FRATER O.M. 7°=4

I T is NOT VERY DIFFICULT to write a book, if one chance to possess the necessary degree of Initiation, and the power of expression. It is infernally difficult to comment on such a Book. The principal reason for this is that every statement is true and untrue, alternately, as one advances upon the Path of the Wise. The question always arises: For what grade is this Book meant? To give one simple concrete example, it is stated in the third part of this treatise that Change is the great enemy. This is all very well as meaning that one ought to stick to one’s job. But in another sense Change is the Great Friend. As it is marvelous well shewed forth by The Beast Himself in Liber Aleph, Love is the law, and Love is Change, by definition. Short of writing a separate interpretation suited for every grade, therefore, the commentator is in a bog of quandary which makes Flanders Mud seem like polished granite. He can only do his poor best, leaving it very much to the intelligence of each reader to get just what he needs. These remarks are peculiarly applicable to the present treatise; for the issues are presented in so confused a manner that one almost wonders whether Madame Blavatsky was not a reincarnation of the Woman with the Issue of Blood familiar to readers of the Gospels. It is astonishing and distressing to notice how the Lanoo, no matter what happens to him, soaring aloft like the phang, and sailing gloriously through innumerable Gates of High Initiation, nevertheless keeps his original Point of View, like a Bourbon. He is always getting rid of Illusions, but, like the entourage of the Cardinal Lord Arch-bishop of Rheims after he cursed the thief, nobody seems one penny the worse—or the better.

Probably the best way to take the whole treatise is to assume that it is written for the absolute tyro, with a good deal between the lines for the more advanced mystic. This will excuse, to the mahatma-snob, a good deal of apparent triviality and crudity of standpoint. It is of course necessary for the commentator to point out just those things which the novice is not expected to see. He will have to shew mysteries in many grades, and each reader must glean his own wheat.

At the same time, the commentator has done a good deal to uproot some of the tares in the mind of the tyro aforesaid, which Madame Blavatsky was apparently content to let grow until the day of judgment. But that day is come since she wrote this Book; the New Æon is here, and its Word is Do what thou wilt. It is certainly time to give the order: Chautauqua est delenda.¹

It is important to reject any iddhi of which you may become possessed. Firstly, because of the wasting of energy, which should rather be concentrated on further advance; and secondly, because iddhi are in many cases so seductive that they lead the unwary to forget altogether the real purpose of their endeavours.

A species of parenthesis is necessary thus early in this Comment. One must warn the reader that he is going to swim in very deep waters. To begin with, it is assumed throughout that the student is already familiar with at least the elements of Mysticism. True, you are supposed to be ignorant of the dangers of the lower iddhi; but there are really quite a lot of people, even

in Boston, who do not know that there are any iddhi at all, low or high. However, one who has been assiduous with Book 4, by Frater Perdurabo, should have no difficulty so far as a general comprehension of the subject-matter of the Book is concerned. Too ruddy a cheerfulness on the part of the assiduous one will however be premature, to say the least. For the fact is that this treatise does not contain an intelligible and coherent cosmogony. The unfortunate Lanoo is in the position of a sea-captain who is furnished with the most elaborate and detailed sailing-instruc-tions, but is not allowed to have the slightest idea of what port he is to make, still less given a chart of the Ocean. One finds oneself accordingly in a sort of "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came" atmosphere. That poem of Browning owes much of its haunting charm to this very circumstance, that the reader is never told who Childe Roland is, or why he wants to get to the Dark Tower, or what he expects to find when he does get there. There is a skilfully constructed atmosphere of Giants, and Ogres, and Hunchbacks, and the rest of the apparatus of fairy-tales; but there is no trace of the influence of Bædeker in the style. Now this is really very irritating to anybody who happens to be seriously concerned to get to that tower. I remember, as a boy, what misery 1 suffered over this poem. Had Browning been alive, 1 think 1 would have sought him out, so seriously did 1 take the Quest. The student of Blavatsky is equally handicapped. Fortunately, Book 4, Part III, comes to the rescue once more with a rough sketch of the Universe as it is conceived by Those who know it; and a regular investigation of that book, and the companion volumes ordered in "The Curriculum of the A:. A:.," fortified by steady persistence in practical personal exploration, will enable this Voice of the Silence to become a serious guide in some of the subtler obscurities which weigh upon the Eyelids of the Seeker.

The voice of nada is very soon heard by the beginner, especially during the practice of pranayama (control of breath-force). At first it resembles distant surf, though in the adept it is more like the twittering of innumerable nightingales; but this sound is premonitory, as it were, the veil of more distinct and articulate sounds which come later. It corresponds in hearing to that dark veil which is seen when the eyes are closed, although in this case a certain degree of progress is necessary before

The word "indifferent" here implies "able to shut out." The Rajah referred to is in that spot whence thoughts spring. He turns out ultimately to be Mayan, the great Magician described in the 3rd Æthyr. 2 Let the Student notice that in his early medi-tations, all his thoughts will be under the tamas-guna, the principle of Inertia and Darkness. When he has destroyed all those, he will be under the dominion of an entirely new set of the type of rajas-guna, the principle of Activity, and so on. To the advanced Student a simple ordinary thought, which seems little or nothing to the beginner, becomes a great and terrible fountain of iniquity, and the higher he goes, up to a certain point, the point of definitive victory, the more that is the case. The beginner can think, "it is ten o’clock," and dismiss the thought. To the mind of the adept this sentence will awaken all its possible correspondences, all the reflections he has ever made on time, as also accidental sympathetics like Mr. Whistler’s essay; and if he is sufficiently far advanced, all these thoughts in their hundreds and thousands diverging from the one thought, will again converge, and become the resultant of all those thoughts. He will get samadhi upon that original thought, and this will be a terrible enemy to his progress.

In the word "Mind" we should include all phenomena of Mind, including samadhi itself. Any phenomenon has causes and produces results, and al! these things are below the "REAL." By the REAL is here meant the nibbanadhatu.

5. Let the Disciple slay the Slayer. For— This is a corollary of Verse 4. These texts may be interpreted in a

By "sat, the true," is meant a thing previous to the "REAL" referred to above. Sat itself is an illusion. Some schools of philosophy have a higher asat, Not-Being, which is beyond sat, and consequently is to šivadaršana as sat is to atmadaršana.2 Nirvana is beyond both these.

Any actual object of the senses is considered as a precipitation of an ideal. Just as no existing triangle is a pure triangle, since it must be either equilateral, isosceles, or scalene, so every object is a miscarriage of an ideal. In the course of practice one concentrates upon a given thing, rejecting this outer appearance and arriving at that ideal, which of course will not in any way resemble any of the objects which are its incarnations. It is with this in view that the verse tells us that the Soul must be united to the Silent Speaker. The words "Silent Speaker" may be considered as a hieroglyph of the same character as Logos, Adonai or the Ineffable Name.

"Ascetic" comes from the Greek "to work curiously, to adorn, to exercise, to train."The Latin ars is derived from this same word. Artist, in its finest sense of creative craftsman, is therefore the best translation. The word has degenerated under Puntan foulness.

An even more advanced instruction, but still connected with the question of the Ego and the non-Ego. The phenomenon described is perhaps ãtmadaršana, which is still a delusion, in one sense still a delusion of personality; for although the Ego is destroyed in the Universe, and the Universe in it, there is a distinct though exceedingly subtle tendency to sum up its experience as Ego.

57. The prophet cried against the mountain;

59. But 1 have called unto Thee, and 1 have jour

Auth is here quoted as the hieroglyph of the Eternal. "A" the beginning of sound, "u" its middle, and "m" its end, together form a single word or Trinity, indicating that the Real must be regarded as of this three-fold nature, Birth, Life and Death, not successive, but one. Those who have reached trances in which "time" is no more will understand better than others how this rnay be.

The word "know" is specially used here in a technical sense. Avidya, ignorance, the first of the fetters, is moreover one which includes all the others.

With regard to this Swan Auth compare the following verses from the "Great Law," "Liber LXV," 11:17—25.

This verse may be compared with similar statements in the Gospels, in The Vision and the Voice, and in the Books of It does not mean asceticism in the sense usually understood by the world. The l2th Æthyr2 gives the clearest explanation of this phrase.

These three Halls correspond to the gunas: Ignorance, tamas; Learning, rajas; Wisdom, sattva.

This Hall is a very much larger region than that usually understood by the Astral World. It would certainly include alI states up to dhyãna. The Student will remember that his "rewards" immediately transmute themselves into temptations.

Aksara is the same as the Great Sea of the Qabalah. The reader must consult The Equinox for a full study of this Great Sea.²

This apparently means that the only reliable guru is one who has attained the grade of Magister Templi. For the attainments of this grade consult iber 418], etc.1

1 am inclined to believe that most of Blavatsky’s notes are intended as blinds. "Light" such as is described has a technical meaning. It would be too petty to regard Mara as a Christian would regard a man who offered him a cigarette. The supreme and blinding light of this jewel is the great vision of Light. It is the light which streams from the threshold of nirvãna, and Mãra is the "dweller on the threshold." It is absurd to call this light "evil" in any commonplace sense. It is the two-edged sword, flaming every way, that keeps the gate of the Tree of Life. And there is a further Arcanum connected with this which it would be improper here to divulge.

This develops verse 35. The heaven-born is the human consciousness. The chamber of the Heart is the anahata lotus. The abode of the World’s Mother is the mulãdhãra lotus. But there is a more technical meaning yet—and this whole verse describes a particular method of meditation, a final method, which is far too difflcult for the beginner.1

This verse teaches the concentration of the kundalini in the ajñãcakra. "Breath" is that which goes to and fro, and refers to the uniting of Šiva with Šakti in the sahasrara.2

This partly refers to certain iddhi, concerning Understanding of devas (gods), etc.; here the word "wind" may be interpreted as "spirit." It is comparatively easy to reach this state, and it has no great importance. The "walker of the sky" is much superior to the mere reader of the minds of ants.

This is not a mere poetic image. This dew-drop in the lotus is connected with the ^{mantra "aum mani padme hum,"3 and to what this verse really refers is known only to members of the ninth degree of O.T.O.}

The text returns to the question of suppressing thoughts. Verse 44 has been inserted where it is in the hope of deluding the reader into the belief that it belongs to verses 43 and 45, for the Arcanum which it contains is so dangerous that it must be guarded in alt possible ways. Perhaps even to call attention to it is a blind intended to prevent the reader from looking for something else.

This is a very difficult verse, because it appears so easy. It is not merely a question of Advaitism, it refers to the spiritual marriage.¹

Compare the scene in Parsifal, where the scenery comes to the knight instead of the knight going to the scenery. But there is also implied the doctrine of the tao, and only one who is an accomplished Taoist can hope to understand this verse.¹

This is a counsel never to forget the original stimulus which has driven you to the Path, the "first noble truth." Everything is now "good." This is why verse 53 says that these tears are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal. (Tears, by the way. Think!)

It may be remarked that this treatise—and this comment for the most part—is written for disciples of certain grades only. It is altogether inferior to such Books as Liber CXI Aleph; but for that very reason, more useful, perhaps, to the average

A warning against any impurity in the original aspiration of the Disciple. By impurity is meant, and should always be meant, the mingling (as opposed to the combination) of two things. Do one thing at a time. This is particularly necessary in the matter of the aspiration. For if the aspiration be in any way impure, it means divergence in the will itself; and this is will’s one fatal flaw. It will however be understood that aspiration constantly changes and develops with progress. The beginner can only see a certain distance. Just so with our first telescopes we discovered many new stars, and with each improvement in the instrument we have discovered more. The second and more obvious meaning in the verse preaches the practice of yama, niyama, before serious practice is started, and this in actual hife means, map out your career as well as you can. Decide to do so many hours’ work a day in such conditions as may be possible. It does not mean that you should set up neuroses and hysteria by suppressing your natural instincts, which are perfectly right on their own plane, and only wrong when they invade other planes, and set up alien tyrannies.

This verse must not be taken in its literal sense. Hunger is not conquered by starvation. One’s attitude to all the necessities which the traditions of earthly life involve should be to rule them, neither by mortification nor by indulgence. In order co do the work you must keep in proper physical and mental condition. Be sane. Asceticism always excites the mind, and the object of the Disciple is to calm it. However, ascetic originally meant athletic, and it has only acquired its modern meaning on account of the corruptions that crept into the practices used by those in "training." The prohibitions, relatively valuable, were exalted into general rules. To "break training" is not a sin for anyone who is not in training. Incidentally, it takes all sorts to make a world. Imagine the stupidity of a universe full of arhats! All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

The uniting of the Disciple with his Angel depends upon the former. The Latter is always at hand. "Akašic heights"—the dwelling-place of Nuit.

The practice indicated in verse 74 is described in most books upon the tatwas. The orifices of the face being covered with the fingers, the senses take on a new shape.

Dharana has been explained thoroughly in Book 4, q.v.1

These states have been sufficiently, and much better, described in Book 4, q.v.3

In this verse is given a hint of the underlying philosophical theory of the Cosmos. See Liber CXI for a full and proper account of this.

Important, as indicating the attainment of a mystical state, in which you are not only involved in an action, but apart from it. There is a higher state described in the Bhagavad-gtta. "I who am al!, and made it al!, abide its separate Lord."1

This account of samadhi is very incongruous. Throughout the whole treatise Hindu ideas are painfully mixed with Buddhist, and the introduction of the "four noble truths" comes very strangely as the precursor of verses 88 and 89.

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!

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.

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.

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.

This is indeed a serious metaphysical complaint. The solution of it is not to be found in reason.

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.

The Soul, ãtman, 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.

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.

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 mãyã constantly expands as that of sat diminishes. In orthodox Buddhism this process continues indefinitely. There is also the resolution sat = asat.

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.

"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.

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."

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.

Continues the subject, but adds a further Word to discriminate from Daäth (knowledge) in favour of Binah (understanding).

This explains the "Heart Doctrine" as a process of continual elimination which refers both to the aspirants and to the thoughts.

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.

"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 "mãyã." To interpret illusion is to make conf usion more confused.

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.

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

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

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

sin.

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.

Continues the subject. The basis of knowledge is experience.

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."

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.

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.

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.

The nirmãna-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 Æsopus 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 Theoso-phists, 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 nirmã~ia-kãya 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.

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.

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 condi-tions 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.

All this about Gautama Buddha having renounced nirvã~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-Parinibbãna Sutta; and it was the contention of the Theosophists that this "great, sublime, nibbãna 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 naïveté 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 nibbãna 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:..

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.

Behold what is written for a Parable in the "Great Law":