wrong. That has been the immemorial custom in these
occult
matters, and unquestionably it is the only way in which real progress can
be
made with rapidity and safety. The first and most difficult task of the pupil
is
to reduce to order the chaos in himself—to eliminate the
16
host
of minor interests, and control the wandering thoughts, and this must be
achieved
by a steady pressure of the will exercised upon all his vehicles
through
a long period of years.
Our
author tells us that if the systems of instruction differ on
this side of
the
We must emphasize here the word esoteric,
for we know that in the exoteric
religion
the corruptions and evil magical practices are worse on the northern
side
of the mountains than on the southern.
We may perhaps even understand
the expression " beyond the
strictly
geographical sense, and many suppose that it is in the schools owing
allegiance
to our Masters that the teaching does not differ. This is very
true
in a certain sense—-the most important
of all senses; but capable of
misleading
the reader if not carefully explained.
The sense in which all are
the
same is that all recognize the virtuous life as the only path leading to
occult
development, and the conquest of desire as the only way of getting rid of
it.
There are schools of occult knowledge which hold that the virtuous life
imposes
unnecessary limitations. They teach
certain forms of psychic
development,
but they care nothing for the use which their pupils may afterwards
make
of the information given to them.
There are others who hold that desire
of
all sorts should be indulged to the utmost, in order that through satiety
indifference
may be attained. But no school holding
either of these doctrines
is
under the direction of the
17
Great
White Brotherhood; in every establishment even remotely connected with it,
purity
of life and nobleness of aim are indispensable prerequisites.
The
next paragraph in the Preface happens to contain two of the trifling
inaccuracies
to which I have referred. Our author mentions " the great mystic
work
called Paramartha, supposed to have been delivered to Nagarjuna by the
Nagas
". Nagarjuna's great book was not called Paramartha, but Prajna
Paramita—-the
wisdom which brings to the further shore; but it is very true that
the
subject treated in that book is the paramartha satya, that consciousness of
the
sage which vanquishes illusion. Nagarjuna, as already mentioned, was one of
the
three great Buddhist teachers of the earlier centuries of the Christian era;
he
is supposed to have died A.D). 1
-------
. He is now known to Theosophists under the
name
of the Master Kuthumi. Exoteric writers some-times describe Aryasanga as
his
rival, but, knowing as we do their intimate relation in an earlier birth in
been
so. It is quite possible that, after their death, their pupils may have
tried
to set up the teaching of one against that of the other, as pupils in
their
undiscriminating zeal so often do; but that they themselves were in
perfect
accord is shown by the fact that Aryasanga treasured much of Nagarjuna's
work
and copied it into his book of extracts for the use of his disciples.
It
is not, however, certain that the Prajna Paramita was the work of Nagarjuna,
for
the legend seems to be
18
to
the effect that the book was delivered to him by the Nagas or serpents.
Madame
Blavatsky interprets this as a name given to the ancient Initiates, and
that
may well be so, though there is another very interesting possibility. I
have
found that the name of Nagas or serpents was given by the Aryans to one of
the
great tribes or clans of the Toltec sub-race of the Atlanteans, because they
carried
before them as a standard when going into battle a golden snake coiled
round
a staff. This may well have been some totem or tribal symbol, or perhaps
merely
the crest of a great family. This tribe or family must have taken a
prominent
part in the original Atlantean colonization of
which
then existed to the south-east of it. We find the Nagas mentioned as among
the
original inhabitants of
there.
So a possible interpretation of this legend might be that Nagarjuna
received
this book from an earlier race— in other words, that it is an Atlantean
scripture.
And if, as has been suspected, certain of the Upanishads came from
the
same source, there would be little reason to wonder at the identity of
teaching
to which Madame Blavatsky refers on the same page.
The
Gnyaneshwari (transliterated Dhyaneshwari in the first edition) is not a
Sanskrit
work, but was written in Marathi in the thirteenth century of our era.
On
the next page we find a reference to the Yoga-charya (or more accurately
Yogachara)
school of the Mahayana. I have already mentioned the attempt made by
Aryasanga,
but a few words should perhaps be
-------
said as to the vexed question of the Yanas. The
to
us to-day in two great divisions, the Northern and the Southern. The former
includes
the
Southern Church the Hlnayana,1 but whether even this much may be safely said
depends
upon the shade of meaning which we attach to a much-disputed word.
means
vehicle, and it is agreed that it is to be applied to the Dhamma or Law as
the
vessel which conveys us across the sea of life to Nirvana, but there are at
least
five theories as to the exact sense in which it is to be taken:
1. That it refers simply to the language in
which the Law is written, the
Greater
Vehicle being by this hypothesis
Sanskrit, and the
Lesser Vehicle
Pali—-a
theory which seems to me untenable.
2. Hina may apparently be taken as signifying
mean or easy, as well as small.
One interpretation therefore considers the
Hinayana as the meaner or easier
road
to liberation—the irreducible minimum of knowledge and conduct required to
attain
it—while the Mahayana is the
fuller and more
philosophical
doctrine which includes much additional
knowledge about higher
realms of nature.
Needless to say, this interpretation comes from a Mahayana
source.
3. That Buddhism, in its unfailing courtesy
towards other religions, accepts
them
all as ways of liberation,
1
Usually known as Theravada. though it regards the method taught by its Founder
as offering the shortest and surest route. According to this view, Buddhism is
the Mahayana, and the Hinayana includes Brahmanism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism and
any other religions which were existing at the time when the definition was
formulated.
4. That the two doctrines are simply two
stages of one doctrine—the
Theravada for
the Shravakas or hearers, and
the Mahayana for more advanced
students.
5. That the word
"
vehicle," but rather in a secondary sense nearly equivalent to the English
word
" career ". According to
this interpretation the Mahayana puts before a
man
the "grand career" of becoming a Bodhisattva and devoting himself to
the
welfare
of the world, while the Theravada shows him only the "smaller career
"
of
so living as to attain Nirvana for himself.
The
Northern and Southern Buddhist Churches are related somewhat as are the
Catholics
and Protestants among the Christians. The Northern resembles the
Catholic
Church. It has added to the teachings of the Lord Buddha. For instance,
it
adopted much of the aboriginal worship which it found in the country—such
ceremonies
as those in honour of nature-spirits or deified forces of nature.
When
Christian missionaries went among the Northern Buddhists, they found
ceremonies
so similar to their own that they said it was plagiarism due to the
work
of the devil, and when it was conclusively proved that these ceremonies
antedated
the Christian era, they said it was " plagiarism by anticipation " !
21
In
the Buddhist, as in all other scriptures, there are contradictory statements;
so
the Southern Church has founded itself on certain texts; anxious to avoid
excrescences,
it ignores the others, or calls them interpolations. This has made
it
narrower in its scope than the
Buddha
preached constantly against the idea that was evidently prevalent in his
time,
of the continuation of the person-alky. That notion is common also among
Christians—-that
our personalities survive to all eternity. But while he taught
that
nothing of all that with which men generally identify themselves lasts for
ever,
he made most unequivocal statements about the successive lives of men. He
gave
examples of preceding lives; and when some King asked him what it was like
to
recover the memory of former lives, he. said it was like remembering what one
had
done yesterday and on preceding days when visiting this village or that. Yet
the
Southern Church now teaches that only karma persists, not an ego; as though
man
in one life made a certain amount of karma, and then died, and nothing was
left
of him, but another person was born, and had to bear the karma which he did
not
make.
Still,
while the Southern Buddhists teach that only the karma survives, they
speak
at the same time of the attainment of Nirvana; so that if you ask a monk
why
he wears the yellow robe, he will answer you: "To attain Nirvana,"
and if
you
say: " In this life? " he will reply at once: " Oh, no, it will
need many
lives."
So also, after every sermon that a monk preaches he blesses
22
his
congregation with the words: '' May you attain Nirvana "; and again, if
you
asked
him whether they could attain it in this life, he would say, " No, they
will
need many lives." So a practical belief in the continued existence of an
individual
persists, in spite of the formal teaching to the contrary.
Madame
Blavatsky devotes a couple of pages to the question of the various forms
of
writing adopted in the Himalayan monasteries. In
alphabet
is so widely spread, so almost universally employed, that it is perhaps
well,
for the sake of our Western readers, to explain that in the East a very
different
condition of affairs prevails. Each of the numerous Oriental
languages—Tamil,
Telugu, Sinhalese, Malayalam, Hindi, Gujarati, Canarese,
Bengali,
Burmese, Nepalese, Tibetan, Siamese, and many others —has its own
alphabet
and method of writing, and a writer in one of them, when quoting a
foreign
language, expresses that language in his own characters, just as an
English
writer, if he had to quote a German or Russian sentence would probably
write
it not in German or Russian type, but in Roman. So that in dealing with an
oriental
manuscript we have always two points to consider—the language and the
script,
and these two are by no means always the same.
If
I take up a palm-leaf book in
the
beautiful Sinhalese script, but it does not at all follow that it is in the
Sinhalese
language. It is quite as likely to be in Pali, Sanskrit or Elu. The
same
is true of any of the other scripts.
23
So
that when Madame Blavatsky says that the precepts are sometimes written in
Tibetan,
she may very likely mean only in Tibetan characters, and not
necessarily
in the Tibetan language. I have not seen any instances of the
curious
cryptographs which she describes, in which colours and animals are made
to
represent letters. She speaks in the same paragraph of the thirty simple
letters
of the Tibetan alphabet. These are universally recognized, but it is not
clear
what is meant by the reference a little later on to thirty-three simple
letters,
since if she takes them without the four vowels there are but thirty,
while
if the vowels are included we should of course have not thirty-three but
thirty-four.
As to the compound letters, their number may be variously stated; a
grammar
which is before me gives over a hundred, but probably Madame Blavatsky
refers
only to those in general use.
I
remember an interesting illustration of her statement as to one of the Chinese
modes
of writing. When I was in
Buddhist
monks from the interior of
which
any of us were acquainted. But fortunately we had some young Japanese
students
staying with us, in pursuance of Colonel Olcott's splendid scheme that
each
Church, the Northern and the Southern, should send some of its neophytes to
learn
the ways and the teaching of the other. These young men could not
understand
a word of what these Chinese monks said, but they were able to
exchange
ideas with them by means of writing. The written symbols meant the same
24
to
them, though they called them by quite different names, just as a Frenchman
and
an Englishman would each perfectly understand a line of figures, although
one
would call them " un, deux, trois," and the other " one, two,
three ". The
same
is true of notes of music. Sol had a very curious and interesting interview
with
these monks, at which every question which I put was first translated into
Sinhalese
by one of our members, so that the Japanese student might understand
it;
then the latter wrote it down with a paint-brush in the form of writing
common
to Chinese and Japanese; the Chinese monk read it and wrote his reply in
the
same characters, which the Japanese student then translated into Sinhalese,
and
our member into English. Under these circumstances conversation was slow and
a
little uncertain, but still it was an interesting experience.
CHAPTER
2 THE HIGHER AND THE LOWER POWERS
These
instructions are for those ignorant of the dangers of the lower Iddhi.
C.W.L.—To
this opening sentence of the First Fragment there is a note by Madame
Blavatsky
as follows:
The
Pali word Iddhi is the equivalent of the Sanskrit Siddhis, or psychic
faculties,
the abnormal powers in man. There are two kinds of Siddhis— one group
which
embraces the lower, coarse, psychic and mental energies, while the other
exacts
the highest training of spiritual powers. Says
Bhagavat.
"
He who is engaged in the performance of Yoga, who has subdued his senses and
who
has concentrated his mind in me [
ready
to serve.
There
is a vast amount of misunderstanding on this subject of psychic powers,
and
it will save the student a great deal of trouble if he will try to get a
reasonable
conception of it to begin with. First, let him not
26
attach
a wrong interpretation to the word " abnormal " These powers are
abnormal
only
in the sense that they are at present uncommon—not in the least in the
sense
that they are in any way unnatural. They are perfectly natural to every
man—-indeed
they are latent in every man here and now; a few people have
developed
them from latency into activity, but the majority have as yet made no
effort
in that direction, and so the powers still remain dormant.
The
simplest way to grasp the general idea is to remember that man is a soul,
and
that he manifests himself on various planes through bodies appropriate to
those
planes. If he wishes to act, to see or to hear in this physical world, he
can
do so only through a body made of physical matter. Similarly if he wishes to
manifest
in the astral world, he must have an astral vehicle, for the physical
body
is useless there and even invisible, just as the astral body is invisible
to
our physical sight. In the same way a man who wishes to live upon the mental
plane
must use his mental body.
To
develop psychic faculty means to learn to use the senses of these different
bodies.
If a man can use only his physical senses, he can see and hear only
things
of this physical world; if he learns to use the senses of his astral
body,
he can see and hear the things of the astral world as well. It is merely a
matter
of learning to respond to additional vibrations. If you will look at the
table
of vibrations in any book of physics, you will see that a large number of
them
evoke no response from us. A certain number appeal to our ears, and we hear
them
27
as
waves of sound; another set impress themselves upon our eyes, and we call
them
rays of light. But in between these two sets, and above and below them
both,
are thousands of other sets of oscillations that make no impression at all
upon
our physical senses. It is possible for a man so to develop himself as to
become
sensitive to all these undulations of the ether, and of matter even finer
than
the ether; we call a man who has done that clairvoyant or clairaudient,
because
he can see and hear more than the undeveloped man can.
The
advantages of such an unfolding of the inner sight are considerable. The man
who
possesses it finds himself free of another and far wider world; or to speak
more
accurately, he finds that the world in which he has always lived has
extensions
and possibilities of all kinds of which he has previously known
nothing.
His studies may already have informed him of the presence all round him
of
a vast and complicated non-physical life—of kingdoms of devas and
nature-spirits,
of the enormous army of his fellow-men who have laid aside their
dense
bodies in sleep or in death, of forces and influences of many sorts which
can
be evoked and used by those who understand them; but to see all these things
for
himself instead of merely believing in them, to be able to contact them at
firsthand
and experiment with them—all this makes life far fuller and more
interesting.
He who can thus follow on higher planes the results of his thought
and
action, becomes thereby a more efficient and more useful person. The gain of
such
an unfoldment of consciousness is obvious; but what of the other side
28
of
the story ? Madame Blavatsky writes of the dangers of this development, and
of
two kinds of it, a lower and a higher. Let us take this latter point first.
All
information which reaches man from without comes to him by means of
vibrations.
Vibrations of the air convey sounds to the ears, while those of
light
bring sights to his eyes. If he sees things and creatures of the astral
and
mental worlds, it can only be through the impingement of vibrations of
astral
and mental matter upon the bodies respectively capable of responding to
them.
For man can see the astral world only through the senses of his astral
body,
and the mental world through those of his mental body.
In
each of these worlds, as in this, there are coarser and finer types of
matter,
and, roughly speaking, the radiations of the finer types are desirable,
while
those of the coarser kinds are distinctly undesirable. A man has both
kinds
of matter in his astral body, and he is therefore capable of responding to
both
the higher and the lower vibrations; and it is for him to choose to which
of
them he will turn his attention. If he resolutely shuts out all the lower
influences,
and accepts only the higher, he may be greatly helped by them even
at
astral and mental levels. But Madame Blavatsky will have none of these—not
even
as temporary aids; she groups them all together as " lower, coarse,
psychic
and
mental energies " and urges us to sweep onward to far higher planes which
are
beyond the illusions of the personality. She evidently regards the dangers
of
ordinary psychic development as outweighing its advantages; but as a
29
certain
amount of this development is sure to come, in the course of the
evolution
of the disciple, she warns us of some points as to which extreme care
is
necessary.
In
our own experience during the forty years that have elapsed since Madame
Blavatsky
wrote this, we have seen something of these dangers in cases of
various
students. Pride is the first of them, and it bulks very largely. The
possession
of a faculty which, though it is the heritage of the whole human
race,
is as yet manifested only very occasionally, often causes the ignorant
clairvoyant
to feel himself (or still more frequently herself) exalted above his
fellows,
chosen by the Almighty for some mission of world-wide importance,
dowered
with a discernment that can never err, selected under angelic guidance
to
be the founder of a new dispensation, and so on. It should be remembered that
there
are always plenty of sportive and mischievous entities on the other side
of
the veil who are ready and even anxious to foster all such delusions, to
reflect
and embody all such thoughts, and to fill whatever role of archangel or
spirit-guide
may happen to be suggested to them. Unfortunately it is so fatally
easy
to persuade the average man that he really is a very fine fellow at bottom,
and
quite worthy to be the recipient of a special revelation, even though his
friends
have through blindness or prejudice somehow failed hitherto to
appreciate
him.
Another
danger, perhaps the greatest of all, because it is the mother of all
others,
is ignorance. If the clairvoyant knows anything of the history of his
subject,
if
30
he
at all understands the conditions of those other planes into which his vision
is
penetrating, he cannot of course suppose himself the only person who was ever
so
highly favoured, nor can he feel with self-complacent certainty that it is
impossible
for him to mistake. But when he is, as so many are, in the densest
ignorance
as to history, conditions and everything else, he is liable in the
first
place to make all kinds of mistakes as. to what he sees, and secondly to
be
the easy prey of all sorts of designing and deceptive entities from the
astral
plane. He has no criterion by which to judge what he sees, or thinks he
sees,
no test to apply to his visions or communications, and so he has no sense
of
relative proportion or the fitness of things, and he magnifies a copy-book
maxim
into a fragment of divine wisdom, a platitude of the most ordinary type
into
an angelic message. Then again, for want of common knowledge on scientific
subjects
he will often utterly misunderstand what his faculties enable him to
perceive,
and he will in consequence gravely promulgate the grossest
absurdities.
The
third danger is that of impurity. The man who is pure in thought and life,
pure
in intention and free from the taint of selfishness, is by that very fact
guarded
from the influence of undesirable entities from other planes. There is
in
him nothing upon which they can play; he is no fit medium for them. On the
other
hand all good influences naturally surround such a man, and hasten to use
him
as a channel through which they may act, and thus a still further barrier is
erected
about him against all which is mean and low and evil. The man
of"
impure life or motive, on the contrary, inevitably attracts to himself all
that
is worst in the invisible world which so closely surrounds us; he responds
readily
to it, while it will be hardly possible for the forces of good to make
any
impression upon him.
But
a clairvoyant who will bear in mind all these dangers, and strive to avoid
them,
who will take the trouble to study the history and the rationale of
clairvoyance,
who will see to it that his heart is humble and his motives are
pure—'Such
a man may assuredly learn very much from these powers of which he
finds
himself in possession, and may make them of the greatest use to him in the
work
which he has to do.
The
siddhis are enumerated at considerable length in the third chapter of the
Toga
Sutras of Patanjali. He speaks of them as being attained in five ways—by
birth,
by drugs, by mantras, by tapas, and by samadhi.
We
have come to birth in a particular kind of body as the result of our actions
in
previous incarnations, and if we find ourselves by nature in the possession
of
psychic powers we may take it for granted that we have worked for them in
some
way in previous lives. Many clairvoyants of the present day, in whom the
faculty
has been easily awakened, but perhaps reaches no great heights of
spirituality,
have been in such positions as those of the vestal virgins of
half-savage
tribes or the "wise women" of the middle ages; there has always been
a
very wide range in these matters.
What
will happen to such people, how their spiritual lives will be shaped,
depends
largely upon those with whom it is their karma to come into contact. If
that
karma is good enough to lead them to Theosophy, they will have the
opportunity
of learning something about these dawning faculties, and of being
trained
in its
purity
of physical and magnetic life that are prescribed by all true occultists,
so
that a little later on they may develop their psychic powers in safety, and
become
of great service to mankind.
If
on the other hand they come into touch with the spiritualistic school of
thought,
they are quite likely to find themselves following a line which
frequently
results in passive mediumship, the very opposite of what we are
trying
to attain.
There
are those who turn to pseudo-occultism for the attainment of magical
powers
in order to gratify personal ambition. That path is full of the most
serious
dangers. Sometimes such people sit in a passive condition and invite
unknown
entities of the astral world to work upon their auras and organisms and
to
adapt them to their purposes; sometimes they practise various forms of
Hatha-yoga,
consisting mainly of peculiar kinds of breathing, which have
unfortunately
been widely taught in the Western world in recent years. As a
result
of such proceedings mental and bodily disorders of a serious character
often
arise, while at best the contact which is gained with the inner worlds
seldom
extends beyond the lower astral
33
levels,
from which nothing can come that is uplifting to mankind.
As
to the second method—-the use of drugs—there is a note by Vyasa, in his
commentary
upon the Yoga Sutras, to the effect that these are used " in the
houses
of the asuras " for the purpose of awakening the siddhis. The asuras are
the
opposite of the suras, and the word may roughly be translated as " the
ungodly
"; the suras are the beings on God's side, those who work for His plan
of
upward-evolving life.
Patanjali
does not recommend this method; he is merely enumerating the ways in
which
the siddhis can be acquired. A study of the Sutras shows very clearly that
he
favours only the last of his list of five methods— that by means of samadhi
or
contemplation.
We
can understand to some extent the action of drugs on the body, when they are
used
as a means of awakening psychic powers, if we remember that in the fourth
root
race clairvoyance through the sympathetic nervous system was quite common.
Then
the astral sheath, not yet properly organized into a body or vehicle of
consciousness,
responded in a general way to the impressions made upon it by the
objects
of the astral plane. Those impressions were then reflected in the
sympathetic
centres in the physical body, so that consciousness in that body
received
astral and physical impressions together, and often scarcely
distinguished
between them. Indeed, in the earlier days of that race, and in the
Lemurian
race, the activity of the sympathetic system was far greater than that
of
the cerebro-spinal system, so that the astral experiences were more prominent
than the physical. But since then the
cerebro-spinal system has become the dominant mechanism of consciousness
in the physical body, and man in
consequence has paid more and more attention to the physical-plane experiences, as they have
grown stronger and more insistent.
Therefore
the sympathetic system as a purveyor of impressions has gradually
lapsed,
its business now being to carry on in an involuntary manner many bodily
functions
to which the man need not attend, because his life is mental,
emotional
and spiritual rather than physical.
The
objection to the use of drugs, therefore, is not only that they upset the
healthy
working of the body and bring the sympathetic system once more into a
prominence
which it ought not to have, but even from the point of view of the
psychic
powers attained they merely re-awaken that system and bring again into
the
physical consciousness indiscriminate impressions from the astral world.
These
come generally from the lower part of the plane, in which are aggregated
all
the astral matter and all the elemental essence concerned with exciting the
lower
passions and impulses. Sometimes they come from slightly higher regions of
sensuous
delight, such as are described in the visions of the Count of Monte
Cristo
in Dumas' famous novel, or in De Quincy's Confessions of an Opium Eater;
but
these are scarcely better than the others.
All
that is entirely contrary to the plan of evolution laid down for humanity.
We
are all intended to unfold clairvoyance and other cognate powers, but not in
That
\way. First there should be a development of the astral and mental bodies, so
that
they may be definite vehicles of consciousness on their own planes; then
may
come the awakening of the chakras in the etheric double by means of which
the
valuable knowledge gained through those higher bodies may be brought down to
the
physical plane consciousness. But all this should be done only when and as
the
Master advises; remember, in At the Feet of the Master the Teacher said:
"Have
no desire for psychic powers."
The
third method mentioned is by the use of mantras. The term mantra is applied
to
certain words of power which are used in meditation or in ceremonial rites,
and
are often repeated over and over again. These are to be found in Christian
rituals
as well as in the East, as has been explained in The Science of the
Sacraments.
In many religions sounds are thus used, and are associated with
pictures,
symbols, signs and gestures, and sometimes dances.
The
term tapas, used to describe the fourth method, is often associated with
ideas
of extreme austerity and even self-torture, such as the method of holding
the
arm extended until it withers, or lying on a bed of spikes. These practices
certainly
develop the will, but there are other and better ways of doing that.
These
Hatha Yoga schemes have the great demerit of making the physical body
useless
for that service of humanity which is above all other things important
for
the Master's work. The will may be just as effectively developed in dealing
with
the difficulties of life that come to us by nature
36
and through
karma; there is no necessity
to make trouble.
In
the Gita Shri Krishna speaks strongly against this superstition. He says,
"
The
men who perform severe austerities, which are not prescribed by the
Scriptures,
wedded to vanity and egoism, impelled by the force of their desires
and
passions., unintelligent, tormenting the aggregated elements forming the
body,
and Me also, seated in the inner body—know these as asuric in their
resolves." Such antics cannot be the real tapas. The
word means literally "
heat,"
and perhaps the nearest English equivalent to that when it is applied to
human
conduct is " effort ". The real meaning of the teaching with regard
to it
seems
to be: " Do for the body what you know to be good for it, disregarding
mere
comfort. Do not let laziness, selfishness, or indifference stand in the way
of
your doing what you can to make your personality healthy and efficient in the
work
that it ought to be doing in the world." 2 Shri Krishna says in the Gita'.
"
Reverence to the Gods, the elders, the teachers and the wise, purity,
straightforwardness,
continence and harmlessness are the tapas of the body;
speech
truthful, pleasant and beneficial, and study of the sacred words are the
tapas
of speech; cheerfulness, balance, silence, self-control, and being true to
oneself
are the tapas of mind." 3 These descriptions, given by one whom most of
the
Hindus regard as the greatest incarnation of
1
Op. cit., xvii, 5-6.
2
See Raja Yoga, by Ernest Wood.
8
-Op. cit., xvii, 14-16.
Deity,
certainly do not indicate any of the dreadful developments of which we
sometimes
see such sad examples.
It
is the fifth means, that of samadhi, that the Book of the Golden Precepts
advocates,
and, as in the Toga Sutras and other standard works of the kind, this
is
preceded by dharana and dhyana, which are commonly translated as
concentration
and meditation, while samadhi is interpreted as contemplation.
These
one-word translations from the Sanskrit are, however, often rather
unsatisfactory;
the Sanskrit words, coming down to us through the ages, have
acquired
a marvellous complexity, have added to themselves many fine shades of
meaning
which are not to be found in any modern English expression. The only way
really
to understand them is to study the terms in their context in the ancient
books.
The
siddhis may be divided into two classes, not only as higher and lower, but
also
as faculties and powers. The world acts upon us through the senses, through
our
faculties of sight, hearing and the rest; but we also act upon the world.
This
duality applies also with regard to super-physical accomplishments. We
receive
impressions through the newly unfolded powers of our astral and mental
vehicles;
but we can also act through them. It is usual in Hindu books to speak
of
eight siddhis: (1) anima, the power to put oneself in the position of an
atom,
to become so small as to be able to deal with that tiny thing; (2) mahima,
the
power to be as if of monstrous size, so as to deal with huge things at no
disadvantage;
(3) laghima, the power to become as light as cotton borne
on
the wind; (4) garima, the power to become as dense and heavy as
anything
can be; (5) prapti, the power of reaching out, even as far as the moon;
(6)
prakamya, the will power with which to realize all wishes and desires; (7)
ishatwa,
the power to control and create; and (8) vashitwa, the power of command
over
all objects. These are called " the great powers ", but others are
mentioned,
such as steadiness and effulgence in the body, control of the senses
and
appetites, beauty and gracefulness, and so on.
We
students of these later days approach all these problems from a point of view
so
totally different from that of the Hindu writers of thousands of years ago,
that
it is sometimes difficult for us to understand them. We are the product of
our
age, and the quasi-scientific training through which we all pass makes it a
mental
necessity for us to try to classify our knowledge. Each man endeavours to
build
for himself some kind of scheme of things, however crude it may be, and
when
any new fact is presented to him he tries to find a niche in his scheme for
it.
If it fits in comfortably he accepts the fact; if he cannot make it fit in,
he
is quite likely to reject it, even though it may come to him with the
weightiest
evidence. Though some people seem capable of holding, quite happily,
beliefs
which are mutually contradictory, there are others who cannot do this,
and
it is often a painful process for them to reconstruct their thought-edifice
to
admit a new fact—-so painful that they not infrequently avoid it by
conveniently
forgetting or denying the fact. Our ancient Indian brethren seem to
me
to have catalogued their observations and left them there —-to have made no
special
attempt to relate them to one another or to classify them by the planes
on
which they occurred or the kind of faculty which they required.
We
have no difficulty in recognizing the first and second powers on this list of
siddhis;
they are instances of the alteration of the focus of the consciousness;
we
sometimes call them powers of magnification and reduction. They mean the
adaptation
of the consciousness to the objects with which it has to deal—a feat
which
presents no difficulty to the trained occultist, though it is not easy on
the
physical plane to explain exactly how it is done. The third and fourth
mention
the possibility of becoming light or heavy at will; this is achieved by
the
comprehension and use of the repulsive force which is the opposite of
gravity.
I am not so sure about the fifth; it may refer merely to the power of
travelling
in the astral body, since the limit of astral migration is indicated
by
the mention of the moon; but I rather suspect that it means the power of
producing
a definite result at a distance by 'an effort of will. The sixth and
eighth
are only developments of will-power, though very remarkable developments;
the
seventh is the same, with the addition of the special knowledge required for
the
dematerialization and rematerialization of objects. In this list there seems
to
be no direct reference to clairvoyance at all, either in space or in time.
It
is to be noted that The Voice of the Silence does not say that the lower
iddhis,
those belonging to the astral and mental bodies, are to be neglected
altogether;
it merely points out that there are serious dangers connected with them. We
shall
have to deal with them a little further on, for he who would climb the
ladder
must step on every rung.
He
who would hear the voice of Nada, the " Sound-less sound," and
comprehend it,
he
has to learn the nature of Dharana.
To
this there are two footnotes, as follows:
The
" Soundless Voice," or the " Voice of the Silence."
Literally perhaps this
would
read " Voice in the Spiritual Sound,''' as Nada is the equivalent word in
Sanskrit
for the Senzar term.
Dharana
is the intense and perfect concentration of the mind upon some one
interior
object, accompanied by complete abstraction from everything pertaining
to
the external universe, or the world of the senses.
The
word that is here translated concentration comes from the root dhri, to
hold.
The word dharana, with a short final vowel, means holding or supporting in
general,
but here we have a special feminine substantive, with the long terminal
vowel,
as a technical term signifying concentration or holding of the mind.
It
is described in some places as a kind of pondering or dwelling upon a given
thought
or object, and it is said in the Hindu books that meditation and
contemplation
will not be successful unless this is practised first. It is
obvious
that while the mind is responding to
41
the
appeals of the physical, astral and lower mental planes, it is not likely to
hear
the message that the ego is trying to transmit to the personality from his
own
higher planes.
Concentration
is requisite, that attention may be given to the chosen object,
not
to the restless activity of the lower vehicles. It is usual to begin the
practice
of concentration with simple things. On a certain occasion some people
came
to Madame Blavatsky, and asked her upon what they should meditate; she
threw
a matchbox down on the table, and said: " Meditate on that! " It
startled
them
somewhat, because they had expected her to tell them to meditate upon
Parabrahman
or the Absolute. It is very important that this concentration should
be
done without strain to the body. Dr. Besant has told us that, when Madame
Blavatsky
first instructed her to try it, she began with great intensity; but
her
teacher interrupted her, saying: " My dear, you do not meditate with your
blood-vessels!
"
What
is required is to hold the mind quiet, so that one looks at the object of
thought
with perfect calmness, just as one would look at one's watch 'to see the
time,
except that one keeps on looking for the length of time prescribed or
decided
upon for the period of concentration. People often complain of headaches
and
other pains as a result of meditation; there should never be any such
result;
if they will take care to keep the physical body calm and free from
tension
of any kind, even in the eyes, they will probably find their
concentration
much easier and more successful, and free from
physical
trouble and danger. Various books have been written on this subject,
and
some of them offer exceedingly dangerous suggestions. Anyone wishing further
information
on this should read Professor Wood's book, Concentration—-a
Practical
Course, of which Dr. Besant wrote: '' There is nothing in it which,
when
practised, can do the striver after concentration the least physical,
mental
or moral harm."
In
her footnote, H.P.B. associates dharana with the higher mental plane, for she
says
the mind must be fixed upon an interior object and abstracted from the
world
of the senses; that is, from the physical, astral and lower mental worlds.
That
is a prescription for the candidate who is already on the Path, and is
aiming
at the samadhi of the nirvanic or atmic plane. But the three terms
concentration,
meditation and contemplation are also used in a general way. To
fix
one's thought on a verse of scripture—-that is concentration. To look at it
in
every possible light and try to penetrate its meaning, to reach a new and
deep
thought or receive some intuitional light upon it—that is meditation. To
fix
one's attention steadily for a time on the light received—• that is
contemplation.
Contemplation has been defined as concentration at the top end of
your
line of thought or meditation. It is usual for the Oriental student to
begin
his practice on some simple external object, and from that to carry his
thought
inward or upward to higher things.
CHAPTER
s THE SLAYER OF THE REAL
Having
become indifferent to objects of perception, the pupil must seek out the
Raja
of the senses, the Thought-Producer, he who awakes illusion.
The
Mind is the great Slayer of the Real. Let the Disciple slay the slayer.
This
refers to what has to be done during the practice of concentration. In the
Hindu
books on the subject it is explained that prior to the actual
concentration
the student who sits for the practice must withdraw his attention
from
the objects of sensation; he must learn to take no notice of any sights or
sounds
that may come within his range; he must not be attracted by anyone or
anything
that comes within his view, or affects his sense of touch. He will then
be
ready to observe what thoughts and feelings rise in the mind itself, and to
deal
with them.
As
I have already explained, in most persons the mental and astral bodies are in
a
constant state of activity, full of vortices, which must be removed before
real
progress can be made. It is these that create the mass of illusions
which
beset the average man, and render it exceedingly difficult
for
him to get a true view of anything at all. It is an axiom of Shri
Shankaracharya's
teaching that just as the physical eye can see things well when
it
is steady, but not when it is roaming about, so the mind can understand
things
clearly when it is still. But if it is full of vortices they are sure to
distort
the vision and so create illusion.
The
mind is called the raja or king of the senses. Sometimes it is spoken of as
one
of them, as in the Gild:
A
portion of Mine own Self transformed in the world of life into an immortal
Spirit,
draweth round itself the senses, of which the mind is the sixth, veiled
in
matter.
1
That the mind does act as a kind of sense is obvious, since it corrects the
evidence
of the five senses and also indicates the presence of objects beyond
their
reach; for example, when a shadow falls across your threshold, you may
infer
that somebody is there.
What
is the mind, that has to be dealt with so severely by the aspirant?
Patanjali
speaks of it when he defines yoga practice as chitta-vritti-nirodha,
which
means restraint (nirodha) of the whirlpools (vritti) of the mind (chitta).
Among
the Vedantins, or in Shri Shankaracharya's school, the term antahkarana is
not
used as we generally employ it, but indicates the mind in its fullest sense.
It
means with, them literally the entire internal organ or instrument between
the
innermost Self and the outer world, and is always described as of
1
Op. cit., v, 7.four parts: the "I-maker" (ahamkara); insight,
intuition or pure reason
(buddhi);
thought (manas); and discrimination of objects (chitta). It is these
last
two that the Western man usually calls his mind, with its powers of
abstract
and concrete thought; when he thinks of the other processes he imagines
them
to be something above the mind.
The
Theosophist ought to recognize in these four Vedantic divisions his own
familiar
atma, buddhi, manas and the lower mind. Madame Blavatsky called the
last
kama-manas, because it is the part of manas that works with desire and is
therefore
interested in material objects. Kama is to be taken not only as
relating
to low desires and passions, but also to any sort of desire or interest
in
the external world for its own sake. The whole of the triple higher self is
from
this point of view nothing but the antahkarana (or internal agency) between
the
monad and the lower self. It has become a tetrad, because manas is dual in
incarnation.
The
three parts of the higher self are considered as three aspects of a great
consciousness
or mind; they are all modes of cognition. Atma is not the Self,
but
is this consciousness knowing the Self; buddhi is this consciousness knowing
the
life in the forms by its own direct perception; manas is the same
consciousness
looking out upon the world of objects, and kama-manas is a portion
of
the last immersed in that world and affected by it. The true self is the
Monad,
whose life is something greater than consciousness, which is the life of
this
complete mind, the Higher Self. Therefore Patanjali and
Shankara
are quite in agreement; it is the chitta, the kama-manas,
the
lower mind, which is the slayer of the real, and has to be slain.
Much
that is now called the astral body by Theosophists must be included in the
Indian
idea of kama-manas or chitta. Madame Blavatsky also speaks of four
divisions
of the mind. First there is manas-taijasi, the resplendent or
illuminated
manas, which is really buddhi, or at least that state of man when
his
manas has become merged in buddhi, having no separate will of its own. Then
there
is manas proper, the higher manas, the abstract thinking mind. Then there
is
the antahkarana, a term used by Madame Blavatsky merely to indicate the link
or
channel or bridge between higher manas and kama-manas during incarnation.
Finally
there is kama-manas, which is on this theory the personality.
Sometimes
she calls manas the deva-ego, or the divine as distinguished from the
personal
self. Higher manas is divine because it has positive thought, which is
kriya-shakti,
the power of doing things. Really all our work is done by
thought-power;
the sculptor's hand does not do the work, but thought-power
directing
that hand does it. The higher manas is divine because it is a positive
thinker,
using the quality of its own life, which shines from within it; that is
what
is meant by the word divine, from div, to shine. But the lower mind is only
a
reflector; like all other material things, it has no light of its own; it is
something
through which the light comes, or through which the sound comes—merely
persona,
a mask.
THE SLAYER OF
THE REAL
The
antahkarana is usually considered in the Theosophical works as the link
between
the higher self or the divine ego, and the lower self or personal ego
The
chitta in that lower self puts it at the mercy of things, so that our life
down
here may be compared to the experience of a man struggling to swim in a
maelstrom.
But this will be followed sooner or later after death by a period in
the
heaven-world. The man has been whirled about; he has seen many things; he
has
not dwelt upon them, however, with a calm, steady mind, but with kama-manas;
therefore
he has not understood their significance for the soul. But in the
heaven-world
the ego can widen out the antahkarana, because all is now calm; no
new
experiences are to be gathered. The old ones can be quietly turned over and
dwelt
upon, and their essence taken up, as it were, into the deva ego, as being
of
interest to him. So, very often, the ego really begins his personal
life-cycle
with the entry into the heaven-world, and pays a minimum of attention
to
the personality during its period of collecting materials.
In
that case the aspect of mind that is antahkarana (in Madame Blavatsky's
classification)
functions but little before the period of the heaven-life. But
if
a man is to become expert on the astral and mental planes during the life of
the
physical body, he must bring the positive powers of the higher Self down
through
that channel, by the practice of dharana or concentration, and so make
himself
entire master of his personality. In other words he must clear out the
astral
and mental whirlpools. A man who is genius on some line may find
it
easy to apply tremendous concentration to his particular kind of work, but
when
he relaxes from that, his ordinary life may quite possibly be still full of
these
whirlpools. That is not what we want; we are aiming at nothing less than
the
complete destruction of the whirlpools, so as to comb out the lower mind and
make
it the calm and obedient servant of the higher Self at all times.
These
whirlpools may and do constantly crystallize into permanent prejudices,
and
make actual congestions of matter closely resembling warts upon the mental
body.
Then if the man tries to look out through that particular part of that
body
he cannot see clearly; everything is distorted, for at that point the
mental
matter is no longer living and flowing, but stagnant and rotten. The way
to
cure it is to acquire more knowledge, to get the matter into motion again,
and
then one by one the prejudices will be washed away and dissolved.
It
is in this way that the mind is the great slayer of the real, for through it
we
do not see any object as it really is. We see only the images which we are
able
to make of it, and everything is necessarily coloured for us by these
thought-forms
of our own creation. Notice how two persons with preconceived
ideas,
seeing the same set of circumstances, and agreeing as to the actual
happenings,
will yet make two totally different stories from them. Exactly this
sort
of thing is going on all the time with every ordinary man, and we do not
realize
how absurdly we distort things. The disciple must conquer this; he must
"
slay the slayer ". He must not of course destroy his mind,
for.
he cannot get along without it, but he must
dominate
it; it is his, but it is not he, though it tries to make him think so.
The
best way to overcome its wandering is to use the will; its efforts are just
like
those of the astral body, which is always trying to persuade you that its
desires
are yours; you must deal with them both in a precisely similar manner.
Even
when the whirlpools that fill the mind with prejudice and error are gone,
much
illusion still remains. The translation of the Sanskrit word avidya as
ignorance
is perhaps not very fortunate, though it is universally accepted. So
often
in Sanskrit there are delicate shades of meaning which it is difficult to
convey
in English. In this case perhaps what is intended is rot so much
ignorance
as unwisdom. A man may have vast stores of knowledge, and yet be
unwise,
for knowledge is concerned with objects and their relations in space and
time,
whereas wisdom is concerned with the soul or consciousness embodied in
those
things. The wise politician understands the people's minds; the wise
mother
understands her children's minds. However much one may know about
material
things, if one has only the matter-sight and not the life-sight, one
has
in reality only unwisdom or avidya. "It is at the expense of wisdom that
intellect
generally lives," said Madame Blavatsky. Then, out of that unwisdom or
ignorance
spring four other great obstacles to spiritual progress, making five
altogether,
which are called the kleshas. If avidya be the first
obstacle
the second is asmita, the notion that " I am
this
" or what a Master once called " self-personality". The
personality is
developed
through life into quite a definite thing, with decided physical,
astral
and mental form, occupation and habits; and there is no objection to that
if
it be a good specimen. But if the indwelling life can be persuaded to think
that
he is that personality, he will begin to serve its interests, instead of
using
it merely as -a tool for his spiritual purposes.
In
consequence of this second error men seek inordinate wealth and power and
fame.
When a man looks over his country houses and his town houses, his yachts
and
cars, his farms and factories, he swells with pride; thinking himself great
because
he is called the owner of these things; or he hears his name on
everybody's
lips, and feels that thousands of people are thinking of him with
praise
(or even with condemnation, for notoriety is often pleasing to men who
cannot
attain fame) and he thinks himself a very great person indeed. That is "
self-personality
", one of the greatest superstitions in the world, and a great
source
of trouble for one and all. The spiritual man, on the other hand, counts
himself
fortunate if he can be the master of his own hand and brain, and he
wishes
to hold the images of thousands of others in his own mind that he may
help
them, rather than to rejoice in the thought that his image is multiplied
and
magnified in their minds. Hence self-personality is the greatest obstacle to
the
use of the personality by the higher Self, and so to spiritual progress.
The
third and fourth obstacles may be taken together. They are raga. and dwesha,
liking
and disliking, or attraction and repulsion. These too spring from this
same
self-personality. That it should show its likes is inappropriate; it is as
though
a motor-car should have a voice of its own, and should raise it in great
discontent
when its master drives over a broken road, or in a purr of delight
when
he goes over a good road. The road may be a bad one for the car, but from
the
point of view of the driver it is a good thing that there is a road at all,
because
he wants to get somewhere, which would be a difficult matter without a
road.
It is nice to have our armchairs and fires and electric light and steam
heat,
but he who would make progress has to go over new country, sometimes
materially,
and always in thought and feeling. People like the things that
consort
with their settled conveniences and habits; anything that disturbs those
is
" bad "; anything that fits in with them and enhances them is "
good ". Such
an
outlook upon life does not harmonize with spiritual progress; we do not
refuse
comfort when it comes, but we must learn to be indifferent to it, and to
take
things as they come: this emphasis upon liking and disliking must go, and
the
calm judgment of the higher Self as to what is good and what is bad must
take
its place.
The
fifth obstacle is abhinivesha, the outcome of the last, the state of being
fixed,
settled in, attached to a form or mode of life, or to the personality.
From
this arises fear of old age and of death—events which can never exist for
the
man himself, but must come in due course to the personality.
A
veritable death in life may arise out this of fifth
trouble;
people -waste their youth in preparation for comfort and safety in
age,-
and then waste their age in seeking for their lost youth, or are afraid to
use
their bodies, lest they should wear out. They are like a man who buys a
beautiful
motor-car, and sits in his garage, enjoying his new possession, but
unable
to bring himself to run it out on the road, lest it should be spoiled.
Our
business is to do what the higher Self wants, and to be utterly willing to
die
in his service if need be.
All
the whirlpools arise from these five obstacles. Concentration and meditation
are
the means to dispel them completely. When the kama-manas no longer
gravitates
downwards, the manas can turn upwards, to become manas-taijasi.
Another
Sanskrit word connected with this self-personality is mana, sometimes
translated
pride, but perhaps better rendered by conceit. This root appears in
the
word nirmanakaya, which means a being who is beyond this illusion—nirmana.
Madame
Blavatsky said that there were three kinds or modes of incarnation:
first,
that of the avatar as, those who descend from higher spheres, having
reached
them in a cycle of evolution prior to ours; secondly, those of an
ordinary
kind, when a person passes through the astral and mental worlds and
then
takes up a new body; and thirdly, that of nirmanakayas, who incarnate again
without
interlude, sometimes perhaps after only a few days. In The Secret
Doctrine
she cites the Cardinal de Cusa as an instance of this,
he
having been born again quickly, as Copernicus; and she says
that
such rapid rebirth is not an uncommon thing. She speaks of such people as
adepts,
not using the word quite as we employ it now, but meaning that they are
adept
or expert on the astral and lower mental planes; she says that they
sometimes
act as spirits at seances, and that they are particularly opposed by
the
Brothers of the Shadow, presumably because of the progress that they are
making
for themselves and also for mankind in general.
She
explains that there are two kinds of nirmana-kayas: those who have renounced
the
heaven-world, as above explained, and those who at a later and higher stage
renounce
what she calls absolute Nirvana, in order to remain to help the
progress
of the world. Modern Theosophical literature confines the term to this
latter
class, but here we are concerned with the lower class. The man who has
slain
the slayer has largely destroyed the five obstacles, and has become the
servant
of the higher Self, with nothing in him but what is favourable to its
purposes.
He has his antahkarana widened out so that during his bodily life he
is
in full touch with the higher Self, and all the time that self is taking what
it
needs; the bee can visit the flower when he will, for there is no storm
raging:
and when the physical body is dead, the subtle part of the personality
can
be used again in the next incarnation, because it is not full of whirlpools
which
represent fixed desires and rigid opinions, and selfish habits of feeling
and
thought.
CHAPTER
4 THE REAL AND THE UNREAL
For
when to himself his form appears unreal, as do on waking all the forms he
sees
in dreams; when he has ceased to hear the many, he may discern the One—the
inner
sound which kills the outer.
C.W.L.—The
simile of dreaming and waking is frequently used in Oriental
philosophy.
It has its use, but we must take care that it does not lead us into
a
misapprehension. When we wake from an ordinary dream we realize that our
senses
have been deceived, that what we thought at the time to be a real
experience
was in truth nothing of the kind. But this is not exactly what
happens
when we wake to a perception of spiritual reality. We awaken to a higher
and
broader life; we perceive for the first time the crushing yet entirely
unsuspected
limitations under which we have hitherto been living. But that does
not
mean that our life before that time was nothing but a useless deception. The
awakening
to higher things causes our previous state of mind to appear
irrational,
but, after all, it was only relatively so. We were acting then
according
to our lights, upon such information as we had; now we have so much
more
that all our lines of thought and action are completely changed.
Even
the Vedantist does not deny that this physical plane dream of ours has its
value
for the production of enlightenment. A man may dream that a snake is
threatening
him, and be much alarmed thereby; at last in his dream the snake
strikes
him, and with that shock he wakes, and is much relieved to find that the
whole
experience was an illusion. Yet it was the blow of the illusory snake that
awoke
him to a more real life. Similarly, in the Gild, Shri Krishna tells His
pupil
that wisdom is better than worldly goods, because, He says, " All actions
in
their entirety culminate in wisdom." 1 That great Teacher did not
deprecate a
life
of activity, but encouraged it to the utmost; yet He said that one should
not
be attached to the activities and the things with which they deal, but
should
seek only the wisdom that can be obtained from them. It is in the wisdom
that
man has his own true being, as he is a part of the Logos. If he listens to
the
voice of wisdom he will become increasingly the master of himself and his
life;
the inner sound will thus put a stop to the outer clamour which directs
the
feverish activities of ordinary men.
It
is very true that a man should cease to give his attention to the many things
which
surround and play upon him, and should turn it inwards to the one witness
of
all these things; but he is not entirely free to do this until he has fully
performed
his dharma in the outer world. Any man at any time, whatever his
duties
may 1 Op. cit., iv, 33. be, may set his affection upon things above,
and
not upon things of the earth.
But
he may not be at liberty to devote his whole life to higher work until he
has
satisfied the demands of the karma which he has made in past lives, or in
the
earlier part of his present life. He may certainly feel vairagya, but while
any
physical duties Still remain to him, he must retain sufficient interest in
them
to do them as perfectly as they can be done.
If
his desire for liberation is strong enough, and unless his karma places some
insuperable
obstacle in his way, he will probably find that the path to freedom
will
soon open before him. I myself had an experience of that kind; I received
a,
message from my Master offering me certain opportunities which I most
thankfully
accepted. But if that gracious offer had been made a little earlier,
I
should have been unable to accept it, because I should not have been free;
there
lay upon me a clear duty which I could not possibly have neglected.
Vairagya
has two parts; there is the apara or lower vairagya, and the para or
higher
vairagya.
There
are three stages in the abandonment of attachment to external things.
First,
the man becomes tired of the things which used to give him pleasure, yet
he
is sorry that he is tired of them; he desires still to enjoy them, but he
cannot.
Then, because of that satiety, he seeks elsewhere for satisfaction.
Finally,
when he has caught a clear glimpse of the higher things his spiritual
desires
awaken, and they prove so attractive to him that he thinks of the others
no
more. Or else, having learnt of the existence of the higher things and
decided
to follow them, he in the second stage either sets
himself
to observe the defects of the lower things, so as to
create
a sort of artificial disgust for them, or he fixes
his
will in rigid determination to reject their attractiveness and starve out
desire
for them. Finally, as in the former case, perhaps only after many
fluctuations,
the man sees the higher; he hears the inner sound which kills the
outer.
Then he has the higher vairagya.
In
the middle stage of struggle, it often happens that the man conceives a
positive
repugnance for the things of his erst-while pleasure; that is usually a
sign
that he has only recently escaped from bondage to them and he still fears
their
attractiveness; he feels that he is liable to be tainted by their
proximity,
so he shudders and avoids them, or he attacks and tries to destroy
them
with unreasoning vehemence. All these different aspects of the second stage
are
forms of the lower vairagya.
Then
only, not till then, shall he forsake the region of Asat, the false, to
come
onto the realm of Sat, the true.
Let
us be careful here not to misunderstand. Many have supposed that this
passage
implies that the lower planes are mere illusion, but that is by no means
what
is intended. I have already written on the real and the unreal and have
explained
that each plane is real to the consciousness which functions upon it.1
What
is true is that until a man is able to hear the inner voice and to look
upon
life from the standpoint of the higher planes
1
" The Occult Path and the Interests of the World " in the first
Volume of
Talks
on the Path of Occultism. he has no real grasp of the
truth
which lies behind all this complexity of manifestation that surrounds us.
Before
the Soul can see, die harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes
be
rendered blind to all illusion.Before the Soul can hear,
the image (man) has to become as deaf to
roarings as
to
whispers, to cries of bellowing elephants as to the silvery
buzzing
of the golden fire-fly.
Before
the Soul can comprehend and may remember, she must onto the Silent
Speaker
be united, just as the form to which the clay is modelled is first
united
with the potter's mind.
The
harmony within is that between the ego and his vehicles, and also, of
course,
between those vehicles themselves. In the average man there is a
perpetual
strain going on between the astral body and the mental body, between
the
desires and the mind; and neither of these bodies is in the least in tune
with
the ego, or pre- : pared to act as his vehicle. The personality must be
purified,
and the channel between it and the ego must be opened and widened.-
Until
this is done the personality sees everything and everybody from its own
very
limited point of view. The ego cannot see what is really going on; he
perceives
only the distorted picture in the personality, which is like a camera
with
a defective lens that distorts the light rays, and a faulty plate or film
which
makes the result all blurred, indistinct and unequal.
That
is why in most people the ego cannot derive any satisfaction from the
personality
until it is in the heaven-world. The ego knows the true from the
false,
he recognizes the true when he sees it, and rejects the false; but
generally
when he casts an eye downwards into the personality he finds so crazy
a
confusion of inconsequent thought-forms that he can distinguish nothing
definite;
he turns away in despair, and decides to wait for the quietude of the
heaven-world
before attempting to pick the fragments of truth out of this
unseemly
chaos. Under those more peaceful conditions, as the emotions and
thoughts
of the recent physical life come up one by one and envisage themselves
in
the vivid light of that world, they are examined with clear vision, the dross
is
thrown away and the treasure is kept. The disciple must try to bring about
this
condition while still in the physical body, by purifying the personality
and
harmonizing it with the soul.
The
possibilities of personal error are almost infinite. Suppose that a worm, a
bird,
a monkey, and a traveller simultaneously look at a tree. The first will
think
of it as food, the second as a house, the third as a gymnasium, the fourth
as
a kind of umbrella; the pictures will all be different from one another, and
different
again from the tree's conception of himself.
While
seeing has reference to looking outward, hearing refers to what comes from
within.
The man must become quiet if he is to hear the still small voice.
Dharana
or concentration will produce this quietness. If the soul is to hear the
inner
voice with certainty and accuracy, the
outer man must
be
unshaken by all external things—by the clamour of the big breakers
of
life that dash against him, as well as by the delicate murmur
of
the softer ripples. He must learn to be very still, to have no desires and
aversions.
Intuition
can scarcely ever be invoked except when the man is utterly willing to
receive
its behests as the best and most acceptable guide, without intruding his
personal
desires. It would be of little use to ask from the intuition any
solution
of a problem of conduct, if at the same time the man wished that the
answer
should be this or that. Except on rare occasions when it is unusually
strong,
it is only when personal desires and aversions have ceased to exist when
the
voice of the outer world can no longer command him, that a man can hear the
inner
voice which should be his unfailing guide.
Before
the soul can fully comprehend the drift of all the tuition which comes to
him
from without, and the intuition that comes from within, another harmonizing
process
must take place, in which the manas gradually becomes attuned to the
will,
which gives direction to his life.
There
are three stages in the development of consciousness. On the probationary
path
the man's highest consciousness works upon the higher mental plane; after
the
First Initiation and until the Fourth, it is climbing steadily through the
buddhic
plane; at the end of that stage it enters on the atonic or spiritual
plane.
He has then become united with the will, the directing
agent,
controller of his destiny. While in the middle stage he might have said:
"Thy
Will, not mine, be done," but now he says: "Thy Will and mine are
one."
Just
as the design of the pot that is to be made is first in the potter's mind,
and
just as the model for a race of men is in the Manu's mind, He having
received
it from above, so is the goal of achievement for every one of us
already
marked out by the Monad, and then brought down into the evolving life of
the
conscious man by the spiritual principle within him.
There
is thus a reason for the use of the word soul in these three verses. It is
the
soul that treads the path of progress, not the personality. On the first
half
of the path it unites itself more and more completely with the buddhi,
forming
the spiritual soul, manas-taijasi. But all the work is done under the
direction,
of the atma, the voice of the silence.
CHAPTER
5 THE WARNING VOICE
For
then the Soul will hear, and will remember. And then to the inner ear will
speak.
THE
VOICE OF THE SILENCE, and say:
If
thy Soul smiles while bathing in the sunlight of thy life; if thy Soul sings
within
her chrysalis of flesh and matter; if thy Soul weeps inside her castle of
illusion;
if thy Soul struggles to break the silver thread that binds her to the
Master;
know, O disciple, thy Soul is of the earth.
C.W.L.—In
occult books we have frequent reference to the voice of the silence,
and
we often find that what is said in one place does not agree with what
appears
in others. In the early days of the Society we used to puzzle over its
exact
significance, trying to make it always mean the same thing. Only after
much
study did we discover that the term is general. The voice of the silence
for
anyone is that which comes from the part of him which
-------
is
higher than his consciousness can reach, and naturally that changes as his
evolution
progresses. For those working with the personality the voice of the
ego
is the voice of the silence, but when one has dominated the personality
entirely
and has made it one with the ego so that the ego may work perfectly
through
it, it is the voice of the atma—-the triple spirit on the nirvanic
plane.
When this is reached there will still be a voice of the silence—that of
the
Monad on the plane above. When the man identifies the ego and the Monad and
attains
Adeptship, he will still find a voice of the silence coming down to him
from
above, but then it will be the voice, perhaps, of one of the Ministers of
the
Deity, one of the Planetary Logoi, as They are called. Perhaps for Him in
turn
it will be the voice of the Solar Logos Himself; and if even for Him there
is
such a thing as that, it must be the voice of a higher Logos. But who can
say?
"
The sunlight of thy life " refers to those periods in our personal
existence
when
fortune smiles upon us, and everything seems bright and fair. The ego who
basks
in that pleasure, and mistakes it for the true happiness of the higher
Self,
has not yet the higher vairagya which kills the outer sounds. In The
Ancient
Wisdom Dr. Besant has explained how the man who feels that nothing on
earth
can satisfy him, not even those things that give the greatest delight to
ordinary
mortals, may through a strong but calm effort of the will rise to and
unite
himself with the higher consciousness and find himself free of the body;
but
that is only for those who
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obey
the first condition, who cannot be satisfied with anything less than that
union.
The
three bodies, physical, astral and mental, which with their habits
constitute
the personality, are in truth a chrysalis, in which a butterfly is
gradually
being formed. In our present caterpillar state the soul must be in the
body
and the world; yet it must not be of them; it must not accept that life as
its
own, but must realize that it is independent of its vehicles. Here again we
must
be careful not to misunderstand. It is indeed well, it is even necessary
that
the soul should rejoice on its upward path, that it should smile, that it
should
sing within its chrysalis; there is no harm in that—there is even much
good
in it. What it must not do is to sing because of the chrysalis, or of
anything
that happens to that outer shell. It would be wrong, terribly wrong,
that
the soul should weep within its castle of illusion, because depression and
sadness
are always wrong. But that, true as it is, is not what is meant here.
What
Aryasanga is trying to tell us in his graceful poetical language is that
the
soul must neither rejoice nor sorrow because of anything whatever that is
connected
with the chrysalis or the castle, or any outer form; it must be
indifferent
to that form, unaffected by what happens to it. If it is not
indifferent,
it is still of the earth, still entangled with this lower world,
and
so not yet ready for perfect freedom.
All
around us eternal change is taking place; but the soul must press forward on
its
way resistless, undeterred by change, for to be influenced by these outer
things
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shows
weakness. Remember how Shakespeare
writes in his Sonnets:
When
I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced The rich proud cost of outworn
buried
age When sometime lofty towers I see down-raze And brass eternal slave to
mortal
rage; When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of
the
shore, And the firm soil win of the watery main, Increasing store with loss
and
loss with store; When I have seen such interchange of state, Or state itself
confounded
to decay; Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate, That Time will come
and
take my love away,
This
thought is as a death, which cannot choose But weep to have that which it
fears
to lose.
Since
brass, nor stone nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality
o'er-sways
their power, How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose
action
is no stronger than a flower? O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out
Against
the wreckful siege of battering days, When rocks impregnable are not so
stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays? 1
But
time is really the friend of the aspirant, for it is precisely the finer,
the
higher, the inner things which are least subject to its ravages. This truth
the
occultist learns as a matter of certain experience and knowledge, so the
changes
in outside things at last come to trouble him not at all.
Silver
is the thread—as befits an emblem of purity— that binds the soul to the
higher
Self; every traffic that the soul has with impurity of body, emotions or
thought,
is a struggle to break that silver thread, a temptation to ignore the
still,
small voice.
1
Sonnets, xliv, xlv.
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Madame
Blavatsky adds the following footnotes:
The
"great Master " is the term used by chelas to indicate the Higher
Self. It
is
the equivalent of Avalokiteshvara, and the same as Adi-Buddha with the
Buddhist
occultists, Atma with the Brahmanas, and Christos with the ancient
Gnostics.
Soul
is used here for the human Ego or Manas, that which is referred to in our
occult
septenary division as the human Soul in contradistinction to the
spiritual
and animal Souls.
Madame
Blavatsky here employs the word Master in an unusual sense, saying that
it
is so used by the chelas or pupils. In later Theosophical literature this
title
has been reserved for that limited number of members of the Great White
Brotherhood
who accept pupils from among those who are still living in the
world.
That number is small; it would seem that one Adept on each of the rays is
appointed
to attend to that work, and all those who are coming along his
particular
ray of evolution pass through his hands. No one below the rank of
Adept
is permitted to assume full responsibility for a pupil, though those who
have
held the position of pupil for a number of years are often employed as
deputies,
and receive the privilege of helping and advising promising young
aspirants.
These older pupils are gradually being trained for their future work
when
they in turn shall become Adepts, and they are learning to take more and
more
of the routine work off the hands of their Masters, so that the latter may
be
set free for higher labours which only
I
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they
can undertake. The preliminary selection of candidates for chelaship is now
left
to a large extent in the hands of these older pupils, and the candidates
are
temporarily linked with such pupils rather than directly with the great
Adepts.
But the pupils and the Master are so wonderfully one that perhaps this
is
almost " a distinction without a difference ".
The
terms which Madame Blavatsky uses in these footnotes will be better
understood
if we study a little the various trinities in the universe and in
man.
It is in the experience of everybody that there is a duality of the knower
and
the known, of the one who sees and the things that are seen, of the subject
and
the object. This is the old division of the world of experience into two
parts,
spirit and matter, using those words in a general or common sense. Spirit
or
consciousness and matter are a pair of opposites—-the spirit is an active
principle,
the matter a passive one; the spirit has a centre but no
circumference,
the matter has a circumference but no centre; the spirit is
self-moving,
the matter is moved from outside. In these two we have also the
division
of reality into the divine and the material; the free and the bound;
that
which shines with its own light and that which has only reflected light.
When
one looks closer still, one sees that those two are playing, as it were, on
the
stage in one's presence, that they are not No. 1 and No. 2 principles, as
many
people think, but they are No. 2 and No. 3; for the one that now witnesses
their
interplay is No. 1. No. 2 is the God who is seen, but No. 1 is the God who
is
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the
real Self, who is the cause of all the interplay between No. 2 and No. 3.
In
Christian terminology, Christ is the God who is seen. " No man hath seen
God
at
any time." 1 Yet said Christ: " I and my Father are One." 2
That
brings us to the term Avalokiteshvara. This word is a compound of avalokita
(seen),
and Ishvara (God, the Ruler). It thus means the Higher Self in the
duality
of spirit and matter in the universe. " There are three that bear record
in
heaven," said
Word,
the Logos, Avalokiteshvara, is the Second. He is the Christos, the God
that
is seen. This is the universal spirit, or purusha, as distinguished from
the
matter, or prakriti. Man is consciousness looking at matter, and this God is
glorified
or universal Man, the supreme subject. Analyze yourself, and you will
find
the reflection of this—the inner God in yourself. Still, that God that is
seen
only bears witness to the real God—in man to the Self, the " I "
which
embraces
both the subject and the object.
This
" I " is not a new subject, witnessing the old subject and object,
put
together
and now made into one new compound object. It is " I "—that is all
there
is to say. Every thinking man can look at his own body, and in some cases
his
astral and mental bodies as well, and call it "it", that is, he can
look
upon
it as an
11
John, 4, 12.
I
St. John, x, 30.
I1
John, 5, 7.
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object.
He can also have a conception of the consciousness or subject in his
neighbour,
and infer that it is of the same nature as that consciousness
(containing
will, feeling and thought) which he finds in himself. But on this
point
he now makes a great mistake, by giving two different names to one
thing—-he
calls the same thing " you " when he sees it in his neighbour, but
" I
"
when he looks at it in himself! Let him look upon the consciousness or subject
within
himself (all of it) as he does upon that in others, and call it " you
",
regarding
it as just one of the great sea of " yous " that make up the Logos,
as
drops
of water make up the ocean, and he will be ready to transcend
consciousness
and reach the real " I ", the Self or God that is not seen.1 The
consciousness,
the " you ", is a portion of Avalokiteshvara, the God that is
seen,
the Christ, the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,
just
as much as the bodies are parts of the ocean of cosmic matter; and both
equally
are not the Self. No one hath seen the supreme God at any time—not even
the
Son.
This
trinity has been considered in various ways: Avalokiteshvara has been
described
as follows by Swami T. Subba Rao: " Parabrahman by itself cannot be
seen
as it is. It is seen by the Logos with a veil thrown over it, and that veil
is
the mighty expanse of Cosmic Matter." And again: "Parabrahman, after
having
appeared
on the one hand as the Ego, and on
1
This argument is expounded in The Seven Rays, by Ernest Wood, Ch. xxi.
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the
other as Mulaprakriti, acts as the one energy through the Logos". The
danger
of
all such descriptions is immense; the use of the word " it " alone in
this
connection
can undo everything. In oneself deliverance, the truth, must be
sought—only
I being I can solve this mystery, which is so easy, but that people
will
not see. There is also the strongest objection even to the word God as
applied
to Parabrahman—for to think of God is to think of the seen, that is, of
Avalokiteshvara;
and that God is, after all, a " you ", or rather all " yous
".
The
conception of a subject or " you " involves a time limitation; that
of an
object
or " it" involves a space limitation. But motion in both time and
space
is
a mystery. Some ancients argued that nothing could really move, " because
it
cannot
move in the space where it is, and it certainly cannot move in the space
where
it is not." But subjects can move in time, and objects can move in space,
because
all move in Parabrahman. Both time and space are secondary to motion,
properly
conceived.1
"
And these three are one." 2 Mulaprakriti, the root of manifestation, basic
matter,
external being, is not something other than Parabrahman, but is the
same,
as seen through the time limitations of consciousness. Parabrahman is
beyond
that time limitation, and therefore seems to be still, and from that
arises
the appearance-of space, the characteristic of Mulaprakriti—which is in
reality
a space containing everything which ever existed
1
See The Seven Rays, Ch. viii. 2 I John,
4, 12.
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or
will exist in all of the three periods of time—past, present and future. Then
universal
consciousness, the great Man, also called Daiviprakriti (the divine
manifestation),
as against Mulaprakriti (the material manifestation), is
Avalokiteshvara,
the Ishvara or Ruler or God who is seen, in contradistinction
to
Parabrahman, the first member of the Trinity, who is not seen directly even
by
him.
Now,
in the higher triad in the consciousness of man we have a reflection of
this
great Trinity. Therefore Madame Blavatsky says that the Higher Self, by
which
she means buddhi or the intuitional love, is the equivalent of
Avalokiteshvara.
Any confusion in thought of the universal reality with atma,
buddhi
and manas— the three modes of consciousness in man—would result in
serious
error, but there is an analogy between the two. The great Trinity is
reflected
in man in various ways, and appears in one form in those three aspects
of
his consciousness. So atma, buddhi and manas reflect in their smaller sphere
the
characteristics of the universal trinity. Atma is the consciousness of Self,
and
also the will, which gives self-direction. Manas, at the other pole, is
consciousness
of the world, and its thought-power does all our work, even that
which
is effected through the hands. But buddhi, between the two, is the very
essence
of consciousness, of subjectivity. Thus the greater Trinity is
reproduced
in the consciousness of the ego.
Beyond
this middle member, triple in character, is the Monad in man,
representative
in him of Parabrahman,
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the
state of his true and absolute nirvana, beyond consciousness. The atma is
the
state of his false and relative nirvana of the nirvanic plane, his last
illusion,
that persists between the Fourth and Fifth Initiations. As the Monad
lies
above the trinity of consciousness, so the personal bodies lie outside or
beneath
it—they are known only in reflection in manas. On the first half of the
Path
(from the First to the Fourth Initiation) the man is busy shaking himself
free
from those personal limitations, from the illusion of " it ". On the
second
half
he is engaged in releasing himself from the illusion of "you".
There
are still a few more points to consider in Madame Blavatsky's notes. Her
reference
to Adi-Buddha and Atma requires some comment, though that to the
Christos
of the Gnostics will be abundantly clear from what has been said above.
The
" Atma of the Brahmanas " is rather what the Buddhists thought that
the
Brahmanas
meant by the term (and what perhaps many of the Brahmanas who missed
the
true point of their philosophy really did think); it is that spiritual soul
in
man which the Buddha declared to be not utterly permanent. Yes, even the
Christ
(the higher self) in man is at last mortal. Beautiful and wonderful, and
far
beyond the vision of ordinary men as it lies, it must at last give up its
life,
to be one with the Father. It is the " you " masquerading as the
" I " in
spiritual
men —just as, far earlier in evolution, the absurd personality, the "
it
" pretended to be " I ". But when he says that their belief in
atma is wrong,
the
orthodox Buddhist has
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not
understood the height of true Brahmana thought, and especially the teaching
on
this point of Shri Shankara-charya, who was really one with the Buddha in His
anatma
doctrine, because by atma He meant the Monad, the indescribable
Parabrahmic
aspect of man. The Buddha saw that people called " you " the atma,
the
Self, and tried to dislodge them from that error by saying that what they
called
" I " was perishable.
In
the footnote Madame Blavatsky says that Avalokiteshvara is the same as
Adi-Buddha.
She amplifies her statement on the subject in The Secret Doctrine,
as
follows:
In
the esoteric, and even exoteric Buddhism of the North, Adi-Buddha, . . . the
One
Unknown, without beginning or end, identical with Parabrahman, emits a
bright
Ray from its Darkness. This is the Logos, the First, or Vajradhara, the
Supreme
Buddha, also called Dorjechang. As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot
manifest,
but sends into the world of manifestation his Heart—the " Diamond
Heart,"
Vajrasattva or Dorjesempa. This is the Second Logos of Creation.1
In
this extract she clearly shows that the First and Second Logos are
respectively
Adi-Buddha and Avalokiteshvara, for the latter is the same as
Vajrasattva.
Therefore when she speaks of them as one it can only be as the
Christians
speak of the Christ as one with the Father. I wrote as follows on
this
subject in The Inner Life, Section II:
There
has been much discussion as to the exact meaning of the terms Adi-Buddha
and
Avalokiteshvara. I have made no special study of these things from the
philosophical
standpoint, but so far as I have been able to gather ideas from
discussion
of the matter with the living exponents of the religion, Adi-Buddha
seems
to be the culmination of one of the great lines of superhuman
development—-what
might be called the abstract principle
1
Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 624.
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of
all the Buddhas. Avalokiteshvara is a term belonging to the Northern Church
and
seems to be the Buddhists' name for their conception of the Logos. European
scholars
have translated it: " The Lord who looks down from on high," but this
seems
to have in it a somewhat inaccurate implication, for it is clearly always
the
manifested Logos; sometimes the Logos of a solar system and sometimes higher
than
that, but always manifest. We must not forget that-while the founders of
the
great religions see and know the things which They name, Their followers
usually
do not see; they have only the names, and they juggle with them as
intellectual
counters, and build up much which is incorrect and inconsistent.1
We
have already seen that by the term Higher Self Madame Blavatsky means the
buddhi
in man, the central member of the trinity of his immortal consciousness.
That
is the wisdom in man. But it is a reflection of the universal wisdom,
without
which there could be no human wisdom. Similarly, without the
Dhyani-Buddha
Avalokiteshvara, the " centre of energy'' of the ultimate wisdom,
Adi-Buddha,
no human Buddha could become. The Illumination of the sage Gautama
was
therefore not essentially the flowering of a man into a god, but the union
of
a perfected human consciousness with the wisdom of the Logos.
The
second of the footnotes under consideration speaks not only of the manas as
the
human Soul, but refers also to the animal soul in man. This is the lower
manas,
the kama-manas. On its plane reside the group-souls of animals, while
those
of the vegetable kingdom are on the plane beneath it, and those of the
mineral
lower still. To these meanings of the terms Soul, Higher Self, etc.,
Madame
Blavatsky keeps with perfect consistency right through the book. 1 Op.
cit.,
Vol. 1, p. 1
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CHAPTER
6 SELF AND ALL-SELF
When
to the world's turmoil thy budding Soul lends ear; when to the roaring
voice
of the great illusion thy soul responds; when frightened at the sight of
the
hot tears of pain, when deafened by the cries of distress, thy Soul
withdraws
like the shy turtle within the carapace of selfhood, learn, O
disciple,
of her silent God thy Soul is an unworthy shrine.
When
waxing stronger, thy Soul glides forth from her secure retreat; and
breaking
loose from the protecting shrine, extends her silver thread and rushes
onward;
when beholding her image on the waves of space she whispers. " This is
I"—declare,
O disciple, that thy Soul is caught in the webs of delusion.
C.W.L.—At
the beginning of this passage, in the expression " budding Soul " we
have
a suggestion of the idea of evolution. For many centuries in Europe people
did
not think of evolution; they had the idea that the world and all the various
creatures
in it had been created quite suddenly, and they did not suppose that
the
more
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complex
forms had evolved out of inferior ones, and would evolve further into
something
more perfect. Then came the idea, within about the last century and a
half,
that the material forms of living creatures were undergoing evolution, an
unfoldment
which has been believed by some to be due to an impulse of the
indwelling
life, and by others merely to the selective agency of natural
environment.
But
long ago there existed a theory of evolution of the Soul, which has all
along
been a central doctrine of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, and has been
spread
extensively in the Western world by Theosophists along with the doctrine
of
reincarnation. This is put forward as the most logical and ethical theory of
human
destiny, once it has been established, on scientific or religious grounds,
that
the Soul of a man survives the death of his body. The soul incarnates many
times
for the sake of experience, and each one will thereby become at last not
merely
a genius in some field of human thought or work, but a perfect man, ready
for
full conscious divinity.
There
are two great stages on the path of the soul's evolution—-the first is
called
the pravritti marga, the way of forth-going, and second the nivritti
marga,
the way of return. In the former the development of personality takes
place,
accompanied by the accumulation of much karma as the soul pursues its
restless
career of seeking the satisfaction of its multitudinous desires in the
external
world. In the latter the soul little by little turns its back upon the
world,
and with its face towards
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the
divine, its source and goal, proceeds with the task of perfecting itself so
as
to finish up the human stage of its evolution.
It
is this second stage, the nivritti marga, that is divided up into the
probationary
path and the Path of Initiation, which have been fully described in
The
Path of Discipleship, Initiation, The Perfecting of Man; and The Masters and
the
Path. This marga implies a course of voluntary evolution, in which the
candidate
is deliberately training himself in the higher qualities of character;
the
evolution of the lower creatures and of men on the pravritti marga is
involuntary,
they seek and respond to experience, and learn without clear
realization
of what is happening to them.
In
a footnote to the word illusion, Madame Blavatsky calls it Maha-Maya, the
great
illusion, the objective universe. The meaning of the term illusion, as
applied
to the external world, has already been discussed. It is not the same
idea
as that referred to in the text as " webs of delusion," which has
reference,
as another footnote says, to " Sakkayaditthi, the delusion of
personality
".
When
the Lord Buddha revealed to men the Noble Eightfold Path, the way to
liberty,
the practical means to bring sorrow to an end, He told them about the
ten
fetters which the candidate must cast off—one after another. The first of
these
was called Sakkayaditthi, the delusion of personality. Let us see how this
arises.
A child is born subject to karma—the result of its deeds in previous
lives.
It has a certain kind of body, and
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various
things happen to it. In course of time it hears what people say of it,
and
it finds out what it can and what it cannot do. It sees itself in these
things
as in a mirror—one of those distorting mirrors which are sometimes set up
in
exhibitions to amuse people with their grotesquely flattened or elongated
images.
It thus obtains ideas about itself—that it is clever or stupid,
beautiful
or ugly, weak or strong. As its education proceeds it acquires social
standing
or position or character, assumes the habits of body and mind of
doctor^
lawyer, house-wife—whatever it may be—and thus acquires a settled
personality.
When it thinks itself to be that personality, it has- what has been
called
" self-personality "—exactly the same delusion that obsesses the
unfortunate
people in the lunatic asylums, who imagine themselves to be
tea-pots,
ear-drums, north poles, Queen Elizabeths and Napoleons.
A
definite well-trained set of bodies and personality, with useful habits, is,
of
course, a good thing, just as is . a good set of tools, or a good motor-car.
We
do not want to have weak or nondescript personalities. But however good our
personality
may be we should not think it to be ourself, and we should be able
to
enjoy all our native will-power, love-power and thought-power while using it
for
our purposes, for our spiritual life in the material world. These
personalities
should not set themselves up as candidates for immortality, and
try
to intrench themselves against the ravages of use and time that beset all
material
things. A middle-aged gentleman once said to his son, who volunteered
to
relieve him of
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some
work: " No, no, my boy. Always use up the old ones first! " The
personalities
must be willing to be used, to be adapted to the spiritual
purposes
of the moment, to be worn out—and must be content with the sole reward
of
a long and glorious devachan, that will follow the death of the outer body in
the
case of all those who have thus served the divine indwelling self, except,
of
course, the servants of the Masters who renounce this reward and take speedy
rebirth
in order to work for the world.
This
earth, disciple, is the hall of sorrow, wherein are set along the path of
dire
probations, traps to ensnare thy Ego by the delusion called "great heresy
".
That
the physical plane is a place of sorrow is a widespread Buddhist and Hindu
thought.
Uncongenial and often disfiguring or debilitating labour, oppression,
disease,
indignity and dread fall to the lot of the majority of mankind. Those
whose
fortune has set them in places of ease may say that they find much
pleasure
in it; but Patanjali says: " To the enlightened all is misery." There
are
many things that give no trouble to the relatively unevolved—-such as the
smell
of alcohol, meat or onions, the noise of factory sirens or coarse music,
gross
manners, hideous clothes and buildings, and a thousand other things that
afflict
those who are more sensitive. In addition to these there is hunger to
gain
what we want, and fear to lose it when it is in hand, and suffering for
others
all round us, if not for ourselves. Surely men must be made to hug such
chains
as these. Surely this
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world
is indeed a hall of sorrow. Think how
poor is its best in the sight of
those
who know the higher planes.
But
it is so chiefly because man has made it so. Think of the vast sea of life
that
fills the mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms of nature, and how
all
that is throbbing with pleasure. Even the dreadful picture of the poet, of
"
nature,
red in tooth and claw with ravin " loses most of its lurid colour when
we
realize that the animals do not " think before and after " as men do,
with
painful
longing and fear, and that while their battles are on, and the blood and
wounds
distress the human beholder, the excitement of the animal consciousness
is
at its greatest height and is often experiencing its greatest pleasure. Earth
is
a hall of sorrow only for man, who with his greed and anger, born of a strong
imagination
that feeds the flames of hot desire, has poisoned with innumerable
horrors
both his personal and his social life.
Yet
it only needs the conquest of selfishness to remove every one of these
horrors,
and open to all mankind the joys of this world—the thrill and deep
strong
peace of beauty, of discovery, of creative work; of social and bodily
well-being.
Madame
Blavatsky's footnote then speaks of:
Attavada,
the heresy of the belief in Soul, or rather in the separateness of
Soul
or Self from the one universal, infinite Self.
Attd
is the Pali equivalent of the Sanskrit atma, and vada means doctrine. The
doctrine
of atma, which we
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have
already considered, is the great source of cleavage between the Hindus and
Buddhists,
but as a matter of fact the distinction is merely one of words,
because
when the Hindu says that the Self or atma in man is one with the
universal
Self, he does not mean by the word what people usually mean when they
think
or speak of themselves, but something altogether deeper, which only the
advanced
yogi can even imagine. There is a passage in the Shri Vakya Sudha which
warns
the aspirant that when he repeats the great religious formula " I am
That",
he must take care what he means by " I " j it explains that the
separate
individual
should be understood as threefold, and that it is the union with
Brahman
only of the highest of these three that is proclaimed by " Thou art That
"
and such sayings. As already explained, the personality is not " I",
and even
the
" you " in me is not " I", but the " I ", is something
indistinguishable
from
the universal Self in which the many and the One are one. The Lord Buddha's
teaching
denies the permanency of the "you" that men call " I " It
is an
unfortunate
thing that two such great religions as Hinduism and Buddhism should
be
separated mainly by so small a misunderstanding, and also that because of it
the
modern Theosophical movement has spread very slowly among the Buddhists. We
have
developed a large Theosophical literature, in which the words atma and Self
figure
extensively, and this has alienated a good many Buddhists who have not
taken
the trouble to clear away this obstacle of words which we have
inadvertently
put in their path.
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This
earth, O ignorant disciple, is but the dismal entrance leading to the
twilight
that precedes the valley of true light—that light which no wind can
extinguish,
that light which burns without a wick or fuel.
In
this and some later verses we have poetical names for the planes of nature.
As
previously stated, it was common among oriental occultists to bunch together
the
astral and lower mental planes, and Madame Blavatsky often followed that
plan
in- her teaching. This combining of the two is indicated in this picture of
a
" twilight that precedes the valley of true light ". That description
of the
valley
of true light shows it to be the region of the Soul and the Higher Self,
the
planes where buddhi and higher manas have their habitat.
If
we divide the planes by a line separating the lower from the higher mental,
we
find that there is a radical difference between those which lie below the
line
and those which are above. In the former, matter is dominant; it is the
first
thing that strikes the eye; and consciousness shines with difficulty
through
the forms. But in the higher planes life is the prominent thing, and
forms
are there only for its purposes. The difficulty in the lower planes is to
give
the life expression in the forms, but in the higher it is quite the
reverse—to
hold and give form to the flood of life. It is only above the
dividing
line that the light of consciousness is subject to no wind, and shines
with
its own power. The symbol of a spiritual fire is very fitting for
consciousness
at
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those
levels, as distinguished from the lower planes, -where the symbol of
fire
burning fuel is more appropriate.
Saith
the great Law: "In order to become the knower of All-Self, thou hast first
of
Self to be the knower." To reach the knowledge of that Self, thou hast to
give
up self to non-self, being to non-being.
In
a foot-note Madame Blavatsky distinguishes between the Atmajnani who is
mentioned
here, and the Tattvajnani. In Hindu literature generally the
distinction
is slight and is usually ignored, but she says: " The Tattvajnani is
the
knower or discriminator of the principles in nature and in man; and
Atmajnani
is the knower of Atma, or the universal One Self." Jnani means a
knower
and tattva means the truth or the real nature of things.
It
has always been a teaching of Theosophy that to make progress we must apply
the
old Greek formula " Know thyself". In consequence, a very large part
of our
modern
Theosophical literature deals with the constitution, history and destiny
of
man. It is by the study of the various principles and bodies of man that we
are
able gradually to distinguish what he is, and to separate him in thought
from
the vehicles that he uses, until at last we arrive at the real Self. Then,
through
that real Self in us, we shall realize the universal Self; in fact, the
two
are one.
But
to know the real Self in oneself, the lower self must be set aside, must
become
as naught. As we have
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already
seen, the utter destruction of " self-personality " is the very first
task
of the Initiate on the Path proper, since sakkayaditthi, the delusion of
the
personal self, is the first fetter which must be cast off.
And
then thou can'st repose between the wings of the Great Bird. Aye, sweet is
rest
between the wings of that which is not born, nor dies, but is the Aum
throughout
eternal ages.
On
the Great Bird, which occupies a prominent place-in Oriental religious
symbolism,
Madame Blavatsky has the following foot-note:
Kala
Hamsa, the bird or swan. Says the Nada-vindupanishat (Rig Veda) translated
by
the Kumba-konam Theosophical Society—" The syllable A is considered to be
the
bird
Hamsa's right wing, U its left, M its tail, and the Ardhamatra (half metre)
is
said to be its head."
The
word Aum, generally pronounced
work
or thought, because it is a word of power, symbolizing divine creation.
Innumerable
Sanskrit books repeat the statement that hearing, touch, sight,
taste
and smell are correlated respectively with the orders of matter named
akasha.
(ether or sky), vayu (air), tejas or agni (fire), apas or jala (water),
and
prithivi (earth), which are our familiar five planes of human manifestation,
the
atmic, buddhic, mental, astral and physical. These planes were created in
this
order, beginning with the atmic, where sound was applied as the. creative
power.
Of course, that could
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not
be the same thing as our physical sound, which is a pulsation in the air or
some
other physical substance; It was of the nature of the voice of the silence,
the
will of atma. Yet even on our physical plane sound is a great builder of
forms,
as every student of elementary science knows, who has made Chladni's
figures
or performed similar experiments. There is a great deal of symbolism in
the
Hindu Scriptures connected with this idea that the world was created by
sound.
The
word Aum is said to have special value as a mantra because it is the most
complete
human word. It begins with the vowel A in the back of the mouth,
continues
with the vowel U sounded in the centre of the mouth, and closes with
the
co sonant M, with which the lips are sealed. It thus runs through the whole
gamut
of human speech and so represents in man the entire creative word. Its
three
parts are also taken as symbolical of the manifestation of the Trinity, in
a
variety of ways, to explain which one might fill a book. Thus we have
Parabrahman,
Daiviprakriti and Mula-prakriti; Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma; will,
wisdom
and activity; ananda, chit and sat, or happiness, consciousness and
being;
atma, buddhi and manas; tamas, rajas and sattva; and many another. Aum is
thus
a constant reminder of this triplicity running through all things; it is a
key
therefore to the solution of many mysteries, as well as a word of power. The
head
of the bird is then taken as the unmanifested origin of the triple word.
Kala,
a word which means " time " is one of the names of Vishnu or
Avalokiteshvara.
Kala-hamsa
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therefore
means the swan of time or in time, hamsa being a swan. This symbol of
a
bird contains the implication of time, since it is proceeding through space.
It
is a characteristic of consciousness that it progresses or evolves, and so
exists
in time. The consciousness of the Logos is time, it does not begin nor
end
in time, and is therefore without birth or death.
This
bird is thus a symbol of the Second Logos, which is also the great Wisdom.
There
is a well-known Hindu fable which connects the hamsa or swan with this
idea
of wisdom also, for it relates of that bird that when a mixture of water
and
milk is placed before it, it can separate the milk from the water. So does
wisdom
operate even in human life, selecting from our mixed experience the
essential
nutriment of the soul. Wisdom remains in the spiritual soul of man
when
experiences have died away, since, as the Bhagavad-Gita says: " All
actions
in
their entirety culminate in wisdom."1
A
man on the Path who has passed the Third Initiation is also called a Hamsa, or
swan.
He is busy getting rid of raga and dvesha the fourth and fifth fetters,
which
are liking and disliking and is therefore especially practising wisdom.
People
in the world are full of likes and dislikes, and they therefore suffer
greatly
from their own opinions about things. Throwing these two fetters off,
the
Hamsa becomes like the sage described in the Gita as one satisfied with
wisdom
and knowledge, to whom a lump of earth, a stone and gold are the same,
who
regards impartially friends and foes, the righteous 1 Op. cit., iv. 33.
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and
the unrighteous. It is not that this man does not value gold and friends; he
does,
but he values also clay and foes. The wise man can profit from every kind
of
experience; all are useful for the soul. Epictetus asserted this when he
declared:
"There is only one thing for which God has sent me into the world— to
perfect
my own character in virtue; and there is nothing in all the world that I
cannot
use for that purpose."
Again,
Hamsa is also a form of the saying " Aham Sah " or " I am
That," or, as
it
is frequently used, " Soham," which consists of the same words
reversed. So
when
the aspirant repeats this sentence he also remembers that the way to
bestride
the Hamsa or bird of life is to realize that he is the Self. It is said
that
the devout yogi utters this formula with every breath, of which there are
said
to be 21,
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0 in a day and night, for the air is considered to come in with
the
sound of" sah " and go out with that of" ha ".
As
long as the bird is flying, the creative word is sounding, time exists.
Although
this time has neither beginning nor ending it is nevertheless a
measurable
period—which is a great mystery. On this point Madame Blavatsky has
the
following note:
Eternity
with the Orientals has quite another signification than it has with us.
It
stands generally for the 100 years or age of Brahma, the duration of a
Maha-Kalpa
or a period of 311,040,000,000,000 years.
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This
part of the subject is concluded with the words:
Bestride
the Bird of Life, if thou would'st know. Give up thy Life, if thou
would'st
live.
To
these are appended the following notes:
Says
the same Nadavindu, " A Yogi who bestrides the Hamsa, (thus contemplates
on
Aum)
is not affected by karmic influences or crores of sins."
Give
up the life of the physical personality if you would live in Spirit.
A
crore is ten millions. It must not, however, be assumed that the yogi is
permitted
to perform these sins; if he did he would not be a yogi. This
expression
is only an Oriental way of indicating that he is utterly free from
taint
by the material world. The man who thinks and works without personal
desire,
with utter unselfishness, suffers no karmic consequences. The fruit of
all
his efforts goes into the great reservoir of spiritual force for the helping
of
the world, as has already been explained.
CHAPTER
7 THE THREE HALLS
Three
halls, O weary pilgrim, lead to the end of toils. Three halls, O
conqueror
of Mara, will bring thee through three states into the fourth, and
'
thence into the seven worlds, the worlds of rest eternal.
If
thou would'st learn their names, then hearken, and remember.
The
name of the first hall is Ignorance—Avidya.
It
is the hall in which thou saw'st the light, in which thou livest and shalt
die.
The
name of hall the second is the Hall of Learning. In it thy Soul will find
the
blossoms of life, but under every flower a serpent coiled.
The
name of the third hall is Wisdom, beyond which stretch the shoreless waters
of
Akshara, the indestructible fount of omniscience.
C.
W. L.—The three halls may be interpreted in two ways: as objective planes, or
as
the subjective condition of man.
90
In
the former case the hall of ignorance is the physical plane, and the hall of
learning,
described in a foot-note as " the hall of probationary learning " is
what
may perhaps be called the astro-mental plane (the astral and lower mental
planes
taken together). When I wrote The Inner Life it seemed to me probable
that
by the term hall of learning Madame Blavatsky meant the astral plane, and
by
the hall of wisdom the lower mental plane, but having thought the matter over
and
discussed it many times since then, I now lean to the opinion that we shall
more
accurately represent her thought if we take the hall of learning to include
not
only the astral but also the lower mental, and if we raise the hall of
wisdom
so as to include within it the planes of higher manas and buddhi.
That
Aryasanga was not thinking of the astral plane as the hall of learning and
the
lower mental world as the hall of wisdom is shown a little further on, when
he
speaks of the latter hall as one " wherein all shadows are unknown, and
where
the
light of truth shines with unfading glory". The lower mental world does
not
answer
to this description; far more glorious and delicate than the astral plane
as
it is, it is still a material world and the habitat of the personalities of
men.
Further, the Teacher also says that that which is un-create abides in the
hall
of wisdom, and it is the ego, not the personality, which is uncreate. And
in
the lower mental plane, as well as in the astral, there is a serpent coiled
under
every flower; for if passion and foolish desires infest the one, pride and
prejudices
inhabit the
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other.
In the higher mental plane, though there may be much that the ego does
not
know, what it does know it knows correctly; but the lower mental is a region
of
personality and error.
The
extent to which the lower planes are worlds of illusion is also seen in the
way
in which our senses and powers work in them. To take sight as an instance—we
see
because our sight is obstructed. If one could see perfectly through the wall
one
could not see the wall. It is the same with walking; we have some freedom to
move
about, because the earth resists the free motion of our feet. In the higher
planes
one lives in the light.
The
combination of the astral and mental planes is not uncommon in the Oriental
schools
of occult training. The Vedantins speak, of one body (called the
manomayakosha,
the body made of mind),1 where our Theosophical literature
usually
distinguishes the two (the astral and the mental), and to that body when
awakened
and functioning they ascribe the experiences proper to both planes. The
candidate
for the path of yoga in the Raja Yoga schools was always trained to
work
from the mental down to the astral. This very cautious procedure is also
shown
in the teaching of Patanjali, who makes his first two steps moral, and
requires
definite progress in these before the practices leading to the siddhis
or
yoga powers are taken. In Raja Toga: The Occult Training of the Hindus, Prof.
Wood
had called these first steps " The ten
1
See The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 1
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.
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commandments
", and has translated them as the five restraints: " Thou shalt not
injure,
lie, steal, be incontinent, be greedy ", and the five observances:"
Thou
shalt
be clean, content, self-controlled, studious and devoted." These methods
were
in full force long before the time of Aryasanga; Pandit N. Bhashyacharya
and
some other Sanskrit scholars maintain that Patanjali, who in turn was not
the
originator of the system, gave his famous Sutras to the world as far back as
in
the ninth century B.C.
In
The Masters and the Path I have explained that; in the old Initiations it
often
happened that much time was taken in instructing the candidate in astral
work,
as the awakening of the pupil to work at that level was left to a
relatively
later stage than is customary among the modern Theosophists, who
often
have already done much astral work and have thus learnt the detail of the
astral
world long before Initiation.
If
we think of the three halls subjectively, as stages of progress in human
development,
we have the following familiar divisions: (1) The man who lives
ignorantly
in the world, attracted and repelled by the things around him,
impelled
to action by his own uncontrolled passions and desires—-this is the
ignorant
stage. (2) The man who is learning that nature has definite laws, and
is
realizing that by working with them he can gain much more power than he had
in
the days of his ignorance— this is the hall of learning. (3) The man who has
realized
that there are spiritual laws, and is learning to obey them. He knows
about
reincarnation and karma.
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and
the ethical and moral laws that govern the progress of his own soul and
those
of others. He is aware that outer things exist only for the purposes of
the
evolving soul, and lives according to this knowledge. He is in the hall of
wisdom.
Madame
Blavatsky describes the four stages of consciousness :
The
three states of consciousness, which are Jagrat, the waking; Svapna, the
dreaming;
and Sushupti, the deep-sleeping state. These three Yogi conditions
lead
to the fourth—the Turiya, that beyond the dreamless state, the one above
all,
a state of high spiritual consciousness.
These
states of consciousness are not fixed, but may be correlated to the sets
of
planes or objective halls above mentioned, in the case of the candidate who
is
being prepared for the Arhat Initiation. In this case the waking state may be
the
physical, the dreaming state the astro-mental, the sleeping state the higher
mental
and buddhic, and the turiya state, the atmic.
The
rather curious terms waking, dreaming and sleeping seem to have been
selected
from a physical plane point of view to name the heights of
consciousness
reached by the candidate at different times. When the man was
going
about his business in the physical plane, with all his faculties awake to
this
world, he was in the first state. To understand the second state we have to
remember
that there are two kinds of dreams—the often nonsensical productions of
the
brain (physical and
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etheric),
and the true experiences of the man away from his physical body,
working
and learning in the astro-mental regions.
It is to these latter that
this
term dreaming applies. The
candidate sleeping, or almost going to
sleep
in a day-dream, would afterwards remember some such experiences, and then
ascribe
them to the " consciousness of the dream state ". Suppose, however,
that
the aspirant out of the body should at any time go into what may be called
a
second sleep, and rise into the next set of planes, to be conscious for a time
at
that higher level. Probably on waking
physically he would remember nothing
of
what had been happening out of the body—his brain not being attuned to record
the
experiences coming from planes higher than his "dreaming state ". So
it
would
seem to him that he had had deep dreamless sleep, and usually his only
feeling
would be one of great satisfaction and well-being. The " sleeping
state"
is therefore consciousness in that still higher region. Now, the fourth
state
is sometimes called trance, for the following reason. It has often been
explained
that an aspirant when out of the body can rise a stage higher than
when
in it. It is possible also in deep
meditation for the disciple to rise
in
trance to the higher state and afterwards bring that experience down into the
waking
memory. Thus the Arhat can touch the
buddhic level while in the
physical
body, and the atmic or nirvanic plane when out if it, or in deep
meditation
or trance. The term akshara, which is here applied to this fourth
region,
means simply that which does not melt away; it is the undecaying.
THE THREE
HALLS
-------
The
same set of terms may be used as a relative series for less advanced occult
students.
One may have his waking consciousness on the physical plane, his
dreaming
state on the astral plane, his deep sleep on the mental; another, who
is
able to use his astral faculties in his physical waking consciousness, will
have
his dream consciousness on the lower mental, and his sleep state on the
higher
mental, and so on. The turiya is a higher state reached in every case by
a
special effort of will and meditation, which is a means to ultimately raising
the
whole set of three states to a higher level than before. While the
transition
is in progress, before the new level is established, there will
always
be this fourth stage.
This
is seen in meditation. The candidate will sit and fix his waking
consciousness
on some object—suppose it is a cat. Then he will rise to the "
dream
state ", and try to realize the astral aspect of the animal. Next he will
ascend
to the " sleep stage ", and give his attention to the mental being of
the
creature.
The fourth step would be samadhi—or contemplation—an attempt to
realize
its significance and reality for the ego, to go beyond the three forms
of
the cat into its subjective meaning. The fixing of the mind on the cat in the
first
case is concentration; the process of elevation of the consciousness is
meditation;
the final concentration in a higher field of vision, beyond what was
reached
before, is contemplation (or samadhi). The last effort may be like
piercing
a cloud or fog, out of which the new vision will gradually form itself,
or
from which it may come
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like
a flash of lightning. In either case the practitioner must hold himself
very
still in order to retain the impression as long as possible—one thought of
self,
of the old personal relativity, can dismiss the whole thing, so that there
remains
not even a memory of what it was like.
The
three halls, it is said, lead to the end of toils— not to the end of work,
it
must be observed. In these lower worlds we have a sense of work which is
certainly
quite different from that of higher levels. To us down here the word
is
almost synonymous with toil, and often with drudgery, but from a higher point
of
view work is really play. Drudgery is merely action; it does not create the
man
who does it. But the least bit of work done occultly, done heartily "as to
God
and not unto men ", done better than ever before, is good for the
evolution
of
him who does it. If, in writing a letter, for example, one is at pains to do
it
neatly, even beautifully and to express oneself briefly, clearly and
gracefully,
one has developed hand, eye and brain, thought-power, love-power and
will-power.
True work, such as that of an artist, is full of creative influence
and
of joy. We find some toil even in these things, however, because of the
obstructions
of the lower planes. Yet even down here there is no clear dividing
line
between toil and play. If one goes out, for example on a long ride, the
earlier
part of the journey will be full of delight for both man and horse, but
insensibly
that passes away as fatigue increases, until suddenly the man
realizes
that the ride which was play in the beginning has now become work, or
rather
drudgery. In other cases, there may be a task,
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not
prolonged, but a little beyond our strength; then there is a sense of toil.
But
all work in reality is play when there is willingness and no fatigue or
overstrain.
We
have much to learn from the animals, and even from the plants, in this
respect.
" Grow as the flower grows," says Light on the Path, " opening
your
heart
to the sun." Said the Christ: " Consider the lilies of the field, how
they
grow;
they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even
Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." 1 It is deadly fear
of
the morrow that makes men's work a toil, that makes them sweat in bitterness.
But
the Law says: " Do the wise and right thing today, and leave the result to
take
care of itself." This is not a doctrine of idleness, but of work that is
play
instead of toil.
An
illustration of this is also to be seen in the way in which different people
take
a long journey. One man will get into the train at
fever
of impatience for the time which the train takes to go to
his
destination. He has fixed his mind on something that he wants to do there;
in
the meantime his journey is a toil and a misery. Another finds a thousand
things
of interest on the way— the scenery, the people, the train itself; for
him
the journey is a happy holiday. And in the end he has accomplished much more
than
the other man. The Hindu villager lives very near to nature, and certainly
grows
as the flower grows. A man will set out from his village to get the mail
from
the Post Office or to post 1 St. Matthew, vi, 7.
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some
letters there, perhaps sixteen or twenty miles away. He does not tramp
along
stolidly and painfully, jarring his nerves with the graceless movements
that
spring from a discontented or impatient mind. The vision of his mail is not
a
mania that shuts out all other interests, and makes him curse the length of
the
track. No; there are insects, birds, flowers, trees, streams, clouds in the
sky,
fields, houses, people and animals, and lastly the blessed earth itself, to
lie
on which for awhile is to be on velvet in the divine arms. How little the
white
man knows of life, how much of toil!
The
Hindus have long held that God plays. The Lila or play of Shri Krishna, as
it
is called, is the great work of evolution, which looks so toilsome to us that
we
shudder at the long ages of work that lie in front, and cry out for rest.
Think
of the 311,040,000 million years of our mahakalpa. What an illusion! When
we
come to the end of toils life will be all play, all happiness.
The
end of toils, though not of work, comes with the entry of the candidate, on
the
fourth Path, into the nirvanic plane. He has finished the toil of casting
off
the first five fetters—self-personality, doubt, superstition, liking and
disliking—all
of which marked his bondage to material things, with which his
life
was one long struggle on an up-hill road. But now his remaining five
fetters
are internal; he has to conquer them, truly, but his weapon will be
serenity,
quietness, calmness— the use of the will, which is the quietest thing
in
the world. These fetters are: desire for life in form and formless life,
pride,
agitation and ignorance. Little
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profit
is to be derived from examining these in detail in this place; it is
enough
to notice their internal character, and to say that to destroy them the
man
must quieten himself and his vehicles above the line that divides the
personality
from the ego.
At
earlier stages, before the end of toils, the student will do well to organize
his
life wisely, so that his work for the Master may be as far as possible play.
It
should be pure delight, unmixed happiness—such a condition wou\d make for the
swiftest
progress. Toil is not meritorious, nor especially profitable, though
sometimes
it may be necessary. How often a student does meditation, feeling it
an
irksome thing, but regarding it as a duty to be done, though with travail and
suffering.
Do it happily and rejoicing, as play, or at least look forward to the
time
when you can do so. Some men sink luxuriously into the arms of the present,
and
say, " We will enjoy ourselves now, and let the future take care of
itself."
Others
stand aloof in proud strength and say, " We refuse to respond to that
which
can distress us." But the disciple must bare his back to the strokes of
time,
rejoicing in the long future, in the game in which every move can be a
dancing
poem of delight.
On
the subject of the seven worlds, Madame Blavat-sky says:
Some
Oriental mystics locate seven planes of being, the seven spiritual Lokas or
worlds
within the body of Kala Hamsa, the swan out of time and space,
convertible
into the swan in time, when it becomes Brahma instead of Brahman.
1OO
All
the manifestations of seven in Nature, such as the seven principles in man,
or
the seven planes in the world, come from a sevenfold division arising from
Parabrahman.
Three of the seven principles are manifest in the universal
consciousness,
and three more in mulaprakriti. One remains at its source and
includes
all the others, for the presence of many does not mar the unity of That
which
is truly One. So, at his lower level, the man who transcends his middle
set
or principles (atma-buddhi-manas), and rises into the first (the Monad),
though
he escapes from the worlds or planes, finds them all present in that new
state
of real nirvana, which is beyond the consciousness-state as much as that
is
beyond the mere matter-state. We speak thus of it, in the third person, only
as
a concession to ignorance, and must point out that what has been said should
be
translated into terms of " you " for consciousness and " I
" for the true
life
of super-conscious nirvana, if it is to be understood. These "
worlds",
however,
are not entered by the Arhat, but by the full Adept.
There
are several other ways in which the Arhat may be thought of as entering
the
seven worlds of rest eternal:
In
one way those worlds are the sub-planes of the atomic plane, through which
the
Arhat begins to climb. The characteristic of the man who dwells in them is a
changeless
serenity, for everything is seen as in the One Self, and where that
is
realized, fear and anxiety can have no place. As the Gita says: "For the
sage
101
enthroned
in yoga, serenity is called the means."1 It is not that there is any
lack
of activity in those regions —it is one vast wave of ever-moving life—-but
there
are no obstructions to the will of the One. On the buddhic plane we have
still
duality in a sense, since there one sees others, though the same Self is
seen
dwelling in them as in ourselves. But buddhi has to be transcended, for
love
implies a duality.
The
serenity that the Arhat increasingly acquires puts a new face on the common
planes
of our existence. He enjoys in them a liberty that others do not know; he
has
found that work is play. Having touched the vale of bliss, he has discovered
that
life not only there but on all planes is pure delight. He not only sees and
loves
the advancing life behind the perishing forms, but feels and rejoices in
the
Divine Will behind the changing life. The rest eternal that he enjoys is not
idleness,
but the utter internal peace of one who knows that all is well, that
the
Divine Will is present even in what may to others seem the obstructions to
progress,
as well as in the apparent progress itself. A philosopher once caught
a
glimpse of this idea when he said: "Be serene; for if you fail through no
fault
of your own, the failure is a success better than you knew, since the
Divine
Will is being done." The Arhat knows something of the peace that passes
understanding,
because he is beginning to dwell in the Eternal. This is, Madame
Blavatsky
says, " The region of the full
1
Op. cit., vi, 3.
102
spiritual
consciousness, beyond which there is no longer danger for him who has
reached
it."
If
thou would'st cross the first hall safely, let not thy mind mistake the fires
of
lust that burn therein for the sunlight of life.
If
thou would'st cross the second safely, stop not the fragrance of its
stupefying
blossoms to inhale. If freed thou would'st be from the karmic chains,
seek
not for thy Guru in those mayavic regions.
The
wise ones tarry not in pleasure-grounds of senses.
The
wise ones heed not the sweet-tongued voices-of illusion.
Seek
for him who is to give thee birth in the Halt of Wisdom, the hall which
lies
beyond, wherein all shadows are unknown, and where the light of truth
shines
with unfading glory.
The
Guru here spoken of is the Master, the Teacher. Madame Blavatsky puts it:
The
Initiate who leads the disciple, through the knowledge he imparts, to his
spiritual,
or second birth, is called the father, Guru or Master.
A
statement of the lives and work of the Gurus or Masters has been given in The
Masters
and the Path. A glimpse of the marvel of Their exalted powers is seen in
the
account there given of a meditation of the Master Kuthumi. As he sits in his
garden
or his room, He seems to be meditating, but is, in fact, giving
103
attention
to some millions of people, dealing with each one as individually as
an
ordinary man could if he were to give his full attention to that one.
Every
ego is being helped by one of the Masters, so the man who can vivify the
link
in himself between the lower self and the higher may receive that help in
his
personal life. The gurus who are to be met with on the physical plane are
generally
Initiates, advanced pupils of the full Adepts, as stated before.
That
which is uncreate abides in thee, disciple, as it abides in that hall. If
thou
would'st reach it and blend the two, thou must divest thyself of thy dark
garments
of illusion. Stifle the voice of flesh, allow no image of the senses to
get
between its light and thine, that thus the twain may blend in one. And
having
learnt thine own Ajnana flee from the Hall of Learning. This hall is
dangerous
in its perfidious beauty, is needed but for thy probation. Beware
Lanoo,
lest dazzled by illusive radiance thy Soul should linger and be caught in
its
deceptive light.
This
light shines from the jewel of the great ensnarer (Mara). The senses it
bewitches,
blinds the mind, and leaves the unwary an abandoned wreck.
That
which is uncreate refers to the higher triad, atma-buddhi-manas, as
distinguished
from the personality and its bodies. The statement that the hall
of
learning is needed but for probation applies to the hall of
104
ignorance
as well. The set of material planes, physical, astral and lower
mental,
are but the buildings and equipment of a school for man, in which he is
taught
by means of toys. There is no experience that does not modify the soul
and
give it some wisdom; but he who is alive to the educative purpose of it all,
and
is eager to learn and to extract from the experience of embodied life
lessons
of eternal value, will not find the toys attractive in themselves. He
will
be like the bee that takes the honey from the flower and goes away, not
intoxicated
by its scent and colour.
Mara
is a personification of the attractiveness of external things. Madame
Blavatsky
describes him as follows:
Mara
is in exoteric religions a demon, an Asura, but in esoteric philosophy it
is
personified temptation through men's vices, and translated literally means
"
that
which kills " the soul. It is represented as a king (of the Manas) with a
crown
in ; which shines a jewel of such lustre that it blinds those who look at
it,
this lustre referring of course to the fascination exercised by vice upon
certain
natures.
In
The Light of Asia1 Sir Edwin Arnold has given us a vivid picture of this
prince
of darkness, as he came forth leading the ten chief sins, his angels of
evil,
against the Lord Buddha, as He sat under the Bodhi Tree, when nearing His
Illumination.
1
Op. cit., Book vi.
105
The
moth attracted to the dazzling flame of thy night-lamp is doomed to perish
in
the viscid oil. The unwary Soul that fails to grapple with the mocking demon
of
illusion, will return to earth the slave of Mara.
Behold
the hosts of Souls. Watch how they hover o'er the stormy sea of human
life,
and how, exhausted, bleeding, broken-winged, they drop one after another
on
the swelling waves. Tossed by the fierce winds, chased by the gale, they
drift
into the eddies and disappear within the first great vortex.
The
subject of " lost souls " is very complex. Some are like the children
in a
class
at school who are not ready to pass on with the bulk of their
fellow-students
into the next grade at the end of the year, either because they
are
too young or because they have been lazy. Then, too, there are cases where
the
personality has become so inmeshed in matter during bodily life that it has
nothing
to give to the ego, and it may then be cut off. Thirdly, there are the
terrible
fruits of the practice of black magic. It would take too long to
discuss
the subject here; I have dealt with it at some length in the article on
Lost
Souls in Volume I of The Inner Life.
Some
of the expressions in these passages have all the strength of Oriental
imagination.
We must not think too literally of abandoned wrecks and broken
wings.
He who falls from the Path on account of material
106
desires
certainly does wreck his spiritual prospects for the time being, but
even
in that case he has learnt something which will be useful to the soul later
on.
In all cases it is best for a man to learn with wise thought; only when that
is
neglected will bitter experience be necessary to take its place.
It
is by no means requisite that any human being shall go through every kind of
experience.
The more advanced and the wiser a man becomes, the more he will see
in
everything, and he will learn much from trifles that others might pass by as
insignificant.
It is said that a fool cannot learn even from a wise man, but a
wise
man can always learn, even from a fool. To know that fire is hot it is not
necessary
to put one's hand into it; a fool may do so, but the wise man has
other
ways of learning the fact that fire burns. Yet it is a great blessing that
those
who will not think and thus learn willingly, should be taught in the stern
school
of experience, without which they would learn nothing at all and make no
progress.
The
law of karma, that brings to men the experiences that they have given to
others,
is thus a benefactor and ultimately a liberator, not an instrument of
vengeance
or punishment. Suppose, for example, that a foot-pad waylaid a
gentleman,
knocked him down, perhaps killed him, and took his money. Under the
law
he would have to meet with some such painful experience himself, sooner or
later.
The robber was capable of such an act because he himself was a coarse
being,
lacking sensitiveness and imagination; otherwise he would have thought
107
of
the feelings of his victim or of the latter's wife and family, and such
thought
would have stayed his hand. Because he is coarse, crass, unimaginative,
the
foot-pad needs the violent kind of experience that he gives to others;
nothing
less will stir him. Later, when through karmic retribution he has had
some
suffering, he will remember it when he is about to strike another, and will
say
to himself: " That is not a very nice thing for that poor man." He
will then
begin
to reform, thanks to the law, which is always educative, never punitive.
CHAPTER
8 THE WORLD'S MOTHER
If
through the Hall of Wisdom thou would'st reach the vale of bliss, disciple,
close
fast thy senses against the great dire heresy of separateness, that weans
thee
from the rest.
C.W.L.—Herbert
Spencer came very near to a revelation of the spiritual truth
about
evolution, when he described it as a progressive change from a state of
incoherent
homogeneity to one of coherent heterogeneity of structure and
function.
To him evolution meant that things which in the beginning were similar
and
separate, later become different but united. This specialization is seen in
the
human body, which has different organs which work for the whole; thus the
digestive
system digests food for the whole body, and the hands grasp, the feet
walk,
the eyes look, not for the sake of the hands, the feet and the eyes, but
for
the whole body. Similarly, society becomes more and more highly organized as
time
goes on. Men become more and more differentiated from one another, as the
professions
in life advance in knowledge and skill. The doctor cures all, the
teacher
teaches all, the bridge-builder builds bridges for all. One man works
for
the benefit of many, and the work of many flows back to benefit him.
109
When
men get the organic sense and feeling for their fellows they cease to be a
mob
of incoherent homogeneous human beings and become heterogeneous and
coherent.
A man with that spirit will do his best for his community, or nation,
or
humanity, leaving it to the law of unity to bring him what he needs from the
other
organs of the great body. The incoherent homogeneous elements of matter or
of
society cannot organize themselves; it is the inner principle that draws them
together
and makes swift progress possible for them through mutual help. The
unity
is love, the force behind evolution, the energy of life; it is buddhi, the
greatest
wisdom. There is a profound difference between co-operation and
brotherhood
—the former springs from an intelligent appreciation of the mutual
relations
of men, the latter from a realization in feeling that the same life is
dwelling
in all.
In
the evolution of an individual it is usually the spirit of co-operation that
develops
first; the business of the world brings people together, then by
contact
the divine fire of buddhi is struck. Two men, for example, go
prospecting
together, and support each other in the work. True friendship
supervenes.
But if it should chance, as it sometimes does, that brotherhood
comes
first, it will not develop into perfect and useful co-operation unless the
intelligence
is also awakened and applied to the business of life. An instance
in
point was the beautiful love between David Copperfield and his impractical
wife
Dora, whom the novelist was constrained to kill in order to make room for
the
110
more
practical Agnes, and so give the story a happier termination.
In
the occult life candidates who have developed the higher intelligence so that
they
have a keen appreciation of the principle of co-operation and of spiritual
laws,
often still find themselves dull and apparently incapable of rapid
progress.
They await the awakening in themselves of true love, buddhi. That is
the
burning energy of the inner man. Still, in this second of the stages of true
spiritual
unfoldment there will often be much agitation and trouble; the divine
energy
gushes forth irregularly and not always in the wisest way, causing much
sorrow
to its possessor—-until the third spiritual stage, the place of serenity,
has
been reached. As that serenity is the goal to which the voice of the silence
is
directing the candidate, he is told to pass through the Hall of Wisdom into
the
vale of bliss. Even in the buddhic plane there is a certain duality, or
separateness.
We cannot love ourselves; love needs an object, even though it be
not
a material object, but the divine life manifested in many spiritual souls.
Buddhi
is the first veil, the Avalokiteshvara of the Higher Self, not the
Parabrahman.
The " dire heresy of separateness " has to be disposed of on every
plane
in turn, the physical, the astral, the mental and even the buddhic.
Let
not thy " heaven-born," merged in the sea of Maya, break from the
universal
Parent
(Soul), but let the fiery power retire into the inmost chamber, the
chamber
of the heart, and the abode of the world's Mother.
111
Then
from the heart that power shall rise into the sixth, the middle region, the
place
between thine eyes, when it becomes the breath of the One-soul, the voice
which
filleth all, thy Master's voice.
The
" heaven-born " is chitta, the lower mind. It is born from the soul
above,
when
manas becomes dual in incarnation. The planes of atma-buddhi-manas are
typified
by heaven, while those of the personality are spoken of as earth. We
have
already observed the distinction of character which divides the five planes
of
human manifestation into two. The monadic and divine planes, beyond these
five,
taken together form a third division. So the seven worlds can also be
grouped
as three. The lowest division is in the region of sattva or law. Here we
find
everything regulated, but man has some freedom because the " heaven-born
"
is
in him—• so much of the energy of the Law-maker works through him. It is
because
man has this liberty and power to go his own way that his life is
usually
more disorderly, less regulated, than that of the lower kingdoms of
external
nature.
The
middle set of planes contains those of spiritual energy, the indwelling
life,
without which the rest would be dead and motionless. They are the planes
of
the divine, the shining, the Avalokita, or " seen", God—the life seen
by
wisdom,
not the form seen by knowledge.
The
highest group of planes is that of the Monad, the Self that is bliss and
freedom,
where are the realities behind every human ideal and the ecstasy beyond
consciousness
that is the extracted quintessence of beauty,
112
goodness,
truth, harmony, comprehension, union and freedom.
What
is here called the fiery power is the force named kundalini in Sanskrit.
This
may be described as a latent fire, coiled up like a sleeping serpent at the
base
of the spine in all men except those few in whom it has been specially
awakened,
and is actively working in the etheric body. It should not be
difficult
to realize the existence of such a fire, since it is well known that
the
breath in our lungs constantly feeds a slow fire, and that digestion also is
a
kind of fire. Kundalini is more like electrical fire—a force developing heat
where
there is resistance— than fire that burns fuel, but it is not of the same
order
of force as electricity.
I
have written on this subject in the articles on the Serpent-Fire and the
Force-Centres
in The Inner Life and that on Vitality in Chapter IV of The Hidden
Side
of Things, and I hope to publish shortly a somewhat fuller study,
illustrated
with coloured plates.1 There is also aft extensive, if somewhat
obscure,
literature on the subject in Sanskrit, including the
Shat-chakranirupana,
the Ananda Lahari, and many other works. There is an
excellent
translation of the first of these, with a commentary, by Arthur
Avalon,
called The Serpent Power, published by Ganesh & Co., Madras.
The
following is a very brief summary of the subject.
Kundalini
is the lower end of a stream of a certain
kind
of the force of the Logos, and it commonly lies
sleeping
in the chakra or force-centre at the base of the
1
Book on Chakras has been since issued by T.P.H., Adyar.
113
spine.
If it is awakened prematurely, that is, before the man has purified his
character
of every taint of sensual impurity and selfishness, it may rush
downwards
and vivify certain lower centres in the body (used only in some
objectionable
forms of black magic), and irresistibly carry the unfortunate man
into
a life of indescribable horror; at best, it will intensify all that the man
has
in him, including such qualities as ambition and pride. Kundalini should be
wakened
only under the personal direction of a Master, who will instruct the
student
in the use of the will to arouse it, in the manner in which it should be
moved
when aroused, and in the spiral course along which it must be carried
through
the chakras or force-centres, from that near the base of the spine, to
those
which lie on the surface of the etheric double at the spleen,1 the navel,
the
heart, the throat, between the eyebrows, and at the top of the head. This
course
differs with different types of people, and it is quite a definite
physical
thing, for the force has literally to burn a pathway for itself through
the
impurities of the etheric double.
There
are chakras in the astral body also, which are already aroused by
kundalini
working in that plane in all fairly evolved people. The process of
developing
those centres has rendered the astral body sensitive to the plane,
awakening
its feeling, its power to travel about, its sympathetic response to
other
entities
1
Hindu works usually mention the chakra at the root of the genital organs as
the
second. We recognize the existence of such a centre, but we follow the
ancient
Egyptians in thinking it eminently undesirable that it should be stirred
into
activity.
114
there;
its vision and hearing, and astral faculties generally. But the memory of
those
experiences or the use of the astral faculties while in the physical body
becomes
possible in a definite and well-controlled way only when kundalini in
the
etheric double has been carried through the corresponding centres.
The
special mention of the place between the eyes in our text has reference to
the
pineal gland and the pituitary body. The forces from both the sixth and
seventh
astral centres (which are between the eyebrows and on top of the head)
usually
converge on the pituitary body, when the etheric centre is aroused, and
then
vivify it and act through it. But there is a certain type of people (who
are
being addressed in our text) in whom the seventh astral chakra vivifies the
pineal
gland instead of the pituitary body, and it in that case forms a line of
communication
directly with the lower mental plane, without apparently passing
through
the astral plane in the ordinary way. Through that channel come for them
the
communications from within, while for the other type of people they come
through
the pituitary body.
When
kundalini awakens of itself, which it rarely does, or is accidentally
aroused,
it usually tries to pass up the interior of the spine, instead of
following
the spiral course in which the occultist is trained to guide it. In
this
case it will probably rush out through the head, and the man will suffer
from,
nothing worse than a temporary unconsciousness.
The
Hindu books hint at, rather than explain, what happens. They make no
references
to the chakras on
115
the
surface of the etheric double, but speak of their roots, which are in the
spine.
In the spine, running from its base to the top is what is called
Merudanda,
the rod of Meru, the central axis of creation. In that rod is the
channel
called sushumna, and in that again is the channel called chitrini, which
is
"as fine as a spider's thread ". Upon that are threaded the chakras,
like the
knots
on a bamboo rod. The lowest of the chakras, called muladhara, lies at the
base
of the spine, and in it kundalini sleeps, closing the mouth of the
merudanda.
The
aim of the aspirant is to raise kundalini through all the chakras till she
reaches
that which is between the eyebrows. Then the candidate will find that
he,
as it were, remains behind, while she leaps forward into the sahasrara, the
great
" thousand-petalled " lotus at the top of the head. If he goes with
her,
it
will take him out of the body and put a stop for the time being to his
practice
of meditation in the body. She rises up chitrini little by little as
the
candidate uses his will in meditation. In one practice he may not get very
far,
but in the next he will go a little further, and so on. When she comes to
one
of the chakras or lotuses she pierces it and the flower, which was turned
downwards,
now turns upwards. The candidate meditates upon her in some form, and
upon
her associates, seated in that lotus. An elaborate dhyana or meditation,
full
of rich symbology, is prescribed for each lotus. When the meditation is
over,
the candidate leads kundalini back again by the same path into the
muladhara;
but in some schools she is
116
brought
back only as far as the heart chakra, and there she enters what is
called
her chamber.
Kundalini
can be awakened by various methods, but it should be done only under
the
direction of a guru or competent teacher, the Master who is responsible to
the
Brotherhood for the training of the candidate. He is not likely to conduct
this
awakening until the first three fetters on the Path have been destroyed by
the
candidate's own power, so that he is no longer in serious danger of being
stirred
by sensuous or material things. Then his " heaven-born ", closely
united
or
harmonized with the higher manas, can remain master of the triple house of
personality,
and when the energy of kundalini" is set free in the body it will
be
likely to run in pure channels of service to the higher self. Hence the
awakening
of kundalini will take place usually somewhere near the Third
Initiation,
or, in the present kali yuga, or dark age, it is said, even later.
Even
then it is awakened in various layers, so that in the early stages it may
give
nothing more than a general sensitiveness to the higher planes.
Kundalini
is thought of as a goddess. She is what is called the shabdabrahman in
the
body. Shabda means sound. Sound is the creative force, as before described.
Speech
is considered to be the most outward form of it. It is an expression of
thought,
which in its true active form is kriyashakti. Certain letters of the
alphabet,
which are the foundation of human speech, are said to reside in each
of
the chakras, and the power of those letters (their portion of the creative
word)
is awakened
117
when
kundalini enters them after her union with Shiva in the highest centre,
causing
them to shine brilliantly with her light. The creative speech of Brahma,
the
Third Logos, has four forms or stages; hence He is called the four-faced
one.
When kundalini represents him in the body she also exhibits those four
forms,
as she rises through the chakras.
Kundalini
is called the world's mother because the •outward action of the powers
of
consciousness is always regarded as feminine. Thus will, wisdom and activity
are
feminine, being shaktis or powers, outward turned aspects of the divine. She
is
the representative of all these, as they were expressed in the creation of
the
world, in the activity of Brahma, the Third Logos. It has also been said
that
she is the world's mother because it is through her that the various planes
are
brought into conscious existence for the occultist.
The
following footnote by Madame Blavatsky will also throw light on the
foregoing
explanations.
The
inner chamber of the heart, called in Sanskrit, Brahma-pura. The " fiery
power
" is Kundalini.
The
"power" and the "world-mother" are names given to
Kundalini—-one of the
mystic
Yogi powers. It is Buddhi considered as an active instead of a passive
principle
(which it is generally, when regarded only as the vehicle, or casket,
of
the supreme spirit, Atma). It is an electro-spiritual force, a creative power
which
when aroused into action can as easily kill as it can create.
118
It
is by no means certain what Madame Blavatsky meant by saying that kundalini
is
active buddhi, but several speculations may be offered:
In
normal men buddhi is not positively active in the outer life, but when the
first
three fetters have been cast off, the personality is so purified that the
astral J body will no longer be active merely on its
own account, but will
faithfully
respond to buddhi, now active. At or
near this stage kundalini is
often
aroused, as we have seen, and when the faculties of the astral body are
then
laid open to the candidate while in his physical body it is an astral body
reflecting
buddhi, which now becomes a veritable fire of love in the man's life.
That clairvoyance and other
psychic powers need not
be awakened in the
physical
brain even at this advanced stage of human progress, is also indicated
by
Dr. Besant. in her Initiation, the Perfecting of Man. She there says that
before
a man can come to the Third Initiation he must
learn to bring the
spirit of intuition (buddhi) down to
his physical consciousness, so
that it may
abide on him and guide him. Then she
adds: " This process is
usually
called ' the development of psychic faculties,' and it is so, in the
true
meaning of the word ' psychic'. But it
does not mean the development of
clairvoyance and
clairaudience, which depend
on a different process."
The
entire higher triad (atma-buddhi-manas) is but the central member or the
buddhi
of the still more inclusive triad of Monad, ego and personality. That
119
larger
buddhi is triple (will, wisdom and activity), and now its third aspect
(activity,
kriyashakti) comes into operation in the body, to awaken its organs
and
liberate its latent powers.
'Tis
only then thou canst become a "walker of the sky," who treads the
winds
above
the waves, whose step touches not the waters.
On
this, Madame Blavatsky says:
Kechara,
" sky-walker " or " goer ". As explained in the 6th Adhyaya
of that
king
of mystic works, the Jnaneshvari—the body of the Yogi becomes as one formed
of
the wind; as "a cloud from which limbs have sprouted out," after
which—"he
[the
Yogi] beholds the things beyond the seas and stars; he hears the language
of
the Devas and comprehends it, and perceives what is passing in the mind of
the
ant."
The
term " walker of the sky " has various grades of meaning. In Indian
story it
is,
for example, applied to the great Rishi Narada, as an emissary of the Logos,
who
could travel through the pure akasha from globe to globe. On the lower
planes,
the astral body or the mayavi-rupa may be taken as an illustration, as
they
can be used to travel in what is the air or sky to ordinary people.
In
the astral world the ordinary man is a kind of cloud, a being full of kama,
that
is, desire and emotion, but not by any means a definite entity such as he
is
on the physical plane. But when he masters his kama,
120
and
gives it definiteness, the astral body is organized as a vehicle; it is no
longer
kama but kamarupa. Still further, about the time when the first three
fetters
are dispensed with, the mayavi-rupa is formed, and that enables the man
to
operate with his mental body in the astral as well as the lower mental plane.
This
may be taken as one interpretation of the statement that his step "
touches
not
the waters ", which are a symbol for the astral plane.
CHAPTER
9 THE SEVEN SOUNDS
Before
thou sett'st thy foot upon the ladder's upper rung, the ladder of the
mystic
sounds, thou hast to hear the voice of thy inner God in seven manners.
C.W.L.—It
has already been mentioned that The Voice of the Silence is intended
to
guide the candidate as far as the Fourth Initiation. At that point his
consciousness
is raised to the seventh principle and begins to function in the
atmic
or nirvanic plane. The man is then ready to commence treading what is here
called
the ladder's upper rung, to go through the course of training which
prepares
for the Fifth Initiation, that of the Asekha Adept. The Path has two
equal
divisions, which may be called the ladder's lower and upper rungs.
It
is said that the Initiate on the ladder's lower rung must hear the voice of
his
inner God in seven manners. That inner God at his present stage is the
higher
Self, the buddhi, the second principle. In his meditation the aspirant
may
or may not hear a series of seven sounds, marking his attainment of the
seven
sub-planes of the buddhic plane; that depends upon his psychic
122
temperament.
But what he must do, in all cases, is to bring the influence of
buddhi
down into his life on each of the lower planes, so that the activity of
all
his principles will be governed by it, and thus his inner God will be
ever-present
in his life.
The
latter stage is called the ladder of the mystic sounds; this is perhaps
because
they are the sounds of the voice of the silence, hidden in the atma or
Self.
One must not push too far the exact interpretation of any English word in
our
text, as it is only a translation; though every Sanskrit and Pali word in it
is
rich with technical significance. Still, the word mystic, coming from a root
that
means to close the eyes, indicates here certain sounds which do not mingle
in
the outward life at all, but give direction as from above, in the ex cathedra
manner
of pure conscience. It is implied that the sounds about to be mentioned
are
more accessible, are not " mystic " at all events to the candidate at
the
stage
under consideration. True conscience does not tell you what to do, as is
commonly
supposed, but it commands you to follow that which you already really
know
to be best, when your mind is trying to invent some excuse to do otherwise.
It
speaks with the authority of the spiritual will, determining our path in
life.
It is not the atma, but the buddhi, the second principle, that gives
intuitive
knowledge as to right and wrong. Manas gives inspiration, buddhi
intuition
as to right and wrong, atma the directing conscience.
The
first is like the nightingale's sweet voice,
chanting
a song of parting to its mate.
THE
SEVEN SOUNDS 123
The
second comes as the sound of a silver cymbal of the Dhyanis, awakening the
twinkling
stars.
The
next is as the plaint melodious of the ocean-sprite imprisoned in its shell.
And
this is followed by the chant of the vina.
The
fifth like the sound of bamboo-flute shrills in thine ear.
It
changes next into a trumpet-blast.
The
last vibrates like the dull rumbling of a. thunder-cloud.
The
seventh swallows all the other sounds."
They
die, and then are heard no more.
The
series of seven sounds mentioned here has caused much puzzlement among those
who
meditate upon this little book. We must notice first of all the character of
the
sounds; then we shall see that there are several interpretations of them.
They
are increasing in materiality and losing, in penetrating quality in the
order
here given. One may notice, for example, the difference between the vina
and
an Indian trumpet of the old-fashioned kind. It is nearly always a surprise
to
the European, when he first hears the wonderfully delicate music of the vina,
perhaps
in a large and crowded hall, how, without any exhibition of force, it
reaches
every corner, and how it gives the impression of sound half-removed from
our
material planes.
The
highest sound in the series is likened to a certain chant of the
nightingale. It is said that there are occasions when
the voice of this bird
rises
higher and higher
124
in
pitch until it is beyond the range of human hearing, although one may still
see
the throat of the warbler trembling with song. That such high sounds exist
is
well known to students of science. The note of a siren, for example, can be
raised
by increased pressure of air or steam, until one after another of those
who
are listening declare that they can no longer hear it. There is a certain
kind
of whistle with which German police dogs can be called. When one blows upon
this
instrument, which looks like an ordinary whistle, no man can hear the
slightest
sound, but the dog, in another room or some distance away, will
instantly
prick up its ears, and come leaping and bounding to the exact spot
where
what is presumably to it the sound originated.
The
interpretations of the sounds fall into two groups. The first mentioned in
the
list may represent the last heard by the candidate. The sounds are
enumerated
downwards in the order of their creation, after the Oriental manner,
so
that the first sound in creation is the seventh when the aspirant is
approaching
the Lord of that creation. So, first comes the dull rumbling of a
thunder-cloud,
a sound representing or correlated to the physical principle in
man,
in the middle is the vina, representing the antahkarana (according to
Madame
Blavatsky's classification), and lastly there is the nightingale's
melody,
associated with atma, the silence. That well typifies the seventh, the
soundless
sound, into which all the others have to be raised, until they die
away
and are heard no more. The candidate must learn to hear God in the dull
rumbling
sound of the physical plane,
125
then
in the trumpet-blast of the astral, then in the sound of the lower mental
that
is likened to the music of a bamboo-flute, and so on right up to the world
of
his highest principle.
The
same sounds may be taken in another way as typical of the intensity with
which
the aspirant hears the voice of the higher Self. It is one voice, but is
heard
in seven manners. At first it is delicate and sweet, like the
nightingale's
song, and it often disappears into silence; next it becomes
stronger,
like " the silver cymbal of the Dhyanis ". Louder and louder it
becomes,
until at last it is constantly heard, as filling all the air, like the
dull
rumbling of a thunder-cloud. In the early stages of our progress the voice
of
the higher Self may seem thin and faint, but later it will have for us all
the
reality of thunder.
Again,
in the text the description of these sounds follows upon the mention of
kundalini,
which is carried through the chakras. That force awakens in seven
layers,
or degrees, and so gives the psychic results already mentioned in
increasing
power. The voice that is heard when kundalini rises to the place
between
the eyes will therefore be heard with seven degrees of intensity,
typified
by the seven sounds here mentioned.
Once
more, it is natural that in the densest plane the candidate should hear the
inner
voice but faintly, like the nightingale's voice. When he rises to the next
plane,
where the covering of the inner Self is not so dense, its voice will be
more
easily heard; until finally, when he reaches the highest principle it will
be
like the rumbling
126
of
a thunder-cloud. It is only the illusion of the lower planes that causes us
to
ascribe delicacy to the higher things. Ultimately we shall find that they
have
the full body and reality of thunder.
These
interpretations are not mutually exclusive. All the experiences which they
suggest
are possible for the candidate at the same time.
I
remember that on one occasion a question about these sounds was asked in one
of
our talks on the roof at Adyar. The President and I respectively answered as
follows:
A.B.—In
meditation, one of the sounds that you begin to hear (for instance, one
thing
that I heard quite distinctly) was a sound which was like the beating of a
tom-tom
in a Indian village. I described that to H.P.B., who said: "That is very
good,
go on." Next I heard some strains of beautiful music, and then something
like
silver chimes. . Another sound was like the ringing of a temple bell, such
as
you hear in Benares. I never found out that these sounds meant anything more
than
that I was becoming able to hear in the astral world.
In
India there is a school formed by a man of whom the Master M. spoke highly.
The
people who belong to that, after a certain amount of practice, hear sounds
quite
clearly in the brain, but I have never found that any of them got further
on
that account. Many people come to me in the North, asking what the sounds
mean.
I reply: " I think it is nothing more than that you are becoming
clairaudient."
These
seven sounds mentioned by H.P.B. I have never been able to sort out. They
may
mean that you have to wake your consciousness in plane after plane, and that
each
is meant to symbolize the note of a particular plane, just as down here Fa
is
the combination of the countless sounds in the physical plane blended
together.
But that does not really explain matters.
C.W.L.—I
cannot make them exactly correspond with the planes; they may possibly
be
sub-planes. They may also be intended to symbolize the sounds which accompany
the
awakening of the seven centres by the Kundalini, for sound is one of the
expressions
that take place in that particular case. I have never felt at all
certain
of what she meant. One would be inclined to
127
say
that the silver cymbal in different tones would do for all The thunder
certainly
does not seem to fit in very well.
A.B.—-Of
course there are a certain number of sounds in the head which belong
entirely
to the vascular system. If a person hears such sounds very strongly it
means
that he is getting into a dangerous state of anaemia.
The
sounds are not progressive. H.P.B. put things very often in a circle; she
sometimes
begins with number four and then works round on the two sides. It may
also
be that she gives these sounds in no sort of order. You might possibly
begin
with the thunder, then the trumpet blast, and next the ocean sprite; then
you
might come to the cymbal for the fourth, the flute for the fifth and the
vina,
which is a more delicate sound, for the sixth, and then the nightingale
for
the seventh, the top.
C.W.L.—-If
we are allowed to turn them round like that, they will begin to mean
something
definite.
A.B.—H.P.B.,
when consulted astrally said: "What fools you all were to take them
in
that way: you might have arranged them before: thunder, trumpet, ocean-shell,
cymbal,
flute, vina, nightingale." She said that we were abominably literal.
C.W.L.—.Similar
lists of sounds are to be found in various Sanskrit works. We
have
taken the following example from the Shiva Samhita:
The
first sound is like the hum of the honey-intoxicated bee, next that of a
flute,
then of a harp; after this, by the gradual practice of Yoga, the
destroyer
of the darkness of the world, he hears the sounds of ringing bells;
then
sounds like the roar of thunder. When one fixes his full attention on this
sound,
being free from fear, he gets absorption, O my beloved! When the mind of
the
Yogi is exceedingly engaged in this sound, he forgets all external things,
and
is absorbed in this sound." 1
When
the six are slain and at the Master's feet are laid, then is the pupil
merged
into the One, becomes that One and lives therein.
Madame
Blavatsky speaks of the six as:
The
six principles; meaning when the lower personality is destroyed and the
inner
individuality is merged into and lost in the seventh or Spirit.
1
Op. cit., v, 27-8.
128
And
of the One here spoken of she says: The disciple is one with Brahman or
Atma.
When
the six principles are " slain", in other words, when they no longer
assert
their
independence, but have become entirely obedient to the will of the Self,
the
aspirant lives in that One. The seventh voice of buddhi will carry him up
into
Atma. Madame Blavatsky applies the term Brahman to the human atma by
analogy.
Brahman (neuter) is the One containing the Three; so does atma contain
buddhi
and manas within itself, when the man has become an Arhat, and learned to
live
in the triple spirit.
Before
that path is entered, thou must destroy thy lunar body, cleanse thy
mind-body,
and make clean thy heart.
To
the term " lunar body " Madame Blavatsky adds the note:
The
astral form produced by the kamic principle, the Kama Rupa, or body of
desire.
On
the term " mind-body " she comments:
Manasa
Rupa. The first refers to the astral or personal self; the second to the
individuality,
.or the reincarnating Ego, whose consciousness on our plane, or
the
lower Manas, has to be paralysed.
Madame
Blavatsky did not think in planes so completely as do most of the
Theosophists
of today. She had her eye more on the principles, and saw the
matter
of different levels taking form under their influence.
129
Here
she speaks of " our plane", meaning the region of personal
existence—physical,
astral and lower mental. The " astral form " is by no means
necessarily
the astral body, but rather the personal form built up in the
subjective
regions of our personal life (the astral and lower mental planes) on
account
of our bodily form and the personal feelings and thoughts connected with
it.
In my little book The Devachanic Plane and in Dr. Besant's Ancient Wisdom an
account
is given of the four types of life in the heaven-world: (1) personal
friendship,
(2) personal devotion, (3) the true missionary spirit, and (4) human
achievement.
They are all emotive—though unselfish, they are not impersonal, but
kamic.
They take their form from the character of the physical plane experience.
But
the pure lower manas would be the antahkarana—it would be the soul's mind,
not
the body's mind. It would have its activity stimulated only from above. It
must
now be cleansed from all the kama, to become a pure channel for the soul.
Think
of the condition of the astral body of an advanced person. It gives
practically
no direct response to impacts from outside. It is, by itself, dead
to
the world. It has no independent life of its own; it has been " slain
". If
some
one went up to the average man and struck him, probably his astral body
Would
burst instantly into flames of anger; that is its immediate response. Not
so
that of the advanced man. The impact in his case would go inwards through the
astral
to the buddhic vehicle. That would respond in its own way. Then its
impact
upon the astral would call
130
forth
the beautiful colours of the love emotions which are its correspondences
in
the astral body. Dr. Besant has often explained that the astral aura of an
advanced
man is colourless, or rather, slightly milky-white, when in repose, but
that
all the most lovely colours which the , plane can exhibit flood through it
in
response to the great man's buddhic response to the world.
Eternal
life's pure waters, clear and crystal, with
the monsoon tempest's
muddy torrents
cannot mingle.
Heaven's
dew-drop glittering in the morn's first sunbeam within the bosom of the
lotus,
when dropped on earth becomes a piece of clay; behold, the pearl is now a
speck
of mire.
Strive
with thy thoughts unclean before they overpower thee. Use them as they
will
thee, for if thou sparest them and they take root and grow, know well,
these
thoughts will overpower and kill thee. Beware, disciple, suffer not even
though
it be their shadow to approach. For it will grow, increase in size and
power,
and then this thing of darkness will absorb thy being before thou hast
well
realized the black foul monster's presence.
There
are some people in the world who imagine that It is possible to carry on
the
lower things and still make progress on the Path. Sometimes they actually
think
that by various forms of vicious excitement they can generate a great deal
of
energy which will help to carry them onward and upward. They are afraid of
becoming
131
colourless,
should they repress the lower activities entirely. It has been said,
of
course, that the colourless person, the feeble good man, cannot make
progress.
" I would thou wert cold or hot," says the Spirit in Revelation, and
"
Because
thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my
mouth."1
This
very well represents the facts. The most promising persons, in order of
preference,
are (1) the vigorous good man, (2) the vigorous bad man, (3) the
ordinary
good man. No man can be an effective criminal unless he has a strong
development
of some divine quality. His badness is the result of unbalance—-such
as
great will-power and courage, or great intelligence, without love for his
fellow-beings.
Or great love and willpower, without intelligence, can make an
equally
dangerous and harmful man, for he may become a fanatical leader of
forces
of discontent and disruption. The mere good man, weak in all qualities—in
will,
intelligence and love—makes little progress, though it may be steady.
Great
men have great faults, but they may get rid of them quickly; little men
have
little faults, which often seem to last for ever.
There
is in all this no recommendation to evil living. It indicates that mere
repression
of lower tendencies will not make for rapid progress, but that there
must
be positive and- vigorous exertion in the expression of what is high and
good.
While making that effort a person may possibly fall. The very will-power
or
knowledge or love that he has gained by his exertions will make the
1
Revelation 3, 15-16.
132
man's
fall deep and terrible, should he become unbalanced. Thus the magnitude of
a
man's sin may be a sign of possible rapid future progress for him; but that
progress
will begin only when the man through karmic suffering has realized his
error
and purged away the impurities incidental to his fall. Nothing much can be
done,
however, until that purification has taken place. Madame Blavatsky deals
vigorously
with this point in her First Steps in Occultism, as follows:
There
are those whose reasoning powers have been so distorted by foreign
influences
that they imagine that animal passions can be so sublimated and
elevated
that their- fury, force and fire can, so to speak, be turned inwards;
that
they can be stored and shut up in one's breast, until their energy is, not
expanded,
but turned towards higher and more holy purposes: namely, until, their
collective
and unexpanded strength enables their possessor to enter the true
Sanctuary
of the Soul and stand therein in the presence of the Master—the HIGHER
SELF.
For this purpose they will not struggle with their passions nor slay them.
They
will simply, by a strong effort of will, put down the fierce flames and
keep
them at bay within their natures allowing the fire to smoulder under a thin
layer
of ashes. They submit joyfully to the torture of the Spartan boy who
allowed
the fox to devour his entrails rather than part with it. Oh, poor, blind
visionaries!
As
well hope that a band of drunken chimney-sweeps, hot and greasy from their
work,
may be shut up in a Sanctuary hung with pure white linen, and that instead
of
soiling and turning it by their presence into a heap of dirty shreds, they
will
become masters in and of the sacred recess, and finally emerge from it as
immaculate
as that recess. Why not imagine that a dozen skunks imprisoned in the
pure
atmosphere of a Dgon-pa (a monastery), can issue out of it impregnated with
all
the perfumes of the incense used? Strange aberration of the human mind.
This
portion of our text concludes with the following uncompromising passages:
Before
the mystic power can make of thee a God, Lanoo, thou must have gained the
faculty
to slay thy lunar form at will.
133
The
Self of matter and the Self of Spirit can never meet. One of the twain must
disappear;
there is no place for both.
Ere
thy Soul's mind can understand, the bud of personality must be crushed out,
the
worm of sense destroyed past resurrection.
The
mystic power is once more kundalini, the representative in the body of"
the
great
pristine force which underlies all organic and inorganic matter ". Madame
Blavatsky's
note on the subject is as follows:
Kundalini,
the serpent power or mystic fire; it is called the serpentine or the
annular
power on account of its spiral-like working or progress in the body of
the
ascetic developing the power in himself. It is an electric fiery occult or
fohatic
power, the great pristine force which underlies all organic and
inorganic
matter.
CHAPTER
10 BECOME THE PATH
Thou
canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself.
C.W.L.—To
this the following foot-note is appended:
This
Path is mentioned in all the mystic works. As Krishna says in the
Jnaneshvari;
" When this path is beheld . . . whether one sets out to the bloom
of
the east, or to the chambers of the west, without moving, O holder of the
bow,
is the travelling in this road. In this path, to whatever place one would
go,
that place one's own self becomes." " Thou art the path," is
said to the
Adept
Guru, and by the latter to the disciple, after Initiation. " I am the way
and
the path," says another Master.
It
has already been explained (in the commentary on At the Feet of the Master)
that
the thoughts and feelings which are at first difficult to grasp and
maintain
become quite easy in the course of time. When the aspirant has so
trained
and developed himself that the buddhic outlook and response to life
become
perfectly natural and spontaneous to him, we may say he has become the
Path
itself. Sometimes such a consequence
135
of
continued effort and practice is called " second nature ". That
expression,
however,
gives one something of a feeling that the new qualities have been put
on,
and afterwards become habitual. That is unfortunate. It is our original and
best
nature, our higher nature, that shows itself in the higher life; it seems
to
be something new to us only because it has heretofore been obscured by our
material
integuments and the pressure of circumstances in the worlds of our
personal
being.
An
interesting metaphysical truth is indicated in the foot-note. Our evolution
is
not a transit, nor even a growth. It is not a process of going somewhere, nor
an
increase of size. It is an unfoldment of the powers potential in our lives.
As
already stated, in the planes of the ego materiality takes second place, the
powers
of consciousness—-will, "wisdom and activity (or will, love and
thought)—-dominate
almost completely the matter of the planes. Therefore space
is
not the jailor which it is down here, and consciousness need not travel
through
it in order to appear in another place. The following conversation
between
a Guru and his pupil has been related to illustrate this point. The Guru
told
the pupil to walk across the room, and then asked:
"
What were you doing? Were you moving? "
After
meditating upon the matter, the disciple gave the following answer, which
was
declared to be correct:
"
No, I was not moving. I was watching
the body move. I was thinking,
feeling
and willing; the body alone was moving." 1 The Seven Rays.
136
This
fact is true for all of us; we know of the body's motion merely on account
of
observing it by means of the senses, just as we do that of any other object.
The
sensation of rushing along, in an open motor-car, for example, resolves
itself,
when one shuts one's eyes, into an actual feeling of air rushing by, and
a
sense of power which, acting through the imagination, exhilarates the body.
The
same experience could be reproduced by suitable apparatus, composed of wind
and
motion machines, without any transportation of the body. Again, most people
who
have travelled at night in Pullman berths have had the experience of waking
and
wondering whether they were going head first or feet first, or even whether
the
train was moving or not, and they have usually settled the question by
slipping
up the blind and inferring their direction from an observation of
passing
lights and shadows.
The
fact that, in order to go from one place to another, travelling is not
necessary
for the ego, is shown also in the way in which it can simultaneously
appear
in the devachanic images of a number of people in the lower mental plane
in
different parts of the world.
Though,
at the stage of development presupposed in this teaching, the candidate
is
working at the perfection of his personality, at the same time his inner work
is
particularly concerned with the development of buddhi, the spiritual soul. To
put
it in other words, he is climbing through the buddhic plane. Hence his
becoming
the Path is shown in a great development of
137
sympathy and
love for others,
as indicated in the
following verses:
Let
thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart
to
drink the morning son.
Let
not the fierce sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it from
the
sufferer's eye.
But
let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain; nor ever
brush
it off until the pain that caused it is removed.
These
tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the streams that irrigate
the
fields of charity immortal. "Tis on such soil that grows the midnight
blossom
of Buddha, more difficult to find, more rare to view, than is the flower
of
the Vogay tree. It is the seed of freedom from rebirth. It isolates the Arhat
both
from strife and lust, it leads Mm through the fields of being unto the
peace
and bliss known only in the land of silence and non-being.
When
Christ said, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto
the Father, but by me," He declared a mystic truth, for the Christ is one
with
the buddhic aspect of the world-consciousness. There is only one
consciousness;
on full recognition of this fact the Initiate can become an
Arhat—but
unless he goes through that Christ-principle he cannot reach the
Father,
the atma, above. That truth, explained with
S.
John, 14, 6
138
wonderful
inspiration and clarity in Dr. Annie Besant's Esoteric Christianity,
is,
however, only" one aspect of the matter, for the Christ incarnate embodied
the
same principle in his outward life in Palestine, which has moved millions of
men—-because
he did not shrink from pain. Most men try to escape pain as much as
possible,
but Christ accepted his own and added to it that of all other people
as
well. Men who follow the buddhic path instinctively say, when trouble comes
to
them: " Many are suffering; why should I desire to be exempt?" More
than
that,
in the fullness of their sympathy, they feel that other suffering to the
breaking
point, before they reach the serenity of Arhatship, the illumination
that
puts death under them, that makes them glow with the joy of liberty,
whatever
pain may betide. Such liberty would lead to careless rest, could men
have
it before experiencing the suffering of the Christ, in which the pain of
the
cross is as nothing beside that of his compassionate response to the cry of
a
world in pain. Then comes the point at which the man says: " What does it
matter
whether I suffer or not? " His mind is so busy with service that he can
scarcely
attend to himself.
Such
an expression as " the peace and bliss known only in the land of silence
and
non-being" can be understood only by those who are willing to think of
metaphysical
realities. Most of such Oriental expressions as this are based on
the
fundamental idea that the universal God expresses himself as sat, chit and
ananda,
that is, as being, consciousness and bliss.
139
Being
is well understood; people see it all around them; consciousness they also
know
by experience; but happiness they seek. All seek themselves. Happiness is
not
something that we shall gain, obtain and possess; it is our true state of
Self.
But beyond both matter and consciousness is the real inner life, which is
silence
and non-being from the standpoint of the external, and yet is the bliss
of
true being.
Kill
out desire; but if thou killest it, take heed lest from the dead it should
again
arise.
Kill
love of life; but if thou slayest Tanha, let this not be for thirst of life
eternal,
but to replace the fleeting by the everlasting.
Desire
nothing. Chafe not at Karma, nor at nature's changeless laws. But
struggle
only with the personal, the transitory, the evanescent and the
perishable.
Common
desire is the love of external things for the sake of astral or sensuous
enjoyment.
We have already seen that the disciple must not seek the satisfaction
of
such desires, but must give up all the energy of his personality—physical,
emotional,
and mental—to the work of spiritual evolution and the service of the
inner
life in himself and other men.
Tanha
is the root of these desires, because it is the thirst for sentient life.
The
ego on its own plane is far from being fully conscious, but what
consciousness
it has gives it a feeling of great pleasure, and arouses a kind of
hunger
for a fuller realization of life. It is that
340
which
is behind the world's great clamour for a fuller life. As before
explained,
the forces of the higher mental plane pass through the causal body
for
the most part without affecting it in the case of ordinary persons, as the
ego
is not yet developed and trained so as to respond to more than a few of the
vibrations
of its own level. There are no coarse vibrations on that plane, such
as
it can respond to in its younger days, so it descends to the lower planes for
the
sake of feeling more fully alive. For a long time therefore its
consciousness
is most vivid when things of the physical plane are presented to
it,
but later, when the astral nature is awakened, the pleasures of that plane
prove
to be still more intense.
It
is not possible in the physical body to realize how keen are the delights of
the
astral life. So much is that the case that they often turn aside and delay
persons
who have overcome the same sort of pleasure of the physical plane. Yet
that
danger is not great for those who in physical life are definitely seeking
the
things of the Path, if they are persons of advanced type, as they are in a
position
to realize still higher delights, which have a far greater attraction.
The
same thing is true of each plane in turn.
Still,
the disciple must be on guard not to give up the lower pleasures merely
for
the sake of relatively higher ones, but always to keep his eye upon his
ideal
goal, beyond all transitory pleasures. He must not thirst to enjoy the
age-long
pleasures of the heaven-world, but must give up all that is transitory
and
personal. While, on
141
the
one hand, he will not seek to obtain the objects of desire, on the other he
will
not shrink from the lessons that karma places before him; he will not wish
that
his field of experience should be other than it is. He knows that it is
because
nature's laws are unchanging that he can use experience for growth. Were
it
not for the orderly nature of the world, it would be impossible for the
intellect
to grow or for man to use his powers at all. So he has no resentment
against
karma, which is the embodiment of the Law.
Help
nature and work on with her; and nature will regard thee as one of her
creators
and make obeisance.
And
she will open wide before thee the portals of her secret chambers, lay bare
before
thy gaze the treasures hidden in the very depths of her pure virgin
bosom.
Unsullied by the hand of matter, she shows her treasures only to the eye
of
Spirit —the eye which never closes, the eye for which there is no veil in all
her
kingdoms.
Then
will she show thee the means and way, the first gate and the second, the
third,
up to the very seventh. And then, the goal; beyond which lie, bathed in
the
sunlight of the Spirit, glories untold, unseen by any save the eye of the
Soul.
All
students of the material sciences arc familiar with the fact that " nature
is
conquered by obedience ". All the forces that we employ in modern life,
such
as
the pressure of steam or electricity, are examples of our
142
working
with nature. It is perhaps rather unsympathetic to use the word
conquered,
when the fact is that all our power in the world is the result of
harmony
between man and nature. The man in a boat who sets his sail so that he
may
go against the wind is not overcoming the wind, but is harmonizing his
affairs
with its laws. By working with the laws man gains in power, not by
fighting
against them.
The
occultist knows that the same principle is true on every plane, and not only
with
regard to the matter of each world but also to the forms of life that dwell
there,
high or low in the scale of evolution. Therefore the knowledge of
nature's
mechanical laws, which has led to so much power and wealth for mankind,
represents
only one aspect of the harmony that should subsist between the two. A
feeling
of friendly sympathy towards the animal, the plants and even the
minerals,
and towards the nature spirits and the devas, is equally important, if
not
more so, for the progress of man. Nature is composed of life as well as
matter,
and it is through sympathetic feeling that that life becomes known, and
harmonized
with human life. To look upon the world as a place full of forbidding
entities
is the unfortunate custom of our age, but the man who faces life with a
feeling
of kindliness to all living things will not only see and learn more than
others,
but will have a smoother passage on life's sea. There is a tradition in
India
of the " lucky hand " of certain persons who have this sympathy, and
for
whom
plants will grow well when for others they ail. It has also been explained
143
many
times by authorities in occult science that because of his love for all
beings
the true yogi or sannyasi may wander among the mountains and in the
jungle
quite without danger from wild animals or reptiles.
In
ordinary human life this sympathy works in many-ways. The modern business man
knows
that the first requisite for his success is to establish friendliness with
those
with whom he wants to deal. The same quality is necessary for teaching
children,
who often regard grownup people as strange, arbitrary beings, not all
of
their own class, but somewhat foreign, as an earth man might regard one of
Mr.
Wells' fanciful men from Mars. But when sympathy is established, all that
strangeness
goes, and real education becomes possible.
The
nature spirits are in the same position as the children, except that they
are
not dependent upon us and can easily avoid our vicinity, as the more
pleasing
kinds of them usually do when modern civilized man arrives, with his
noisy,
clumsy and cruel ways, and his unclean, repellant aura and cloud of
thought-forms.
It is a fact that were men sympathetic with the other kingdoms,
did
they plant forests and not only destroy them, and did they feel kindly
towards
nature in general, we should enjoy more equable climate and more
successful
cultivation. It must, of course, be said that the modern movement in
favour
of gardens round houses, and trees and flowers even in the roads of our
cities,
all tends in the right direction, and that in special ways of
cultivation
of the earth and of particular flowers and fruits and grains and
trees,
and even animals, men have done much
144
to
help the work of the nature-spirits.
But with more sympathy still better
results
would have accrued.
This
sympathy has occasionally been shown, especially by the poets. Dr.
Rabindranath
Tagore's essays and poems exhibit it in a very high degree; in
fact,
the spread of this quality may be regarded almost as his special
contribution
to modern civilization. Another well known instance is that of the
philosopher
Emerson who, on returning from his winter lecture tours to his home
at
Concord, used to shake hands with the lower branches of his trees. He
declared
that he could feel that the trees were glad at his return, and no doubt
that
quality of sympathy was a great aid to his inspiration.
Men
who live in their gardens, like Luther Burbank of California, often say that
they
are distinctly conscious of the feeling that comes to them from certain
plants
bushes and trees. Men in Canada, whose duty calls them to live constantly
in
the forests—to inspect them, mark trees and do other work—have told me that
they
feel a life in the woods distinct from that elsewhere, that they know that
there
are some places and trees which like men, and others which do not.
Such
sympathy is perfectly natural. If you feel special love and admiration for
a
certain human being, there is a tendency on his part to become interested in
you
and to return the affection. A stage lower, if you are affectionate with an
animal
it becomes strongly attached to you. Still lower, in the vegetable and
mineral
kingdoms, the same rule obtains, though its effects are less obvious.
From
this arises the tradition that flowers and
145
plants
will grow better for some persons than for others, other things being
equal.
It is personal magnetism that calls it out; and that is what at a higher
level
we call affection.
There
is no need to say anything here about the seven gates mentioned in this
passage,
for the whole of the third Fragment of this book is taken up with the
seven
portals, and there we shall study them in detail.
CHAPTER
11 THE ONE ROAD
There
is but one road to the Path; at its very end alone the Voice of the
Silence
can be heard. The ladder by which the candidate ascends is formed of
rungs
of suffering and pain; these can be silenced, only by the voice of virtue.
Woe
then to thee, disciple, if there is one single vice thou hast not left
behind;
for then the ladder will give way and overthrow thee; its foot rests in
the
deep mire of thy sins and failings, and ere thou canst attempt to cross this
wide
abyss of matter thou hast to lave thy feet in waters of renunciation.
Beware
lest thou should'st set a foot still soiled upon the ladder's lowest
rung.
Woe unto him who dares pollute one rung with miry feet. The foul and
viscous
mud will dry, become tenacious, then glue his feet unto the spot; and
like
a bird caught in the wily fowler's lime, he will be stayed from further
progress.
His vices will take shape and drag him down. His sins will raise their
voices,
like as the jackal's laugh and sob after the sun goes down; his thoughts
become
an army, and bear him off a captive slave.
147
C.W.L.—We
have seen, in The Masters and The Path, that there are four ways of
coming
to the beginning of the probationary path: by contact with those •who are
already
on the Path; by deep thought; by hearing and reading the sacred word;
and
by the practice of virtue.1 Then, on the probationary path, there are four
qualifications
to be attained, of which the last is given in At the Feet of the
Master
as Love, and it is said that without this the other qualifications are in
vain.2
This,
then, is the one road to the path proper—the way of love, of unselfishness
in
thought, word and deed.
All
the old selfish habits of body and mind must be overcome, by positive
virtue.
The word virtue as used here cannot mean mere passive goodness or
absence
of wrongdoing; it must be taken in its old meaning of strength. Virtues
are
forms of strength of" the soul. When the soul dominates the personal life
it
will
be seen to be full of such virtue. In the mean time a great battle is
necessary.
In very many cases the candidate for the Path must bring forth all
his
determination to stamp out completely any fault of selfishness that he may
find
in himself in the course of his daily self-examination. This can best be
done
by picturing a scene in which the fault has been exhibited, and then
reconstructing
it in the imagination, so that in it the corresponding virtue is
shown;
then one may dwell on that for a little while, and resolve that
henceforth,
under such circumstances, the virtue, not the fault, will be
expressed.
1
Op. cit., Ch. vi.
2
Volume I, Ch. 24, Liberation, Nirvana and Moksha.
148
It
is sometimes very hard to overcome habitual faults; hence the frequent
mention
of suffering and pain. It gives great pain, for example, to the
drunkard,
to resist "just one more, one last drink ". But if he holds firm to
his
resolves never to take strong drink again, not even once, in time the
suffering
will disappear, and he will know a higher kind of pleasure than that
which
he obtained from the stimulus of drink. It is exactly the same with impure
or
selfish emotions and thoughts; many a man fails because he dwells upon an
unworthy
thought "just once more ". It is just that one that he must give up,
and
refuse to harbour in his mind. To give up their faults people have sometimes
to
suffer great wounds to their pride. In all these cases humility is a great
help,
because it makes men willing to change themselves.
Still,
there are many whose lives have already been considerably purified, who
feel
little or nothing of this pain. It has, indeed been suggested that in this
passage
Aryasanga has exaggerated the suffering. That is not so, but he has
expressed
it in extreme terms, so that no one will meet with suffering on the
Path,
expecting the reverse, and all will be ready to pay toll to the past, to
face
what suffering there is, and to bring it to an end for ever by the practice
of
virtue. We may remember here the encouraging words of the Gita: " Even if
thou
art the most sinful of all sinners, yet shalt thou cross over all sin by
the
raft of wisdom. As the burning fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so doth
the
fire of wisdom reduce all karmas to ashes."1 And again:
Op. cit., iv, 36-37.
149
"
Never doth any
who worketh righteousness, O beloved, tread the
path
of woe."1
The
necessity of getting rid of vices at the very beginning has been emphasized
in
all yoga systems, as mentioned before.2 Only when the virtues were firmly
established
in his character could the student be allowed to pass on to the
later
steps of the Path, including practices of posture, breathing, control of
the
senses and meditation. The reason for this demand is that as the pupil
advances
on the Path the forces of his will and thought become much more
powerful
than ever before, and there will come times when the ego pours his
energy
down into the body. If there be still remnants of any vice in the body
that
energy will give it new strength, so that the fall of the aspirant will be
far
greater than anything that is possible for one not so far advanced. Powers
are
powers, for good or ill, so the candidate should purify himself before
seeking
them, lest he injure others and himself. There is one place on the Path,
just
after the Second Initiation, where the danger is greatest of all,
especially
from the vice of pride, as has been explained at length in The
Masters
and The Path.
Kill
thy desires, Lanoo, make thy vices impotent, ere the first step is taken on
the
solemn journey.
Strangle
thy sins, and make them dumb for ever, before thou dost lift one foot
to
mount the ladder.
1
Ibid., vi, 40. 2 Ante, p.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
.
150
Silence
thy thoughts and fix thy whole attention on thy Master, whom yet thou
dost
not see, but whom thou feelest.
Merge
into one sense thy senses, if thou would'st be secure against the foe.
'Tis
by that sense alone which lies concealed within the hollow of the brain,
that
the steep path which leadeth to thy Master may be disclosed before thy
soul's
dim eyes.
Aryasanga's
repetition of the injunction to get rid of desires and vices shows
the
importance which he attached to this part of the work. Not only are any such
defects
enormously intensified as the powers of the candidate develop, but also
his
responsibility increases, and he becomes capable of making far more karma
than
before.
The
sixth sense, the mind, has its physical organ in the brain. People do not
usually
employ this, when faced by the various objects and experiences of life.
They
live too much in their astral bodies. They "like" certain things, and
"dislike"
others, quite without reason, quite without considering what they are,
and
which are really good and bad, or useful and useless. That will not do, of
course,
for anyone who wants to tread the occult path. He must consider all
things
dispassionately, and revalue them according to their usefulness to the
soul.
In
the brain there are' also the organs by means of which direct perception of
things
beyond the reach of
151
the
physical senses may be had. The pituitary body is a link between the
physical
body and the astral body, and so on. In the same hollow in the brain,
but
a little further back, lies the pineal gland, which is connected directly
with
the mental body, and serves to bring impressions down from the mental
plane.
Some people develop the pituitary body first, some the pineal gland— each
must
follow the method prescribed by his own guru.
Long
and weary is the way before thee, O disciple. One single thought about the
past
that thou hast left behind will drag thee down, and thou wilt have to start
the
climb anew.
Kill
in thyself all memory of past experience. Look not behind or thou art lost.
Once
more we find Aryasanga emphasizing the worst aspect of the matter, so that
none
shall find the path harder than he may have thought it to be before
entering
upon it. Relatively, that path is not long, when one considers that it
is
only the last fourteen lives, out of a series of many hundreds or even
thousands,
which are usually spent between the First and Fifth Initiations.
Further,
in many cases the work of those fourteen lives is done in but few,
taken
consecutively, without devachanic interludes—which makes the time short
indeed.
It
is true that " the road winds uphill all the way", but it need not
necessarily
be weary. It is when one thinks only of the goal that the journey is
weary.
A student entering college will find his three or four yean there
intensely
weary if he is thinking only of getting
152
his
degree and going out into the world with it, and is not really interested in
his
studies. But if he has planned out his work, which will bring him naturally
to
his degree if properly carried out, and if he is really interested in the
subjects
of his study, he may then forget all about the years that lie ahead,
and
may have a fascinating time. So also on the Path the work is full of
interest
for heart and mind, and he who finds it so will make it shorter in fact
as
well as in appearance than he who cares only for reaching a certain
prescribed
goal.
It
is the same in meditation; some who practise it faithfully feel it to be a
tedious
thing, but do it all the same, for the sake of its results. Others find
it
full of interest, and therefore gain much more from it. Let the candidate not
think
of his own progress on the Path; as so often recommended, let him forget
himself
and work for the world, and his progress will take care of itself.
Self-examination
and self-training are necessary, but that is only like
preparing
and oiling machinery; it should not take much time, the work being the
important
thing.
It
is true that sometimes people find it necessary to force themselves at first
along
certain lines of work and thought, or meditation, which they feel that
they
ought to take up. Very well, go on with the dreary task, if such it appears
to
be, and if the motive is pure, you will soon find that the dreariness
departs,
a new interest arises, and the work becomes full of delight.
The
statement that one single thought about the past can drag the candidate
right
down to earth again should certainly give pause to anyone who proposes to
enter
153
the
Path, and yet is unwilling to give up some pet vice, however trifling. It is
not
the act so much as the thought of it that drags one down. Madame Blavatsky
says,
in The Secret Doctrine:
Purity
of mind is of greater importance than purity of body.
. . An act may be performed to which little
or no attention is
paid,
and it is of comparatively small importance.
But if thought
of, dwelt on in the mind, the effect is a thousand
times greater.
The
thoughts must be kept pure.1
I
recollect a story about Colonel Olcott which illustrates this point. A young
man
who much wanted to live the higher life came to him one day and asked him if
he
must give up smoking. The Colonel replied: " Well, if you can't you must,
but
if
you can you needn't." Certainly strength of will and purity of thought are
of
paramount
importance, and there is no progress without them, no matter how clean
the
body; and the Colonel emphasized the fact very successfully. But it might be
added
also that smoking is a dirty habit; it befouls the bodies, and often
causes
much annoyance and discomfort to others. The worst of its dirty
selfishness
physically is that the smoke is made damp with saliva and then sent
off
to enter other people's lungs. It is a horrible feature of modern life that
we
are often compelled to contact and breathe smoke which has been so treated.
As
to the effect of a thought of a quality belonging to the past, Madame
Blavatsky
also says:
The
student must guard his thoughts. Five minutes' thought may undo the work of
five
years; and though the five years' work will be run through more rapidly the
second
time, yet time is lost.*
1
Op. cit., Vol. III, 5
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.
154
A
distinction must be made here between a thought which is merely a floating
form
which has entered the mind, and thought proper, which is a deliberate act.
It
is the latter that can do so much harm. An unworthy thought may drift into
the
mind, but if it is not dwelt upon, encouraged and strengthened, little harm
is
done.
That
one who falls thus may quickly rise again is encouraging. That old Greek
allegory
in which every time that the hero falls to earth, worsted in the
conflict,
he gains new strength from it, applies to man. Better that he should
win
the battle once and for all without falling; but in any case he is destined
to
triumph ultimately. Much may be learned by the intelligent and willing pupil
without
bitter experience, just as one may learn that fire is hot without
putting
one's hand into it; but all that is necessary will be learnt sooner or
later
in one way or another.
Do
not believe that lust can ever be killed out if gratified or satiated, for
this
is an abomination inspired by Mara. It is by feeding vice that it expands
and
waxes strong, like to the worm that fattens on the blossom's heart.
The
rose must re-become the bud, born of its parent stem, before the parasite
has
eaten through its heart and drunk its life-sap.
The
golden tree puts forth its jewel-buds before its trunk is withered by the
storm.
The
pupil must regain the child-state he has lost ere the first sound can fall
upon
his ear.
155
Sir
Edwin Arnold speaks of Mara, as he is understood by the Buddhists, in
vigorous
and graphic terms, in connection with the temptation of Buddha just
before
His
illumination:
But
he who is the Prince Of Darkness, Mara—knowing this was Buddha Who should
deliver
men, and now the hour When he should find the Truth and save the worlds—
Gave
unto all his evil powers command. Wherefore there trooped from every
deepest
pit The fiends who war with Wisdom and the Light, Arati, Trishna, Raga,
and
their crew Of passions, horrors, ignorances, lusts, The brood of gloom and
dread;
all hating Buddh, Seeking to shake his mind.1
Still,
Madame Blavatsky says: " But Mara is also the unconscious quickener of
the
birth of the Spiritual." The resistance that Mara opposes to the aspirant
enables
him to develop his strength. An athlete might move his arms up and down
much
easier without dumbbells than with them, yet he would not develop the same
strength
so quickly, if at all. That even evil is made use of for good was once
illustrated
by the remark of a very spiritual man who took a high Initiation.
For
some time before it he had been terribly maligned, and the important work on
which
he had set his heart had been spoiled. One day someone offered him a word
of
sympathy, which was quite unnecessary, for he said: "The fact is, I owe a
debt
of gratitude to those people who tried to injure me, though I did not
realize
it at the time; for without their aid I should not yet have taken that
Initiation."
An ordinary man would have been full of anger or of depression, but
in
such a man as this 1 The Light of Asia, Book the Sixth.
1
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Mara
calls out an equal strength only of loving sorrow or compassion. Thus may
even
the greatest enemy become our friend while we are in the way with him.
It
is, of course, not the ignorance but the innocence of childhood that is
requisite
for real spiritual progress. Mere goodness is not progress; it is only
preparatory
purification. Progress is the development of the ego on its own
planes,
which, when shown in the personality, appears as strength of
character—in
will and love and thought. In the three stages of the relation of a
pupil
to his Master, it is the third and highest that contains the idea of
childhood,
for he is first a probationary pupil, then an accepted one, and
thirdly
a Son of the Master.
CHAPTER
12 THE LAST STEPS
The
light from the one Master, the one unfading golden light of Spirit, shoots
its
effulgent beams on the disciple from the very first.
Its
rays thread through the thick, dark clouds of matter.
Now
here, now there, these rays illumine it, like sun-sparks light the earth
through
the thick foliage of the jungle growth. But, O disciple, unless the
flesh
is passive, head cool, the Soul as firm and pure as flaming diamond, the
radiance
will not reach the chamber, its sunlight will not warm the heart, nor
will
the mystic sounds of the akashic heights reach the ear, however eager at
the
initial stage.
C.W.L.—As
the sun is always shining behind the clouds, so is the higher self
constantly
shedding its beams on the aspirant. The flashes of inspiration and
intuition
that come now and again into the darkness of our minds in what we call
our
best moments are derived from that
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high
source. It is a wise policy to try to capture those best moments, to hold
them
in imagination, and to dwell upon them in meditation, and thus to bring the
whole
life into that diamond-like condition that is mentioned in the text.
With
reference to the " mystic sounds of the akashic heights " Madame
Blavatsky
adds
the following footnote:
The
mystic sounds, or the melody, heard by the ascetic at the beginning of his
cycle
of meditation, called Anahatashabda by the Yogis. The Anahata is the
fourth
of the Chakras.
The
fourth centre or chakra is that at the heart. When the consciousness is
centred
in the heart during meditation it is most susceptible to the influence
of
the spiritual soul or higher Self. The heart is the centre in the body for
the
higher triad, atma-buddhi-manas. The head is the seat of the
psycho-intellectual
man; it has its various functions in seven cavities,
including
the pituitary body and the pineal gland. He who in concentration can
take
his consciousness from the brain to the heart should be able to unite
kama-manas
to the higher manas, through the lower manas, which, when pure and
free
from kama, is the antahkarana. He will then be in a position to catch some
of
the promptings of the higher triad. That higher consciousness tries to guide
him,
through the conscience; he cannot guide it until he is one with
buddhi-manas.
The foregoing explanation is condensed from notes on some oral
teachings
1
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of
Madame Blavatsky, appended to the third volume of The Secret Doctrine.1
Indian
tradition on the subject says that when kundalini rises she dissolves the
qualities
of the various chakras through which she passes and carries their
essence
upwards. When she reaches the fourth, the heart chakra, the yogi hears
the
sound from above, called anahata-shabda. Shabda is sound; an-ahata means*'
not
beaten "; so it is—that sound which is made without beating things
together.
The
term is therefore symbolical of that which is above the planes of
personality.
The practitioner's touch with the higher triad begins at this
point.
Those who want to increase the contact between the higher and lower manas
should
not dwell in meditation on anything below it. The following meditation,
translated
from the Gheranda Samhita, is one of those prescribed for the heart
centre.
It illustrates the way in which the yogi gradually withdraws his
attention
from his surroundings and concentrates it upon his Ideal.
Let
him find in his heart a broad ocean of nectar,
Within
it a beautiful island of gems, Where the sands are bright golden and
sprinkled
with jewels,
Fair
trees line its shores with a myriad of blooms, And within it rare bushes,
trees,
creepers and rushes,
On
all sides shed fragrance most sweet to the sense.
Who
would taste of the sweetness of divine completeness Should picture therein a
most
wonderful tree,
On
whose far-spreading branches grow fruit of all fancies— The four mighty
Teachings
that hold up the world,
There
the fruit and the flowers know no death and no sorrows, While to them the
bees
hum and soft cuckoos sing.
1
Op. cit., Vol. III, pp. 5
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-4.
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Now,
under the shadow of that peaceful arbour
A
temple of rubies most radiant is seen, And he who shall seek there will find
on
a seat rare,
His
dearly Beloved, enshrined therein, Let him dwell with his mind, as his
Teacher
defines,
On
that Divine Form, with His modes and His signs.1
Unless
thou hear'st thou canst not see. Unless thou seest, thou canst not hear.
To
hear and see, this is the second stage.
We
have already considered the significance of seeing and hearing.2 Unless the
candidate
is responsive to the inner voice, that is, unless he understands
spiritual
laws, he will never see the outer things as they are. He must learn to
look
at the things of matter with the eyes of the spirit, as a Master once
expressed
it. When he sees the material or outward things in that way, he will
more
and more understand the inner voice. This is like the alternation which is
necessary
between meditation and experience. To go through life in a busy way,
without
stopping to meditate upon it, is to miss much of the significance of its
events;
one should spare a little time each day to let the inner light play upon
them.
On the other hand, to shut oneself in one's study and give one's whole
time
to thought would yield little profit; in that wav a man would acquire
endless
misconceptions, for experience is required to correct and enlarge our
meditation.
It is the balanced interplay of the inner and the outer that the
pupil
must seek. He must aim to be
1
See Concentration, Ch. x. 2 Ante, p.
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161
harmonized—to
use the expression repeated again and again in the Gita.
The
inner and outer worlds correspond perfectly to one another, point for point
in
God's system. Says Madame Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine:
In
the realm of hidden forces, an audible sound is but a subjective colour, and
a
perceptible colour, but an inaudible sound.1
Colour
is spoken of here, not form; it makes the statement more accurate, for we
really
see only colours, not forms.
It
is impossible to say with any certainty why this state of hearing and seeing
harmonized
together is called the second stage; We cannot tell what system of
stages
Aryasanga was expounding, for a veil is drawn over his instructions at
this
point. The line of stops marks a missing portion dealing with the third
stage.
When the teaching emerges again (after this hiatus) we find Aryasanga
dealing
with later stages exactly as the Toga Sutras give them, namely (5)
pratyahara,
entire control of the senses, (6) dharana, concentration, (7)
dhyana,
meditation, and (8) samadhi, contemplation.
When
the disciple sees and hears, and when he smells and tastes, eyes closed,
ears
shut, with mouth and nostrils stopped; when the four senses blend and ready
are
to pass into the fifth, that of the inner touch—then into stage the fourth
he
hath passed on.
1
Of. cit, Vol. III, p. 508.
162
There
are some yogis who do literally stop the mouth and nose when going into
meditation
or trance. The fingers are so placed as to keep the eyes, the
nostrils
and the mouth closed, and these men have also trained the tongue so
that
they can turn it upwards and backwards into the cavity above the mouth, and
thus
prevent the inlet of air. This is called khechari mudra, as practised by
certain
hatha yogis. It is not done by the raja yogis, and is not recommended
here.
There is a stage at which the pupil can close his eyes and reproduce
within
himself or experience in the astro-mental region the sensations of smell,
taste,
sight and touch. Now, in order to withdraw himself to a still higher
state
he must attend to the inner touch, which is hearing. By giving his
attention
to the sound within, and tracing it into its finer and finer recesses,
he
brings himself to the point where he may practise pratyahara, the restraint
of
all sensation, the inner as well as the outer, that of the hall of learning
as
well as that of the hall of ignorance. This practice is described in the next
verse:
And
in the fifth, O slayer of thy thoughts, all these again have to be killed
beyond
re-animation.
The
attention is quite commonly withdrawn to a large extent by most people when,
for
example, they are especially interested in a book; they do not then respond
to
the impressions made upon the senses by the various odours, sights and sounds
surrounding
them. To put oneself into that condition at will is pratyahara, and
it
is a preparation for really successful meditation. The
163
killing
beyond re-animation means nothing more than that the senses, like good
dogs,
will lie down when told to do so, and will not get up again until they are
called.
There is a foot-note at this point, as follows:
This
means that in the sixth stage of development which in the occult system, is
Dharana,
every sense as an individual faculty has to be " killed " (or
paralysed)
on this plane, passing into and merging with the seventh sense, the
most
spiritual.
Dharana
is the sixth step of yoga, as given in the Toga Sutras. It is that
concentration
of mind which we have already studied,1 and it follows upon
pratyahara.
Since mind or chitta is regarded as a sixth sense, when dharana is
complete
and that mind thereby ceases to function in relation to the things of
the
external world, intuition, here called the seventh sense, arises. Life
teaches
us in two ways, by tuition that the world gives us, and by intuition,
the
working of the inner self. As men proceed on their evolutionary pilgrimage,
their
intuition increases and they do not depend so much as before on the
instruction
that the world gives. This is only another way of saying that the
man
who uses his inner powers can learn much more from a little experience than
other
men can from a great deal. Because of the activity "of his innate
intelligence
the developed man is able to see the great significance of even
small
things; but the undeveloped mind is full of curiosity. It is constantly
eager
for novelty, because, not being
1
Ante, p. 40.
164
good
at thinking, it soon exhausts the obvious significance of common place
things.
This mind is the one that craves miracles in connection with its
religious
experiences as it is blind to the countless miracles that surround it
all
the time.
Withhold
thy mind from all external objects, all external sights. Withhold
internal
images, lest on thy Soul-light a dark shadow they should cast.
Thou
art now in Dharana, the sixth stage.
In
the practice of concentration it is always necessary to consider both the
external
and the internal sources of interruption. One must prevent the mind
from
taking an interest in any external thing, for if this is not done, the
slightest
sound will awaken its curiosity and spoil the concentration. Also one
must
stop the mind from bringing up within itself images relating to the past or
the
future; during the practice one must be completely uninterested in what
happened
yesterday or what is likely to happen to-morrow. When this
concentration
has been successfully achieved, the next and seventh stage of
practice
begins, which is called dhyana, that: is, meditation.
When
thou hast passed into the seventh, O happy one, thou shalt perceive no more
the
sacred Three, for thou shalt have become that Three thyself. Thyself and
mind,
like twins upon a line, the star which is thy goal burns overhead. The
Three
that dwell in glory and in bliss ineffable, now in the world of Maya have
lost
their names.
165
They
have become one star, the fire which is the Upadhi of the flame.
And
this, O Yogi of success, is what men call Dhyana, the right precursor of
Samadhi.
Passing
from dharana to dhyana, from concentration to meditation, the aspirant
on
this Path enters the buddhic consciousness. That is then " thyself".
The mind
here
spoken of is the higher manas, for the lower manas has been silenced. The
manasic
principle has been raised into that of buddhi, so the two are like "
twins
upon a line ", the two lower corners of a triangle, as is indicated by the
following
footnote:
Every
stage of development in Raja Yoga is symbolized by a geometrical figure.
This
one is the sacred triangle and precedes Dharana. The A is the sign of the
high
chelas, while another kind of triangle is that of high Initiates. It is the
symbol
" I " discoursed upon by Buddha and used by Him as a symbol of the
embodied
form of Tathagata when released from the three methods of the Prajna.
Once
the preliminary and lower stages passed, the disciple sees no more the A
but
the—, the abbreviation of the—, the full septenary. Its true form is not
given
here, as it is almost sure to be pounced upon by some charlatans and
desecrated
in its use for fraudulent purposes.
The
star that burns overhead is the atma. But it refers also, as Madame
Blavatsky
says in another footnote, to the star of Initiation, which shines over
the
head
166
of
the Initiate. As the object to be attained is the Fourth Initiation, that of
the
Arhat, it is the star of that Initiation, which leads to the atmic or
nirvanic
plane, that is his goal.
At
this stage, instead of looking upwards in thought, and regarding the higher
triad
(atma-buddhi-manas) as above oneself, as was the case heretofore, one
finds
oneself to be in the buddhic state, manas being united with buddhi as
manas-taijasi.
The " meditation" of the Initiate at this stage will ultimately
lead
on to a further union of buddhi and atma. Upon the attainment of that union
the
higher triad will have become one star, described in a foot-note as " the
basis,
Upadhi, of the ever unreachable flame, so long as the ascetic is still in
this
life ". The fuel is the personality; the fire is this triple spirit; the
flame
is the Monad. Even the Adept, while remaining in physical incarnation,
does
not enter fully into the state of the Monad. Says Madame Blavatsky:
Dhyana
is the last stage before the final on this earth unless one becomes a
full
Mahatma. As said already, in this state the Raja Yogi is yet spiritually
conscious
of self, and the working of his higher principles. One step more, and
he
will be on the plane beyond the seventh, the fourth according to some
schools.
These, after the practice of Pratyahara—a preliminary training, in
order
to control one's mind and thoughts—count Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, and
embrace
the three under the generic name of Sannyama. Samadhi is
1
-------
the
state in which the ascetic loses the consciousness of every individuality,
including
his own. He becomes the All.
It
is significant that the three should lose their names. They are not forms,
for
their region is that of consciousness. The lower planes of the personality
are
planes of form; then come the planes of name or " meaning ", but the
Monad
is
beyond name, beyond what men call consciousness.
The
text goes on to indicate that, having attained to the practice of samadhi,
the
aspirant has now become an Arhat, and has reached the goal of the endeavour
discussed
in this Fragment.
CHAPTER
13 THE GOAL
And
now thyself is lost in Self, thyself onto Thyself, merged in that Self from
which
thou first didst radiate.
Where
is thy individuality, Lanoo, where the Lanoo himself? It is the spark lost
in
the fire, the drop within the ocean, the ever-present ray become the All and
the
eternal radiance.
And
now, Lanoo, thou art the doer and the witness, the radiator and the
radiation,
light in the sound, and the sound in the light.
C.W.L.—As
a man rises in life to a realization that the personality is merely
"it",
and thus raises his centre of consciousness to the higher Self, so there
comes
the time when he discovers as a fact of experience that that consciousness
is
only "you", not "I".1 When that comes about, at or about
the Fourth
Initiation,
the lower self becomes lost in the true Self, and what the man has
thought
or felt to be his individuality goes. And just as he who has achieved
the
buddhic state recognizes and accepts the Consciousness of others as
1
See ante, pp.
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.
1
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his
own, and feels their joys and sorrows as his own; so now does this man find
only
one true " I " in all.
The
distinction between the realization obtained by the initiate of lower
degree,
and that of the Arhat, between the consciousness of the buddhic plane
and
that of the atmic, has been given in the Bhagavad-Gita. In the former state
the
man sees the same Self equally dwelling in all beings; in the latter he sees
that
all are in the one Self.
This,
according to Toga Sutras, is the state of kaivalya, of " oneness ",
of
freedom,
on the full attainment of which the distinction between seer and seen,
between
subject and object, is destroyed.
Thou
art acquainted with the five impediments, O blessed one. Thou art their
conqueror,
the master of the sixth, deliverer of the four modes of truth.
The
light that falls upon them shines from thyself, O thou who wast disciple,
but
art Teacher now.
And
of these modes of truth:
Hast
thou not passed through knowledge of all misery—truth the first?
Hast
thou not conquered the Maras' king at Tu, the portal of assembling—truth
the
second?
Hast
thou not sin at the third gate destroyed, and truth the third attained?
Hast
thou not entered Tau, the path that leads to knowledge—the fourth truth?
1
-------
Madame
Blavatsky adds:
The
four modes of truth are, in Northern Buddhism: Eu, suffering or misery; Tu,
the
assembling of temptations; Mu, their destructions; and Tau, the Path. The
"
five
impediments " are the knowledge of misery, truth about human frailty,
oppressive
restraints, and the absolute necessity of separation from all the
ties
of passion, and even of desires. The " Path of salvation " is the
last one.
There
are the Four Noble Truths taught to the world by the Lord Buddha. These
were
Sorrow, Sorrow's Cause, Sorrow's Ceasing and the Way. These have been put
before
the Western world with wonderful beauty and accuracy in Sir Edwin
quoted.
But all who seek inspiration on the Path should not fail to read the
whole
work.
Ye
that will tread the
Quiet
smoothes;
Ye
who will take the high Nirvana-way, List the Four Noble Truths.
The
First Truth is of Sorrow. Be not
mocked!
Life
which ye prize is long-drawn agony: Only its pains abide; its pleasures are
As
birds which light and fly.
Ache
of the birth, ache of the helpless days,
Ache
of hot youth and ache of manhood's prime:
Ache
of the chill grey years and choking death, These fill your piteous time.
Sweet
is fond Love, but funeral-flames must kiss
The
breasts which pillow and the lips which cling
Gallant
is warlike Might, but vultures pick The joints of chief and King.
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Beauteous
is Earth, but all its forest-broods Plot mutual slaughter, hungering
to
liv^;
Of
sapphire are the skies, but when men cry Famished, no drops they give.
Ask
of the sick, the mourners, ask of him
Who
tottereth on his staff, lone and forlorn,
"
Liketh thee life? "—these say the babe is wise That weepeth, being born.
The
Second Truth is Sorrow's Cause. What
grief Springs of itself and springs
not
of Desire?
Senses
and things perceived mingle and light Passion's quick spark of fire:
So
flameth Trishna, lust and thirst of things.
Eager
ye cleave to shadows, dote on dreams; A false Self in the midst ye plant,
and
make
A
world around which seems;
Blind
to the heights beyond, deaf of the sound
Of
sweet airs breathed from far past Indra's sky;
Dumb
to the summons of the true life kept For him who false puts by.
So
grow the strifes and lusts which make earth's war, So grieve poor cheated
hearts
and flow salt tears:
So
wax the passions, envies, angers, hates; So years chase blood-stained years
With
wild ted feet. So, where the grain
should grow
Spreads
the biran-weed with its evil root And poisonous blossoms; hardly good
seeds
find
Soil
where to fall and shoot;
And,
drugged with poisonous drink, the soul departs, And, fierce with thirst to
drink,
Karma returns;
Sense-struck
again the sodden Self begins, And new deceits it earns.
The
Third is Sorrow's Ceasing. This is
peace
To
conquer love of self and lust of life, To tear deep-rooted passion from the
breast,
To
still the inward strife;
For
love to clasp Eternal Beauty close;
For
glory to be Lord of self; for pleasure To live beyond the gods; for
countless
wealth
To
lay up lasting treasure
.
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Of
perfect service rendered, duties done
In
charity, soft speech, and stainless days: These riches shall not fade away in
life,
Nor any death dispraise.
Then
Sorrow ends, for Life and Death have ceased How should lamps flicker when
their
oil is spent?
The
old sad count is clear, the new is clean; Thus hath a man content.
The
Fourth Truth is The Way. It openeth
wide Plain for all feet to tread,
easy
and near,
The
Noble Eightfold Path; it goeth straight To peace and refuge. Hear!
Manifold
tracks lead to yon sister-peaks
Around
whose snows the gilded clouds are curled;
By
steep or gentle slopes the climber comes Where breaks that other world.
Strong
limbs may dare the rugged road which storms, Soaring and perilous, the
mountain's
breast;
The
weak must wind from slower ledge to ledge, With many a place of rest.
So
is the Eightfold Path which brings to peace;
By
lower or by upper heights it goes. The firm soul hastes, the feeble
tarries.
All
Will
reach the sunlit snows.1
The
five impediments in the way of the candidate for Arhatship may be taken in
various
forms. They are the five mentioned by Madame Blavatsky in the footnote
just
quoted, or they are the first five fetters, or they are the five kleshas
mentioned
in the Toga Sutras, and already discussed.2
And
now, rest 'neath the Bodhi tree, which is perfection of all knowledge, for,
know,
thou art the master of Samadhi—the state of faultless vision.
1
Op. cit., Book the Eighth. 2 Ante, pp. 49-52.
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Bebold!
thou hast become the light, thou hast become the sound, thou art thy
Master
and thy God. Thou art thyself the object of thy search: the voice
unbroken,
that resounds throughout eternities, exempt from change, the seven
sounds
in one, the Voice of the Silence.
Aura
Tat Sat.
The
termination Aum Tat Sat is one of the Maha-vakyams or " great
sayings" of
the
Hindus. The meaning of Aum we have already considered.1 Tat refers to the
Supreme.
Philosophically, the pronouns he and she are unsuitable to refer to the
Supreme,
so Tat, meaning "That", is employed. Beyond "it" and
"you" is That,
which
is "I". So the expression means that it is That which is the Red. All
good
works
begin and end with this thought.
1
Ante, pp.
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-5.
FRAGMENT
II THE TWO PATHS
CHAPTER
1 THE OPEN GATE
C.W.L.—We
come now to the second Fragment which Madame Blavatsky translated from
The
Book of the Golden Precepts—entitled The Two Paths. This is not necessarily
a
continuation of the first Fragment, called The Voice of the Silence, although
it
does begin by addressing one who has just reached the goal of Arhatship.
There
is nothing to show that the three Fragments stand in any special relation
to
one another. They are to all intents and purposes three separate books
dealing
in much the same manner with the same subject. It is, however, a great
advantage
to the aspirant to hear the teaching about the Path again and again in
slightly
different forms. It renews his enthusiasm, draws attention to points
which
he may have overlooked, and generally gives him breadth of vision.
The
present Fragment begins by addressing one who has just achieved the summit
of
the Path, and the question arises: Will he go onwards into nirvanic bliss,
heedless
of those who remain behind, or will he turn back at the threshold and
help
others who are climbing; will he take liberation for himself, or will he
stay
to help the world ?
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And
now, O Teacher of compassion, point Thou the way to other men. Behold all
those
who, knocking for admission, await in ignorance and darkness to see the
gate
of the sweet Law flung open!
The
voice of the candidates:
Shalt
not Thou, Master of Thine own mercy, reveal the doctrine of the heart?
Shalt
Thou refuse to lead Thy servants unto the Path of liberation?
The
opening paragraph of this Fragment may at first seem a little strange to us
in
these modern days. We are familiar with the thought that the Path is open to
anyone
anywhere, regardless of race, creed, sex, caste or colour, who lives the
life
that is prescribed for it. Why, then, should any people be waiting in
darkness
and ignorance for a gate to be flung open for them?
The
fact is that at the time when the Lord Buddha taught in India, the religion
of
the Brahmanas had become very rigid. Originally, that faith had been
intensely
joyous and free, but in course of time 'the caste system had been
extended
by the priests and rulers to all kinds of details. The plains of India
were
thickly populated with Atlanteans and Atlanto-Lemurians when the Aryans
descended
into the country about ten thousand years B.C. So the Manu found it
necessary
to forbid intermarriage, and about 8,000 B.C. he ordained the caste
system
in order that no further admixture might be made, and that those already
made
might be perpetuated He founded at first only three castes—
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Brahmana,
Rajan and Vish. The first were pure Aryans, the second Aryan and
Toltec,
the third Aryan and Mongolian.
The
castes were hence called the Varnas, or colours— the pure Aryans white, the
Aryan
and Toltec intermixture red, and the Aryan and Mongolian yellow. The
castes
were allowed to intermarry among themselves, but a feeling quickly grew
up
that marriages should be restricted within the caste. Later, those who were
not
Aryan at all were included under the general appellation of Shudras, but
even
here in many cases a certain small amount of Aryan blood may appear. Many
of
the hill tribes are partly Aryan—some few are wholly so, like the Siaposh
people
and the Gipsy tribes.
There
are passages in the Hindu scriptures to show that it was possible for
individuals
of exceptional character and ability to be raised in caste rank, but
it
must have been a very rare occurrence, and certainly for some time before the
advent
of the Lord Buddha it had been generally held that only a Brahmana could
hope
for liberation, and anyone who wished to reach that goal must first
contrive
to be born as a Brahmana. This was not a very hopeful doctrine for the
majority
of the people, since the Brahmanas were never numerous and they did not
allow
the lower caste people to study the sacred books.
But
the Buddha's teaching flung the gates wide open. He taught that equal
respect
should be shown to one of any caste who lived the life, and conversely
that
a Brahmana who does not live the life was not worthy
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of
respect, as in the following verse from
the Vasala-Sutta:
Not
by birth does one become low caste, Not by birth does one become a Brahmana;
By
actions alone one becomes low caste, By his actions alone one becomes a
Brahmana.
Many
Brahmanas have told me that they actually feel the truth of this in
practical
life; they find themselves more drawn to those of lower castes who
live
the ideals of the Brahmana life than to members of their own caste who
neglect
its ideals and live at a lower standard.
The
aim of the Lord Buddha was not to found a new religion, but to reform
Hinduism.
For a time almost all India called itself Buddhist. There were
Buddhist
Hindus just as at present in the north-west there are many who call
themselves
Sikh Hindus. Buddhism as a religion has long vanished from India. But
the
effect that the Lord Buddha desired to produce still remains to a large
extent
in the Hindu religion of the present day. As an instance of this one may
mention
the effect upon animal sacrifices, against which the Buddha spoke very
strongly;
they were very common before his time, but now they are quite rare.
Again,
in India to-day every holy man is regarded with reverence by all,
whatever
may have been his caste before he became a sannyasi. And people all
over
the country respect the Bhagavad-Gita as of the highest authority, yet it
is
a book of the most liberal character. In it the Lord says:
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The
same am I to all beings; there is none hateful to me nor dear. They verily
who
worship me with devotion, they are in me, and I also in them. Even if the
most
sinful worship me, with undivided heart, he too must be accounted
righteous,
for he hath rightly resolved; speedily he becometh dutiful and goeth
to
eternal peace, O Kaunteya; know thou for certain that my devotee perisheth
never.
They who take refuge with me, O Partha, though of the womb of sin, women,
Vaishyas,
even Shudras, they also tread the highest path.1
It
must not be assumed that Shri Krishna is here placing women and others on a
lower
level, but that he is refuting a number of popular superstitions, among
them
the idea that those who are in female bodies are necessarily inferior and
so
cannot succeed in high spiritual aims.
Madame
Blavatsky explains in a footnote that there are two Schools of the
Buddha's
doctrine, the esoteric and the exoteric, respectively called the "
heart"
and the " eye " doctrine, and that the former emanated from the
Buddha's
heart
while the latter was the work of his brain or head. Another interpretation
that
was given to me relates the terms to the eye and heart of the candidate:
the
scheme of things may be learnt by the eye, but the higher path can be
entered
only when the heart is in tune with the inner life.
The
whole passage is based upon an alleged hesitation on the part of the Buddha
as
to whether he should preach. It is said that as he sat under the Bodhi tree
on
the morning following his Illumination, he doubted whether the world would
understand
and follow him, until he heard a voice as of the earth in pain, which
1
Op. cit., ix, 29-32.
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cried:
" Surely I am lost; I and my creatures! " And then, again: "Oh,
Supreme,
let
Thy great Law be uttered!"1
Quoth
the Teacher:
The
paths are two; the great perfections three; six are the virtues that
transform
the body into the tree of knowledge.
To
this Madame Blavatsky adds the following footnote:
The
tree of knowledge is a title given by the followers of the Bodhidharma
(Wisdom
Religion) to those who have attained the height of mystic
knowledge—Adepts.
Nagarjuna, the founder of the Madhyamika School, was called
the
dragon-tree, the dragon standing as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. The
tree
is honoured because it is under the Bodhi (wisdom) tree that Buddha
received
His birth and enlightenment, preached His first sermon, and died.
Swami
T. Subba Row had a somewhat different interpretation of this symbol of a
tree.
He said that the body of the candidate had become a channel of knowledge
(and
we may add of force as well), so that it was one of the twigs on the Tree
which
is the total wisdom of the world. We may add, too, the idea that the
Initiate
is part of the great tree that is the Hierarchy, the Great White
Brotherhood,
that has its roots far up in the
1
The Light of Asia, Book the Seventh.
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higher
planes, and whose branches ramify into every part of human life, and even
down
to the lower kingdoms. Those who have read the later chapters of The
Masters
and The Path will appreciate this ancient symbol of a tree, for there it
is
shown how the Occult Hierarchy branches outward from one great Root.
In
this statement about the two paths, the three great perfections, and the six
virtues,
we have an instance of the methodical character of the Buddha's
teaching.
He always helped his followers to remember his teaching by giving it
to
them in a tabular form. There were, for example, the Four Noble Truths, each
represented
by a single word which would call to recollection a quite definite
set
of ideas. There were also the Noble Eightfold Path, the Ten Sins, classed as
three
of the body, four of speech and three of the mind, and the Twelve Nidanas,
or
successive causes of material life and sorrow for man.
The
transcendental virtues, or Paramitas, are sometimes reckoned as six,
sometimes
seven, but more commonly as ten. When in Ceylon.; I learned of them as
ten
from the High Priest Sumangala: the first six, he said, are perfect charity,
perfect
morality, perfect truth, perfect energy, perfect kindness, and perfect
wisdom;
the other four that are sometimes added especially for the priests are
perfect
patience, perfect resignation, perfect resolution, and perfect
abnegation.
In the Awakening of Faith of Ashvagosha, translated into English by
Teitaro
Suzuki, the Paramitas are thus enumerated: Charity (dana), morality
(sila),
patience (ksanti), energy (virya), meditation (dhyana), wisdom (prajna),
and
the four additional
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ones:
expediency (upaya), prayer or vow (pranidhana), strength (bala), knowledge
(jnana).
In the footnote to the Voice of the Silence, 1
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4 edition, a list taken
from
Eitel's Chinese Buddhism is given thus: charity, morality, patience,
energy,
contemplation and wisdom; and in addition for the priests: use of right
means,
science, pious vows, and force of purpose.
When
in Ceylon I compared the statements of Orientalists with the feelings and
thoughts
of the Buddhists themselves. There is a great difference between the
two,
for the former are generally very wooden, but the latter are full of life.
Yet
the learned monks have an accuracy of knowledge at least equal to that of
the
most erudite Orientalists. Sir Edwin Arnold, in his Light of Asia, has given
a
very remarkably accurate representation of the living side of Buddhism. Some
have
said that he read Christian ideas and feelings into Buddhism, but that was
not
so in the least; I can testify that the sentiments described in the poem
really
exist among the Buddhist people.
Who
shall approach them?
Who
shall first enter them?
Who
shall first hear the doctrine of two paths in one, the truth unveiled about
the
Secret Heart? The law which, shunning learning, teaches wisdom, reveals a
tale
of woe.
Alas,
alas, that all men should possess Alaya, be one with the great Soul, and
that,
possessing it, Alaya should so little avail them!
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Behold
how, like the moon reflected in the tranquil waves, Alaya is reflected by
the
small and the great, is mirrored in the tiniest atoms, yet fails to reach
the
heart of all. Alas, that so few men should profit by the gift, the priceless
boon
of learning truth, the right perception of existing things, the knowledge
of
the non-existent!
The
Secret Heart is the esoteric doctrine. It is a symbol that comes down to us
from
Atlantean days. In the innermost shrine of the great temple in the City of
the
Golden Gate there lay upon the altar a massive golden box in the shape of a
heart,
the secret opening of which was known only to the high priest. This was
called
" the Heart of the World", and signified to them the innermost
mysteries
that
they knew. In it they kept their most sacred objects, and much of their
symbolism
centred around it. They knew that every atom beats as a heart, and
they
considered that the sun had a similar movement, which they connected with
the
sun-spot period. Sometimes one comes across passages in their books which
give
the impression that they knew more than we do in matters of science, though
they
regarded it all from the poetic rather than from the scientific point of
view.
They thought, for example, that the earth breathes and moves, and it is
certainly
true that quite recently scientific men have discovered that there is
a
regular daily displacement of the earth's surface which may be thought of as
corresponding
in a certain way to breathing.
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When
Aryasanga uses the term " secret heart " he also means all the inner
mysteries.
Madame Blavatsky's footnote says:
The
Secret Heart is the esoteric doctrine.
Here
the Teacher by " shunning learning " certainly means that there are
times
when
we must turn our attention away from the mere gaining of knowledge from the
outside
through the senses, that we may give time to the development of the
inner
learning through intuition. We cannot be wise without having sufficient
learning
or knowledge with regard to the things that we have to deal with in the
world,
in our particular sphere of duty; but on the other hand we should be much
in
error if we thought that the greatest thing in life was to accumulate great
stores
of knowledge, or were even to imagine that such knowledge had intrinsic
value,
apart from the use that we can make of it in the service of mankind.
In
the West there is a tendency to approach things and study them from the
outside,
while the Eastern method is rather to consider them from within. Both
methods
are necessary at our present state of evolution. When the buddhic
vehicle
is developed, and intuition comes down into the physical brain from that
level,
it will give us true wisdom, perfect knowledge, but in very few people is
it
yet sufficiently developed.
Even
if we are able to keep our heads among the clouds, it is necessary that our
feet
should rest firmly on the earth, and we must treat impressions coming from
within
with balanced judgment, just as we apply
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common
sense to the experiences of everyday life. This is necessary, because it
is
quite easy to mistake impulses, coining from the astral body, for intuitions
which
come from the higher Self. Sometimes it happens, for example, that a dead
person
seeing that we are interested in some particular point, offers a
suggestion
on the astral plane, and this may come down into the brain and seem
like
intuition. Yet, as a matter of fact, that dead person may be a very
incompetent
observer on the astral plane, and may therefore be giving quite
wrong
information.
This
advice to shun learning is useful not only to those who are on the Path,
but
also to every one who is at all studious, if we take it to mean, as it does,
that
we should avoid mere learning. A great amount of study of the mere outside
of
things often leads to materialism. Because they see around them great
cataclysms,
sacrifice, oppression, sorrow and suffering, and a vast amount of
praying
to which no answer seems to be vouchsafed, many people come to think
that
conflict and struggle is the law of life, that nature is not compassionate.
But
to study the world as fully as possible, all the time regarding it as a
great
school for the life dwelling in its multifarious forms, leads to wisdom,
which
enables one to see that all things are moving together for good. When one
develops
astral and higher forms of vision this fact that all is well is no
longer
a matter to be understood by careful reasoning; it leaps to the eyes. No
one
with such vision could be a materialist.
The
word Alaya means simply a dwelling or house. Esoterically, Madame Blavatsky
says,
it has at least a
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double
meaning, as being both the universal soul, and the Self of an advanced
Adept.
It is the real dwelling or home of man, the universal aspect of that
which
is buddhi in the spiritual triad in man. It is the male or positive aspect
of
the universal soul, the Logos. It is the Over-soul of Emerson, the universal
Higher
Self of all beings. It is what Plato called Nous, a principle free from
matter
yet acting with design, the jivatma of the Hindus, the source of the
divine
creative thought. In other words it is in the Second Logos, the universal
spiritual
soul, of which the buddhi in each man is a ray. That one should have''
knowledge
of the non-existent'' must certainly look strange to those who do not
know
the exact philosophical meaning of the last word. To exist means to stand
outside
of, to have external or objective being. The kind of being that is
called
exist' ence belongs to all the world that is seen as outside ourselves,
but
the indwelling life or consciousness has its own state of being—call it "
istence
" if you like, but not " existence ". Nothing could be more real
than
the
reality of this conscious life, which we also possess because we are part of
the
same Logos—'and that is the " non-existent " of which the aspirant
must gain
knowledge.
Every man is essentially divine; but to realize it he must stand out
of
his own light—then there will be no shadow, no illusion.
CHAPTER
2 HEAD-LEARNING AND SOUL-WISDOM
Saith
the pupil:
O
Teacher, what shall I do to reach to wisdom?
0
wise one, what, to gain perfection?
Search
for the paths. But, O Lanoo, be of clean heart before thou startest on
thy
journey. Before thou takest thy first step, learn to discern the real from
the
false, the ever-fleeting from the everlasting. Learn above all to separate
head-learning
from Soul-wisdom, the " eye " from the " heart " doctrine.
C.W.L.—-There
is nothing that can be said here on the subject of the real and
the
unreal that has not already been dealt with at length in the comment on "
From
the unreal lead me to the real " in At the Feet of the Master.1
Yea,
ignorance is like unto a closed and airless vessel; the Soul a bird shut up
within.
It warbles not, nor can it stir a feather; but the songster mute and
torpid
sits, and of exhaustion dies.
1
Talks on Path of Occultism, Vol. I, Ch. IV.
190
But
even ignorance is better than head-learning with no Soul-wisdom to
illuminate
and guide it.
No
occult progress at all is possible for a man while he is extremely ignorant,
however
much he may be developed in other ways. Without some knowedge of the
Truth,
and of the Path, he will not move in a definite direction. Most people
have
very little knowledge of what it means to be really a man, what are the
qualities
and actions which make for progress and what for retrogression, and
they
have 110 conception of the great destiny to which all are slowly moving.
Therefore
their progress is very, very slow. We have investigated clairvoyantly
as
many as a hundred successive lives of some second class pitris, or men of the
second
grade, and find scarcely any perceptible growth at the end of that
series.
There
is, however, a steady though slow evolution of the whole mass of life
going
on all the time, and the man has shared in this general progress.
Absolutely
he has gone forward, but relatively he has done little. Mr. Sinnett
compared
this advance to that of a person going round and round a tower by a
winding
staircase; he comes to the same position and outlook again and again,
but
every time just a little bit higher than before. It would seem almost as
though
men were being treated a little better than they deserve, for we see that
even
the ignorant man, whose thoughts are selfish in nine cases out of ten, is
advancing
in this way. But the fact is that even a little force directed towards
the
higher things
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is
far more potent than a great deal of force turned towards the lower things.
If
one tenth of a man's thoughts are spiritual he is beyond the average; even in
such
a case the man is taking nine steps backward for one step .forward, but
fortunately
the nine steps backward are very short and the one step forward is
very
long. It takes a bad life to balance good and evil, and to fall back a man
must
be exceptionally bad. Then again, the effect of a little good is very far
reaching
on account of the close association that obtains among men, and he who
sets
it going receives much good karma.
But
if ignorance is a great obstacle to progress, knowledge that is not applied
is
little better; it also does not count for very much. Even if a man is
interested
in occult matters he may stay apparently at the same level life after
life;
for if it is not applied the knowledge does little good. To put knowledge
into
practice is an absolutely necessary condition for rapid progress.
The
seeds of wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless space. To live and reap
experience,
the mind needs breadth and depth and points to draw it towards the
Diamond
Soul. Seek not those points in Maya's realm; but soar beyond illusion,
search
the eternal and the changeless Sat, mistrusting fancy's false
suggestions.
In
her footnote, Madame Blavatsky says that the Diamond Soul, Vajrasattva, is a
title
of the supreme Buddha, the Lord of all mysteries, called Vajradhara and
Adi-Buddha.
In The Secret Doctrine, however.
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she
points out the distinction between Vajrasattva and Vajradhara. Vajra is a
diamond;
sattva in such a connection as this means " by nature", that is, a
character
or soul, so Vajrasattva is one whose nature or character is like a
diamond.
Dhara means holding or bearing, so Vajradhara is one who holds a
diamond.
Avalokiteshvara, " the Lord who is seen", is Vajrasattva, the
Diamond-Soul
or Diamond-Heart, and is the synthetic reality of all the
Dhyani-Buddhas.
The First Logos is Vajradhara or Vajrapani, the Diamond-Holder,
or
the Diamond-Handed One, also called Dorjechang in Tibetan. He is the one
beyond
all conditioning or manifestation, but He sends into the world of
subjective
manifestation, the expression of His Heart—Vajrasattva or Dorjesempa,
the
Second Logos.1
That
there should be special points required to draw the candidate into full
touch
with That is analogous to what we have seen in the process of
individualization
of an animal. In this case, the points are the finer qualities
that
it develops, such as affection and devotion, by means of which it reaches
up
into the human condition of consciousness. The mind of man must also put out
special
points in order that it may unite with the Soul, and for the Initiate
those
points must rise up into buddhi, which is the principle in the
reincarnating
self corresponding to the Vajrasattva at a still higher level.
Swami T. Subba Row said that it referred to the
atma drawing the ego into the
Monad.
The same simile can thus be employed at many different levels. 1 See
Ante,
pp.
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-4.
HEAD-LEARNING AND
SOUL-WISDOM 1
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For
mind is like a mirror; it gathers dost while it reflects.
This,
says Madame Blavatsky, is from the doctrine of Shin-Sien, who taught that
the
human mind is like a mirror which attracts and reflects every atom of dust,
and
has to be, like that mirror, watched over and dusted every day. Shin-Sien
was
the sixth patriarch of North China, who taught the esoteric doctrine of
Bodhidharma.
In The Secret Doctrine she explains the position of Bodhidharma, as
follows:
When
the misuse of dogmatical orthodox Buddhist Scriptures had reached its
climax,
and the true spirit of the Buddha's philosophy was nearly lost, several
reformers
appeared from India, who established an oral teaching. Such were
Bodhidharma
and Nagarjuna, the authors of the most important works of the
Contemplative
School in China during the first centuries of our era.1
The
dust on the mirror typifies the prejudices, illusions and fancies which are
in
the astral and mental bodies; these are clearly visible to the sight of the
respective
planes as decided obstacles to better thought or feeling. The effects
of
these impediments and the means to get rid of them we have already considered
carefully
in the talks on At the Feet of the Master2
It
needs the gentle breezes of Soul-wisdom to brush away the dust of our
illusions.
Seek, O beginner, to blend thy mind and Soul.
Shun
ignorance and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions;
mistrust
thy
1
Op. cit., Adyar Ed., Vol. v. p. 410.
2
Ante, Vol. I, Part 4, Chapter 1, Control of Mind.
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senses;
they are false. Bat within thy body—the shrine of thy sensations—seek in
the
impersonal for the Eternal Man; and having sought him out, look inward: thou
art
Buddha.
Common
experience tells us that the senses must be mistrusted. The impressions
of
sight, for example, must be corrected by careful study of the facts, and
judgment
about them, as in the matter of the apparent movement of the sun round
the
earth. Care must be taken, however, not to read into this statement the idea
that
the senses are not to be used. They must be employed on every plane for the
gaining
of knowledge, and for doing the work and duty without which there is no
progress.
The
eternal man is the reincarnating ego, whose life is age-long as compared
with
that of the personality, persisting as it does through our complete series
of
human births and deaths.
The
word Buddha is used in three distinct senses. Sometimes, as in this case, it
means
simply enlightened, illuminated, or wise. Sometimes it is used as a name
for
the Lord Gautama. In other cases it means the high office in the Occult
Hierarchy
of the Head of the Second Ray, the great department of teaching and
religion,
which has been described in The Masters and the Path. The Buddhists
have
a list of twenty-four Buddhas, of whom the present holder of the office is
the
Lord Gautama, who will be succeeded in the far future by the Lord Maitreya.
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Shun
praise, O devotee: praise leads to self-delusion. Thy body is not Self, thy
Self
is in itself without a body, and either praise or blame affects it not.
Self-gratulation,
O disciple, is like unto a lofty tower, up which a haughty
fool
has climbed. Thereon he sits in prideful solitude and unperceived by any
but
himself.
Very
many men have been spoiled by undue praise; it leads to pride in all who do
not
see clearly what lies ahead of them or above them. Those pupils who are
sufficiently
clairvoyant to see the Masters frequently are not so prone to this
danger
as many others are, because they cannot but compare their own littleness
with
the Master's greatness, their own farthing rushlight with His glorious
sunlight.
It is the man who is looking downward, and comparing himself with
those
who are beneath himself, who is most likely to fall through pride.
But
the best way of all is not to think of oneself, but to be constantly
occupied
with the work of the Master. There is for all of us every day far more
of
that to be done than we can possibly accomplish; and it is only taking energy
and
time away from that if we spend it in thinking about our little selves.
There
are no doubt several reasons why the Masters do not show themselves more
than
they do to those who are in the earlier stages of their service. One of
these
is that the pupil, seeing the Master so far above him, might be
overwhelmed
with his own, insignificance and lose confidence in his
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own
ability to work for the Master. So, while it is necessary to avoid pride on
the
one hand, one must equally avoid the under-estimation of one's powers on the
other.
Here, as ever, the middle path is the right one.
The
simile of a tower is indeed a good one, for pride does shut a man away from
his
fellows. If, for example, he is proud of his learning, he will he anxious to
keep
others more ignorant than himself, so as to enjoy his superior position,
and
even when he does give out his knowledge it will only be for the sake of
displaying
it. Such a man is engaged all the time in enlarging the gulf between
himself
and other people, so that he may look down on them from above.
False
learning is rejected by the wise, and scattered to the winds by the Good
Law.
Its wheel revolves for all, the humble and the proud. The doctrine of the
eye
is for the crowd; the doctrine of the heart for the elect. The first repeat
in
pride: " Behold, I know "; the last, they who in humbleness have
garnered
low,
confess: "Thus have I heard."
Every
religion in course of time gathers round itself many speculations and
other
accretions. For example, in Hinduism, in the Puranas one reads of dozens
of
things that people are told that they must do or must not do; many of those
have
been invented by the priests, either for • their own convenience and
advantage
or because of an excessive estimation of the value of many
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prayers
and ceremonies. Also particular interpretations of earlier sayings are
developed
into dogmas and attached to the original teaching, as, for instance,
the
horrible eternal hell teaching which still persists among many Christians.
The
esoteric teaching at once scatters these to the winds, as it brings the
attention
back to the essential and vital truths. Still, to act from the heart
is
the way only of a strong and advanced man. For the masses, wandering slowly
along
the broad road of evolution which winds gently up the hillside, the books
are
still the main guide. Those people are not yet in the position that is
described
as follows in the Garuda Purana: "Having practised the Vedas and the
Shastras,
and having known the Truth, the wise man can abandon all the
scriptures,
just as one rich in grains abandons the straw."
Every
Buddhist scripture begins with, " Thus says ------", or, " Thus
have I
heard."
It is a humble beginning. It does not say, " This is absolutely so, and
you
must believe it," but, " This is what has been said, and it would be
well to
try
to understand it, and so come to a knowledge of the real facts." It is the
attitude
of enquiry, not of dogmatism. Yet, strange to say, there have been
those
who have taken it in another, and quite a wrong sense. They say, " It is
no
use propounding anything different on this subject, for thus it has been said
with
authority "!
"
Great Sifter " is the name of the heart doctrine, O disciple.
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The
wheel of the Good Law moves swiftly on. It grinds by night and day. The
worthless
husks it drives out from the golden grain, the refuse from the floor.
The
hand of Karma guides the wheel; the revolutions mark the beatings of the
karmic
heart.
True
knowledge is the flour, false learning is the husk. If thou wonld'st eat
the
bread of wisdom, thy flour thou hast to knead with Amrita's clear waters.
But
if thou kneadest busks with Maya's dew, thou canst create but food for the
black
doves of death, the birds of birth, decay and sorrow.
The
heart doctrine is called the Great Sifter because as one works in the world
in
the manner which it directs, the mistakes one makes and the defects one has
are
gradually sifted out and removed. If one were doing work without the ideals
of
the inner doctrine, one might go on making the same kind of mistakes again
and
again, life after life. Madame Blavatsky somewhere wrote that it was one
thing
to desire to do good, and another to know what is good to do. Yet, with
our
imperfect knowledge, we must go forth and do the best we can. It is
something
like learning a language. It is a mistake to try to learn it quite
perfectly
from books before one makes any attempt to speak it; one must plunge
into
it, and make mistakes in it, and in the effort one will learn in due course
to
speak without mistakes. But that will come about, of course, only if one
converses
in it with others who already know the language correctly.
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Similarly
the Master, though he may be unseen, will guide the pupil who is
sincerely
trying to do his best, into the experiences that will sift out his
faults
and mistakes. Keep in mind the conviction that the final good will
inevitably
come, and let the heart be full of love; then you may work without
fear
of mistakes. They will become smaller and smaller, and fewer and fewer, and
will
eventually die away.
There
is a moral to be drawn from the analogy of flour and bread. The true
knowledge
that you gain does not give you bread, but merely the flour with which
the
bread of wisdom has to be made. The kneading is the action of the higher
Self,
which works upon experiences and converts them into real wisdom. In
ordinary
men most of this kneading is done during the devachanic period, but the
pupil
of the Master has so broadened the channel between the higher and the
lower
self that he is gaining wisdom all the time.
He
who takes only external knowledge, and studies it over with the lower mind,
in
the light of mere personal necessity and pleasures, is certainly kneading
husks
with maya's dew. He is not preparing for the triumph of the higher Self;
he
is not treading the Path, but is preparing the karma of future births and
deaths,
for the future vehicles and personalities that will decay and die.
CHAPTER
3 THE LIFE OF ACTION
If
thou art told that to become Arhan thou hast to cease to love all beings—tell
them
they lie.
If
thou art told that to gain liberation thou hast to hate thy mother and
disregard
thy son; to disavow thy father and call him householder; for man and
beast
all pity to renounce—tell them their tongue is false.
Thus
teach the Tirthikas, the unbelievers.
If
thou art taught that sin is born of action and bliss of absolute inaction,
then
tell them that they err. Non-permanence of human action, deliverance of
mind
from thraldom by the cessation of sin and faults, are not for Deva Egos.
Thus
saith the doctrine of the heart.
C.W.L.—-To
call a man a householder is to say that his interests are still
centred
in worldly things, but to do this with contempt, as is implied in the
text,
would certainly indicate the proud and austere qualities of the left-hand
path,
leading up to the heights of the black magicians, who regard the best of
human
love as nothing but mere sentimentality. Even though the candidate
201
may
have risen above personal desires, he cannot despise those who are still at
the
earlier stage of evolution, nor can he ignore them. Compassion and eagerness
to
help are the qualities of his nature.
That
the expression householder must be taken in a metaphorical sense is
indicated
in a footnote by Madame Blavatsky, as follows:
Rathapala,
the great Arhat, thus addresses his father in the legend called
Rathapala
Sutrasanne. But as all such legends are allegorical (e.g., Rathapala's
father
had a mansion With seven doors) hence the reproof to those who accept
them
literally.
Madame
Blavatsky describes the Tirthikas as " ascetic Brahmanas, visiting holy
shrines,
especially sacred bathing-places." A Tirtha is literally a "
crossing-place
". It is thus a landing or bathing place, or any shrine, which is
a
crossing place to the other worlds or the higher life. A shrine is thus a
place
where there is a special connection between the inner and the outer
worlds.
Probably the orthodox Brahmanas and Hindus in general who visit such
Tirthas
as, for example, Benares or Hardwar, were called unbelievers because
they
did not in most cases follow the Buddha in His assertion that " within
oneself
deliverance must be sought."
In
the talks on At the Feet of the Master we have considered at length the
necessity
for action, and how there may be intense activity of the body, and yet
the
202
man
within may be calm, steady, serene and strong. The Deva Egos means the
reincarnating
egos, according; to Madame Blavatsky, but Swami T. Subba Row
explained
the term as meaning those who aspire to work with the Devas and for
the
helping of the world.
The
teaching of the Book of the Golden Precepts is obviously intended for those
who
wish to follow that line of work. At present there are not very many egos in
incarnation
who are ready for special teaching and training—it would be of
little
use, for example, to seek among the dwellers in the east end of London
for
people who are ready to become pupils of the Masters. But as time goes on
the
numbers requiring attention will increase very rapidly, and within a few
hundred
years-there must be many Arhats prepared to teach them. Thus a large
number
of helpers will be needed, and it is to that work that many of us are
called.
The
Dharma of the eye is the embodiment of the external and the non-existing.
The
Dharma of the heart is the embodiment of Bodhi, the permanent and
everlasting.
The
word dharma may here be translated " form of religion " or "
belief", and
bodhi
is simply " wisdom".
The
lamp burns bright when wick and oil are clean. To make them clean a cleaner
is
required. The flame feels not the process of the cleaning. " The branches
of
a
tree are shaken by the wind; the trunk remains unmoved."
THE LIFE
OF ACTION
203
Both
action and inaction may find room in thee; thy body agitated, thy mind
tranquil,
thy Soul as limpid as a mountain lake.
Whatever
suffering there may be on the path of progress is experienced only by
the
lower self. The Self seated within knows the value even of the painful
experience
and is therefore quite satisfied. Many people do not understand that
suffering
is very largely a question of attitude; in Esoteric Christianity Dr.
Annie
Besant has explained how some of the great martyrs were filled with joy
while
undergoing what would be terrible pain to others, because they were
thinking
of the great honour that was theirs to suffer so for the sake of their
Lord.
So it is true that at last wrong ideas or ignorance are the basis of all
suffering.
Physical
suffering is the most difficult to deal with. We may be able sometimes
to
draw away from the physical body when it is in pain, but that does not mean
that
we have conquered the pain. If it is the result of a particular disease in
which
a microbe has to run its course, no amount of assertion will enable an
ordinary
person to drive it away; but in all cases a cheerful attitude makes a
big
difference. Most people can conquer astral pain, if they set themselves the
task;
they can refuse to permit their feelings to dwell upon the idea that gives
them
sorrow. Undesirable-emotions, such as jealousy, envy, pride and fear, may
be
described as astral diseases; they can always be eradicated by persistent
effort
to feel the opposite emotions. Mental suffering, chiefly worry, is even
easier
to control.
204
In
the causal body a man might have an uneasy sense of incompleteness or
insufficiency—but
nothing more than that. Though he may feel disappointment at
the
defects of his lower representative, he knows enough to be patient and to
persevere.
He is not ignorant; but it is ignorance that makes our suffering so
poignant
down here. In childhood, when we were still more ignorant, a trouble
lasting
one day seemed a terrible tragedy; if we failed to pass an examination
the
idea of waiting a whole year for the next opportunity seemed to us a
calamity,
though in later life a year does not seem a long period of time. To
the
personality a life's failure may .seem a tragedy, but to the ego, who has
known
hundreds or thousands of incarnations, it may not appear so vastly
important.
The
ego has put ;down a personality much as a fisherman makes a cast. He does
not
expect that every cast "will be successful, and he is not deeply troubled
if
one
proves a failure. To look after a personality is only one of his activities,
so
he may very well console himself with successes in other lines of activity.
In
any case, it is the loss of a day, and he may say, " Oh, well, we will
hope
to
do better tomorrow." Often the personality would like more attention from
the
ego
above him, and he may be sure that he will receive it as soon as he deserves
it,
as soon as the ego finds it worth while. Mr. Sinnett put forward this desire
of
the personality in a humorous way by saying that what was needed was a school
for
teaching egos to pay attention to their personalities.
205
One
stage further on, in the buddhic plane, the man begins to touch the
intensity
of bliss that is the life of the Logos. At the same time he comes
closer
into touch with other men; on the lower planes he begins to share their
suffering,
but on the higher side he knows them as sparks of the divine, and
that
gives indescribable bliss, which makes the suffering seem as naught. Thus
sorrow
and suffering are for the personality only, and they exist merely while
the
consciousness is fixed in the lower planes.
Would'st
thou become a Yogi of time's circle? Then, O Lanoo:
Believe
thou not that sitting in dark forests, in proud seclusion and apart from
men;
believe thou not that life on roots and plants, that thirst assuaged with
snow
from the great Range—believe thou not, O devotee, that this will lead thee
to
the goal of final liberation.
Think
not that breaking bone, that rending flesh and muscle unites thee to thy
silent
Self. Think not that when the sins of thy gross form are conquered, O
victim
of thy shadows, thy duty is accomplished by nature and by man.
Aryasanga
is here once more preaching against the seeking of liberation as mere
escape
from the wheel of births and deaths. The yogi of time's circle is the one
who
is willing to remain within the process of time, for the sake of helping
others.
When one considers the
206
vast
period of time for which the Lord Buddha and the Lord Maitreya had been
preparing
themselves for their great work, which has been explained in The
Masters
and the Path,1 one cannot but feel oppressed by the thought of such
enormous
periods of incarnate existence. Undoubtedly, however, time cannot be to
them
exactly what it is to us. Even if "a thousand ages in Thy sight are like
ah
evening
gone " does not apply to Them, Their sense of time must be vastly
different
from ours. Certainly They are also intensely happy in Their work, and
where
there is happiness, as everybody knows by experience, time is of no
account-—in
fact, under those circumstances we always wish that it could be
lengthened.
Very
wrong ideas have arisen in most of the religions on the subject of
asceticism.
In the original Greek the word asketes meant simply one who
exercises
himself as an athlete does. But ecclesiasticism impounded the word and
changed
its sense, applying it to the practice of self-denial in various ways
for
the purpose of spiritual progress, on the theory that the bodily nature with
its
passions and desires has been the stronghold of the evil inherent in man
since
the fall of Adam, and that it must therefore be suppressed by fasting and
penance.
In the Oriental religions we sometimes encounter a similar idea, based
on
the conception of matter as essentially evil, and following from that the
deduction
that an approach to ideal good or an escape from the miseries of
existence
can be effected only by subduing or torturing the body.
1
Op. cit., Ch. xiv.
207
In
both these theories there is dire confusion of thought. The body and its
desires
are not in themselves evil or good, but it is true that before real
progress
can be made they must be brought under the control of the higher Self
within.
To govern the body is necessary, but to torture it is foolish.
There
appears to be a widespread delusion that to be really good one must always
be
uncomfortable-—that discomfort in itself is directly pleasing to the Logos.
Nothing
can be more grotesque than this idea. In Europe this unfortunately
common
theory is one of the many horrible legacies left by the ghastly blasphemy
of
Calvinism. I myself have actually heard a child say: " I feel so happy
that I
am
sure I must be very wicked " —a truly awful result of criminally distorted
teaching.
Another
reason- for the gospel of the uncomfortable is a confusion of cause and
effect.
It is observed that the really advanced person is simple in his habits
and
often careless about a large number of minor luxuries that are considered
important
and really necessary by the ordinary man. But such carelessness about
luxury
is the effect, not the cause of his advancement. He does not trouble
himself
about these small matters because he has largely outgrown them and they
no
longer interest him—not in the least because he considers them as wrong; and
one
who, while still craving for them, imitates him in abstaining from them does
not
thereby become advanced.
It
is true that our duty to the world is not accomplished when we have purified
ourselves.
Then
208
indeed
does it become really possible for us to do our best work for our fellow
men,
and since in the higher life the maxim " From, each according to his
power,
to
each according to his need " prevails, our most serious duty begins at
this
point,
when the shadows, the lower bodies, have been mastered.
The
silent Self in this passage, refers, says Madame Blavatsky, to the seventh
principle,
which is atma. Our studies in the first Fragment have already shown
how
this idea of silence is attached to that part of the higher Self.
The
blessed ones have scorned to do so. The Lion of the Law, the Lord of Mercy,
perceiving
the true cause of human woe, immediately forsook the sweet but
selfish
rest of quiet wilds. From Aranyaka he became the Teacher of mankind.
After
Julai had entered the Nirvana, he preached on mount and plain, and held
discourses
in the cities, to Devas, men and Gods.
All
the Northern and Southern Buddhist traditions agree in the statement that
the
Buddha quitted His solitude as soon as He had reached inner enlightenment
and
had solved the problem of life, and that He at once began teaching publicly.
The
term Aranyaka means a forest dweller. The books relate that Gautama went
into
the forest in order to meditate, and there He seated Himself under the
bodhi
tree and resolved to attain illumination. When that was achieved, He
considered
whether He would give His
209
teaching
to the world; he knew that most of the people would not understand it,
and
that it might therefore do harm.- But then, as was remarked at the beginning
of
our study of this Fragment, the voice of the earth came to him, and begged
him
to teach. I do not know exactly what was meant by the voice of the earth,
but
it is said that that led him to decide to teach mankind on the physical
plane.
In
this passage there are several titles given to the Buddha. He is called
Julai.
That is the Chinese name for Tathagata, which is the title given to every
Buddha.
Tathagata means literally " he who has gone likewise", he has
followed
in
the steps of his predecessors.
It
is a fact that when the Buddha preached, others besides men gathered round to
listen
to his teaching and enjoy his aura.
Sow
kindly acts and thou shalt reap their fruit. Inaction in a deed of mercy is
action
in a deadly sin.
I
have already quoted this in commenting on At the Feet of the Master. Each man
has
the responsibility for exercising the powers of consciousness that he has so
far
developed. If he fails to exert himself and neglects to use them, he is
guilty
of sins of omission, which are just as serious as sins of commission. For
example,
it is our duty to interfere, when we can do so without doing more harm
than
good, in cases of wrong or cruelty, such as cruelty to animals or children.
The
wise man, seeing such things, will not let indignation master him.
210
He
must feel also for the man who is guilty of the cruelty. His state is. in
many
ways more pitiable than that of his victim, and he will have to suffer in
turn,
on account of karmic law. So, if we can induce him to see the error of his
ways
and stop his cruelty, we have done good to both. When it is our duty to
interfere,
and we fail to do so, we share the karma of the wrong doing. The same
is
true when we allow others to injure ourselves, without resistance. We are
making
it easy for them to do wrong; we are tempting them, and assisting them,
and
the karma is partly ours.
Thus
saith the Sage:
Shalt
thou abstain from action? Not so shall thy Soul gain her freedom. To reach
Nirvana
one mast reach Self-knowledge, and Self-knowledge is of loving deeds the
child.
It
is not until we begin to work for others that we can acquire real knowledge
of
life. In the attempt we learn where we stand, and what qualities must be
developed.
There was an old blind man living in the south of India, who said
that
his blindness had been indirectly a source of great happiness to him. He
was
also in the deepest poverty, and had spent his life in wandering from
village
to village, where he used to advise the people in their difficulties,
and
also assist them in some cases with his yoga powers. He used to tell how, by
meditation,
he had managed to awaken the memory of his past lives; and he
remembered
that, some hundreds of years before, he had been a very rich and
powerful
man, and had used
211
his
power to injure those who happened to do what he did not like. He recognized
that
his blindness and poverty were due to his wrong deeds in that former life.
He
said he was sure that if he had gone on being a rich man he might never have
learned
to love his fellows, as he had been quite set in a selfish path of life.
But
now he had had to mingle with others, most of whom knew suffering; they had
been
very kind to him, and he had learned to love them. The happiness of that
love,
he said, as compared with his previous condition, was something so great
and
incomparable that no suffering was in his opinion too great to purchase it.
This
man claimed to be a pupil of one of our Masters, and lie certainly was an
illustration
of the teaching that self-knowledge is of loving deeds the child.
Have
patience, candidate, as one who fears, no failure, courts no success. Fix
thy
Soul's gaze upon the star whose ray thou art, the flaming star that shines
within
the lightless depths of ever-being, the boundless fields of the unknown.
The
disciple fears no failure because he knows that the plan of the Logos will
be
carried out; no one's failure can make any difference to that. We may have
the
opportunity to do a piece of His work. If we should fail to do it, it will
be
done in some other way through someone else. It makes no difference to the
Logos,
though it may make a very great difference to ourselves. It happens
constantly
that people miss their opportunities, but the great plans are made in
view
of every
212
contingency.
Our Masters never appear to notice when we lose an opportunity, but
I
think that they are quite aware of it. Madame Blavatsky used sometimes to say
about
some person: " He has earned the right to have his chance." The
Masters
always
assume that we are going to take our opportunities.
The
student who has tried to do some good work and has found the opposing forces
too
great for him, will not be disappointed or lose patience if he understands
that
all efforts put forth for good must produce a proportionate result in some
way,
though the results may be unseen and though there may be for the
personality
none of the satisfaction which conies from seeing the good that has
been
done. It is the same in the case of astral work at night. That work is none
the
less good and effective when done by those who are not able to bring any
memory
of it back into the physical brain. The laws of nature do not cease to
operate
because we cannot see the result, or do not remember what we have done.
Usually
the people who have done the greatest work in the world do not see the
result
of it. Take, for instance, the example of the Christ's three years of
preaching.
He died as a malefactor, execrated by the populace, and at his death
the
number of his followers was only a hundred and twenty; now there are many
millions.
William Wilberforce, who worked steadily for over forty years against
the
greatest odds for the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies, heard
only
three days before his death that total abolition of slavery had at last
become
law. Impatience and depression would
213
have
lost his cause. We are all in the same position, in our lesser ways. There
is
none who cannot take up some good work, and push on with it with tireless and
endless
patience, regardless of immediate success or failure.
"
The star whose ray thou art " is always that which shines above us; for
one it
is
the Ego, for another, more advanced, the Monad, and so on to the Planetary
Logos,
and even the Logos of our system. To know our own star is also to know
the
ray to which we belong—which of the seven great rays is the one that
especially
connects us with the Logos. These seven rays are indicated in the
chapter
dealing with the Ghohans of the Rays in The Masters and the Path, and
also
in The Seven Rays, by Prof. Ernest Wood. When the higher self is the master
of
the personality, it becomes possible for the disciple to specialize in the
work
of the ray to which that higher self belongs, and then he can make very
rapid
progress in power and usefulness.
Have
perseverance as one who doth for evermore endure. Thy shadows live and
vanish;
that which in thee shall live for ever, that which in thee knows (for it
is
knowledge) is not of fleeting life: it is the Man that was, that is, and will
be,
for whom the hour shall never strike.
Besides
patience we need perseverance, and nothing can develop this quality in
us
better than a clear perception of the fact that we endure all through the
ages,
and that death is only a passing incident, with no power to deflect us
from
our path. Sometimes people say: " Why
214
should
I take up such and such work? I cannot possibly finish it in this life."
But
the fact is that there is only one real life-time—that of the ego, which
endures
for ever, for all practical purposes. It is wise to begin any work in
which
you are interested, or the great task of eliminating faults, even in old
age,
for all the good that is done is carried forward to the next body, and in
it
the impulse to continue the work will be felt while it is young. If one
postpones
the work to a future life, once more old age may arrive before one has
the
opportunity that will draw attention to it. If you are now ninety, and you
have
just heard of Theosophy, and you want to hear of it in your youth in your
next
life, throw yourself into it now with whatever vigour you may have. There
is
also the great benefit to be derived from the stay in devachan (unless you
happen
to be one of those who have the privilege of being able to renounce that
period)
for in that state whatever work you have done is dwelt upon and worked
up
into faculty which will be a great help in the next incarnation.
Perseverance
is necessary also because no great work can be completed in a short
time.
Think, for example, of the artist who is painting a great picture; he will
have
very little to show for it in the first few days, perhaps even weeks, and
it
is also quite possible that he may not be pleased with what he has been able
to
achieve at the end of a few weeks, so that he has to begin all over again.
A
very useful lesson in perseverance may be derived from a study of the history
of
the Theosophical Society
215
in
the early days. The two great founders, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott,
could
not have succeeded in establishing the Society permanently, and giving it
the
material for future growth, had they not had a clear vision of the inner
side
of things, a realization that their work was part of a plan lasting
throughout
eternity, and was therefore sure to succeed. They founded the Society
in
New York in 18
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
, and worked prodigiously at Isis Unveiled, which was duly
published.
Still, some five years later they were almost alone in the work, and
they
found it necessary to go to India, to some friends there, to make a new
start.
Even then there were endlessly varied troubles, year after year, which
would
have crushed almost anybody else. Madame Blavatsky, with a body seldom
free
from pain, could still work tirelessly, could produce The Secret Doctrine
and
other great works, because of her knowledge of the Masters and the inner
side
of things.
CHAPTER
4 THE SECRET PATH
If
thou would'st reap sweet peace and rest, disciple, sow with the seeds of
merit
the fields of future harvests.
Accept
the woes of birth.
C.W.L.—Aryasanga
is all-the time endeavouring to persuade the disciple to follow
the
higher path of renunciation, and not to accept the peace of nirvana. Life in
the
atmic or nirvanic plane has been defined as rest in omniscience, but we must
understand
that it is rest only in the sense that there is no consciousness of
exertion
followed by fatigue. There is on that plane the most tremendous
activity;
that is the very essence of the nature of being on that plane, as I
have
already tried to explain.1
People
want rest because they feel fatigue, but when one is out of the body in
full
consciousness one finds that the fatigue is gone, and then one no longer
desires
rest. In such conditions we look upon rest rather as we do upon death
down
here; we do not want less but more of the power and energy that we enjoy.
The
Solar Logos 1 Ante, p.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
.
217
does
not rest, even for a moment. If He did so, even for a second, we should all
cease
to be.
Many
of those who have reached nirvana have nothing further to do with the
world's
evolution; yet it does not seem possible for anyone to have reached that
level
and not to be pouring forth glory and splendour on those below. Even in
the
case of one so devoted that he continually turns all his thought upwards,
and
none downwards, one would think he could not help shedding devotion on those
below.
There
are seven paths open to the Adept, and most of them take the candidate
away
from the earth, yet they are all equally ways of serving the Logos.
Presumably
every Adept is willing to go where he is most needed and can be most
serviceable,
but at least it seems necessary to be perfectly willing to remain
and
accept " the woes of birth", if called upon. Any other attitude, and
especially
the idea of selfish escape from the world, liberation for one's
separate
self, could not carry the aspirant so high. To us it may seem that to
stay
with and help our humanity is the kindest thing to do, and that is very
natural,
for if we cannot thus love those who are already near and known to us,
how
shall we love others who are not known? Still, we must not forget that if
the
Lords of the Flame from Venus had not left their system and come down into
ours
to help us, we should be at least one round behind the position that we
have
so far achieved. It may be the duty of some of us in the future to go to
the
help of some other system less advanced than ours.
218
At
the same time, there is no question that more and more advanced pupils of the
Masters
will be needed to carry on their work on earth. It is open to the Arhat
to;
take no more physical births if he so chooses; but it is evident that our
Masters
wish us to continue taking birth for the sake of the work.
Step
out of sunlight into shade, to make more room for others. The tears that
water
the parched soil of pain and sorrow bring forth the blossoms and the
fruits
of karmic retribution. Out of the furnace of man's life and its black
smoke,
winged flames arise, flames purified, that soaring onward, 'neath the
karmic
eye, weave in the end the fabric glorified of the three vestures of the
Path.
The
opening portion of this passage seems to imply-that there is not enough
sunlight
for all; but that is surely not so. All can be happy. We make our own
shadow,
as the earth does. Sorrows and trouble are of our own making; they are
our
own karma, as is everything that comes to us. What Aryasanga means is that
one
should always be ready to help others, even at the cost of trouble or loss
to
oneself.
There
are few kinds of action that bring great karmic suffering. Cruelty does,
of
course, and there are some others. But most of people's actual suffering
comes
from the way in which they take the inconveniences of life that karma
brings
to them. The suffering is then very distinctly " ready-money karma ".
Such,
for example, is the selfish mourning for those who have passed
THE SECRET
PATH
219
on
to a happier state of existence, which causes suffering to everybody
concerned,
often including the dead, who feel the depression and sorrow very
greatly.
What karma brings to a man is never more than he can bear, and bear
easily;
but that is not the case with what he adds to it of foolish thought, and
feeling
and action.
These
vestures are: Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya, robe sublime.
The
three vestures will be discussed fully in our study of the third Fragment.
They
represent three possibilities which lie open to the man who has attained
Adeptship.
He can at once accept nirvana, or take it after having gone through
other
high spiritual experiences, or remain in touch with the earth as a
Nirmanakaya
in order to fill the spiritual reservoir, or he can take up work in
other
globes or systems. This last choice is by no means selfish, of course; it
is
an impossible supposition that and selfishness could be possible at such a
level.
There
was a reference in the first edition of this book to " selfish Buddhas
",
but
Madame Blavatsky, after her death, asked Dr. Besant to remove the passage
which
contained it, because it was causing so much dangerous misunderstanding.
It
referred to those who are called the Pratyeka Buddhas. These are great Adepts
at
the level of the Buddha, but on the first ray. Because " eka " means
"one",
some
Northern Buddhists have thought that a Pratyeka Buddha is one who works for
himself
alone, which appears a blasphemous idea to anyone who knows where they
stand.
The three Lords of the
220
Flame,
who are the pupils of the Lord of the World, are Pratyeka Buddhas. They
came
to the earth to serve it and hasten its evolution along the line of the
first
ray, while the Buddha works on the second. It is foolish to criticize them
for
not doing work which is not theirs. It would be as sensible to find fault
with
a magistrate for not being a schoolmaster, saying, " See how little he
cares
about the education of children! " Of these great Beings I have tried to
give
some slight account in The Masters and the Path.1
The
Shangna robe, 'tis true, can purchase light eternal. The Shangna robe alone
gives
the Nirvana of destruction; it stops rebirth, but O Lanoo, it also kills
compassion.
No longer can the perfect Buddhas, Who don the Dharmakaya glory,
help
man's salvation. Alas! shall selves be sacrificed to self; mankind, unto
the
weal of units?
Know,
O beginner, this is the open path, the way to selfish bliss, shunned by
the
Bodhisattvas of the Secret Heart, the Buddhas of compassion.
The
Shangna robe is something very far beneath any of the three vestures above
mentioned.
It means here the balancing of karma, and the destruction of the
personality
by quenching all desires, including that for life. It implies an
evolution
of the causal body far higher than most men have attained, but without
the
development of love and compassion and the desire to help the world. A man
who
has thus freed himself from the necessity of
1
Op. cit., Ch. XV,
221
rebirth
may live as an ego on the higher levels of the mental world for an
enormously
long time.
In
this passage, it is almost as though Aryasanga were complaining against those
who
take the Dharmakaya vesture, and retire to distant planes or systems. But it
would
be really impossible for Him to do that. He could not have thought that
there
were selfish Buddhas. The Pratyeka Buddhas certainly are at the same level
of
attainment as the Lord Buddha; They have the same quality of compassion that
he
has, but it is not their duty to fill the office. For thousands of years
before
their attainment of such heights these Great Ones must have been utterly
incapable
of anything like selfishness. We must remember that The Voice of the
Silence
was written down by a disciple of Aryasanga after the death of the
latter,
so he is not wholly responsible for it, and it appears that here the
disciple
must have allowed his own misconception to colour the ideas, of his
Teacher.
To
live to benefit mankind is the first step.
To
practise the six glorious virtues is the second.
To
don Nirmanakaya's humble robe is to forego eternal bliss for self, to help on
man's
salvation. To reach Nirvana's bliss but to renounce it, is the supreme,
the
final step—the highest on renunciation's path.
Know,
O disciple, this is the secret path, selected by the Buddhas of
perfection,
who sacrificed the Self to weaker selves.
222
The
six glorious virtues are the paramitas, already considered in Chapter I of
Fragment
II. They represent one of the systems of travelling on the path.
Another
is given in the set of qualifications expounded in At the Feet of the
Master,
followed by the four stages of the Path proper.
It
is not quite true that the Nirmanakaya gives up bliss, for Adeptship is
itself
the attainment of bliss. What is true is that the Adept could remain
always
on the stupendous levels which he has reached but instead he comes down
to
help. By doing that, however, he does not forego the eternal bliss which is
inherent
in him; He merely decides to work at lower levels.
Yet,
if the doctrine of the heart is too high-winged for thee, if thou needest
help
thyself and fearest to offer help to others—then, thou of timid heart, be
warned
in time: remain content with the eye doctrine of the Law. Hope still. For
if
the secret Path is unattainable this day, it is within thy reach to-morrow.
Learn
that no efforts, not the smallest—whether in right or wrong direction—can
vanish
from the world of causes. E'en wasted smoke remains not traceless. " A
harsh
word uttered in past lives is not destroyed, but ever comes again." The
pepper
plant will not give birth to roses, nor the sweet jessamine's silver star
to
thorn or thistle turn.
Thou
canst create this day thy chances for thy morrow. In the great journey,
causes
sown each hour bear each its harvest of effects, for rigid justice
223
rules
the world. With mighty sweep of
never-erring , action it brings to
mortals
lives of weal or woe,, the karmic progeny of all our former thoughts and
deeds.
Take
then as much as merit hath in store for thee, O thou of patient heart. Be
of
good cheer and rest content with fate. Such is thy Karma, the Karma of the
cycle
of thy births, the destiny of those who, in their pain and sorrow, are
born
along with thee, rejoice and weep from life to life, chained to thy
previous
actions.
If
one cannot rise immediately to the resolve to be utterly unselfish there is
no
need to despair. One must work on in the right direction until one reaches
the
position where that ideal will seem perfectly natural and comparatively easy
of
accomplishment. Sometimes people feel that because they cannot fulfil a great
ideal
that is put before them there is nothing that they can do which is worth
doing.
They collapse, and do nothing at all, in consequence. But that is a great
mistake.
The Lord Buddha was very wise in dealing with all kinds of people, and
he
took care to avoid this kind of discouragement, by speaking of the highest
path
to his monks alone. He preached the middle path to the general public, and
told
them to live the highest and noblest life of which they were capable, so
that
later on they would be in a position to enter his Order. He said that they
were
to-day creating their opportunities for to-morrow, that is for their next
incarnation.
There is
224
no
need to despair, for the man who takes one opportunity receives tenfold more
opportunities,
and he who uses what powers he has as fully as possible, without
overstraining
himself, certainly develops those powers at a surprising rate.
The
last paragraph makes reference to those who are born together. It is fact
that
people evolve in groups, the same people coming closely together in
different
relationships again and again. What happens to one in any such group
reacts
very much upon the others, for both good and ill. It should be an
additional
incentive to those who are aspiring to realize that whatever they are
able
to attain will be of great benefit to a number of people whose destinies
are
thus bound up closely with their own.
I
CHAPTER
5 THE WHEEL OF LIFE
Act
thou for them to-day, and they will act for thee to-morrow.
'Tis
from the bud of renunciation of the self, that springeth the sweet fruit of
final
liberation.
To
perish doomed is he who out of fear of Mara refrains from helping man, lest
he
should act for self. 'The pilgrim who would cool his weary limbs in running
waters,
yet dares not plunge for terror of the stream, risks to succumb from
heat.
Inaction based on selfish fear can bear but evil fruit.
The
selfish devotee lives to no purpose. The man who does not go through his
appointed
work in life has lived in vain.
Follow
the wheel of life; follow the wheel of duty to race and kin, to friend
and
foe, and close thy mind to pleasures as to pain. Exhaust the law of karmic
retribution.
Gain Siddhis for thy future birth.
C.W.L.—There
are people who feel that because they cannot do great things or
make
rapid advance no effort
226
is
worth making. That is a great mistake. At least they can live to help those
with
whom karma has brought them into contact. They will never find themselves
in
a better position until they make the most of their present environment. If
they
will do this, when the time comes for them to make the great effort
involved
in taking the First Initiation, loving friends will be there to help.
Real
friends are those who are the friends of the ego. These never bind one down
for
the satisfaction of their own very limited and human, and often really
selfish
emotions. They always give one the freedom that is required to follow
the
higher path.
Some
good people refrain from helping others, fearing that they themselves may
be
prompted by a selfish motive. Very often charity is bestowed upon the
unfortunate
not really with the desire to help them, but to relieve the giver of
the
unhappiness that he feels at the sight of suffering. Such a person would
never
go out of his way to find people in trouble, in order that they might be
helped.
Again, there are others who systematically give a portion of their large
incomes
to charitable organizations, so that they may enjoy the remainder with
no
qualms of conscience. Knowing this, a disciple sometimes questions himself as
to
whether his own motive is pure. But to refrain from helping because he doubts
his
own motive is surely a form of selfishness. Whatever our motive may be, we
must
help, though only that counts for real progress on the Path which is done
purely
to help the sufferer, without thought of self.
227
It
is necessary to use discrimination in helping. As the Hindus say, help should
be
given to the right person, at the right time, and in the right place. Yet the
necessity
for thought should not cause hesitation. We may not always be certain
which
is the wiser of two courses of action, but we must nevertheless decide
upon
one of them, so that the opportunity to do good may not be entirely
overlooked.
Sometimes it is only by thought that we can help, but that, as I
have
said before, is very important.1 The strength of many a man who is doing
vigorous
work in the world comes largely from others who are engaged in
radiating
spiritual force in meditation.
The
wheel of duty to race and kin, to friend and foe, does, as a matter of fact,
offer
the best of opportunities for progress. The Lords of Karma see to it that
each
person is given the conditions which are suited to his growth. They give a
man
the particular work that is likely to develop the qualities that he needs.
At
a low level of development there may be ten thousand places where a man can
have
the conditions needed for his progress. But when a man is more highly
evolved
his environment has to be chosen with the greatest care, for everyone
must
be put absolutely in the position where he can best advance. It is
therefore
quite inaccurate to say that a man succeeds in spite of his
circumstances;
difficulties are put in his way in order that he may transcend
them,
and that his character and powers may grow.
The
man who does his daily duties well, will soon be trusted with higher ones.
Every
one who can be trusted
l
Ante, Vol. I, Part II, Ch. 2, 5; Part IV, Ch. 1; Part V, Ch. 6.
228
to
do good and conscientious work is eagerly wanted by those who guide the
destiny
of mankind. Be faithful in small things, and you will be made ruler over
many
things, as the Bible says. To be ruler over many things is a responsible
position,
and in occultism it is given only to those who have proved themselves
faithful
in the small things. That is the test that the Master gives. Many
people
neglect plain everyday duty for some visionary work in the future,
perhaps
of doubtful utility, and not intended specially for them. Many also
regret
the ties that they formed before they knew of Theosophy, when they now
find
them hampering. But they do their duty. Unsuitable ties will drop away when
the
time comes, when that freedom will be most useful for the aspirant's
development,
and what is more important, for the world's work. But if they are
broken
prematurely they will only entangle the man again and much trouble and
pain
will be caused.
If
sun thou canst not be, then be the humble planet. Aye, if thou art debarred
from
flaming, like the noon-day sun upon the snow-capped mount of purity
eternal,
then choose, O neophyte, a humbler course.
Point
out the way—however dimly, and lost among the host—as does the evening
star
to those who tread their path in darkness.
Behold
Migmar, as in bis crimson veils his eye sweeps over slumbering Earth.
Behold
the fiery aura of the hand of Lhagpa extended in protecting
229
love
over the heads of his ascetics. Both are now servants to Nyima, left in his
absence
silent watchers in the night. Yet both in Kalpas past were bright
Nyimas,
and may in future days again become two suns. Such are the falls and
rises
of the karmic law in nature.
Be,
O Lanoo, like them. Give light and comfort to the toiling pilgrim, and seek
out
him who knows still less than thou; who in his wretched desolation sits
starving
for the bread of wisdom and the bread which feeds the shadow, without a
Teacher,
hope or consolation, and let him hear the Law.
In
a foot-note, H.P.B. says:
Nyima,
the sun in Tibetan astrology. Migmar or Mars is symbolised by an eye, and
Lhagpa,
or Mercury, by a hand.
There
are here several points of interesting analogy. The two planets mentioned
give
their light at night, when the sun is out of sight, and all is dark. It is
so
with us. We have to help those who are in greater darkness than ourselves;
there
is no one who cannot find someone more ignorant than himself whom he may
teach.
Even if those around us are not ready to enter the Path, we can lead them
in
the right direction towards it.
At
the time of the transference of life from the moon to the earth, the planets
glowed
and shone like small suns. But Mars is mainly a desert now, and that is
why
230
he
reflects the yellow or reddish light. From the standpoint of the poetic
author
of these verses, they are doing their best work in giving light to man
now.
The idea illustrates the fact that we are not necessarily doing our best
work
when we shine most. Also, when a building; has to be erected, the
foundations
must be put in first. They do not count for anything in the matter
of
appearance, being hidden out of sight, but on them the building will be
erected.
So in the common work of every day the candidate is performing useful
service
to society, and at the same time developing the higher siddhis which are
the
spiritual powers of the ego.
The
Teacher now tells the candidate what to say to those whom he is trying to
bring
to the Path.
Tell
him, O candidate, that he who makes of pride and self-regard bond-maidens
to
devotion; that he, who cleaving to existence, still lays his patience and
submission
to the Law as a sweet flower at the feet of Shakya-Thub-pa, becomes a
Srotapatti
in this birth. The Siddhis of perfection may loom far, far away; but
the
first step is taken, the stream is entered, and he may gain the eye-sight of
the
mountain eagle, the hearing of the timid dove.
Tell
him, O aspirant, that true devotion may bring him back the knowledge, that
knowledge
which was his in former births. The (Jew-sight and deva-hearing are
not
obtained hi one short birth.
231
Shakya-Thub-pa
is the Lord Buddha. The Srota-patti is,
as has been explained,
"
he who enters the stream ". An
analogy can be drawn between the outward act
of
laying one's service at the feet of the Teacher, and the inner change when
the
well-developed manas realizes the presence of buddhi, and bows down before
that
higher principle, resolving henceforth to use all its powers in obedience
to
its behests. In the ordinary life of
men it is generally the mental nature
that
is allowed to have the last word. For
example, in the matter
of
vivisection,1 many
people whose feelings shrink from
the practice with
loathing,
still decide that it must go on, because they think it is the only way
to
obtain certain knowledge which will help
humanity. But the
minority, who
are
in the right, say: "No, it is
impossible that vivisection can lead to
good. Our higher nature says with a clear voice
that it is utterly wrong."
If
these people were in the majority they would stop it, and then some other way
would
be found to secure human health; the mind would be set to work in
obedience
to the higher intuition to find a better way.
Every
one who feels enthusiasm on hearing about the Path is sure to have worked
for
it in a former birth, perhaps in many previous lives. It is encouraging to
know
this, for then one may expect to recover quickly the attainments of former
lives,
the deva-sight and deva-hearing which are the faculties of responding to
the
inner voice and of seeing life and the world with the eyes of the spirit. 1
See
ante, Vol. I, Part V, Chapter 4.
232
Be
humble, if thou would'st attain to wisdom: be humbler still, when wisdom thou
hast
mastered.
Be
like the ocean which receives all streams and rivers. The ocean's mighty calm
remains
unmoved; it feels them not.
Restrain
by thy divine thy lower self. Restrain by the eternal the divine.
Aye,
great is he who is the slayer of desire: still greater he in whom the Self
divine
has slain the very knowledge of desire.
Guard
thou the lower lest it soil the higher.
As
I have said before, he who stands in the presence of the Masters cannot but
be
humble, conscious as he is of the great gulf that exists between them and
himself.
Not that even the physical presence of the Master, however, causes any
uneasiness
or depression; on the contrary, in his presence we feel at our best
and
we realize that we can achieve because he has achieved. It is so also with
the
gaining of knowledge. The man who can grasp some big ideas can also see what
remains
to be learned that he does not yet know, and how much mystery there is
in
familiar things that others think to be quite simple and well understood. So
he
who has much knowledge is likely to be humble, and the aspirant is warned
that
when pride rises in him, it is a sign that he is unconsciously shutting in
front
of himself the door to further and higher knowledge.
The
candidate must also practise moving among the disturbances of the world,
which
play upon him all the
time—physically,
astrally and mentally—without permitting them to agitate him.
He
must so train the lower vehicles that they will respond not to these outer
calls,
but to the inner commands. The ego is divine; with its aid the lower self
must
be controlled; and when that is done even the ego will have to be
controlled
by the Monad, the eternal Self. That all this may be done, the pupil
must
constantly guard the vehicles attending to purity of food and drink and
magnetism,
of words and feelings and thoughts, as has been fully explained in
The
Masters and the Path.
The
way to final freedom is within thy Self. That way begins and ends outside of
self.
Unpraised
by men and humble is the mother of all rivers in Tirthika's proud
sight;
empty the human form, though filled with Amrita's sweet waters, in the
sight
of fools. Withal the birth-place of the sacred rivers is the sacred land,
and
he who wisdom hath is honoured by all men.
The
orthodox Christian usually considers that there are three stages in the
growth
of a soul. First, the man acts rightly for fear of hell. Secondly, he
does
so with the desire of reaching heaven. Thirdly, he does right for love of
Christ,
who sacrificed himself to bring men to that condition of feeling. There
is,
however, a fourth stage, when the way is found by realizing ourselves as one
with
the Self. Then the man does right because it is right, not even for the
sake
of making the Master happy or of expressing gratitude to him. Our
deliverance
234
is
thus from within. No external consideration can; determine our steps of
progress
on the Path. It is not a question of how long we have been at a certain
level;
we shall take the next step when we have developed the necessary
qualities
and powers within ourselves. No one need be anxious about this, for as
the
Tamil proverb says: " Ripe fruit does not remain upon the branch."
The
Tirthika, as we saw before, is the Brahmana ascetic who visits the sacred
shrines,
-and is evidently regarded here as feeling somewhat proud of having
done
so. Just so, some of the Hadjis—the Muhammadans who have made a pilgrimage
to
Mecca—are proud because they have done that. Such men are somewhat like the
society
people of our own day who are proud to say they have seen the latest
play
or have read the book of the day—though what they have learned in the
process
it may be difficult to say. Perhaps Aryasanga's scribe, being a
Buddhist,
was not above sectarian feeling, for he seems to regard all the
Tirthikas
as being of this type!
The
great attraction of Benares, Hardwar, Kumba-konam and other Tirthas is the
bathing
in the sacred rivers. At the place last named the pilgrims resort to a
huge
tank, but they believe that it is fed from underground by the Ganges. But
our
Buddhist scribe points out, with some apparent pride, that the source of the
principal
sacred rivers of India is the sacred land, that is, Tibet. It is a
remarkable
fact that the great rivers, the Ganges, the Indus and the Airavati Or
Irrawadi
do
235
rise
all very near together in the Himalayas, and, going in different direction,
east,
south and west, sweep round and enclose the upper part of India in their
giant
embrace of thousands of miles. Those proud ascetics do not recognize that
Tibet,
a country which they despise, is the mother of their sacred rivers, says
the
writer, and he draws an analogy between Tibet and India, making India the
body,
which contains the sweet waters of immortality only in the incorrect
vision
of fools, and Tibet the source of wisdom, to be honoured by all men, that
is
all those who are not fools!
CHAPTER
6 THE WAY OF THE ARHAT
Arhans
and Sages of the boundless vision are rare as is the blossom of the
Udambara
tree. Arhans are born at midnight hour, together with the sacred plant
of
nine and seven stalks, the holy flower that opens and blooms in darkness, out
of
the pure dew and on the frozen bed of snow-capped heights, heights that are
trodden
by no sinful foot.
C.W.L.—-At
the present stage of evolution men who have attained the Arhat level
are
very rare. That is quite natural, since humanity is expected to attain the
Asekha
initiation only at the end of the seventh round, and the Arhat stage
precedes
that usually by only seven lives. Still, Arhatship is quite within our
reach;
it is principally a matter of our understanding what to aim at, and then
using
our wills to achieve that goal. Under the influence of the Lord Buddha
thousands
became Arhats. All that was due to his tremendous magnetism.
The
symbolism of this passage is probably capable of several different
interpretations.
The midnight hour
237
may
very well be taken as that darkest moment before the dawn when the candidate
seems
to .be forsaken by everybody, even by his Master. It is at the fourth
Initiation
that the seventh principle comes into operation, as the candidate
advances
to the atmic plane. The sacred plant of seven stalks may symbolize
this,
and the number nine also, because that seventh principle is really three
in
one, which with the other six makes nine. The number nine is considered most
sacred
by the Hindus.
It
is only by going through the greatest trials, by descending into the very
depths
of darkness, that the qualities required in the candidate for this
initiation
may be attained. The holy flower opens and blooms in that darkness,
yet
it comes as a result of development on the buddhic plane.
No
Arhan, O Lanoo, becomes one in that birth when for the first time the Soul
begins
to long for final liberation. Yet, O thou anxious one, no warrior
volunteering
fight in the fierce strife between the living and the dead, not one
recruit
can ever be refused the right to enter on the path that leads toward the
field
of battle.
For
either he shall win or he shall fall.
Yea,
if he conquers, Nirvana shall be his. Before he casts his shadow off, his
mortal
coil, that pregnant cause of anguish and illimitable pain, in him will
men
a great and holy Buddha honour.
238
And
if he falls, e'en then he does not fall in vain; the enemies he slew in the
last
battle will not return to life in the next birth that will be his.
But
if thou would'st Nirvana reach, or cast the prize away, let not-the fruit of
action
and inaction be thy motive, O thou of dauntless heart.
Know
that the Bodhisattva who liberation changes for renunciation to don the
miseries
of secret life, is called thrice honoured, O thou candidate for woe
throughout
the cycles.
Swami
T. Subba Row interpreted the fight between the living and the dead as the
opposition
between those who know and those who do not know. It will be
remembered
that this distinction was also made by the Master Kuthumi when
teaching
Alcyone; he said that there were only two classes of people, those who
know
and those who do not know, those who have seen the way and those who have
not
yet seen it. He also said that those to be pitied most were not the bigoted
and
intolerant, but the millions who do not know that there is anything beyond
the
world worth striving for, and are happy in their ignorance. Madame Blavatsky
interpreted
the strife to be between the immortal higher ego and the lower
personal
ego, these being the living and the dead respectively.
The
door is never closed against those who really wish to draw nearer to the
occult
path. He who wants to do so must be given his opportunity to try. And
then,
even if he fails it will not be in vain, for some of his enemies,
239
his
vices and weaknesses, will have been destroyed, and will not trouble him
again.
It is rare for anyone to blunder so badly as to be put himself back into
a
distinctly lower grade in life; but if a man takes up black magic containing a
great
deal of powerful evil and exerts himself very much in that line, he may
wrench
away the personality altogether from the ego, and create such bad karma
as
to make it necessary for him to go back to primitive conditions. Such cases
are
very rare. A person who has been really unworthy of his class is usually
thrown
back into unpleasant surroundings in the same class or just below it. It
would,
however, be •great unwisdom not to try to rise because there may be
danger
of a fall from a higher and more responsible position.
On
the other hand, a man who attains, it is said in the text, will be honoured
as
a great and holy Buddha. Of course, the Arhat is not technically a Buddha.
But
he is Buddha, that is to say, wise or enlightened.
Madame
Blavatsky explained that " the secret life " is that of the
Nirmanakaya.
His
greatness is hidden from the sight of man, and yet he continues to live in
this
world. The term is here used in a general way not only for those who remain
on
the threshold of liberation in order to fill the reservoir of spiritual
force,
but for all who remain behind, thus including the official Members of the
Hierarchy,
such as our Masters. We generally reserve the term in these days,
however,
for those who follow one of the seven great lines after taking the
Fifth
Initiation—Those who fill the reservoir.
240
We
meet here once more the idea of the path of woe. The statement is somewhat
misleading,
and rather a. misuse of the term woe. It is true that a Master who
is
using the physical body does not obtain the enjoyment of working on the
nirvanic
plane, but He would smile at the suggestion that he was in woe. When a
man
gains the nirvanic consciousness, he does not lose it because he keeps a
physical
body, except when he is actively engaged on the lower planes. At any
moment,
between writing two letters or any two pieces of work on the physical
plane,
he can slip away at once into the higher consciousness, and carry on its
work,
which is infinitely more satisfying, and altogether more glorious and
blissful
than anyone can imagine down here.
It
is true that coming back from the higher planes to physical existence is like
going
down from the sunlight into a very dark dungeon; but you would not think
of
that if in that place there was someone whom you very much loved and wished
to
help. Physical life does involve the renunciation of the higher glory :but
the
definite object of helping fills the soul to such an extent that certainly
there
is no suffering. Indeed, at a much lower stage of evolution, a person who
knows
that someone else is suffering and needs real help that he can give, and
yet
neglects that call and goes away to enjoy himself somewhere else, would
afterwards
be deeply troubled by remorse, so that his suffering would ultimately
be
greater than if he had renounced his pleasure in the first place. Really, the
greatest
happiness for all of us comes from doing the best that we know.
241
There
is a large number of candidates who do not actually fall, but are riot
conscious
of making progress. Many of these are subject occasionally to
depression,
and have the feeling that their efforts have been in vain, since
there
is nothing to show for them. They should not allow themselves to be
depressed,
because that spoils the astral atmosphere for other people, and is
therefore
selfish. But quite apart from that, it is foolish, because they ought
to
know that all the time they are making real inner progress. Long before they
become
aware of it in the physical brain, the astral and perhaps the mental body
have
been organized by their meditation, and they may be doing very definite and
useful
work in the inner worlds in a variety of ways. The whole life may seem to
be
a failure, but nevertheless much has been done which will be carried forward
into
the next life, and will then make possible some conspicuous progress,
perhaps
even on the physical plane. In any given life a man develops both good
and
evil qualities. The latter show themselves in the four lower sub-planes of
the
astral world. As these reflect their influence in the mental plane only on
its
four lower sub-planes, they do not affect the ego at all. The only emotions
that
can appeal in the three higher astral sub-planes are those which are good,
such
as love, sympathy and devotion. These affect the ego in the causal body,
since
it resides on the corresponding sub-planes of the mental world. Therefore
every
feeling and thought of a higher kind can be seen, even in this mechanical
way,
to have, a permanent result in the higher Self. And since
242
it
is the ego that treads the Path, he is making quite definite steps of
progress
with every right effort. So there is no reason to despair, nor to put
off
until tomorrow what we can do today just because we cannot do everything at
once.
The
Path is one, disciple, yet in the end, twofold. Marked are its stages by
four
and seven portals. At one end bliss immediate, and at the other bliss
deferred.
Both are of merit the reward: the choice is thine.
The
one becomes the two, the open and the secret. The first one leadeth to the
goal,
the second to self-immolation.
When
to the permanent is sacrificed the mutable, the prize is thine; the drop
returneth
whence it came. The open Path leads to the changeless change—Nirvana,
the
glorious state of absoluteness, the bliss past human thought.
Thus,
the first Path is liberation.
Yes,
there is only one way, and that is by the unfolding of character. There is
no
limit to the possibilities of the ego in that respect; the noblest qualities
of
the greatest men exist in bud in all our fellow men and will unfold into
flower
sooner or later. And at the end, when one has done all that is possible
in
the human kingdom, with the limitations of the human brain and environment,
the
path becomes twofold, and one must choose between liberation and
renunciation.
Here the term liberation
243
means
the acceptance of nirvana, though sometimes it is used for mere escape
from
the wheel of births and deaths at a lower level, as we have already seen in
studying
At the Feet of the Master.
Those
who do not follow the White Lodge use other methods, which often develop
psychic
powers to a relatively high point. But as the path of grey magic Is not
hedged
round by restrictions, as is that taught by the Great White Lodge, sooner
or
later the man misuses his powers—for the temptation is too great. Sometimes,
"however,
the followers of other lines end by coming into touch with the true
teaching
and pledging themselves to the Lodge. In America especially there is a
great
amount of more or less public teaching of occultism of the grey variety.
But
the real path is one—the Path of Holiness, the building of character.
The
four portals mentioned here are the four initiations leading to Arhatship,
described
at length in The Masters and the Path. Another arrangement divides it
into
seven stages, as we shall see in the third Fragment of this book.
At
the highest levels of attainment on this path the aspirant will recover the
memory
of his past lives, though at the same time his consciousness will have
widened
enormously, so as to take in that of great hosts of beings, and he will
realize
that his power and love are not his own, but God's. Only separateness
will
have been lost, and looking back he will see that he has been living under
a
delusion of separateness. He will see, too, that his past lives were very
commonplace;
that the
244
turning
point in them were not usually the events that he considered to be the
most
striking and important while he was experiencing them, but that very often
the
little things of daily life were the events that really made for the
greatest
progress.
But
Path the second is renunciation, and therefore called the Path of woe.
The
secret path leads the Arhan to mental woe unspeakable; woe for the living
dead,
and helpless pity for the men of karmic sorrow; the fruit of Karma Sages
dare
not still.
For
it is written: " Teach to eschew all causes; the ripple of effect, as the
great
tidal wave, thou shalt let run its course."
By
the "mental woe unspeakable" of the Arhan,. which is another form of
the word
Arhat,
on the secret path is meant the suffering that comes through sympathy. He
sees
all the pain and sorrow of the world; but at the same time he sees all the
joy
as well. He feels the greatest compassion for the "living dead," that
is,
for
the great majority of mankind, who do not even know that there is something
to
strive for. Then, secondly, there is " helpless pity " that is
aroused by
seeing
the karmic suffering, the results of foolishness, which he cannot—we
should
say, rather, dare not—still. He can explain to people the principle of
karma,
so that they will take their painful experiences in the best way,, and
thus
mitigate the suffering to some extent, but he cannot do away with the
results
of past actions.
245
Even
in exoteric Christianity, the " forgiveness " of sins is not
explained as
meaning
that the results of sins will be abolished. In the Anglican Church, for
instance,
when a priest is ordained and the power is conferred on him to forgive
sins,
in accordance with the words which in the Christian scriptures are
attributed
to the Christ; " Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto
them,
and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained " it is explained to him
that
what he has power to do is to set the offender right again with God, when
by
his sin he has put himself in the wrong, or, in other words, he can turn the
man
once more into the current of evolution, after he has set himself athwart it
and
so blocked his own advance. Behind that Christian conception there is a
beautiful
idea, but more beautiful still is the Theosophical realization that
one
can never get away from the Divine, that even the man who falls into avichi
is
still part of the Deity.
It
has repeatedly happened that good and earnest students have refrained from
giving
help lest they should be interfering with a person's karma. No one can
interfere
with the law of karma, any more than with the law of gravitation. If
you
hold up a book in your hand, it contains the potential energy of
gravitation,
and the moment that the force you are employing to hold it up is
withdrawn
the book falls. The law of karma operates In the same way. Karma not
paid
off is similar to potential energy; it may be suspended for thousands of
years
or for hundreds of lives, but when the time comes it will manifest itself.
246
People
sometimes think of karma as merciless. But it is not so. It is just as
impersonal
as any other law of nature. On the physical plane laws work without
any
regard to good or bad intentions. If a child falls over a precipice the
amount
of injury it sustains depends upon the height of the fall, and whether
the
ground is hard or soft, and not at all on such moral considerations as
whether
it was trying to pull a companion out of danger, or wanted to pick a
flower
for its mother, or whether it threw itself over in a fit of passion.
Similarly,
if a man catches hold of a hot bar of iron, he may do it to prevent
its
falling on someone else, or with intent 1 to strike someone with it; the
injury
done to the hand will be the same in either case. That is the way in
which
karma works on the physical plane. But on the mental plane intentions
count
for a great deal, for we make our own character for the future by our
thinking.
So
one should never abstain from giving help when possible. If when you have
done
your best you fail, then you may say: "His karma did not allow of his
being
helped,"
or else: " My karma did not give me the privilege of helping him,"
but
that
is all. All that really matters is that we work for others. Work is
expansive
and cumulative; if you bring one person into Theosophy, he may bring
another
ten, and each of those, ten more.
Another
sense in which we can take this verse, " the fruit of karma sages dare
not
still," is that even if a great Adept were to do away with some apparent
evil—
with all poverty, for instance—he would effect no real
247
good,
but only go against the law of the Logos. I do not mean that the Logos
wills
such evil; it would be blasphemous to say that His scheme includes
necessary
suffering, that He causes it. Suffering comes only by doing what He
has
expressly told us not to do. It is true that all have suffered; no one, so
far
as we know, has always chosen the right thing and never made mistakes; but
the
suffering has always put us right when we have refused to learn in any other
way,
and thus the law has made certain for all of us the ultimate attainment of
the
indescribable bliss of nirvana.
The
open way, no sooner hast thou reached its goal, will lead thee to reject the
Bodhisattvic
body, and make thee enter the thrice glorious state of Dhannakaya,
which
is oblivion of the world and men for ever.
The
secret way leads also to Paranirvanic bliss —but at the close of Kalpas
without
number; Nirvanas gamed and lost from boundless pity and compassion for
the
world of deluded mortals.
But
it is said: " The last shall be the greatest." Samyak Sambuddha, the
Teacher
of
perfection, gave up his Self for the salvation of the world, by stopping at
the
threshold of Nirvana, the pure state.
We
have already considered the three vestures, and seen that no idea of
selfishness
can attach to one who takes any of them. The Nirmanakayas are like
the
contemplative orders, filling the reservoir of spiritual force
248
for
the use of the Adepts who are in touch with our world. There are some fifty
or
sixty posts which the latter may fill. The Nirmanakaya still retains his
permanent
atoms, and so could, I suppose, if he wanted, fill one of these posts
if
it became vacant. The post of Bodhisattva falls vacant once in each
root-race,
but there are already many appointed to fill the office far into the
future,
who are now being prepared. Many of those who became Arhats during the
incarnation
of the Lord Buddha remain as Nirmanakayas, because of his teaching.
All
these offices and positions must be filled, and those who renounce nirvana
are
only volunteering to do what we might call the dirty work. The Adept, if one
may
put it so, feels not so much the loss of pleasure, as the knowledge that
working
on the nirvanic level would be a million times more effective than down
below.
And yet someone must do that lower work. In the scheme of the Logos, the
smallest
bit of work is as necessary as the greatest, just as the oiling of a
great
locomotive is as necessary as the driving of it.
The
Bodhisattvic body here alluded to is that of all those who remain to help
the
world—not only that of the very limited number of those who will be Buddhas.
Stopping
at the threshold of nirvana means that one does not enter in and
entirely
leave the lower planes, as some do, and as the Buddha might have done
had
he so chosen. He who thus remains has the higher consciousness to the
fullest
extent, and also retains his consciousness even down to the physical
plane,
and so can work on any plane required. It is said that the Buddha
THE WAY
OF THE ARHAT 249
is,
at his level, free of the solar system, that he can move to any of the
planets
of the system, just as some of us can move to other planets of our
chain.
Yet even for him there must be a limit, because he has not yet entered
into
the consciousness of the Logos. I do not know whether his consciousness
includes
the sun; Swami T. Subba Row once spoke of the sun as a place of life so
intense
that even a Dhyan Chohan can hardly enter it.
The
buddhic plane appears to take us anywhere through our chain of worlds.
Nirvanic
consciousness would mean consciousness anywhere In the solar system. At
the
Fourth Initiation a touch of nirvana is given, but that does not mean the
full
consciousness of that plane.' It is entry into the lowest part of it, and
one has still to rise, sub-plane by