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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.
It is well known that, in India, the
methods of psychic development differ with the Gurus (teachers or masters), not
only because of their belonging to different schools of philosophy, of which
there are six, but because every Guru has his own system, which he generally
keeps very secret. But beyond the Himalayas the method in the Esoteric Schools
does not differ, unless the Guru is simply a Lama, but little more learned than
those he teaches.
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. Together with the great mystic work called Paramartha,
which, the legend of Nagarjuna tells us, was
delivered to the great Arhat by the Nagas or "Serpents" (in truth a name given
to the ancient Initiates), the Book of the Golden Precepts claims the same
origin. Yet its maxims and ideas, however noble and original, are often found
under different forms in Sanskrit works, such as the Dnyaneshvari,
that superb mystic treatise in which Krishna describes to Arjuna in
glowing colors the condition of a fully illumined Yogi; and
ii
again in certain Upanishads. This is
but natural, since most, if not all, of the greatest Arhats, the first followers
of Gautama Buddha were Hindus and Aryans, not Mongolians, especially those who
emigrated into Tibet. The works left by Aryasanga alone are very numerous.
The original Precepts
are engraved on thin oblongs [squares] ; copies very often on discs.
These discs, or plates, are generally preserved on the altars of the temples
attached to centres where the so-called "contemplative" or Mahayana (Yogacharya)
schools are established. They are written variously, sometimes in Tibetan but
mostly in ideographs. The sacerdotal language (Senzar), besides an alphabet of
its own, may be rendered in several modes of writing in cypher characters, which
partake more of the nature of ideographs than of syllables. Another method (lug,
in Tibetan) is to use the numerals and colors, each of which corresponds to a
letter of the Tibetan alphabet (thirty simple and seventy-four compound letters)
thus forming a complete cryptographic alphabet. When the ideographs are used
there is a definite mode of reading the text; as in this case the symbols and
signs used in astrology, namely the twelve zodiacal animals and the seven
primary colors, each a triplet in shade, i.e. the light, the
primary, and the dark—stand
for the thirty-three letters of the simple alphabet, for words and sentences.
For in this method, the twelve "animals" five times repeated and coupled with
the five elements and the seven colors, furnish a whole alphabet composed of
sixty sacred letters and twelve signs. A sign placed at the beginning of the
text determines whether the reader has to spell it according to the Indian mode,
when every word is simply a Sanskrit adaptation, or according to the Chinese
principle of reading the
iii
ideographs. The easiest way however,
is that which allows the reader to use no special, or any language he likes, as
the signs and symbols were, like the Arabian numerals or figures, common and
international property among initiated mystics and their followers. The same
peculiarity is characteristic of one of the Chinese modes of writing, which can
be read with equal facility by any one acquainted with the character: for
instance, a Japanese can read it in his own language as readily as a Chinaman in
his.
The Book of the Golden Precepts—some
of which are pre-Buddhistic while others belong to a later date—contains about
ninety distinct little treatises. Of these I learnt thirty-nine by heart, years
ago. To translate the rest, I should have to resort to notes scattered among a
too large number of papers and memoranda collected for the last twenty years and
never put in order, to make of it by any means an easy task. Nor could they be
all translated and given to a world too selfish and too much attached to objects
of sense to be in any way prepared to receive such exalted ethics in the right
spirit. For, unless a man perseveres seriously in the pursuit of self-knowledge,
he will never lend a willing ear to advice of this nature.
And yet such ethics fill volumes
upon volumes in Eastern literature, especially in the Upanishads. "Kill out all
desire of life," says Krishna to Arjuna. That desire lingers only in the body,
the vehicle of the embodied Self, not in the SELF which is "eternal,
indestructible, which kills not nor is it killed" (Katho Upanishad). "Kill out
sensation," teaches Sutta Nipata; "look alike on pleasure and pain, gain and
loss, victory and defeat." Again, "Seek shelter in the eternal alone" (ibid).
"Destroy the sense of separateness," repeats Krishna under every form.
iv
"The Mind (Manas) which follows the
rambling senses, makes the Soul (Buddhi) as helpless as the boat which the wind
leads astray upon the waters" (Bhagavad Gita II).
Therefore it has been thought better
to make a judicious selection only from those treatises which will best suit the
few real mystics in the Theosophical Society, and which are sure to answer their
needs. It is only these who will appreciate these words of Krishna-Christos, the
"Higher Self":
"Sages do not grieve for the living
nor the dead. Never did I not exist, nor you, nor these rulers of men; nor will
any one of us ever hereafter cease to be." (Bhagavad Gita
II).
In this translation, I have done my
best to preserve the poetical beauty of language and imagery which characterizes
the original. How far this effort has been successful, is for the reader to
judge.
"H.P.B."
1889
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“This rendition is a copy of the
1893 New York edition of the VOICE OF THE SILENCE published by Mr. W. Q.
Judge. --Eds.”
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THESE instructions are for those
ignorant of the dangers of the lower IDDHI. (1)
He who would hear the voice of
Nada, (2)
"the Soundless Sound," and comprehend it, he has to learn the nature of
Dharana. (3)
Having become indifferent to objects
of perception, the pupil must seek out the
Rajah
2
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Foot notes
(1). The Pali word
Iddhi, is the synonym 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; the other is one which
exacts the highest training of Spiritual powers. Says Krishna in
Shrimad Bhagavat [Bhagavad-Gita]:
"He who is engaged in the performance of yoga, who has subdued his senses and
who has concentrated his mind in me (Krishna), such yogis all the Siddhis stand
ready to serve."
(2). 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.
(3). 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.
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2
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.
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.
Then only, not till then, shall he
forsake the region of Asat,
the false, to come unto the realm of
Sat, the true.
Before the soul can see, the 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.
3
Before the soul can comprehend and
may remember, she must unto the Silent Speaker be united just as the form to
which the clay is modelled, is first united with the potter's mind.
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;
(1) know, O Disciple, thy Soul is of the earth.
When to the World's turmoil thy
budding
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Foot
note
(1).
The
"great Master" is the term used by
Lanoos or Chelas to indicate one's "HIGHER
SELF." It is the equivalent of
Avalokitesvara, and the same
as Adi-Budha with the
Buddhist Occultists, ATMAN the "Self" (the Higher Self) with the Brahmins, and CHRISTOS
with the ancient Gnostics.
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4
Soul
(1)
lends ear; when to the roaring voice of the great illusion thy Soul responds;
(2) 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. (3)
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". (4)
This earth, O ignorant Disciple, is
but the
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Foot
notes
(1). Soul is used here for the
Human Ego or Manas, that
which is referred to in our Occult Septenary division as the "Human Soul" (Vide
the Secret Doctrine)
in contradistinction to the Spiritual and Animal Souls.
(2). Maha Maya
"Great Illusion," the objective Universe.
(3). Sakkayaditthi
"delusion" of personality.
(4). Attavada,
the heresy of the belief in Soul, or rather in the separateness
of Soul or Self
from the One Universal, Infinite SELF.
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5
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.
Saith the Great Law: "In order to
become the
KNOWER
of ALL SELF (1) 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, and then thou canst 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 (2) throughout eternal ages. (3)
Bestride the Bird of Life, if thou
would'st know.
(4)
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Foot
notes
(1).
The Tattvajyani is the
"knower" or discriminator of the principles in nature and in man; and
Atmajnyani is the knower of
ATMA or the Universal, ONE SELF.
(2).
Kala Hansa, the "Bird"
or Swan. Says the Nadavindu
Upanishad
(Rig Veda) translated by the Kumbakonam
Theosophical Society — "The syllable A is considered to be its
(the bird Hansa's) right wing, U, its left, M, its tail, and the Ardha-matra
(half metre) is said to be its head."
(3).
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.
(4).
Says the same Nadavindu,
"A Yogi who bestrides the Hansa (thus contemplates on AUM) is
not affected by Karmic influences or crores of sins."
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6
Give up thy
life, if thou
would'st live. (1)
Three Halls, O weary pilgrim, lead
to the end of toils. Three Halls, O conqueror of Mara, will bring thee through
three states (2)
into the fourth (3) and thence into the seven worlds, (4) 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. (5)
The name of Hall the second is the
Hall of LEARNING.
(6) In it thy Soul will find the
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Foot
notes
(1). Give up the life of physical
personality
if you would live in spirit.
(2). The three states of consciousness, which are
Jagrat,
the waking; Swapna,
the dreaming; and
Sushupti, the
deep sleeping state. These three Yogi
conditions, lead to the fourth, or—
(3). The Turiya,
that beyond the dreamless state, the one above all, a state of high spiritual
consciousness.
(4). Some Oriental [Sanskrit] mystics locate seven planes of being, the seven
spiritual lokas or
worlds within the body of Kala Hansa,
the Swan out of Time and Space, convertible into the Swan
in Time, when it becomes
Brahma instead of Brahman.
(5). The phenomenal World of Senses
and of terrestrial consciousness—only.
(6)
The Hall of Probationary
Learning. ["The Mind
(Manas) which follows the rambling senses, makes the Soul (Buddhi) as helpless
as the boat which the wind leads astray upon the waters" (Bhagavad-Gita II).]
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blossoms of life, but under every
flower a serpent coiled. (1)
The name of the third Hall is WISDOM,
beyond which stretch the shoreless waters of AKSHARA,
the indestructible Fount of Omniscience. (2)
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.
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Foot Notes
(1). The astral region, the Psychic
World of supersensuous perceptions and of deceptive sights — the world of
mediums. It is the great "Astral Serpent" of Eliphas Levi. No blossom plucked in
those regions has ever yet been brought down on earth without its serpent coiled
around the stem. It is the world of the
Great Illusion.
(2). The region of the full Spiritual Consciousness beyond which there is no
longer danger for him who has reached it.
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8
Seek for him who is to give thee
birth,
(1) in the Hall of Wisdom, the Hall
which lies beyond, wherein all shadows are unknown, and where the light of truth
shines with unfading glory.
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
Ajnyana, (2)
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
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Foot Notes
(1). The Initiate who leads the
disciple through the Knowledge given to him to his spiritual, or second birth,
is called the Father, Guru
or Master.
(2). Ajnyana
is ignorance or non-wisdom
the opposite of "Knowledge" Jnyana.
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Great Ensnarer, (Mara). (1) The
senses it bewitches, blinds the mind, and leaves the unwary an abandoned wreck.
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 other 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.
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.
==============================
Foot Note
(1).
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 Maras)
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.
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10
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
(1) and the abode of the World's Mother. (2)
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.
'Tis only then thou canst become a
"Walker of the Sky" (3)
who treads the winds above the waves, whose step touches not the waters.
Before thou set'st thy foot upon the
ladder's
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Foot
Notes
(1) The
inner chamber of the Heart,
called in Sanskrit Brahma-pura.
The "fiery power" is Kundalini.
(2). 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.
(3). Keshara or
"sky-walker" or "goer." As explained in the 6th.
Adhyaya of that king of mystic
works the Dhyaneshvari—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."
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upper rung, the ladder of the mystic
sounds, thou hast to hear the voice of thy
inner GOD
(1) in
seven manners.
The first is like the nightingale's
sweet voice chanting a song of parting to its mate.
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
Vina. (2)
The fifth like 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.
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Foot Notes
(1) The Higher SELF.
(2). Vina
is an Indian stringed instrument like a lute.
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The seventh swallows all the other
sounds. They die, and then are heard no more.
When the six (1)
are slain and at the Master's feet are laid, then is the pupil merged into the
ONE, (2) becomes that ONE and lives therein.
Before that path is entered, thou
must destroy thy lunar body, (3)
cleanse thy mind-body (4) and make clean thy heart.
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 sun-beam within the bosom of the lotus, when dropped on earth
becomes a piece of clay; behold, the pearl is now a speck of mire.
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Foot Notes
(1). The six principles; meaning when
the lower personality is destroyed and the inner individuality is merged into
and lost in the Seventh or Spirit. (2). The disciple is one with Brahman or the
ATMAN.
(3). The astral form produced by the
Kamic principle, the
Kama-rupa or
body of desire.
(4). 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
paralyzed.
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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, e'en 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.
Before the "mystic Power" (1)
can make of thee a god, Lanoo, thou must have gained the faculty to slay thy
lunar form at will.
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.
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Foot Note
(1).
Kundalini is called the
"Serpent Power" or mystic fire.
Kundalini
is called the "Serpentine" or
the annular power on account on 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.
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Thou canst not travel on the Path
before thou hast become that Path itself. (1)
Let thy Soul lend its ear to every
cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun.
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 (2)
more difficult to find, more rare to view than is the
=========================
Foot Notes
(1). This "Path" is mentioned in all
the Mystic Works. As Krishna says in the
Dhyaneshvari:
"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.
(2). Adeptship—the "blossom of
Bodhisattva."
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15
flower of the Vogay tree. It is the
seed of freedom from rebirth. It isolates the Arhat both from strife and lust,
it leads him through the fields of Being unto the peace and bliss known only in
the land of Silence and Non-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, (1)
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.
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
=================================
Foot
Note
(1).
Tanha —"the will
to live," the fear of death and love for life, that force or energy which causes
the rebirths.
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16
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 Soul.
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
17
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.
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.
Silence thy thoughts and fix thy
whole attention on thy Master whom yet thou dost not see, but whom thou feelest.
18
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 thy brain, that the steep path which leadeth to
thy Master may be disclosed before thy Soul's dim eyes.
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
experiences. Look not behind or thou art lost.
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.
19
The pupil must regain
the child-state he has lost
ere the first sound can fall upon his ear.
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 Akasic heights (1)
reach the ear, however eager, at the initial stage.
Unless thou hear’st, thou canst not
see.
Unless thou seest thou canst not
hear. To hear and see this is the second stage.
* *
* * * * * *
====================================
Foot Note