Theos-Talk Archives (July 1996 Message tl00809)

Paul,
See below.  I am sending you HPB's preface,
Fragment I and Glossary to Fragment I.  This text
is verbatim with first edition of 1889.

Dan 

P.S. 
>Since my copy of the book is temporarily misplaced, can someone
>repost the first section on the list?  I deleted it thinking
>the book would be easy to find-- mistakenly.
>
>Thanks,
>Paul
>
>


FIRST SERIES.


THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE

BEING

CHOSEN FRAGMENTS

FROM THE "BOOK OF THE GOLDEN PRECEPTS."

_______


FOR THE DAILY USE OF LANOOS (DISCIPLES).

______


TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATOED

BY

"H. P. B."

_______

London:

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED,

7, DUKE STREET, W.C.

New York:

W.Q. JUDGE, 21, PARK ROW.

1889.



ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.

All rights reserved.









[v] PREFACE.

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 [vi] 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
Paramârtha, which, the legend of Nâgârjuna 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 Dnyaneshwari, that superb
mystic treatise in which Krishna describes to Arjuna in glowing colors the
condition of a fully illumined Yogi; and again in certain Upanishads. This
is but natural, since most, if not all, of the greatest Arhats, the first
followers of Gautama Buddha [vii] were Hindus and Aryans, not Mongolians,
especially those who emigrated into Tibet. The works left by Aryasangâ alone
are very numerous.

The original Precepts are engraved on thin oblong 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
Mahâyâna (Yogachârya) 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 colours, each of which correspond to a letter of the Tibetan
alphabet (thirty simple and seventy-four compound letters) thus forming a
complete cryptographic alphabet. [viii] 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 colours, 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 colours, 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 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, [ix] 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
anyone 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 [x] 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" (Katha Upanishad). "Kill out sensation," teaches Sutta Nipâta;
"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. "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" (Bhagavatgita II. 70).

[xi] 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." (Bhagavatgita II. 27). 

In this translation, I have done my best to preserve the poetical beauty of
language and imagery which characterise the original. How far this effort
has been successful, is for the reader to judge.

"H. P. B."


CONTENTS.
__ . __

PAGE

I.- THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE . . . I

II.- THE TWO PATHS . . . . . . 23

III.- THE SEVEN PORTALS . . . . 45
___________________________


[All the words followed by figures within brackets are fully explained in
the Glossary under corresponding figures at the end of the Book.]




Dedicated to the few.





[1]

FRAGMENT I.
_________

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 Dhâranâ(3).

Having become indifferent to objects of perception, the pupil must seek out
the rajah 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.

[2]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.

Before the soul can comprehend and may [3] 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(4); know, O Disciple, thy Soul is of the earth.

When to the World's turmoil thy budding soul (5) lends ear; when to the
roaring voice of the great illusion thy Soul responds (6); when frightened
at the sight of the hot tears of pain, when deafened by the [4] 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 (7).

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" (8).

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.

[5] Saith the Great Law: - "In order to become the KNOWER of ALL SELF (9)
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 (10)
throughout eternal ages (11).

Bestride the Bird of Life, if thou would'st know (12).

Give up thy life, if thou would'st live (13).

Three Halls, O weary pilgrim, lead to the end of toils. Three Halls, O
conqueror of Mara, will bring thee through three states (14) into the fourth
(15) and thence into the seven worlds (16), the worlds of Rest Eternal.

If thou would'st learn their names, then hearken, and remember.

[6] The name of the first Hall is IGNORANCE - Avidya.

It is the Hall in which thou first saw'st the light, in which thou livest
and shalt die (17).

The name of Hall the second is the Hall of Learning.* {* The Hall of
Probationary Learning.} In it thy Soul will find the blossoms of life, but
under every flower a serpent coiled (18).

The name of the third Hall is Wisdom, beyond which stretch the shoreless
waters of AKSHARA, the indestructible Fount of Omniscience (19).

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 [7] 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 (20), 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 Agnyana (21), flee from the Hall of
Learning. This Hall is dangerous in its perfidious [8] 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) (22). 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 [9] reach the Vale of Bliss,
Disciple, close fast thy senses against the great dire heresy of
separateness that weans thee from the rest.

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 (23) and the abode of the World's Mother (24).

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" (25) who treads the
winds above the waves, whose step touches not the waters.

Before thou set'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* {* The Higher
SELF.} in seven manners.

[10] 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 (26).

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.

The seventh swallows all the other sounds. They die, and then are heard no more.

When the six (27) are slain and at the Master's [11] feet are laid, then is
the pupil merged into the ONE (28), becomes that ONE and lives therein.

Before that path is entered, thou must destroy thy lunar body (29), cleanse
thy mind-body (30) 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.

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 [12] will absorb thy
being before thou hast well realized the black foul monster's presence.

Before the "mystic Power" (31)* {* Kundalini, the "Serpent Power" or mystic
fire.} 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.

Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself (32).

Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its
heart to drink the morning sun.

[13] 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 (33) 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 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 (34), let [14] 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 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 [15] 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 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 pollutes 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 [16] 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.

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 [17] 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.

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 [18] 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 [(23)](22), its sunlight will not
warm the heart, nor will the mystic sounds of the Akasic heights (35) reach
the ear, however eager, at the initial stage.

Unless thou hearest, thou canst not see.

Unless thou seest thou canst not hear. To hear and see this is the second stage.

. . . . . . . . .

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 [19] ready are to pass into the fifth, that of the inner touch -
then into stage the fourth he hath passed on.

And in the fifth, O slayer of thy thoughts, all these again have to be
killed beyond reanimation (36).

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 DHÂRANÂ (37), the sixth stage.

When thou hast passed into the seventh, O happy one, thou shalt perceive no
more the sacred three (38), for thou shalt have become that three thyself.
Thyself and mind, like twins upon a line, the star which is thy goal, burns
overhead (39). The three that dwell in glory and in bliss ineffable, now in
the world of Maya have lost their names. They have become one star, the fire
that burns but scorches not, that fire which is the Upadhi (40) of the Flame.

And this, O Yogi of success, is what men call Dhyâna (41), the right
precursor of Samâdhi (42).

And now thy Self is lost in SELF, thyself unto 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.

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
(43). The light that falls upon them shines from thyself, O thou who wast
disciple but art Teacher now.

[21] 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 Tsi, the portal of assembling -
truth the second? (44).

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? (45).

And now, rest 'neath the Bodhi tree, which is perfection of all knowledge,
for, know, thou art the Master of SAMÂDHI - the state of faultless vision.

Behold! 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, from sin
exempt, the seven sounds in one, the

VOICE OF THE SILENCE

Om Tat Sat



GLOSSARY TO PART I. 

The Voice of the Silence.

[73] (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: - "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 Sen-sar term.

(3). Dhâranâ, 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.

(4). The "great Master" is the term used by lanoos or chelas to indicate
one's "Higher Self." It is the equivalent of Avalôkitêswara, and the same as
Adi-Budha [74] with the Buddhist Occultists, ATMAN the "Self" (the Higher
Self) with the Brahmins, and CHRISTOS with the ancient Gnostics.

(5). 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. 

(6). Maha-Maya "Great Illusion," the objective Universe.

(7). Sakkâyaditthi "delusion" of personality.

(8). Attavâda, the heresy of the belief in Soul or rather in the
separateness of Soul or Self from the One Universal, infinite SELF.

(9). The Tatwagyanee is the "knower" or discriminator of the principles in
nature and in man; and Atmagyanee is the knower of ATMAN or the Universal,
ONE SELF.

(10). Kala Hamsa, the "Bird" or Swan (Vide No. 11). Says the
Nada-Bindu-Upanishad (Rig Veda) translated by the Kumbakonam Theos. Society
- "The syllable A is considered to be its (the bird Hamsa's) right wing, U,
its left, M, its tail, and the Ardha-matra (half metre) is said to be its head."

(11). Eternity with the Orientals has quite another signification than it
has with us. It stands generally for [75] the 100 years or "age" of Brahmâ,
the duration of a Kalpa or a period of 4,320,000,000 years.

(12). Says the same Nada-Bindu, "A Yogî who bestrides the Hamsa (thus
contemplates on Aum) is not affected by Karmic influences or crores of sins."

(13). Give up the life of physical personality if you would live in spirit.

(14). 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 -

(15). The Turya , that beyond the dreamless state, the one above all, a
state of high spiritual consciousness.

(16). Some Sanskrit 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 Brahmâ
instead of Brahma (neuter).

(17). The phenomenal World of Senses and of terrestrial consciousness - only.

(18). The astral region, the Psychic World of supersensuous perceptions and
of deceptive sights - the world of Mediums. It is the great "Astral Serpent"
of Éliphas Lévi. No blossom plucked in those regions has ever yet [76] been
brought down on earth without its serpent coiled around the stem. It is the
world of the Great Illusion.

(19). The region of the full Spiritual Consciousness beyond which there is
no longer danger for him who has reached it.

(20). 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.

(21). Agnyana is ignorance or non-wisdom the opposite of "Knowledge" gnyana.

(22). 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.

(23). The inner chamber of the Heart, called in Sanskrit Brahma poori. The
"fiery power" is Kundalini.

(24). 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 [77] 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.

(25). Keshara or "sky-walker" or "goer." As explained in the 6th. Adhyaya of
that king of mystic works the Dhyanéswari - 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."

(26). Vina is an Indian stringed instrument like a lute.

(27). The six principles; meaning when the lower personality is destroyed
and the inner individuality is merged into and lost in the Seventh or Spirit.

(28). The disciple is one with Brahmâ or ATMAN.

(29). The astral form produced by the Kamic principle, the Kama rupa or body
of desire.

(30). 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.

(31). Kundalini is called the "Serpentine" or annular [78] 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.

(32). This "Path" is mentioned in all the Mystic Works. As Krishna says in
the Dhyanéswari: "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.

(33). Adeptship - the "blossom of Bôdhisattva."

(34). Tanha-- "the will to live," the fear of death and love for life, that
force or energy which causes rebirths.

(35). These mystic sounds or the melody heard by the ascetic at the
beginning of his cycle of meditation called Anâhad-shabd by the Yogis.

(36). This means that in the sixth stage of development which, in the occult
system is Dhâranâ, every sense as an individual faculty has to be "killed"
(or paralyzed) on this [79] plane, passing into and merging with the Seventh
sense, the most spiritual.

(37). See number 3.

(38). Every stage of development in Raja Yoga is symbolised by a geometrical
figure. This one is the sacred Triangle and precedes Dhâranâ. The <Picture>
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 Tathâgata when released from the
three methods of the Prajna. Once the preliminary and lower stages passed,
the disciple sees no more the <Picture> 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.

(39). The star that burns overhead is "the star of initiation." The
caste-mark of Saivas, or devotees of the sect of Siva, the great patron of
all Yogins, is a black round spot, the symbol of the Sun now, perhaps, but
that of the star of initiation, in Occultism, in days of old.

(40). The basis (upadhi) of the ever unreachable "FLAME," so long as the
ascetic is still in this life. 

[80] (41). Dhyâna is the last stage before the final on this Earth, unless
one becomes a full MAHATMA. As said already in this state the Raj 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 (or fourth
according to some schools). These, after the practice of Pratyêhara - a
preliminary training, in order to control ones mind and thoughts - count
Dhâsena [Dhârana], Dhyâna and Samâdhi and embraces the three under the
generic name of SANNYAMA.

(42). Samâdhi is the state in which the ascetic loses the consciousness of
every individuality including his own. He becomes - the ALL.

(43). The "four modes of truth" are, in Northern Buddhism, Ku "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.

(44). At the portal of the "asssembling" the King of the Maras the Maha Mara
stands trying to blind the candidate by the radiance of his "Jewel."

[81] (45). This is the fourth "Path" out of the five paths of rebirth which
lead and toss all human beings into perpetual states of sorrow and joy.
These "paths" are but sub-divisions of the One, the Path followed by Karma.