FRAGMENT II
The
Two Paths
1. 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!
This begins with the word “And,”
rather as if it were a sequel to “The Voice of the Silence.” It should not be
assumed that this is the case. However, assuming that the first Fragment
explains the Path as far as Master of the Temple, it is legitimate to regard
this second Fragment, so called, as the further instruction; for the Master of
the Temple must leave his personal progress to attend to that of other people,
a task from which, 1 am bound to add, even the most patient of Masters feels
at times a tendency to revolt!
2. The voice of the
Candidates:
Shak 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?
One is compelled to remark a
certain flavour of sentimentality in the exposition of the “Heart doctrine,”
perhaps due to the increasing age and weight of the Authoress. The real reason
of the compassion (so-called) of the Master is a perfectly practical and
sensible one. It has nothing to do with the beautiful verses, “It is only the
sorrows of others Cast their shadows over me.” The Master has learnt the first
noble truth: “Everything is sorrow,” and he has learnt that there is no such
thing as separate existence. Existence is one. He knows these things as facts,
just as he knows that two and two make four. Consequently, although he has
found the way of escape for that fraction of consciousness which he once
called “1,” and although he knows that not only that consciousness, but all
other consciousnesses, are but part of an illusion, yet he feels that his own
task is not accomplished while there remains any fragment of consciousness
thus unemancipated from illusion. Here we get into very deep metaphysical
difficulties, but that cannot be helped, for the Master of the Temple knows
that any statement, however simple, involves metaphysical difficulties which
are not only difficult, but insoluble. On the plane of which Reason is Lord,
all antinomies are irreconcilable. It is impossible for any one below the
grade of Magister Templi even to begin to comprehend the resolution of them.
This fragment of the imaginary “Book of the Golden Precepts” must be studied
without ever losing sight of this fact.
3. Quoth the
Teacher:
The Paths are two; the great
Perfections three; six are the Virtues that transform the body into the Tree
of Knowledge.
The “Tree of Knowledge” is of
course another euphemism, the “Dragon Tree” representing the uniting of the
straight and the curved. A further description of the Tree under which Gautama
sat and attained emancipation is unfit for this elementary comment. Auth mani
padme hum.
4. 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.
This expression “two Paths in
one” is intended to convey a hint that this fragment has a much deeper meaning
than is apparent. The key should again be sought in
Alchemy.
5. Alas, alas, that all men should
possess ălaya,1 be one
with the great Soul, and that
possessing it, älaya should so little avail them!
6. Behold how like the moon,
reflected in the tranquil
waves, ălaya is reflected by the
small and by 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 nonexistent!
This is indeed a serious
metaphysical complaint. The solution of it is not to be found in
reason.
7. Saith the
Pupil:
O Teacher, what shall 1 do to
reach to Wisdom?
O Wise one, what, to gain
perfection?
8. 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-ileeting from the everlasting. Learn aboye
all to
separate Head-learning from
Soul-Wisdom, the “Eye” from the “Heart” doctrine.
The Authoress of these treatises
is a little exacting in the number of things that you have to do before you
take your first step, most of them being things which more nearly resemble the
difficulties of the last step. But by learning to distinguish the “real
from the false” is only meant a sort of elementary discernment between things
that are worth having and those that are not worth having, and, of course, the
perception will alter with advance in knowledge. By “Head-learning” is meant
the contents of the Ruach (mind) or manahs. Chiah is subconsciousness in its
best sense, that subliminal which is sublime. The “Eye” doctrine then means
the exoteric, the “Heart” doctrine the esoteric. Of course, in a more secret
doctrine still, there is an Eye Doctrine which transcends the Heart Doctrine
as that transcends this lesser Eye Doctrine.
9. 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.
The Soul, ătman, despite its
possession of the attributes omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence,
etc., is entirely bound and blindfolded by ignorance. The metaphysical puzzle
to which this gives rise cannot be discussed here—it is insoluble by reason,
though one may call attention to the inherent incommensurability of a
postulated absolute with an observed relative.
10. But even ignorance is better than
Head-learning with no Soul-wisdom to illuminate and guide
it.
The word “better” is used rather
sentimentally, for, as “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have
loved at all,” so it is better to be a madman than an idiot. There is always a
chance of putting wrong right. As, however, the disease of the age is
intellectualism, this lesson is well to teach. Numerous sermons on this point
wilI be found in many of the writings of Frater
Perdurabo.
11. 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 măyä’s realm; but
soar beyond illusions, search the eternal and the
changeless sat, mistrusting
fancy’s false suggestions.
Compare what is said in Book 4,
Part II, about the Sword. In the last part of the verse the adjuration is
somewhat obvious, and it must be remembered that with progress the realm of
măyă constantly expands as that of sat diminishes. In orthodox Buddhism this
process continues indefinitely. There is also the resolution sat =
asat.
12. For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust
while it
reflects. 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.
The charge is to eliminate
rubbish from the Mind, and teaches that Soul-wisdom is the selective agent.
But these Fragments will
be most shamefully
misinterpreted if a trace of sentimentality is allowed to creep in.
“Soul-wisdom” does not mean “piety” and “nobility” and similar conceptions,
which only flourish where truth is permanently lost, as in England.
Soul-wisdom here means the Will. You should eliminate from your mind anything
which does not subserve your real purpose. It was, however, said in verse 11
that the “mind needs breadth,” and this also is true, but if all the facts
known to the Thinker are properly coordinated and connected causally, and
by necessity, the ideal mind will be attained, for although complex it will be
unified. And mf
the summit of its
pyramid be the Soul, the injunction in this verse 12 to the Beginner will be
properly observed.
13. Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion.
Avert thy face from world deceptions; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But
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.
“Shun ignorance”: Keep on
acquiring facts.
“Shun illusion”: Refer every
fact to the ultimate reality. “Interpret every phenomenon as a particular
dealing of God with your
“Mistrust thy senses”: Avoid
superficial judgment of the facts which they present to
you.
The last paragraph gives too
succinct a statement of the facts. The attainment of the knowledge of the Holy
Guardian Angel is only the “next step.” It does not imply Buddhahood by any
means.
14. 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.
Pride is an expansion of the
Ego, and the Ego must be destroyed. Pride is its protective sheath, and hence
exceptionally dangerous,
but this is a mystical truth
concerning the inner life. The Adept is anything but a “creeping
Jesus.”
15. 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.
Develops this: but, this
treatise being for beginners as well as for the more advanced, a sensible
commonplace reason is given for avoiding pride, in that it defeats its own
object.
16. 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 1
heard.”
Continues the subject, but adds
a further Word to discriminate from Daäth (knowledge) in favour of Binah
(understanding).
17. “Great Sifter” is the name of the “Heart
Doctrine,” O disciple.
This explains the “Heart
Doctrine” as a process of continual elimination which refers both to the
aspirants and to the thoughts.
18. The wheel of the good Law moves swiftly on.
It grinds by night and day. The worthless husks it
drives from out the
golden grain, the refuse from the flour. The hand of karma guides the wheel;
the revolutions mark the beatings of the karmic heart.
The subject of elimination is
here further developed. The favourite
Eastern image of the Wheel of
the Good Law is difficult to
Western minds, and the whole
metaphor appears to us somewhat
conf used.
19. True knowledge is the flour, false learning
is the husk. If thou would’st eat the bread of Wisdom, thy flour thou hast to
knead with Amrta’s clear waters. But if thou kneadest husks with măyă’s dew,
thou canst create but food for the black doves of death, the birds of birth,
decay and sorrow.
“Amrta” means not only
Immortality, but is the technical name of the Divine force which descends upon
man, but which is burnt up by his tendencies, by the forces which make him
what he is. It is also a certain Elixir which is the Menstruum of
Harpocrates.
Amrta here is best interpreted
thus, for it is in opposition to “măyă.” To interpret illusion is to make conf
usion more confused.
20. If thou art told that to become arhat thou
hast to cease to love all beings—tell them they líe.
Here begins an instruction
against Asceticism, which has always been the stumbling block most dreaded by
the wise. “Christ” said that John the Baptist came neither eating nor
drinking, and the people called him mad. He himself came eating and drinking;
and they called him a gluttonous man and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans
and sinners.1 The Adept does what he likes, or rather what he wills, and
allows nothing to interfere with it,
but because he is
ascetic in the sense that he has no appetite for the stale stupidities which
fools call pleasure, people expect him to refuse things both natural and
necessary. Some people are so hypocritical that they claim their dislikes as
virtue, and so the poor, weedy, unhealthy degenerate who cannot smoke because
his heart is out of order, and cannot drink because his brain is too weak to
stand it, or perhaps because his doctor has forbidden him to do either for the
next two years, the man who is afraid of life, afraid to do anything lest some
result should follow, is acclaimed as the best and greatest of
mankind.
It is very amusing in England to
watch the snobbishness, particularly of the middle classes, and their absurd
aping of their betters, while the cream of the jest is that the morality to
which the middle classes cling does not exist in good society. Those who have
Master Souls refuse to be bound by anything but their own wills. They may
refrain from certain actions because their main purpose would be interfered
with, just as a man refrains from smoking if he is training for a boat-race;
and those in whom cunning is stronger than self-respect sometimes dupe the
populace by ostentatiously refraining from certain actions, while, however,
they perform them in private. Especially of recent years, some Adepts have
thought it
wise either to
refrain or to pretend to refrain from various things in order to increase
their influence. This is a great folly. What is most necessary to
demonstrate is that the Adept is not less but more than a man. It is
better to hit your enemy and be falsely accused of malice, than to reframn
from hitting him and be falsely accused of cowardice.
21. 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.
This verse explains that the
Adept has no business to break up his domestic circumstances. The Rosicrucian
Doctrine that the Adept should be a man of the world, is much nobler than that
of the hermit. If the Ascetic Doctrine is carried to its logical
conclusion, a stone is holier than Buddha himself. Read, however, “Liber
CLVI.”1
22. Thus teach the tďrthikas,2 the
unbelievers.
It is a little difficult to
justify the epithet “unbeliever”—it seems to me that on the contrary they are
the believers. Scepticism is sword and shield to the wise
man.
But by scepticism one does not
mean the sneering infidelity of a Bolingbroke, or the gutter-snipe agnosticism
of a Harry Boulter, which are crude remedies against a very vulgar
colic.3
23. If thou art taught that sin is born of action
and bliss of absolute inaction, then tell them that they err.
Nonpermanence of human action, deliverance of mind from thralldom by the
cessation of sin and faults, are not for “deva Egos.” Thus saith the “Doctrine
of the Heart.”
This Doctrine is further
developed. The term “deva Egos” is again obscure. The verse teaches that one
should not be afraid to act. Action must be fought by reaction, and tyranny
will never be overthrown by slavish submission to it. Cowardice is conquered
by a course of exposing oneself unnecessarily to danger. The desire of the
flesh has ever grown stronger for ascetics, as they endeavored to combat it by
abstinence, and when with old age their functions are atrophied, they proclaim
vaingloriously “I have conquered.” The way to conquer any desire is to
understand it, and freedom consists in the ability to decide whether or
no you will perform any given action. The Adept should always be ready to
abide by the toss of a coin, and remain absolutely indifferent as to whether
it falis head or tau.
24. The dharma1 of the “Eye” is the embodiment of
the external, and the non-existing.
By “non-existing” is meant the
lower asat. The word is used on other occasions to mean an asat which is
higher than, and beyond, sat.
25.
The dharma of the “Heart” is the embodiment of bodhi, the Permanent and
Everlasting.
“Bodhi” implies the root “Light”
in its highest sense of L.V.X. Rut, even in Hindu
Theory,
26. 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 the tree are shaken by the wind; the
trunk remains unmoved.”
This verse again refers to the
process of selection and elimination already described. The aspiration must be
considered as unaffected by this process except in so far as it becomes
brighter and clearer in consequence of it. The last sentence seems again to
refer to this question of asceticism. The Adept is not affected by his
actions.
27. Both action and inaction may find room
in thee; thy body agitated, thy mind tranquil, thy Soul as limpid as a
mountain lake.
This repeats the same lesson.
The Adept may plunge into the work of the world, and undertake his daily
duties and pleasures exactly as another man would do, but he is not moved by
them as the other man is.
28. Wouldst thou become a yogin of “Time’s
Circle”?
Then, O
Lanoo:
29. 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.
30. 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.
Once again the ascetic life is
forbidden. It is moreover shown to be a delusion that the ascetic life assists
liberation. The ascetic
thinks that by
reducing himself to the condition of a vegetable he
is advanced upon
the path of Evolution. It is not so. Minerals have no inherent power of motion
save intramolecularly. Plants grow and move, though but little. Animals are
free to move o every direction, and space itself is no hindrance to the
higher
principles of man.
Advance is in the direction of more cononuous and more untiring
energy.
31. 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
ăra~iyauka1 He became the Teacher of mankind. Aher Julai’ had
entered the
niwă~a, He preached on mount and
plain, and held discourses in the cities, to devas, men and
gods.
Reference is here made to the
attainment of the Buddha. It was only after he had abandoned the Ascetic Life
that he attained, and so far from manifesting that attainment by non-action,
he created a revolution in India by attacking the Caste system, and by
preaching his law created a karma so violent that even today its primary force
is still active. The present “Buddha,” the Master Therion, is doing a similar,
but even greater work, by His proclamation: Do what thou wilt shall be the
whole of the Law.
32. Sow kindly acts and thou shalt reap
their fruition. maction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a
deadly
sin.
Thus saith the
Sage.
This continues the diatribe
against non-action, and points out that the Ascetic is entirely deluded when
he supposes that doing nothing has no effect. To refuse to save life is
murder.
33. Shalt thou abstain from action? Not so shall
gain thy
soul her freedom. To reach
nirvăna one must reach SelfKnowledge, and Self-Knowledge is of loving
deeds the child.
Continues the subject. The basis
of knowledge is experience.
34. 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 Candidate is exhorted to
patience and one-pointedness, and, further to an indifference to the result
which comes of true confidence that that result will follow. Cf. Liber
CCXX 1:44: “For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of
result, is every way perfect.”
35. 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.
Compare Lévi’s aphorism, “The
Magician should work as
though he had omnipotence at his
command and eternity at his disposal.” Do not imagine that it matters whether
you finish the task in this life or not. Go on quietly and steadily, unmoved
by anything whatever.
36. 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.
Accept the Laws of Nature and
work with them. Do not be
always trying to take short
cuts. Do not complain, and do not be afraid of the length of the Path. This
treatise being for beginners, reward is offered. And—it is really worthwhile.
One may find oneself in the Office of a Buddha.
3. Yea, cried the Holy One, and from Thy
spark will 1 the Lord kindle a great light; 1 will burn through the great city
in the old and desolate land; 1 will cleanse it from its great
impurity.
4. And thou, O prophet, shalt see these
things, and thou shalt heed them not.
5. Now is the Pillar established in the Void;
now is Asi fulfilled of Asar; now is Hoor let down into the Animal Soul of
Things like a fiery star that falleth upon the darkness of the
earth.
6. Through the midnight thou art dropt, O
my child, my conqueror, my sword-girt captain,
O
Hoor! and they shall find thee as a black
gnarl’d glittering stone, and
they shall
worship
thee.’
37. Step out from 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.
Now the discourse turns to the
question of the origin of Evil. The alchemical theory is here set forth. The
first matter of the work is not so worthy as the elixir, and it must pass
through the state of the Black Dragon to attain thereto.
38. These vestures are: ninnä~za-kăya,
sambhogkăya, dhanna-kăya, robe Sublime.1
The nirmăna-kaya body is the
“Body of Light” as described in Book 4, Part III. But it is to be considered
as having been developed to the highest point possible that is compatible with
incarnation.
The sambhogkaya has “three
perfections” added, so-called. These would prevent
incarnation.
The dharma-kaya body is what may
be described as the final sublimation of an individual. It is a bodiless flame
on the point of mingling with the infinite flame. A description of the state
of one who is in this body is given in “The Hermit of Ćsopus
Island.”
Such is a rough account of these
“robes” according to Mme. Blavatsky.2 She further adds that the
dharma-kaya body has to be renounced by anyone who wants to help humanity.
Now, helping humanity is a very nice thing for those who like it, and no doubt
those who do so deserve well of their fellows. But there is no reason whatever
for imagining that to help humanity is the only kind of work worth doing in
this universe. The feeling o desire to do so is a limitation and a drag just
as bad as any other and it is not at ah necessary to make all this fuss about
Initiator and ah the rest of it. The universe is exceedingly elastic,
especially for those who are themselves elastic. Therefore, though o. course
one cannot remember humanity when one is wearing the dharma-kaya body, one can
hang the dharma-kaya body in one’s magical wardrobe, with a few camphor-balls
to keep the moths out, and put it on from time to time when feeling in need
of refreshment. In fact, one who is
helping humanity is constantly in need of a wash and brush-up from time to
time. There i5 nothing quite so contaminating as humanity, especially
Theosophists, as Mme. Blavatsky herself discovered. But the best of all
illustrations is death, in which ah things unessential to progress are burned
up. The plan is much better than that of the Elixir of Life. It is perfectly
ah right to use this Elixir for energy and youth, but despite all, impressions
keep on cluttering up the mind, and once in a while it is certainly a splendid
thing for everybody to have the Spring Cleaning of
death.
With regard to one’s purpose in
doing anything at ahi, it depends on the nature of one’s Star. Blavatsky was
horribly hampered by the Trance of Sorrow. She couid see nothing else in the
world but helping humanity. She takes no notice whatever of the question of
progress through other planets.
Geocentricity is a very pathetic
and amusingly childish characteristic of the older schools. They are
always talking about the ten thousand worlds, but it is only a figure of
speech. They do not believe in them as actual realities. It is one of the
regular Oriental tricks to exaggerate all sorts of things in order to impress
other people with one’s knowledge, and then to forget altogether to weld this
particular piece of information on to the wheel of the Law. Consequently, ah
Blavatsky’s talk about the sublimity of the nirmă~ia-kăya body is no more than
the speech of a politician who is thanking a famous general for having done
some of his dirty work for him.
39. The šatza robe,1 ‘tis true,
can purchase hight eternal. The íatw robe alone gives the niwă~za of
destruction;2 it
stops rebirth, but, O Lanoo, it
also kills—compassion. No longer can the perfect Buddhas, who don
the
dharma-kăya glory, help man’s
salvation. Alas! shall
selves be sacrificed to Self,
mankind, unto the weah of Units?
The sum of misery is diminished
only in a minute degree by the attainment of a pratyeka-buddha.3
The tremendous energy acquired is used to accomplish the miracle of
destruction. If the keystone of an arch is taken away the other stones are not
promoted to a higher place. They fall.
40. 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 words “selfish bliss” must
not be taken in a literal sense. It is exceedingly difficult to discuss this
question. The Occidental mind finds it difficult even to attach any meaning to
the conditions of nirva~ia. Partly it is the fault of language, partly it
is due to the fact that the condition of arhat is quite beyond thought. He is
beyond the Abyss, and there a thing is only true in so far as it is
self-contradictory. The arhat has no self to be blissful. It is much simpler
to consider it on the lines given in my commentary to the last
verse.
41. To live to benefit mankind is the first
step. To practice the six glorious virtues is the
second.
42. To don ninnă~za-käya’s humble robe is
to forego eternal bliss for Self, to help on man’s salvation. To
reach
nirvă~ia’s bliss but to renounce
it, is the supreme, the
final step—the highest on
Renunciation’s Path.
All this about Gautama Buddha
having renounced nirvă~za is apparently all a pure invention of Mme.
Blavatsky, and has no authority in the Buddhist canon. The Buddha is referred
to, again and again, as having “passed away by that kind of passing away which
heaves nothing whatever behind.”1 The account of his doing this is
given in the Maha-Parinibbăna Sutta; and it was the contention of the
Theosophists that this “great, sublime, nibbăna story” was something peculiar
to Gautama Buddha. They began to talk about parinibbana, super-nibbana, as if
there were some way of subtracting one from one which would leave a higher,
superior kind of a nothing, or as if there were some way of blowing out a
candle which would heave Moses in a much more Egyptian darkness than we ever
supposed when we were children.
This is not science. This is not
business. This is American Sunday journalism. The Hindu and the American are
very much alike in this innocence, this naďveté which demands fairy stories
with ever bigger giants. They cannot bear the idea of anything being complete
and done with. So, they are always talking in superlatives, and are hard put
to it when the facts catch up with them, and they have to invent new
superlatives. Instead of saying that there are bricks of various sizes, and
specifying those sizes, they have a brick, and a super-brick, and “one” brick,
and “some” brick; and when they have got to the end, they chase through the
dictionary for some other epithet to brick, which shall excite the sense of
wonder at the magnificent progress and super-progress—I present the American
nation with this word— which is supposed to have been made. Probably the whole
thing is a bluff without a single fact behind it. Almost the whole of the
Hindu psychology is an example of this kind of journalism. They are not
content with the supreme God. The other man wishes to show off by having a
supreme God than that, and when a third man comes along and finds them
disputing, it is up to him to invent a supremest
super-God.
It is simply ridiculous to try
to add to the definition of nibbăna by this invention of parinibbana, and only
talkers busy themselves with these fantastic speculations. The serious student
minds his own business, which is the business in hand. The President of a
Corporation does not pay his bookkeeper to make a statement of the countless
billions of profit to be made in some future year. It requires no great
ability to string a row of zeros after a significant figure until the ink runs
out. What is wanted is the actual balance of the week.
The reader is most strongly
urged nor to permit himself to indulge in fantastic flights of thought, which
are the poison of the mind, because they represent an attempt to run away from
reality, a dispersion of energy and a corruption of moral strength. His
business is, firstly, to know himself; secondly, to order and control himself;
thirdly, to develop himself on sound organic lines little by little. The rest
is only leather and Prunella.
There is, however, a sense in
which the service of humanity is necessary to the completeness of the Adept.
He is nor to fly away too far.
Some remarks on this course are
given in the note to the next verse.
The student is also advised to
rake note of the conditions of membership of the A:.
A:..
43. Know, O Disciple, this is the Secret
PATH, selected by the Buddhas of Perfection, who sacrificed THE 5ELF to weaker
Selves.
This is a statement of the
conditions of performing the Alchemical operation indicated in the
injunction “coagula.”1 In “solve”2 the Adept aspires
upward. He casts off everything that he has is. But after reaching the supreme
triad, he aspires downwar He keeps on adding to all that he has or is, but
after another manner.
This part of our treatise is
loathsomely sentimental twaddle what America (God bless her!) calls
“sob-stuff.” When tipsy o ladies become maudlin, it is time to
go.
44. Yet, if the “Doctrine of the Heart” is
too high-winged for thee. If thou need’st 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 “tomorrow.” 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.”1 The
pepper plant will not give birth to roses, nor the sweet jessamine’s silver
star to thorn or thistle turn.
Behold what is written for a
Parable in the “Great Law”:
51. Let not the failure and the
pain turn aside the worshippers. The foundations of the pyramid were hewn in
the living rock ere sunset; did the king weep at dawn that the crown of the
pyramid was yet unquarried in the distant hand?
52. There was also an humming-bird that spake
unto the horned cetastes, and prayed him for poison. And the great snake of
Khem the Holy One, the royal Urćus serpent, answered him and
said:
53. I sailed over the sky of Nu in the car
called Millions-of-Years, and I saw not any creature upon Seb that was
equal to me. The venom of my fang is the inheritance of my father, and of my
father’s father; and how shall 1 give it unto thee? Live thou and
thy
54. Behold Migmar,1 as in his
crimson veils his “Eye” sweeps over slumbering Earth. Behold the fiery aura of
the “Hand” of Lhagpa2 extended in protecting love over the heads of his
ascetics. Both are now servants to Nyima,3 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.
The astronomy of the Author of
this book is not equal to her poetic prose. Mercury can hardly be said to have
a fiery aura, or to be a silent watcher in the night. Nor is it easy to attach
any meaning to the statement that Mars and Mercury were once Suns. The
theories of transmigration of personality involved are a little
difficult!
55. 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.
This charge is very important to
all Students of whatever grade.
Everyone’s first duty is to
himself, and to his progress in the
Path; but his second duty, which
presses the first hard, is to give
assistance to those not so
advanced.
56. 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
fiower at the feet of Shakyathub-pa,4 becomes a sirotăpanna5 in this
birth. The siddhis6 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 doe.
It seems rather a
bold assertion that sirotăpanna is so
easily attained, and 1 know of no Canonical Buddhist authority for this
statement.1
57. Tell him, O Aspirant, that true
devotion may bring him back the knowledge, that knowledge which was his in
former births. The deva-sight and deva-hearing are not obtained in one short
birth.
The promise in this verse is
less difficult to believe. By true devotion is meant a devotion which
does not depend upon its object. The highest kind of love asks for no return.
It is however misleading to say that “deva-sight and deva-hearing are not
obtained in one short birth,” as that appears to mean that unless you are born
with them you can never acquire them, which is certainly untrue. It is open to
any one to say to any one who has acquired them, that he must have acquired
them in a previous existence, but a more stupid argument can hardly be
imagined. It is an ex cathedra2 statement, and it begs the question, and it
contains the same fallacy as is committed by those who suppose that an
uncreated God can explain an uncreated Universe.
58. Be humble, if thou would’st attain to
Wisdom.
By humility is meant the
humility of the scientific man.
59. Be humbler still, when Wisdom thou hast
mastered.
This is merely a paraphrase of
Sir Isaac Newton’s remark about the child picking up
shells.
60. Be like the Ocean which receives all
streams and rivers. The Ocean’s mighty calm remains unmoved; it
feels
them not.
This verse has many possible
interpretations, but its main meaning is that you should accept the universe
without being affected by it.
61. Restrain by thy Divine thy lower Self.
“Divine” refers to Tiphareth.1
62. Restrain by the Eternal the
Divine.
“Eternal” refers to Kether. In
these two verses the Path is explained in language almost
Qabalistic.
63. Aye, great is he, who is the slayer of
desire.
By “desire” is again meant
“tendency” in the technical Buddhist sense. The Law of Gravitation is the most
universal example of such a tendency.
64. Still greater he, in whom the Self
Divine has slain the very knowledge of desire.
This verse refers to a stage in
which the Master has got entirely beyond the Law of cause and effect. The
words “Self Divine” are somewhat misleading in view of the sense in which they
have been used previously.
65. Guard thou the Lower lest it
soil the
Higher.
The Student is told to “guard”
the lower, that is to say he should protect and strengthen it
in every possible
way, never allowing it
to grow
disproportionately or to overstep its boundaries.
66. The way to final freedom is within thy
SELF.
In this verse we find the
“SELF”
identified with the
Universe.
67. That way begins and ends outside of
Self.
The Ego, i.e. that which is
opposed by the non-Ego, has to be destroyed.
68. Unpraised by men and humble is the
mother of all
rivers, in tîrthika’s proud
sight; empty the human form though filled with amrta’s sweet waters, in the
sight of fools. Withal, the birthplace of the sacred rivers is the sacred
land, and he who Wisdom hath, is honoured by all men.
This verse appears to employ a
local metaphor, and as Madame Blavatsky had never visited Tibet, the metaphor
is obscure, and the geography doubtful.
69. Arhats and Sages of the boundless
Vision are rare as is the blossom of the udumbara tree. Arhats 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.
We find the talented Author
again in difficulties, this time with Botany. By the “boundless Vision” is not
meant the stupid siddhi, but one of the forms of samadhi, perhaps that upon
the snake Ananta, the great green snake that bounds the
Universe.
70. No arhat, 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.
It is most important that the
Master should not reject any pupil. As it is written in Liber Legis, “He must
teach; but he may make severe the ordeals.”1 Compare also the l3th Ćthyr, in
Liber 418, where it
is shown that Nemo
has no means of deciding which of his fiowers is the really important one,
although assured that all will one day bloom.
71. Yea, if he conquers, nirvăna 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.
The words “mortal coil” suggest
Stratford-on-Avon rather than Lhasa. The meaning of the verse is a little
obscure. It is that the conqueror will be recognized as a Buddha sooner or
later. This is not true, but does not matter. My God! if one wanted
“recognition” from “men”! Help!
72. 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.
Further encouragement to
proceed; for although you do not attain everything, yet the enemies you have
conquered will not again attack you. In point of fact this is hardly true. The
conquest must be very complete for it to be so; but they certainly recur with
very diminished intensity. Similar is the gradual immunization of man to
syphilis, which was a rapidly fatal disease when fresh. Now we all have it in
our blood, and are protected (to some extent, at least) against the
ladies.
73. But if thou would’st nirvăna reach, or
cast the prize away, let not the fruit of action and inaction be thy motive,
thou of dauntless heart.
This verse is again very
obscure, from overloading. The “fruit” and the “prize” both refer to
nirvana.
74. 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.
This verse must not be
interpreted as offering the inducement of the title of “thrice Honoured” to a
bodhisattva. It is a mere eloquent appeal to the Candidate. This about woe is
awful. It suggests a landlady in Dickens who ‘as seen better
days.
75. 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 “four and seven Portals”
refer, the first to the four stages ending in arhat, the second to the Portals
referred to in the third Fragment.
76. The One becomes the two, the Open and the
Secret. The first one leadeth to the goal, the second, to
SelfImmolation.
The obvious meaning of the verse
is the one to take. However, I must again warn the reader against supposing
that “Self-Immolation” has anything to do with Sir Philip Sidney,1 or the
sati of the brahmin’s widow.
77. 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—nirvăna, the glorious state of Absoluteness, the Bliss past
human thought.
78. Thus, the first Path is
LIBERATION.
79. But Path the Second is—RENUNCIATION,
and therefore called the “Path of Woe.”
There is far too much
emotionalism in this part of the treatise, though perhaps this is the fault of
the language; but the attitude of contemplating the sorrow of the Universe
eternally is unmanly and unscientific. In the practical attempt to aid
suffering, the consciousness of that suffering is lost. With regard to the
doctrine of karma, argument is nugatory. In one sense karma cannot be
interfered with, even to the smallest extent, in any way, and therefore ah
action is not truly cause, but effect. In another sense Zoroaster is right
when he says “Theurgists, fall not so low as to be ranked among the herd that
are in subjection to fate.”2 Even if the will be not free, it must be
considered as free, or the word loses its meaning. There is, however, a much
deeper teaching in this matter.
80. That Secret Path leads the arhat to
mental woe
unspeakable; woe for the living
Dead, and helpless pity for the men of karmic sorrow, the fruit of kanna Sages
dare not still.
Mental woe unspeakable-.--Rats!
If we were to take all this au grand sérieux,1 we should have to class H. P.
B. with Sacher Masoch. She does not seem to have any idea of what an arhat is,
as soon as she plunges into one of these orgies of moral flagellation! Long
before one becomes an arhat, one has completely cured the mind. One knows that
it is contradiction and illusion. One has passed by the Abyss, and reached
Reality. Now, although one is flung forth again across the Abyss, as explained
in Liber 418, and undergoes quite normal mental experiences, yet they are no
longer taken seriously, for they have not the power to
delude.
There is no question of Sages
daring to still the fruit of karma. I do not quite know how one would set
about stilling a fruit, by the way. But the more sage one is, the less one
wants to interfere with law. There is a special comment upon this point in
Liber Aleph.2 Most of the pleasures in life, and most of the education in
life, are given by superable obstacles. Sport, including love, depends on the
overcoming of artificial or imaginary resistances. Golf has been defined
as trying to knock a little ball into a hole with a set of instruments very
ill-adapted for the purpose. In Chess one is bound by purely arbitrary rules.
The most successful courtesans are those who have the most tricks in their
bags. 1 will not argue that this complexity is better than the Way of the Tao.
It is probably a perversion of taste, a spiritual caviar. But as the poet
says:
It
May seem to you
strange:
The fact is—I like it!
81. For it is written: “teach to eschew all
causes; the ripple of effect, as the great tidal wave, thou shalt let run its
course.”
This verse apparently
contradicts completely the long philippic against inaction, for the Object of
those who counsel non-action is to prevent any inward cause arising, so that
when the old causes have worked this out there is nothing left. But this is
quite unphilosophical, for every effect as soon as it occurs becomes a new
cause, and it is always equal to its cause. There is no waste or dissipation.
If you take an atom of hydrogen and combine it with one hundred thousand other
atoms in turn, it still remains hydrogen, and it has not lost any of its
qualities.
The harmony of the doctrines of
Action and Non-Action is to be found in The Way of the Tao. One should do what
is perfectly natural to one; but this can only be done when one’s
consciousness is merged in the Universal or Phallic
Consciousness.
82. 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 dharma-kăya
which is oblivion of the World
and men for ever.
The collocation called “I” is
dissolved. One “goes out” like the flame of a candle. But 1 must remark that
the final clause is again painfully geocentric.
83. The “Secret Way” leads also to
parinirvănic bliss—but at the close of kalpas without number; nirvănas gained
and lost from boundless pity and compassion for the
world of deluded
mortals.
This is quite contrary to
Buddhist teaching. Buddha certainly had “parinirvana,” if there be such a
thing, though, as nirvăna means “Annihilation” and parinirvăna “complete
Annihilation,” it requires a mmd more metaphysical than mine to distinguish
between these. It is quite certain that Buddha did not require any old kalpas
to get there, and to suppose that Buddha is still about, watching over the
world, degrades him to a common Deity, and is in fiat contradiction to the
statements in the Maha-Parinibbana Sutta, where Buddha gravely explains that
he is passing away by that kind of passing away which leaves nothing
whatever behind, and compares his death to the extinction of a lamp.1
Canonical Buddhism is certainly the only thing upon which we can rely as a
guide to the teachings of the Buddha, if there ever was a Buddha. But we are
in no wise bound to accept such teachings blindly, however great our personal
reverence for the teacher.
84. But it is said: “The last shall be the
greatest.” Samyak Sambuddha,2 the Teacher of Perfection, gaye up
hisSELF for the salvation of the
World, by stopping at the threshold of nirvăna—the pure
state.
Here is further metaphysical
difficulty. One kind of nothing, by taking its pleasures sadly, becomes an
altogether superior kind of nothing.
It is with no hope of personal
advancement that the Masters teach. Personal advancement has ceased to have
any meaning long before one becomes a Master. Nor do they teach because they
are such Nice Kind People. Masters are like Dogs, which “bark and bite, for
‘tis their nature to.” We want no credit, no thanks; we are sick of you; only,
we have to go on.
This verse is, one must suppose,
an attempt to put things into the kind of language that would be understood by
beginners. Compare Chapter Thirteen of The Book of Lies, where it explains how
one is induced to follow the Path by false pretences. Compare also the story
of the Dolphin and the Prophet in “Liber LXV”:
37. Behold! the Abyss of the Great
Deep. Therein is a mighty dolphin, lashing his sides
with the force of the
waves.
38. There is also an harper of gold,
playing infinite tunes.
39. Then the dolphin delighted
therein, and put off his body, and became a bird.
40. The harper also
laid aside his harp, and
played
infinite tunes upon the Pan-pipe.
41. Then the bird desired exceedingly this bliss,
and laying down its wings became a faun of
the forest.
42. The harper
also laid down his Pan-pipe, and
with the human voice sang his infinite tunes.
43. Then the
faun was enraptured, and followed
far; at last the harper was silent, and the
faun became Pan in the midst of the primal
forest of Eternity.
44. Thou canst
not charm the dolphin with
silence, O my prophet! 1
85. Thou hast the knowledge now concerning the
two
Ways. Thy time will come for choice, O thou of
eager
Soul, when thou hast
reached the end and passed the
seven Portals. Thy mind is clear. No more art
thou
entangled in delusive thoughts, for thou hast learned
all.
Unveiled stands truth and looks thee sternly in the
face.
She says:
“Sweet are the fruits of Rest and Liberation for the
sake
of Self, but sweeter still the fruits of long and
bitter
duty. Aye,
Renunciation for the sake of others, of
suffering fellow men.”
86. He, who becomes pratyeka-buddha, makes his
obei
sance but to his Self. The bodhisattva who has won
the
battle, who holds the prize within his palm, yet says
in
his divine compassion:
87. “For others’ sake this great
reward I yield” accom
plishes the greater Renunciation.
A SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD is he.
Here again we are told of the
sweetness of the fruits. But even in the beginning the Magician has had to
work entirely regardless of any fruits, and his principal method has been to
reject any that tray come his way. Again all this about the “sake of others”
and “suffering fellow-men,” is the kind of sentimental balderdash that
assures one that this book was intended to reach the English and not the
Tibetan public. The sense of separateness from others has been weeded out from
the consciousness long, long ago. The Buddha who accomplishes the greater
Renunciation is a Saviour of the World—it is the dogginess of a dog that makes
it doggy. It is not the virtue of a dog to be doggy. A dog does not become
doggy by the renunciation of non-dogginess. It is quite true that you and 1
value one kind of a Buddha more than another kind of a Buddha, but the
Universe is not framed in accordance with what you and 1 like. As Zoroaster
says: “The progression of the Stars was not generated for your sake,”1 and
there are times when a dhamma-buddha reflects on the fact that he is no more
and no less than any other thing, and wishes he were dead. That is to say,
that kind of a dhamma-buddha in whom such thoughts necessarily arise, thinks
so; but this of course does not happen, because it is not in the nature of a
dhamma-buddha to think anything of the sort, and he even knows too much to
think that it would be rather natural if there were some kinds of
dhamma-buddha who did think something of the kind. But he is assuredly quite
indifferent to the praise and blame of the “suffering fellow-men.” He does not
want their gratitude. We will now close this painful
subject.
88. Behold! The goal of bliss and the long
Path of Woe are at the furthest end. Thou canst choose either,
Oaspirant to Sorrow, throughout
the coming cycles!
Auth
Vajrapani büm.
With this eloquent passage the
Fragment closes. It may be remarked that the statement “thou canst choose” is
altogether opposed to that form of the theory of determinism which is orthodox
Buddhism. However, the question of Free Will has been discussed in a previous
Note.2
Auth Vajrapani hüm.—Vajrapani
was some kind of a universal deity in a previous manvantara who took an
oath:
Ere the Cycle rush to utter
darkness,
Work I so that every living
being
Pass beyond this constant chain
of causes.
If I fail, may all my being
shatter
Into millions of far-whirling
pieces! 1
He failed, of course, and blew
up accordingly; hence the Stars.