THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON

THE KING
IV
 THE HERMIT

WITH the seventh stage in the Mystical Progress of Frater P. we arrive at a sudden and definite turning-
point.
During the last two years he had grown strong in the Magic of the West. After having studied a host of
mystical systems he had entered the Order of the Golden Dawn, and it had been a nursery to him. In it he
had learnt to play with the elements and the elemental forces; but now having arrived at years of adoles-
cence, he put away childish things, and stepped out into the world to teach himself what no school could
teach him,—the Arcanum that pupil and master are one!
He had become a 6°=5°, and it now rested with him, and him alone, to climb yet another ridge of the
Great Mountain and become a 7°=4°, an Exempt Adept in the Second Order, Master over the Ruach and
King over the Seven Worlds.
By destroying those who had usurped control of the Order of the Golden Dawn, he not only broke a link
with the darkening past, but forged so mighty an one with the gleaming future, that soon he was destined
to weld it to the all encircling chain of the Great Brotherhood.
The Golden Dawn was now but a deserted derelict, mast-less, rudderless ship, with a name of oppro-
brium painted across its battered stern. P. however did not abandon it to cast himself helpless into the boil-
ing waters of discontent but instead, he leapt on board that storm-devouring Argosy of Adepts which was
destined to bear him far beyond the crimsoning rays of this dying dawn to the mystic land where stood the
Great Tree upon the topmost branches of which hung the Golden Fleece.
Long was he destined to travel, past Lemnos and Samothrace, and through Colchis and the city of Æea.
There, as a second Jason, in the Temple of Hecate, in the grove of Diana, under the cold rays of the Moon,
was he to seal that fearful pact, that pledge of fidelity to Medea, Mistress of Enchantments. There was he to
tame the two Bulls, whose feet were of brass, whose horns were as crescent moons in the night, and
whose nostrils belched forth mingling columns of flame and of smoke. There was he to harness them to
that plough which is made of one great adamantine stone; and with it was he determined to plough the two
acres of ground which had never before been tilled by the hand of man, and sow the white dragons’ teeth,
and slay the armed multitude, that black army of unbalanced forces which obscures the light of the sun.
And then, finally, was he destined to slay with the Sword of Flaming Light that ever watchful Serpent which
writhes in silent Wisdom about the trunk of that Tree upon which the Christ hangs crucified.
All these great deeds did he do, as we shall see. He tamed the bulls with ease,—the White and the
Black. He ploughed the double field,—the East and the West. He sowed the dragons’ teeth,—the Armies of
Doubt; and among them did he cast he stone of Zoroaster given to him by Medea, Queen of Enchantments,
so that immediately they turned their weapons one against the other, and perished. And then lastly, on the
mystic cup of Iacchus he lulled to sleep the Dragon of the illusions of life, and taking down the Golden
Fleece accomplished the Great Work. Then once again did he set sail, and sped past Circe, through Scylla
and Carybdis; beyond the singing sisters of Sicily, back to the fair plains of Thessaly and the wooded slopes
of Olympus. And one day shall it come to pass that he will return to that far distant land where hung that
Fleece of Gold, the Fleece he brought to the Children of Men so that they might weave from it a little gar-
ment of comfort; and there on that Self-same Tree shall he hand himself, and others shall crucify him; so
that in that Winter which draweth nigh, he who is to come may find yet another garment to cover the hide-
ous nakedness of man, the Robe that hath no Seam. And those who shall receive, though they cast lots for
it, yet shall they not rend it, for it is woven from the top throughout.
For unto you is paradise opened, the tree of life is planted, the time to come is prepared, plenteousness
is made ready, a city is builded, the rest is allowed, yea, perfect goodness and wisdom. The root of evil is
sealed up from you, weakness and the moth is hid from you, and corruption is fled unto hell to be forgot-
ten: sorrows are passed, and in the end is shewed the treasure of immortality.1
Yea! the Treasure of Immortality. In his own words let us now describe this sudden change.
 IN NOMINE DEI
‫אמן‬
Insit Naturae Regina Isis.

At the End of the Century:

At the End of the Year:
At the Hour of Midnight:
Did I complete and bring to perfection the Work of
L.I.L.2

In Mexico: even as I did receive it from him who is reincarnated in me: and this work is to the best of
my knowledge a synthesis of what the Gods have given unto me, as far as is possible without violating my
obligations unto the Chiefs of the R. R. et A. C. Now did I deem it well that I should rest awhile before re-
suming my labours in the Great Work, seeing that he, who sleepeth never, shall fall by the wayside, and
also remembering the twofold sign: the Power of Horus: and the Power of Hoor-pa-Kraat.3
Now, the year being yet young, One D. A. came unto me, and spake.
And he spake not any more (as had been his wont) in guise of a skeptic and indifferent man: but in-
deed with the very voice and power of a Great Guru, or of one definitely sent from such a Brother of the
Great White Lodge.
Yea! though he spake unto me words all of disapproval, did I give thanks and grace to God that he had
deemed my folly worthy to attract his wisdom.
And, after days, did my Guru not leave me in my state of humiliation, and, as I may say, despair: but
spake words of comfort saying: “Is it not written that if thine Eye be single thy whole body shall be full of
Light?” Adding: “In thee is no power of mental concentration and control of thought: and without this thou
mayst achieve nothing.”
Under his direction, therefore, I began to apply myself unto the practice of Raja-yoga, at the same time
avoiding all, even the smallest, consideration of things occult, as also he bade me.
Thus, at the beginning, I did meditate twice daily, three mediations morning and evening, upon such
simple objects as—a white triangle; a red cross; Isis; the simple Tatwas; a wand; and the like. I remained
after some three weeks for 59½ minutes at one time, wherein my thought wandered 25 times. Now I be-
gan also to consider more complex things: my little Rose Cross;4 the complex Tatwas; the Golden Dawn
Symbol, and so on. also I began the exercise of the pendulum and other simple regular motions. Wherefore
to-day of Venus, the 22nd of February 1901, I being in the City of Guadalajara, in the Hotel Cosmopolita, I
do begin to set down all that I accomplish in this work:
And may the Peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep my heart and mind through Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Let my mind be open unto
the Higher:
Let my heart be the Centre
of Light:
Let my body be the
Temple
of the
ROSY CROSS.

Ex Deo Nascimur
In Jesu Morimur
Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus.

We must now digress in order to five some account of the Eastern theories of the Universe and the
mind. Their study will clarify our view of Frater P’s progress.
The reader is advised to study Chapter VII of Captain J. F. C. Fuller’s “Star in the West” in connection
with this exposition.
 THE AGNOSTIC POSITION

DIRECT experience is the key to Yoga; direct experience of that Soul (Âtman) or Essence (Purasha) which
acting upon Energy (Prâna) and Substance (Âkâsa) differentiates a plant from a stone, an animal from a
plant, a man from an animal, a man from a man, and man from God, yet which ultimately is the underly-
ing Equilibrium of all things; for as the Bhagavad-Gîta says: “Equilibrium is called Yoga.”
Chemically the various groups in the organic and inorganic worlds are similar in structure and compo-
sition. One piece of limestone is very much like another, and so also are the actual bodies of any two
man, but not so their minds. Therefore, should we wish to discover and understand that Power which
differentiates, and yet ultimately balances all appearances, which are derived by the apparently uncon-
scious object and received by the apparently conscious subject, we must look for it in the workings of
man's brain.5
This is but a theory, but a theory worth working upon until a better be derived from truer facts.
Adopting it, the transfigured-realist gazes at it with wonder and then casts Theory overboard, and loads
his ship with Law; postulates that every cause has its effect; and, when his ship begins to sink, refuses to
jettison his wretched cargo, or even to man the pumps of Doubt, because the final result is declared by
his philosophy to be unknowable.
If any one cause be unknowable, be it first or last, then all causes are unknowable. The will to create
is denied, the will to annihilate is denied, and finally the will to act is denied. Propositions perhaps true to
the Master, but certainly not so to the disciple. Because Titian was a great artist and Rodin is a great
sculptor, that is no reason why we should abolish art schools and set an embargo on clay.
If the will to act is but a mirage of the mind, then equally so is the will to differentiate or select. If
this be true, and the chain of Cause and Effect is eternal, how is it then that Cause A produces effect B,
and Cause B effect C, and Cause A + B + C effect X. Where originates this power of production? It is said
there is no change, the medium remaining alike throughout. But we say there is a change—a change of
form,6 and not only a change, but a distinct birth and a distinct death of form. What creates this form?
Sense perception. What will destroy this form, and reveal to us that which lies behind it? Presumably ces-
sation of sense perception. How can we prove our theory? By cutting away every perception, every
thought-form as it is born, until nothing thinkable is left, not even the thought of the unknowable.
The man of science will often say “I do not know, I really do not know where these bricks came
form, or how they were made, or who made them; but here they are; let us build a house and live in it.”
Now this indeed is a very sensible view to take, and the result is we have some very fine houses built by
these excellent bricklayers; but strange to say, this is the fatalist's point of view, and a fatalistic science is
indeed a cruel kind of oxymoron. As a matter of fact he is nothing of the kind; for, when he has ex-
hausted his supply of bricks, he starts to look about for others, and when others cannot be found, he
takes one of the old ones and picking it to pieces tries to discover of what it is made so that he may
make more.
What is small-pox? Really, my friend, I do not know where it came from, or what it is, or how it
originated; when a man catches it he either dies or recovers, please go away and don't ask me ridiculous
questions! Now this indeed would not be considered a very sensible view to adopt. And why? Simply be-
cause small-pox no longer happens to be believed in as a malignant devil, but is, at least partially, known
and understood. Similarly, when we have gained as much knowledge of the First Cause as we have of
small-pox, we shall no longer believe in a Benevolent God or otherwise, but shall, at least partially, know
and understand Him as He is or is-not. “I can't learn this!” is the groan of a schoolboy and not the excla-
mation of a sage. No doctor who is worth his salt will say: “I can't tackle this disease”; he says: “I will
tackle this disease.” So also with the Unknowable, God, à priori, First Cause, etc., etc., this metaphysical
sickness can be cured. Not certainly in the same manner as small-pox can be; for physicians have a sci-
entific language wherein to express their ideas and thoughts, whilst a mystic too often has not; but by a
series of exercises, or a system of symbolic teaching, which will gradually lead the sufferer from the ma-
terial to the spiritual, and not leave him gazing and wondering at it, as he would at a star in the night.
A fourth dimensional being, outside a few mathematical symbols, would be unable to explain to a
third dimensional being a fourth dimensional world, simply because he would be addressing him in a
fourth dimensional language. Likewise, in a less degree, would a doctor be unable to explain the theory
of inoculation to a savage, but it is quite conceivable that he might be able to teach him how to vaccinate
himself or another; which would be after all the chief point gained.
Similarly the Yogi says: I have arrived at a state of Super-consciousness (Samâdhi) and you, my
friend, are not only blind, deaf and dumb, and a savage, but the son of a pig into the bargain. You are
totally immersed in Darkness (Tamas); a child of ignorance (Avidyâ), and the offspring of illusion (Mâyâ);
as mad, insane and idiotic as those unfortunates you lock up in your asylums to convince you, as one of
you yourselves has very justly remarked, that you are not all raving mad. For you consider not only one
thing, which you insult by calling God, but all things, to be real; and anything which has the slightest
odour of reality about it you pronounce an illusion. But, as my brother the Magician has told you, “he
who denies anything asserts something,” now let me disclose to you this “Something,” so that you may
find behind the pairs of opposites what this something is in itself and not in its appearance.
It has been pointed out in a past chapter how that in the West symbol has been added to symbol,
and how that in the East symbol has been subtracted from symbol. How in the West the Magician has
said: “As all came from God so must all proceed to God,” the motion being a forward one, and accelera-
tion of the one already existing. Now let us analyze what is meant by the worlds of the Yogi when he
says: “As all came from god so must all return to God,” the motion being, as it will be at once seen, a
backward one, a slowing down of the one which already exists, until finally is reached that goal from
which we originally set out by a cessation of thinking, a weakening of the vibrations of illusion until they
cease to exist in Equilibrium.7
 THE VEDANTA

BEFORE we enter upon the theory and practice of Yoga, it is essential that the reader should possess some
slight knowledge of the Vedânta philosophy; and though the following in no way pretends to be an ex-
haustive account of the same, yet it is hoped that it will prove a sufficient guide to lead the seeker from
the Western realms of Magic and action to the Eastern lands of Yoga and renunciation.
To begin with, the root-thought of all philosophy and religion, both Eastern and Western, is that the
universe is only an appearance, and not a reality, or, as Deussen has it:

The entire external universe, with its infinite ramifications in space and time, as also the involved and
intricate sum of our inner perceptions, is all merely the form under which the essential reality presents
itself to a consciousness such as ours, but is not the form in which it may subsist outside of our con-
sciousness and independent of it; that, in other words, the sum total of external and internal experience
always and only tells us how things are constituted for us, and for our intellectual capacities, not how
they are in themselves and apart from intelligences such as ours.8

Here is the whole of the World's philosophy in a hundred words; the undying question which has
perplexed the mind of man from the dim twilight of the Vedas to the sweltering noon-tide of present-day
Scepticism, what is the “Ding an sich”; what is the αύτÎ καθ αßτό; what is the Âtman?
That the thing which we perceive and experience is not the “thing in itself” is very certain, for it is
only what “WE see.” Yet nevertheless we renounce this as being absurd, or not renouncing it, at least do
not live up to our assertion; for, we name that which is a reality to a child, and a deceit or illusion to a
man, an apparition or a shadow. Thus, little by little, we beget a new reality upon the old reality, a new
falsehood upon the old falsehood, namely, that the thing we see is “an illusion” and is not “a reality,” sel-
dom considering that the true difference between the one and the other is but the difference of name.
Then after a little do we begin to believe in “the illusion” as firmly and concretely as we once believed in
“the reality,” seldom considering that all belief is illusionary, and that knowledge is only true as long as it
remains unknown.9
Now Knowledge is identification, not with the inner or outer of a thing, but with that which cannot be
explained by either, and which is the essence of the thing in itself,10 and which the Upanishads name the
Âtman. Identification with this Âtman (Emerson's “Oversoul”) is therefore the end of Religion and Phi-
losophy alike.
“Verily he who has seen, heard, comprehended and known the Âtman, by him is this entire universe
known.”11 Because there is but one Âtman and not many Âtmans.
The first veil against which we must warn the aspirant is the entanglement of language, of words and
of names. The merest tyro will answer, “of course you need not explain to me that, if I call a thing ‘A’ or
‘B,’ it makes no difference to that thing in itself.” And yet not only the tyro, but many of the astutest phi-
losophers have fallen into this snare, and not only once but an hundred times; the reason being that they
have not remained silent12 about that which can only be “known” and not “believed in,” and that which
can never be names without begetting a duality (an untruth), and consequently a whole world of illu-
sions. It is the crucifixion of every world-be Saviour, this teaching of a truth under the symbol of a lie,
this would-be explanation to the multitude of the unexplainable, this passing off on the canaille the
strumpet of language (the Consciously Known) in the place of the Virgin of the World (the Consciously
Unknown).13
No philosophy has ever grasped this terrible limitation so firmly as the Vedânta. “All experimental
knowledge, the four Vedas and the whole series of empirical science, as they are enumerated in Chân-
dogya, 7. 1. 2-3, are ‘nâma eva,’ ‘mere name.’ ”14 As the Rig Veda says, “they call him Indra, Mitra, Va-
runa, Agni, and he is heavenly nobly-winged Garutmân. To what is one, sages give many a title: they call
it Agni, Tama, Mâtirisvan.”15
Thus we find that “duality” in the East is synonymous with “a mere matter of words,”16 and further,
that, when anything is (or can be) describe by a word or a name, the knowledge concerning it is Avidyâ,
“ignorance.”
No sooner are the eyes of a man opened17 than he sees “good and evil,” and becomes a prey to the
illusions he has set out to conquer. He gets something apart from himself, and whether it be Religion,
Science, or Philosophy it matters not; for in the vacuum which he thereby creates, between him and it,
burns the fever that he will never subdue until he has annihilated both.18 God, Immortality, Freedom, are
appearances and not realities, they are Mâyâ and not Âtman; Space, Time and Causality19 are appear-
ances and not realities, they also are Mâyâ and not Âtman. All that is not Âtman is Mâyâ, and Mâyâ is
ignorance, and ignorance is sin.
Now the philosophical fall of the Âtman produces the Macrocosm and the Microcosm, God and not-
God—the Universe, or the power which asserts a separateness, an individuality, a self-consciousness—I
am! This is explained in Brihadâranyaka, 1. 4. 1. as follows:

“In the beginning the Âtman alone in the form of a man20 was this universe. He gazed around; he
saw nothing there but himself. Thereupon he cried out at the beginning: ‘It is I.' Thence originated the
name I. Therefore to-day, when anyone is summoned, he answers first ‘It is I’; and then only he names
the other name which he bears.”21

This Consciousness of “I” is the second veil which man meets on his upward journey, and, unless he
avoid it and escape from its hidden meshes, which are a thousandfold more dangerous than the entan-
glements of the veil of words, he will never arrive at that higher consciousness, that superconsciousness
(Samâdhi), which will consume him back into the Âtman from which he came.
As the fall of the Âtman arises from the cry “It is I,” so does the fall of the Self-consciousness of the
universe-man arise through that Self-consciousness crying “I am it,” thereby identifying the shadow with
the substance; from this fall arises the first veil we had occasion to mention, the veil of duality, of words,
of belief.
This duality we find even in the texts of the oldest Upanishads, such as in Brihadâranjaka, 3. 4. 1. “It
is thy soul, which is within all.” And also again in the same Upanishad (1. 4. 10.), “He who worships an-
other divinity (than the Âtman), and says ‘it is one and I am another’ is not wise, but he is like a house-
dog of the gods.” And house-dogs shall we remain so long as we cling to a belief in a knowing subject
and an known object, or in the worship of anything, even of the Âtman itself, as long as it remains apart
from ourselves. Such a dilemma as this does not take long to induce one of those periods of “spiritual
dryness,” one of those “dark nights of the soul” so familiar to all mystics and even to mere students of
mysticism. And such a night seems to have closed around Yâjñavalkhya when he exclaimed:

After death there is no consciousness. For where there is as it were a duality, there one sees the
other, smells, hears, addresses, comprehends, and knows the other; but when everything has become to
him his own self, how should he smell, see, hear, address, understand, or know anyone at all? How
should he know him, through whom he knows all this, how should he know the knower?22

Thus does the Supreme Âtman become unknowable, on account of the individual Âtman23 remaining
unknown; and further, will remain unknowable as long as consciousness of a separate Supremacy exists
in the heart of the individual.
Directly the seeker realizes this, a new reality is born, and the clouds of night roll back and melt away
before the light of a breaking dawn, brilliant beyond all that have preceded it. Destroy this consciousness,
and the Unknowable may become the Known, or at least the Unknown, in the sense of the undiscovered.
Thus we find the old Vedantist presupposing an Âtman and a σύμβολου of it, so that he might better
transmute the unknown individual into the known, and the unknowable Supreme Soul into the unknown,
and then, from the knowable through the known to the knower, get back to the Âtman and Equilibrium—
Zero.
All knowledge he asserts to be Mâyâ, and only by paradoxes is the Truth revealed.
 Only he who knows it not knows it,
Who knows it, he knows it not;
Unknown is it by the wise,
But by the ignorant known.24

These dark nights of Scepticism descend upon all systems just as they descend upon all individuals,
at no stated times, but as a reaction after much hard work; and usually they are forerunners of a new
and higher realization of another unknown land to explore. Thus again and again do we find them rising
and dissolving like some strange mist over the realms of the Vedânta. To disperse them we must con-
sume them in that same fire which has consumed all we held dear; we must turn our engines of war
about and destroy our sick and wounded, so that those who are strong and whole may press on the
faster to victory.
As early as the days of the Rig Veda, before the beginning was, there was “neither not-being nor yet
being.” This thought again and again rumbles through the realms of philosophy, souring the milk of
man's understanding with its bitter scepticism.

Not-being was this in the beginning,

From it being arose.
Self-fashioned indeed out of itself . . .
The being and the beyond
Expressible and inexpressible,
Founded and foundationless,
Consciousness and unconsciousness,
Reality and unreality.25

All these are vain attempts to obscure the devotee's mind into believing in that Origin he could in no
way understand, by piling up symbols of extravagant vastness. All, as with the Qabalists, was based on
Zero, all, same one thing, and this one thing saved the mind of man from the fearful palsy of doubt
which had shaken to ruin his brave certainties, his audacious hopes and his invincible resolutions. Man,
slowly through all his doubts, began to realize that if indeed all were Mâyâ, a matter of words, he at least
existed. “I am,” he cried, no longer, “I am it.”26
And with the Îsâ Upanishad he whispered:

Into dense darkness he enters

Who has conceived becoming to be naught,
Into yet denser he
Who has conceived becoming to be aught.

Abandoning this limbo of Causality, just as the Buddhist did at a later date, he tackled the practical
problem “What am I? To hell with God!”

The self is the basis for the validity of proof, and therefore is constituted also before the validity of
proof. And because it is thus formed it is impossible to call it in question. For we many call a thing in
question which comes up to us from without, but not our own essential being. For if a man calls it in
question yet is it his own essential being.

An integral part is here revealed in each of us which is a reality, perhaps the only reality it is given us
to know, and one we possess irrespective our not being able to understand it. We have a soul, a veritable
living Âtman, irrespective of all codes, sciences, theories, sects and laws. What then is this Âtman, and
how can we understand it, that is to say, see it solely, or identify all with it?
The necessity of doing this is pointed out in Chândogya, 8. 1. 6.

He who departs from this world without having known the soul or those true desires, his part in all
worlds is a life of constraint; but he who departs from this world after having known the soul and those
true desires, his part in all worlds is a life of freedom.
In the Brihadâranjaka,27 king Janaka asks Yâjñavalkhya, “what serves man for light?” That sage an-
swers:

The sun serves him for light. When however the sun has set?—the moon. And when he also has
set?—fire. And when this also is extinguished?—the voice. And when this also is silenced? Then is he
himself his own light.28

This passage occurs again and again in the same form, and in paraphrase, as we read through the
Upanishads. In Kâthaka 5. 15 we find:

There no sun shines, no moon, nor glimmering star,

Nor yonder lightning, the fire of earth is quenched;
From him,29 who alone shines, all else borrows its brightness.
The whole world bursts into splendour at his shining.

And again in Maitrâyana, 6. 24.

When the darkness is pierced through, then is reached that which is not affected by darkness; and
he who has thus pierced through that which is so affected, he has beheld like a glittering circle of sparks
Brahman bright as the sun, endowed with all might, beyond the reach of darkness, that shines in yonder
sun as in the moon, the fire and the lightning.

Thus the Âtman little by little came to be known and no longer believed in; yet at first it appears that
those who realized it kept their methods to themselves, and simply explained to their followers its great-
ness and splendour by parable and fable, such as we find in Brihadâranyaka, 2. 1. 19.

That is his real form, in which he is exalted above desire, and is free from evil and fear. For just as
one who dallies with a beloved wife has no consciousness of outer or inner, so the spirit also dallying with
the self, whose essence is knowledge, has no consciousness of inner or outer. That is his real form,
wherein desire is quenched, and he is himself his own desire, separate from desire and from distress.
Then the father is no longer father, the mother no longer mother, the worlds no longer worlds, the gods
no longer gods, the Vedas no longer Vedas. . . . This is his supreme goal.

As theory alone cannot for ever satisfy man's mind in the solution of the life-riddle, so also when
once the seeker has become the seer, when once actual living men have attained and become Adepts,
their methods of attainment cannot for long remain entirely hidden.30 And either from their teachings di-
rectly, or from those of their disciples, we find in India sprouting up from the roots of the older Upani-
shads two great systems of practical philosophy:

1. The attainment by Sannyâsa.

2. The attainment by Yoga.

The first seeks, by artificial means, to suppress desire. The second by scientific experiments to anni-
hilate the consciousness of plurality.
In the natural course of events the Sannyâsa precedes the Yoga, for it consists in casting off from
oneself home, possessions, family and all that engenders and stimulates desire; whilst the Yoga consists
in withdrawing the organs of sense from the objects of sense, and by concentrating them on the Inner
Self, Higher Self, Augoeides, Âtman, or Adonai, shake itself free from the illusions of Mâyâ—the world of
plurality, and secure union with this Inner Self or Âtman.
 ATTAINMENT BY YOGA.

ACCORDING to the Shiva Sanhita there are two doctrines found in the Vedas: the doctrines of “Karma
Kânda” (sacrificial works, etc.) and of “Jnana Kânda” (science and knowledge). “Karma Kânda” is two-
fold—good and evil, and according to how we live “there are many enjoyments in heaven,” and “in hell
there are many sufferings.” Having once realized the truth of “Karma Kânda” the Yogi renounces the
works of virtue and vice, and engages in “Jnana Kânda”—knowledge.
In the Shiva Sanhita we read:31

In the proper season, various creatures are born to enjoy the consequences of their karma.32 As
through mistake mother-of-pearl is taken for silver, so through the error of one's own karma man mis-
takes Brahma for the universe.
Being too much and deeply engaged in the manifested world, the delusion arises about that which is
manifested—the subject. There is no other cause (of this delusion). Verily, verily, I tell you the truth.
If the practiser of Yoga wishes to cross the ocean of the world, he should renounce all the fruits of
his works, having preformed all the duties of his âshrama.33

“Jnana Kânda” is the application of science to “Karma Kânda,” the works of good and evil, that is to
say of Duality. Little by little it eats away the former, as strong acid would eat away a piece of steel, and
ultimately when the last atom has been destroyed it ceases to exist as a science, or as a method, and
becomes the Aim, i.e., Knowledge. This is most beautifully described in the above-mentioned work as
follows:
34. That Intelligence which incites the functions into the paths of virtue and vice “am I.” All this uni-
verse, moveable and immovable, is from me; all things are seen through me; all are absorbed into me;34
because there exists nothing but spirit, and “I am that spirit.” There exists nothing else.
35. As in innumerable cups full of water, many reflections of the sun are seen, but the substance is
the same; similarly individuals, like cups, are innumerable, but the vivifying spirit like the sun is one.
49. All this universe, moveable or immoveable, has come out of Intelligence. Renouncing everything
else, take shelter of it.
50. As space pervades a jar both in and out, similarly within and beyond this ever-changing universe
there exists one universal Spirit.
58. Since from knowledge of that Cause of the universe, ignorance is destroyed, therefore the Spirit
is Knowledge; and this Knowledge is everlasting.
59. That Spirit from which this manifold universe existing in time takes its origin is one, and unthink-
able.
62. Having renounced all false desires and chains, the Sannyâsi and Yogi see certainly in their own
spirit the universal Spirit.
63. Having seen the Spirit that brings forth happiness in their own spirit, they forget this universe,
and enjoy the ineffable bliss of Samâdhi.35

As in the West there are various systems of Magic, so in the East are there various systems of yoga,
each of which purports to lead the aspirant from the realm of Mâyâ to that of Truth in Samâdhi. The
most important of these are:

Gnana Yoga. Union by Knowledge.

Raja Yoga. Union by Will
Bhakta Yoga. Union by Love.
Hatha Yoga. Union by Courage.
Mantra Yoga. Union though Speech.
Karma Yoga. Union though Work.36

The two chief of these six methods according to the Bhagavad-Gîta are: Yoga by Sâñkhya (Raja
Yoga), and Yoga by Action (Karma Yoga). But the difference between these two is to be found in their
form rather than in their substance; for, as Krishna himself says:

Renunciation (Raja Yoga) and Yoga by action (Karma Yoga) both lead to the highest bliss; of the
two, Yoga by action is verily better than renunciation by action . . . Children, not Sages, speak of the
Sâñkhya and the Yoga as different; he who is duly established in one obtaineth the fruits of both. That
place which is gained by the Sâñkhya is reached by the Yogis also. He seeth, who seeth that the Sâñkhya
and the Yoga are one.37

Or, in other words, he who understands the equilibrium of action and renunciation (of addition and
subtraction) is as he who perceives that in truth the circle is the line, the end the beginning.
To show how extraordinarily closely allied are the methods of Yoga to those of Magic, we will quote
the following three verses from the Bhagavid-Gîta, which, with advantage, the reader may compare with
the citations already made from the works of Abramelin and Eliphas Levi.

When the mind, bewildered by the Scriptures (Shruti), shall stand immovable, fixed in contemplation
(Samâdhi), then shalt thou attain to Yoga.38
Whatsoever thou doest, whatsoever thou eatest, whatsoever thou offerest, whatsoever thou givest,
whatsoever thou dost of austerity, O Kaunteya, do thou that as an offering unto Me.
On Me fix thy mind; be devoted to Me; sacrifice to Me; prostrate thyself before Me; harmonized thus
in the SELF (Âtman), thou shalt come unto Me, having Me as thy supreme goal.39

These last two verses are taken from “The Yoga of the Kingly Science and the Kingly Secret”; and if
put into slightly different language might easily be mistaken for a passage out of “the Book of the Sacred
Magic.”
Not so, however, the first, which is taken from "The Yoga by the Sâñkhya,” and which is reminiscent
of the Quietism of Molinos and Madam de Guyon rather than of the operations of a ceremonial magician.
And it was just this Quietism that P. as yet had never fully experienced; and he, realizing this, it came
about that when once the key of Yoga was proffered him, he preferred to open the door of Renunciation
and close that of Action, and to abandon the Western methods by the means of which he had already
advanced so far rather than to continue in them. This in itself was the first great Sacrifice which he made
upon the path of Renunciation—to abandon all that he had as yet attained to, to cut himself off from the
world, and like an Hermit in a desolate land seek salvation by himself, through himself and of Himself.
Ultimately, as we shall see, he renounced even this disownment, for which he now sacrificed all, and, by
an unification of both, welded the East to the West, the two halves of that perfect whole which had been
lying apart since that night wherein the breath of God moved upon the face of the waters and the limbs
of a living world struggled from out the Chaos of Ancient Night.
 THE YOGAS.

DIRECT experience is the end of Yoga. How can this direct experience be gained? And the answer is: by
Concentration or Will. Swami Vivekânanda on this point writes:

Those who really want to be Yogis must give up, once for all, this nibbling at things. Take up one
idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, mus-
cles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is
the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced. Others are mere talking ma-
chines. . . . To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the
ocean,” says the persevering soul. “At my will mountains will crumble up.” Have that sort of energy, that
sort of will, work hard, and you will reach the goal.40

“O Keshara,” cries Arjuna, “enjoin in me this terrible action!” This will TO WILL.
To turn the mind inwards, as it were, and stop it wandering outwardly, and then to concentrate all its
powers upon itself, are the methods adopted by the Yogi in opening the closed Eye which sleeps in the
hear to every one of us, and to create this will TO WILL. By doing so he ultimately comes face to face
with something which is indestructible, on account of it being uncreatable, and which knows no dissatis-
faction.
Every child is aware that the mind possesses a power known as the reflective faculty. We hear our-
selves talk; and we stand apart and see ourselves work and think. we stand aside from ourselves and
anxiously or fearlessly watch and criticize our lives. There are two persons in us,—the thinker (or the
worker) and the seer. The unwinding of the hoodwink from the eyes of the seer, for in most men the
seer in, like a mummy, wrapped in the countless rags of thought, is what Yoga purposes to do: in other
words to accomplish no less a task than the mastering of the forces of the Universe, the surrender of the
gross vibrations of the external world to the finer vibrations of the internal, and then to become one with
the subtle Vibrator—the Seer Himself.
We have mentioned the six chief systems of yoga, and now before entering upon what for us at pre-
sent must be the two most important of them,—namely, Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga, we intend, as briefly
as possible, to explain the remaining four, and also the necessary conditions under which all methods of
Yoga should be practised.

GNANA YOGA. Union through Knowledge.

Gnana Yoga is that Yoga which commences with a study of the impermanent wisdom of this world
and ends with the knowledge of the permanent wisdom of the Âtman. Its first stage is Viveka, the dis-
cernment of the real from the unreal. Its second Vairâgya, indifference to the knowledge of the world, its
sorrows and joys. Its third Mukti, release, and unity with the Âtman.
In the fourth discourse of the Bhagavad-Gîta we find Gnana Yoga praised as follows:

Better than the sacrifice of any objects is the sacrifice of wisdom, O Paratapa. All actions in their en-
tirety, O Pârtha, culminate in wisdom.
As the burning fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so doth the fire of wisdom reduce all actions to
ashes.
Verily there is nothing so pure in this world as wisdom; he that is perfected in Yoga finds it in the
Âtman in due season.41

KARMA YOGA. Union through Work.

Very closely allied to Gnana Yoga is Karma Yoga, Yoga through work, which may seem only a means
towards the former. But this is not so, for not only must the aspirant commune with the Âtman through
the knowledge or wisdom he attains, but also through the work which aids him to attain it.
A good example of Karma Yoga is quoted from Chuang-Tzu by Flagg in his work on Yoga. It is as fol-
lows:

Prince Hui's cook was cutting up a bullock. Every blow of his hand, every heave of his shoulders,
every tread of his foot, every thrust of his knee, every whshh of rent flesh, every chhk of the chopper,
was in perfect harmony,— rhythmical like the dance of the mulberry grove, simultaneous like the chords
of Ching Shou. “Well done," cried the Prince; “yours is skill indeed.” “Sire,” replied the cook, “I have al-
ways devoted myself to Tao (which here means the same as Yoga). “It is better than skill.” When I first
began to cut up bullocks I saw before me simply whole bullocks. After three years’ practice I saw no
more whole animals. And now I work with my mind and not with my eye. when my senses bid me stop,
but my mind urges me on, I fall back upon eternal principles. I follow such openings or cavities as there
may be, according to the natural constitution of the animal. A good cook changes his chopper once a
year, because he cuts. An ordinary cook once a month—because he hacks. But I have had this chopper
nineteen years, and although I have cut up many thousand bullocks, its edge is as if fresh from the
whetstone.42

MANTRA YOGA. Union through Speech.

This type of Yoga consists in repeating a name or a sentence or verse over and over again until the
speaker and the word spoken become one in perfect concentration. Usually speaking it is used as an ad-
junct to some other practice, under one or more of the other Yoga methods. Thus the devotee to the
God Shiva will repeat his name over and over again until at length the great God opens his Eye and the
world is destroyed.
Some of the most famous mantras are:
“Aum mani padme Hum.”
“Aum Shivaya Vashi.”
“Aum Tat Sat Aum.”
“Namo Shivaya namaha Aum.”
The pranava AUM43 plays an important part throughout the whole of Indian Yoga, and especially is it
considered sacred by the Mantra-Yogi, who is continually using it. To pronounce it properly the “A” is
from the throat, the “U” in the middle, and the “M” at the lips. This typifies the whole course of breath.

It is the best support, the bow off which the soul as the arrow flies to Brahman, the arrow which is
shot from the body as bow in order to pierce the darkness, the upper fuel with which the body as the
lower fuel is kindled by the fire of the vision of God, the net with which the fish of Prâna is drawn out,
and sacrificed in the fire of the Âtman, the ship on which a man voyages over the ether of the heart, the
chariot which bears him to the world of Brahman.44

At the end of the “Shiva Sanhita” there are some twenty verses dealing with the Mantra. And as in so
many other Hindu books, a considerable amount of mystery is woven around these sacred utterances.
We read:

190. In the four-petalled Muladhara lotus is the seed of speech, brilliant as lightning.
191. In the heart is the seed of love, beautiful as the Bandhuk flower. In the space between the two
eyebrows is the seed of Shakti, brilliant as tens of millions of moons. These three seeds should be kept
secret.45
These three Mantras can only be learnt from a Guru, and are not given in the above book. By repeat-
ing them a various number of times certain results happen. Such as: after eighteen lacs, the body will
rise from the ground and remain suspended in the air; after an hundred lacs, "the great yogi is absorbed
in the Para-Brahman.46
BHAKTA YOGA. Union by love.
In Bhakta Yoga the aspirant usually devotes himself to some special deity, every action of his life be-
ing done in honour and glory of this deity, and, as Vivekânanda tells us, “he has not to suppress any sin-
gle one of his emotions, he only strives to intensify them and direct them to god.” Thus, if he devoted
himself to Shiva, he must reflect in his life to his utmost the life of Shiva; if to Shakti the life of Shakti,
unto the seer and the seen become one in the mystic union of attainment.
Of Bhakta Yoga the “Nârada Sûtra” says:

58. Love (Bhakti) is easier than other methods.

59. Being self-evident it does not depend on other truths.
60. And from being of the nature of peace and supreme bliss.47

This exquisite little Sûtra commences:

1. We will now explain Love.

2. Its nature is extreme devotion to some one.
3. Love is immortal.
4. Obtaining it man becomes perfect, becomes immortal, becomes satisfied.
5. And obtaining it he desires nothing, grieves not, hates not, does not delight, makes no effort.
6. Knowing it he become intoxicated, transfixed, and rejoices in the Self (Âtman).

This is further explained at the end of Swâtmârâm Swâmi's “Hatha-Yoga.”

Bhakti really means the constant perception of the form of the Lord by the Antahkarana. There are
nine kinds of Bahktis enumerated. Hearing his histories and relating them, remembering him, worship-
ping his feet, offering flowers to him, bowing to him (in soul), behaving as his servant, becoming his
companion and offering up one's Âtman to him. . . . Thus, Bhakti, in its most transcendental aspect, is
included in Sampradnyâta Samâdhi.48
The Gnana Yoga P., as the student, had already long practised in his study of the Holy Qabalah; so
also had he Karma Yoga by his acts of service whilst a Neophyte in the Order of the Golden Dawn; but
now at the suggestion of D. A. he betook himself to practice of Hatha and Raja Yoga.
Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga are so intimately connected, that instead of forming two separate meth-
ods, they rather form the first half and second half of one and the same.
Before discussing either the Hatha or Raja Yogas, it will be necessary to explain the conditions under
which Yoga should be performed. These conditions being the conventional ones, each individual should
by practice discover those more particularly suited to himself.

i. The Guru.
Before commencing any Yoga practice, according to every Hindu book upon this subject, it is first
necessary to find a Guru,49 or teacher, to whom the disciple (Chela) must entirely devote himself: as the
"Shiva Sanhita" says:

11. Only the knowledge imparted by a Guru is powerful and useful; otherwise it becomes fruitless,
weak and very painful.
12. He who attains knowledge by pleasing his Guru with every attention, readily obtains success
therein.
13. There is not the least doubt that Guru is father, Guru is mother, and Guru is God even: and as
such, he should be served by all, with their thought, word and deed.50

ii. Place. Solitude and Silence.

The place where Yoga is performed should be a beautiful and pleasant place, according to the Shiva
Sanhita.51 In the Kshurikâ Upanishad, 2. 21, it states that “a noiseless place” should be chosen; and in
S'vetâs'vatara, 2. 10:
 Let the place be pure, and free also from boulders and sand,
Free from fire, smoke, and pools of water,
Here where nothing distracts the mind or offends the eye,
In a hollow protected from the wind a man should compose himself.
The dwelling of a Yogi is described as follows:

The practiser of Hatha yoga should live alone in a small Matha or monastery situated in a place free
from rocks, water and fire; of the extent of a bow's length, and in a fertile country ruled over by a virtu-
ous king, where he will not be disturbed.
The Mata should have a very small door, and should be without any windows; it should be level and
without any holes; it should be neither too high nor too long. It should be very clean, being daily
smeared over with cow-dung, and should be free from all insects. Outside it should be a small corridor
with a raised seat and a well, and the whole should be surrounded by a wall. . . .52

iii. Time.
The hours in which Yoga should be performed vary with the instructions of the Guru, but usually they
should be four times a day, at sunrise, mid-day, sunset and mid-night.

iv. Food.
According to the “Hatha-Yoga Pradipika”: “Moderate diet is defined to mean taking pleasant and
sweet food, leaving one fourth of the stomach free, and offering up the act to Shiva.”53
Things that have been once cooked and have since grown cold should be avoided, also foods con-
taining an excess of salt and sourness. Wheat, rice, barley, butter, sugar, honey and beans may be
eaten, and pure water and milk drunk. The Yogi should partake of one meal a day, usually a little after
noon. “Yoga should not be practised immediately after a meal, nor when one is very hungry; before be-
ginning the practice, some milk and butter should be taken.”54

v. Physical considerations.
The aspirant to Yoga should study his body as well as his mind, and should cultivate regular habits.
He should strictly adhere to the rules of health and sanitation. He should rise an hour before sunrise, and
bathe himself twice daily, in the morning and the evening, with cold water (if he can do so without harm
to his health). His dress should be warm so that he is not distracted by the changes of weather.

vi. Moral considerations.

The yogi should practise kindness to all creatures, he should abandon enmity towards any person,
“pride, duplicity, and crookedness” . . . and the “companionship of women.”55 Further, in Chapter 5 of the
“Shiva Sanhaita” the hindrances of Enjoyment, Religion and Knowledge are expounded at some consider-
able length. Above all the Yogi “should work like a master and not like a slave.”56

HATHA YOGA. Union by Courage.

It matters not what attainment the aspirant seeks to gain, or what goal he has in view, the one thing
above all others which is necessary is a healthy body, and a body which is under control. It is hopeless to
attempt to obtain stability of mind in one whose body is ever leaping from land to water like a frog; with
such, any sudden influx of illumination may bring with it not enlightenment but mania; there fore it is
that all the great masters have set the task of courage before that of endeavour.57 He who dares to will,
will will to know, and knowing will keep silence;58 for even to such as have entered the Supreme Order,
there is not way found whereby they may break the stillness and communicate to those who have not
ceased to hear.59 The guardian of the Temple is Adonai, he alone holds the key of the Portal, seek it of
Him, for there is none other that can open for thee the door.
Now to dare much is to will a little, so it comes about that though Hatha Yoga is the physical Yoga
which teaches the aspirant how to control his body, yet is it also Raja Yoga which teach him how to con-
trol his mind. Little by little, as the body comes under control, does the mind assert its sway over the
body; and little by little, as the mind asserts its sway, does it come gradually, little by little under the rule
of the Âtman, until ultimately the Âtman, Augœides, Higher Self or Adonai fills the Space which was once
occupied solely by the body and mind of the aspirant. Therefore though the death of the body as it were
is the resurrection of the Higher Self accomplished, and the pinnacles of that Temple, whose foundations
are laid deep in the black earth, are lost among the starry Palaces of God.
In the “Hatha-Yoga Pradipika” we read that “there can be no Raja Yoga without Hatha Yoga, and vice
versa, that to those who wander in the darkness of the conflicting Sects unable to obtain Raja Yoga, the
most merciful Swâtmârâma Yogi offers the light of Hathavidya.”60
In the practice of this mystic union which is brought about by the Hatha Yoga and the Raja Yoga ex-
ercises the conditions necessary are:

1. Yama: Non-killing (Ahinsa); truthfulness (Satya); non-stealing (Asteya); continence (Brahmacharya);

and non-receiving of any gift (Aparigraha).
2. Niyama: Cleanliness (S'ancha); contentment (Santosha); mortification (Papasaya); study and self sur-
render (Swádhyáya); and the recognition of the Supreme (I's'wara pranidháná).
3. A'sana: Posture and the correct position of holding the body, and the performance of the Mudras.
4. Prânâyâma: Control of the Prâna, and the vital forces of the body.
5. Pratyâhâra: Making the mind introspective, turning it back upon itself.
6. Dhâranâ: Concentration, or the will to hold the mind to certain points.
7. Dhyâna: Meditation, or the outpouring of the mind on the object held by the will.
8. Samâdhi: Ecstasy, or Superconsciousness.

As regards the first two of the above stages we need not deal with them at any length. Strictly
speaking, they come under the heading of Karma and Gnana Yoga, and as it were form the Evangelicism
of Yoga—the “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not.” They vary according to definition and sect.61 However,
one point must be explained, and this is, that it must be remembered that most works on Yoga are writ-
ten either by men like Patanjali, to whom continence, truthfulness, etc., are simple illusions of the mind;
or by charlatans, who imagine that, by displaying to the reader a mass of middle-class “virtues,” their
works will be given so exalted a flavour that they themselves will pass as great ascetics who have out-
soared the bestial passions of life, whilst in fact they are running harems in Boulogne or making indecent
proposals to flower-girls in South Audley Street. These latter ones generally trade under the exalted
names of The Mahatmas; who, coming straight from the Shâm Bazzaar, retail their wretched bbk bbk to
their sheep-headed followers as the eternal word of Brahman—“The shower from the Highest!” And, not
infrequently, end in silent meditation within the illusive walls of Wormwood Scrubbs.
The East like the West, has for long lain under the spell of that potent but Middle-class Magician—St.
Shamefaced sex; and the whole of its literature swings between the two extremes of Paederasty and
Brahmachârya. Even the great science of Yoga has not remained unpolluted by his breath, so that in
many cases to avoid shipwreck upon Scylla the Yogi has lost his life in the eddying whirlpools of Charyb-
dis.
The Yogis claim that the energies of the human body are stored up in the brain, and the highest of
these energies they call “Ojas.” They also claim that that part of the human energy which is expressed in
sexual passion, when checked, easily becomes changed into Ojas; and so it is that they invariably insist in
their disciples gathering up the sexual energy and converting it into Ojas. Thus we read:

It is only the chaste man and woman who can make the Ojas rise and become stored in the brain,
and this is why chastity has always been considered the highest virtue. . . . That is why in all the religious
orders in the world that have produced spiritual giants, you will always find this intense chastity insisted
upon. . . .62 If people practise Raja-Yoga and at the same time lead an impure life, how can they expect
to become Yogis?63

This argument would appear at first sight to be self-contradictory, and therefore fallacious, for, if to
obtain Ojas is so important, how then can it be right to destroy a healthy passion which is the chief
means of supplying it with the renewed energy necessary to maintain it? The Yogi's answer is simple
enough: Seeing that the extinction of the first would mean the ultimate death of the second the various
Mudra exercises were introduced so that this healthy passion might not only be preserved, but cultivated
in the most rapid manner possible, without loss of vitality resulting from the practices adopted. Equilib-
rium is above all things necessary, and even in these early stages, the mind of the aspirant should be
entirely free from the obsession of either ungratified or over-gratified appetites. Neither Lust nor Chastity
should solely occupy him; for as Krishna says:

Verily Yoga is not for him who eateth too much, nor who abstaineth to excess, nor who is too much
addicted to sleep, nor even to wakefulness, O Arjuna.
Yoga killeth out all pain for him who is regulated in eating and amusement, regulated in performing
actions, regulated in sleeping and waking.64

This balancing of what is vulgarly known as Virtue and Vice,65 and which the Yogi Philosophy does
not always appreciate, is illustrated still more forcibly in that illuminating work “Konx om Pax,” in which
Mr. Crowley writes:

As above so beneath! said Hermes the thrice greatest. The laws of the physical world are precisely
paralleled by those of the moral and intellectual sphere. To the prostitute I prescribe a course of training
by which she shall comprehend the holiness of sex. Chastity forms part of that training, and I should
hope to see her one day a happy wife and mother. To the prude equally I prescribe a course of training
by which she shall comprehend the holiness of sex. Unchastity forms part of that training, and I should
hope to see her one day a happy wife and mother.
To the bigot I commend a course of Thomas Henry Huxley; to the infidel a practical study of cere-
monial magic. Then, when the bigot has knowledge of the infidel faith, each may follow without prejudice
his natural inclination; for he will no longer plunge into his former excesses.
So also she who was a prostitute from native passion may indulge with safety in the pleasure of love;
and she who was by nature cold may enjoy a virginity in no wise marred by her disciplinary course of
unchastity. But the one will understand and love the other.66

Once and for all do not forget that nothing in this world is permanently good or evil; and, so long as
it appears to be so, then remember that the fault is the seer's and not in the thing seen, and that the
seer is still in an unbalanced state. Never forget Blake's words:
“Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer
or reason usurps its place and governs the unwilling.”67 Do not restrain your desires, but equilibrate
them, for: “He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.”68 Verily: “Arise, and drink your bliss, for eve-
rything that lives is holy.”69
The six acts of purifying the body by Hatha-Yoga are Dhauti, Basti, Neti, Trataka, Nauli and Kapâlab-
hâti,70 each of which is described at length by Swâtmârân Swami. But the two most important exercise
which all must undergo, should success be desired, are those of A'sana and Prânâyâma. The first consists
of physical exercises which will gain for him who practises them control over the muscles of the body,
and the second over the breath.
The A'sanas, or Positions.
According to the “Pradipika” and the “Shiva Sanhita,” there are 84 A'sanas; but Goraksha says there
are as many A'sana as there are varieties of beings, and that Shiva has counted eighty-four lacs of
them.71 The four most important are: Siddhâsana, Padmâsana, Ugrâsana and Svastikâsana, which are
described in the Shiva Sanhita as follows:72

The Siddhâsana. By “pressing with care by the (left) heel the yoni,73 the other heel the Yogi should
place on the lingam; he should fix his gaze upwards on the space between the two eyebrows . . . and
restrain his senses."
The Padmâsana. By crossing the legs “carefully place the feet on the opposite thighs (the left on the
right thing and vice versâ, cross both hands and place them similarly on the thighs; fix the sight on the
tip of the nose.”
The Ugrâsana. “Stretch out both the legs and keep them apart; firmly take hold of the head by the
hands, and place it on the knees.”
The Svastikâsana. “Place the soles of the feet completely under the thighs, keep the body straight
and at ease.”

For the beginner that posture which continues for the greatest length of time comfortable is the cor-
rect one to adopt; but the head, neck and chest should always be held erect, the aspirant should in fact
adopt what the drill-book calls “the first position of a soldier,” and never allow the body in any way to
collapse. The “Bhagavad-Gîta” upon this point says:

In a pure place, established in a fixed seat of his own, neither very much raised nor very low . . . in a
secret place by himself. . . . There . . . he should practise Yoga for the purification of the self. Holding the
body, head and neck erect, immovably steady, looking fixedly at the point of the nose and unwandering
gaze.

When these posture have been in some way mastered, the aspirant must combine with them the ex-
ercises of Prânâyâma, which will by degrees purify the Nâdi or nerve-centres.
These Nâdis, which are usually set down as numbering 72,000,74 ramify from the heart outwards in
the pericardium; the three chief are the Ida, Pingala and Sushumnâ,75 the last of which is called “he most
highly beloved of the Yogis.”
Besides practising Prânâyâma he should also perform one or more of the Mudras, as laid down in the
“Hatha Yoga Pradipika” and the “Shiva Sanhita,” so that he may arouse the sleeping Kundalini, the great
goddess, as she is called, who sleeps coiled up at the mouth of the Sushumnâ. But before we deal with
either of these exercises, it will be necessary to explain the Mystical Constitution of the human organism
and the six Chakkras which constitute the six stages of the Hindu Tau of Life.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE HUMAN ORGANISM

Firstly, we have the Âtman, the Self or Knower, whose being consists in a trinity in unity of, Sat, Ab-
solute Existence; Chit, Wisdom; Ananda, Bliss. Secondly, the Anthakârana or the internal instrument,
which has five attributes according to the five elements, thus:

{
Spirit. Atma.
Air. Manas.76 The mind or thought faculty.
1. Spirit Fire. Buddhi. The discriminating faculty.
Water. Chittam.76 The thought-stuff.
Earth. Ahankâra. Egoity.
2. Air. The five organs of knowledge. Gnanendriyam.
3. Fire. The five organs of Action. Karmendriyam.
4. Water. The five subtle airs or Prânas.
5. Earth. The five Tatwas.

The Atma of Anthakârana has 5 sheaths, called Kos'as.77

1. Anandamâyâkos'a, Body of Bliss, is innermost. It is still an illusion. Atma, Buddhi and Manas at most
participate.
2. Manomâyâkos'a. The illusionary thought-sheath including Manas, Buddhi, Chittam, and Ahankâra in
union with one or more of the Gnanendriyams.
3. Viññanamâyâkos'a. The consciousness sheath, which consists of Anthakârana in union with an organ
of action or of sense—Gnan- and Karm-endriyam.
4. Prânâmâyâkos'a. Consists of the five airs. Here we drop below Anthakârana.
5. Annamâyâkos'a. Body of Nourishment. The faculty which feeds on the five Tatwas.
 Besides these there are three bodies or Shariras.

1. Karana Sharira. The Causal body, which almost equals the protoplast.
2. Sukshma Sharira. The Subtle body, which consists of the vital airs, etc.
3. Sthula Shirara. The Gross body.

THE CHAKKRAS
According to the Yoga,78 there are two nerve-currents in the spinal column called respectively Pingala
and Ida, and between these is placed the Sushumnâ, an imaginary tube, at the lower extremity of which
is situated the Kundalini (potential divine energy). Once the Kundalini is awakened it forces its way up the
Sunshumnâ,79 and, as it does so, its progress is marked by wonderful visions and the acquisition of hith-
erto unknown powers.
The Sushumnâ is, as it were, the central pillar of the Tree of Life, and its six stages are known as the
Six Chakkras.80 To these six is added a seventh; but this one, the Sahasrâra, lies altogether outside the
human organism.
These six Chakkras are:
1. The Mûlâdhara-Chakkra. This Chakkra is situated between the lingam and the anus at the base of
the Spinal Column. It is called the Adhar-Padma, or fundamental lotus, and it has four petals. “In the
pericarp of the Adhar lotus there is the triangular beautiful yoni, hidden and kept secret in all the Tan-
tras.” In this yoni dwells the goddess Kundalini; she surrounds all the Nadis, and has three and a half
coils. She catches her tail in her own mouth, and rests in the entrance of the Sushumnâ.81

58. It sleeps there like a serpent, and is luminous by its own light . . . it is the Goddess of speech,
and is called the vija (seed).
59. Full of energy, and like burning gold, know this Kundalini to be the power (Shakti) of Vishnu; it is
the mother of the three qualities—Satwa (good), Rajas (indifference), and Tamas (bad).
60. There, beautiful like the Bandhuk flower, is placed the seed of love; it is brilliant like burnished
gold, and is described in Yoga as eternal.
61. The Sushumnâ also embraces it, and the beautiful seed is there; there it rests shining brilliantly
like the autumnal moon, with the luminosity of millions of suns, and the coolness of millions of moons. O
Goddess! These three (fire, sun and moon) taken together or collectively are called the vija. It is also
called the great energy.82

In the Mûlâdhara lotus there also dwells a sun between the four petals, which continuously exudes a
poison. This venom (the sun-fluid of mortality) goes to the right nostril, as the moon-fluid of immortality
goes to the left, by means of the Pingala which rises from the left side of the Ajna lotus.83
The Mûlâdhara is also the seat of the Apâna.
2. The Svadisthâna Chakkra. This Chakkra is situated at the base of the sexual organ. It has six pet-
als. The colour of this lotus is blood-red, its presiding adept is called Balakhya and its goddess, Rakini.84

He who daily contemplates on this lotus becomes an object of love and adoration to all beautiful
goddesses. He fearlessly recites the various Shastras and sciences unknown to him before . . . and moves
throughout the universe.85

This Chakkra is the seat of the Samâna, region about the navel and of the Apo Tatwa.
3. The Manipûra Chakkra. This Chakkra is situated near the navel, it is of a golden colour and has ten
petals (sometimes twelve), its adept is Rudrakhya and its goddess Lakini. It is the “solar-plexus” or “city
of gems,” and is so called because it is very brilliant. This Chakkra is the seat of the Agni Tatwa. Also in
the abdomen burns the “fire of digestion of food” situated in the middle of the sphere of the sun, having
ten Kalas (petals). . . .86
He who enters this Chakkra can make gold, etc., see the adepts (clairvoyantly) discover medicines for
diseases, and see hidden treasures.87
 4. The Anahata Chakkra. This Chakkra is situated in the heart, it is of a deep blood red colour, and
has twelve petals. It is the seat of Prâna and is a very pleasant spot; its adept is Pinaki and its goddess is
Kakini. This Chakkra is also the seat of the Vâyu Tatwa.
He who always contemplates on this lotus of the heart is eagerly desired by the daughters of gods . . .
has clairaudience, clairvoyance, and can walk in the air. . . . He sees the adepts and the goddesses. . . . 88

5. The Vishuddha Chakkra. This Chakkra is situated in the throat directly below the larynx, it is of a
brilliant gold colour and has sixteen petals. It is the seat of the Udana and the Âkâsa Tatwa; its presiding
adept is Chhagalanda and its goddess Sakini.
6. The Ajna Chakkra. This Chakkra is situated between the two eyebrows, in the place of the pineal
gland. It is the seat of the Mano Tatwa, and consists of two petals. Within this lotus are sometimes
placed the three mystical principles of Vindu, Nadi and Shakti.89 “Its presiding adept is called Sukla-
Mahakala (the white great time; also Adhanari—‘Adonai’) its presiding goddess is called Hakini.”90

97. Within that petal, there is the eternal seed, brilliant as he autumnal moon. The wise anchorite by
knowing this is never destroyed.
98. This is the great light held secret in all the Tantras; by contemplating on this, one obtains the
greatest psychic powers, there is no doubt in it.
99. I am the giver of salvation, I am the third linga in the turya (the state of ecstasy, also the name
of the thousand petalled lotus.91) By contemplating on This the Yogi becomes certainly like me.92

The Sushumnâ following the spinal cord on reaching the Brahmarandhra (the hole of Brahman) the
junction of the sutures of the skull, by a modification goes to the right side of the Ajna lotus, whence it
proceeds to the left nostril, and is called the Varana, Ganges (northward flowing Ganges) or Ida. By a
similar modification in the opposite direction the Sushumnâ goes to the left side of the Ajna lotus and
proceeding to the right nostril is called the Pingala. Jamuna or Asi. The space between these two, the Ida
and Pingala, is called Varanasi (Benares), the holy city of Shiva.

111. He who secretly always contemplates on the Ajna lotus, at once destroys all the Karma of his
past life, without any opposition.
112. Remaining in the place, when the Yogi meditates deeply, idols appear to him as mere things of
imagination, i.e., he perceives the absurdity of idolatry.93

The Sahasrâra, or thousand-and-one-petaled lotus of the brain, is usually described as being situated
above the head, but sometimes in the opening of the Brahmarandhra, or at the root of the palate. In its
centre there is a Yoni which has its face looking downwards. In the centre of this Yoni is placed the mys-
tical moon, which is continually exuding an elixir or dew94—this moon fluid of immortality unceasingly
flows through the Ida.
In the untrained, and all such as are not Yogis, “Every particle of this nectar (the Satravi) that flows
from the Ambrosial Moon is swallowed up by the Sun (in the Mûlâdhara Chakkra)95 and destroyed, this
loss causes the body to become old. If the aspirant can only prevent this flow of nectar by closing the
hole in the palate of his mouth (the Brahmarandra), he will be able to utilize it to prevent the waste of his
body. By drinking it he will fill his whole body with life, and “even though he is bitten by the serpent Tak-
shaka, the poison does not spread throughout his body.”96
Further the “Hatha Yoga Pradipika” informs us that: “When one has closed the hole at the root of the
palate . . . his seminal fluid is not emitted even through he is embraced by a young and passionate
woman.”
Now this gives us the Key to the whole of this lunar symbolism, and we find that the Soma-juice of
the Moon, dew, nectar, semen and vital force are but various names for one and the same substance,
and that if the vindu can be retained in the body it may by certain practices which we will now discuss,
21
be utilized in not only strengthening but in prolonging this life to an indefinite period.97 These practices
are called the Mudras, they are to be found fully described in the Tantras, and are one of the methods of
awakening the sleeping Kundalini.98
There are many of these Mudras, the most important being the Yoni-Mudra, Maha Mudra, Maha
Bandha, Maha Vedha, Khechari, Uddiyana, Mula and Salandhara Bandha, Viparitakarani, Vajroli and
Shakti Chalana.

1. The Yoni Mudra.

With a strong inspiration fix the mind in the Adhar lotus; then engage in contracting the yoni (the
space between the lingam and anus). After which contemplate that the God of love resides in the
Brahma-Yoni, and imagine that an union takes place between Shiva and Shakti.
A full account of how to practise this Mudra is given in the “Shiva Sanhita”;99 but it is both compli-
cated and difficult to carry out, and if attempted should most certainly be performed under the instruc-
tion of a Guru.

2. Maha Mudra.
Pressing the anus with the left heel and stretching out the right leg, take hold of the toes with your
hand. Then practise the Jalandhara Bandha100 and draw the breath through the Sushumnâ. Then the
Kundalini becomes straight just as a coiled snake when struck. . . Then the two other Nadis (the Ida and
Pingala) become dead, because the breath goes out of them. Then he should breathe out very slowly and
never quickly.101

3. Maha Bandha.
Pressing the anus with the left ankle place the right foot upon the left thigh. Having drawn in the
breath, place the chin firmly on the breast, contract the anus and fix the mind on the Sushumnâ Nadi.
Having restrained the breath as long as possible, he should then breathe out slowly. He should practise
first on the left side and then on the right.102

4. Maha Vedha.
As a beautiful and graceful woman is of no value without a husband, so Maha Mudra and Maha
Bandha have no value without Maha Vedha.
The Yogi assuming the Maha Bandha posture, should draw in his breath with a concentrated mind
and stop the upward and downward course of the Prânâ by Jalandhara Bandha. Resting his body upon
his palms placed upon the ground, he should strike the ground softly with his posteriors. By this the
Prânâ, leaving Ida and Pingala, goes through the Sushumnâ. . . . The body assumes a death-like aspect.
Then he should breathe out.103

5. Khechari Mudra.
The Yogi sitting in the Vajrâsana (Siddhâsana) posture, should firmly fix his gaze upon Ajna, and re-
versing the tongue backwards, fix it in the hollow under the epiglottis, placing it with great care on the
mouth of the well of nectar.104

6. Uddiyana Mudra.
The drawing up of the intestines above and below the navel (so that they rest against the back of the
body high up the thorax) is called Uddiyana Bandha, and is the lion that kills the elephant Death.105

7. Mula Mudra.
Pressing the Yoni with the ankle, contract the anus and draw the Apna upwards. This is Mula
Bandha.106

8. Jalandhara Mudra.
Contract the throat and press the chin firmly against the breast (four inches from the heart). This is
Jalandhara Bandha. . . .107
9. Viparitakarani Mudra.
This consists in making the Sun and Moon assume exactly reverse positions. The Sun which is below
the navel and the Moon which is above the palate change places. This Mudra must be learnt from the
Guru himself, and though, as we are told in the “Pradipika,” a theoretical study of scores of Shastras can-
not throw any light upon it, yet nevertheless in the “Shiva Sanhita” the difficulty seems to be solved by
standing on one's head.108

10. Shakti Chalana Mudra.

Let the wise Yogi forcibly and firmly draw up the goddess Kundalini sleeping in the Adhar lotus, by
means of the Apana-Vâyu. This is Shakti-Chalan Mudra. . . .109

The “Hatha Yoga Pradipika” is very obscure on this Mudra, it says:

As one forces open a door with a key, so the Yogi should force open the door of Moksha (Deliver-
ance) by the Kundalini.
Between the Ganges and the Jamuna there sits the young widow inspiring pity. He should despoil her
forcibly, for it leads one to the supreme seat of Vishnu.
You should awake the sleeping serpent (Kundalini) by taking hold of its tail. . . .110

As a special form of Kumbhaka is mentioned, most probably this Mudra is but one of the numerous
Prânâyâma practices, which we shall deal with shortly.

11. The Vajroli-Mudra.

In the “Shiva Sanhita”111 there is a long account of this Mudra in which the God says: “It is the most
secret of all the secrets that ever were or shall be; therefore let the prudent Yogi keep it with the great-
est secrecy possible.” It consists chiefly in uniting the linga and yoni, but in restraining the vindu.112

If by chance the Vindu begins to move let him stop it by practice of the Yoni Mudra. . . . After a while
let him continue again . . . and by uttering the sound hoom, let him forcibly draw up through the contrac-
tion of the Apana Vâyu the germ cells. . . .
Know Vindu to be moon-like, and the germ cells the emblem of the sun; let the Yogi make their un-
ion in his own body with great care.113
I am the Vindu, Shakti is the germ fluid; when they both are combined, then the Yogi reaches the
state of success, and his body becomes brilliant and divine.
Ejaculation of Vindu is death, preserving it within is life. . . . Verily, verily, men are born and die
through Vindu. . . . The Vindu causes the pleasure and pain of all creatures living in this world, who are
infatuated and subject to death and decay.114

There are two modifications of the Vajroli Mudra; namely, Amarani and Sahajoni. The first teaches
how, if at the time of union there takes place a union of the sun and moon, the lunar flux can be re-
absorbed by the lingam. And the second how this union may be frustrated by the practice of Yoni Mudra.
These practices of Hatha Yoga if zealously maintained bring forth in the aspirant psychic powers
known as the Siddhis,115 the most important of which are (1) Anima (the power of assimilating oneself
with an atom). (2) Mahima (the power of expanding oneself into space). (3) Laghima (the power of re-
ducing gravitation). (4) Garima (the power of increasing gravitation). (5) Prapti (the power of instantane-
ous travelling). (6) Prakamya (the power of instantaneous realization). (7) Isatva (the power of creating).
(8) Vastiva (the power of commanding and of being obeyed).116

The Prâna.
We now come to the next great series of exercises, namely those which control the Prâna (breath);
and it is with these exercises that we arrive at that point where Hatha Yoga merges into Raja Yoga, and
the complete control of the physical forces gives place to that of the mental ones.
Besides being able by the means of Prânâyâma to control the breath, the Yogi maintains that he can
also control the Omnipresent Manifesting Power out of which all energies arise, whether appertaining to
magnetism, electricity, gravitation, nerve currents or thought vibrations, in fact the total forces of the
Universe physical and mental.
Prâna, under one of its many forms117 may be in either a static, dynamic, kinetic or potential state,
but, notwithstanding the form it assumes, it remains Prâna, that is in common language the “will to
work” within the Akâsa, from which it evolves the Universe which appeals to our senses.
The control of this World Soul, this “will to work” is called Prânâyâma. And thus it is that we find the
Yogi saying that he who can control the Prâna can control the Universe. To the perfect man there can be
nothing in nature that is not under his control.

If he orders the gods to come, they will come at his bidding. . . . All the forces of nature will obey
him as his slaves, and when the ignorant see these powers of the Yogi, they call them miracles.118

PRÂNÂYÂMA
The two nerve currents Pingala and Ida correspond to the sensory and motor nerves, one is afferent
and the other efferent. The one carries the sensations to the brain, whilst the other carries them back
from the brain to the tissues of the body. The Yogi well knows that this is the ordinary process of con-
sciousness, and from it he argues that, if only he can succeed in making the two currents, which are
moving in opposite directions, move in one and the same direction, by means of guiding them through
the Sushumnâ, he will thus be able to attain a state of consciousness as different from the normal state
as a fourth dimensional world would be from a third. Swami Vivekânanda explains this as follows:

Suppose this table moves, that the molecules which compose this table are moving in different direc-
tions; if they are all made to move in the same direction it will be electricity. Electric motion is when the
molecules all move in the same direction. . . . When all the motions of the body have become perfectly
rhythmical, the body has, as it were, become a gigantic battery of will. This tremendous will is exactly
what the Yogi wants.119

And the conquest of the will is the beginning and end of Prânâyâma.
Arjuna says: “For the mind is verily restless, O Krishna; it is impetuous, strong and difficult to bend, I
deem it as hard to curb as the wind.”
To which Krishna answers; “Without doubt, O mighty-armed, the mind is hard to curb and restless,
but it may be curbed by constant practice and by indifference.”120
The Kundalini whilst it is yet coiled up in the Mûlâdhara is said to be in the Mahâkâsa, or in three di-
mensional space; when it enters the Sushumnâ it enters the Chittâkâsa or mental Space, in which super-
sensuous objects are perceived. But, when perception has become objectless, and the soul shines by
means of its own nature, it is said to have entered the Chidâkâsa or Knowledge space, and when the
Kundalini enters this space it arrives at thee end of its journey and passes into the last Chakkra the Sa-
hasrâra. Vishnu is United to Devaki or Shiva to Shakti, and symbolically, as the divine union takes place,
the powers of the Ojas rush forth and beget a Universe unimaginable by the normally minded man.121
How to awake the Kundalini is therefore our next task.
We have seen how this can partially be done by the various Mudra exercises, but it will be remem-
bered that the Shakti Chalana mentioned the practice of Kumbhaka or the retention of breath. Such an
exercise therefore partially falls under the heading of Prânâyâma.
It is a well-known physiological fact that the respiratory system, more so than any other, controls the
motions of the body. Without food or drink we can subsist many days, but stop a man's breathing but for
a few minutes and life becomes extinct.122 The air oxydises the blood, and it is the clean red blood which
supports in health the tissues, nerves, and brain. When we are agitated our breath comes and goes in
gasps, when we are at rest it becomes regular and rhythmical.
In the “Hatha Yoga Pradipika” we read:

He who suspends (restrains) the breath, restrains also the working of the mind. He who has con-
trolled the mind, has also controlled the breath.
 . . . . . . . . .
If one is suspended, the other also is suspended. If one acts, the other also does the same. If they
are not stopped, all the Indriyas (the senses) keep actively engaged in their respective work. If the mind
and Prana are stopped, the state of emancipation is attained.123

There are three kinds of Prânâyâma: Rechaka Prânâyâma (exhaling the breath), Puraka Prânâyâma
(inhaling the breath), and Kumbhaka Prânâyâma (restraining the breath). The first kind consists in per-
forming Rechaka first; the second in doing Puraka first; and the third in suddenly stopping the breath
without Puraka and Rechaka.124
Kumbhaka is also of two kinds—Sahita and Kevala. The Sahita is of two sorts, the first resembling the
first kind of Prânâyâma, namely Rechaka Kumbhaka Puraka; the second resembling the second kind of
Prânâyâma, namely Puraka Kumbhaka Rechaka. The Sahita should be practised till the Prâna enters the
Sushumnâ, which is known by a peculiar sound125 being produced in the Sushumnâ; after which the
Kevala Kumbhaka should be practised. This Kumbhaka is described in the “Hatha-Yoga Pradipika” as fol-
lows:

When this Kumbhaka has been mastered without any Rechaka or Puraka, there is nothing unattain-
able by him in the three worlds. He can restrain his breath as long as he likes through this Kumbhaka.
He obtains the stage of Raja-Yoga. Through this Kumbhaka, the Kundalini is roused, and when it is
so roused the Sushumnâ is free of all obstacles, and he has attained perfection in Hatha-Yoga.126

Of the many Prânâyâma exercises practised in the East the following are given for sake of example.
1. Draw in the breath for four seconds, hold it for sixteen, and then throw it out in eight. This makes
one Prânâyâma.

At the same time think of the triangle (The Mûlâdhara Chakkra is symbolically represented as a trian-
gle of fire) and concentrate the mind on that centre. At the first practice this four times in the morning
and four times in the evening, and as it becomes a pleasure to you to do so slowly increase the number.

2. Assume the Padmâsana posture; draw in the Prâna through the Ida (left nostril), retain it until the
body begins to perspire and shake, and then exhale it through Pingala (right nostril) slowly and never
fast.

He should perform Kumbhakas four times a day—in the early morning, midday, evening, and mid-
night—till he increases the number to eighty.127

This will make 320 Kumbhakas a day. In the early stages the Prâna should be restrained for 12 ma-
tras (seconds) increasing as progress is made to 24 and to 36.

In the first stage, the body perspires; in the second, a tremor is felt throughout the body; and in the
highest stage, the Prâna goes to the Brahmarandhra.128

This exercise may also be practised with an additional meditation on the Pranava OM.

3. Close with the thumb of your right hand the right ear, and with that of the left hand the left ear.
Close with the two index fingers the two eyes, place the two middle fingers upon the two nostrils, and let
the remaining fingers press upon the upper and the lower lips. Draw a deep breath, close both the nos-
trils at once, and swallow the breath. . . . Keep the breath inside as long as you conveniently can; then
expire it slowly.129

PRATYÂHÂRA
The next step in Raja Yoga is called Pratyâhâra, or the making of the mind introspective, by which
the mind gains will to control the senses and to shut out all but the one object it is concentrating upon.
 He who has succeeded in attaching or detaching his mind to or from the centres of will, has suc-
ceeded in Pratyâhâra, which means "gathering towards," checking the outgoing powers of the mind, free-
ing it from the thraldom of the senses. When we can do this we shall really possess a character; then
alone we shall have made a long step towards freedom; before that we are mere machines.130
The absorption of the mind in the ever-enlightened Brahman by resolving all objects into Âtman,
should be known as Pratyâhâra.131

The mind in ordinary men is entirely the slave of their senses. should there be a noise, man hears it;
should there be an odour, man smells it; a taste, man tastes it; by means of his eyes he sees what is
passing on around him, whether he likes it or not; and by means of his skin he feels sensations pleasant
or painful. But in none of these cases is he actually master over his senses. The man who is, is able to
accommodate his senses to his mind. To him no longer are external things necessary, for he can stimu-
late mentally the sensation desired. he can hear beautiful sounds without listening to beautiful music, and
see beautiful sights without gazing upon them; he in fact becomes the creator of what he wills, he can
exalt his imagination to such a degree over his senses, that by a mere act of imagination he can make
those senses instantaneously respond to his appeal, for he is lord over the senses, and therefore over the
universe as it appears, though not as yet as it is.
The first lesson in Pratyâhâra is to sit still and let the mind run on, until it is realized what the mind is
doing, when it will be understood how to control it. Then it will find that the thoughts which at first bub-
bled up one over the other, become less and less numerous; but in their place will spring up the thoughts
which are normally sub-conscious. As these arise the Will of the aspirant should strangle them; thus, if a
picture is seen, the aspirant by means of his will should seize hold of it before it can escape him, endow it
with an objectivity, after which he should destroy it, as if it were a living creature, and have done with it.
After this mastership over the senses has been attained to, the next practice namely that of Dhâranâ
must be begun.

DHÂRANÂ
Dhâranâ consists in concentrating the will on one definite object or point. Sometimes it is practised
by concentrating on external objects such as a rose, cross, triangle, winged-globe, etc. sometimes on a
deity, Shiva, Isis, Christ or Buddha; but usually in India by forcing the mind to feel certain parts of the
body to the exclusion of others, such as a point in the centre of the heart, or a lotus of light in the brain.
“When the Chitta, or mind stuff, is confined and limited to a certain place, this is called Dhâranâ.”
“The Steadiness of the mind arising from the recognition of Brahma, wherever it travels or goes, is
the real and great Dhâranâ.”132
The six Chakkras are points often used by the Yogi when in contemplation. Thus seated in the Pad-
mâsana he will fix his attention in the Ajna lotus, and by contemplating upon this light the “Shiva San-
hita”133 informs us “all sins (unbalanced forces) are destroyed, and even the most wicked (unbalanced)
person obtains the highest end.”
Those who would practise Dhâranâ successfully should live alone, and should take care to distract
the mind as little as possible. They should not speak much or work much, and they should avoid all
places, persons and food which repel them.134 The first signs of success will be better health and tem-
perament, and a clearer voice. Those who practise zealously will towards the final stages of Dhâranâ hear
sounds as of the pealing of distant bells,135 and will see specks of light floating before them which will
grow larger and larger as the concentration proceeds. “Practice hard!” urges Swami Vivekânanda,
“whether you live or die, it does not matter. You have to plunge in and work, without thinking of the re-
sult. If you are brave enough, in six months you will be a perfect Yogi.”136

DHYÂNA.
After Dhâranâ we arrive at Dhyâna, or meditation upon the outpouring of the mind on the object held
by the will.135 When once Dhâranâ or concentration has progressed so far as to train the mind to remain
fixed on one object then Dhyâna or meditation may be practised. And when this power of Dhyâna be-
comes so intensified as to be able to pass beyond the external perception and brood as it were upon the
very centre or soul of the object held by the will, it becomes known as Samâdhi or Superconsciousness.
The three last stages Dhâranâ, Dhyâna and Samâdhi, which are so intimately associated, are classed un-
der the one name of Samyâma.138
Thus meditation should rise from the object to the objectless. Firstly the external cause of sensations
should be perceived, then their internal motions, and lastly the reaction of the mind. By thus doing will
the Yogi control the waves of the mind, and the waters of the great Ocean will cease to be disturbed by
their rise and fall, and they will become still and full of rest, so that like a mirror will they reflect the uni-
maginable glory of the Âtman.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;
and there was no more sea. And I John saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.139 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and
God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the
former things are passed away.140

Compare this with the following:

That which is the night of all beings, for the disciplined man is the time of waking; when other beings
are waking, then is it night for the Muni who seeth.
He attaineth Peace, into whom all desires flow as rivers flow into the ocean, which is filled with water
but remaineth unmoved—not he who desireth desires.
He who, through the likeness of the Âtman, O Arjuna, seeth identity in everything, whether pleasant
or painful, he is considered a perfect Yogi.141

Now that we have finished our long account of the Vedânta Philosophy and the theories of Yoga
which directly evolved therefrom, we will leave theory alone and pass on to practical fact, and see how
Frater P. Turned the above knowledge to account, proving what at present he could only believe.
The following is a condensed table of such of his meditation practices as have been recorded be-
tween January and April 1901.

OBJECT MEDITATED UPON. TIME. REMARKS.

Winged-Globe.142 4 min. The entire meditation was bad.
Tejas Akâsa.143 3 ,, There was no difficulty in getting the object
clear; but the mind wandered.
Apas-Vâyu.144 ? ,, Result not very good.
Winged-Globe and Flaming Sword.145 ? ,, Meditation on both of these was only fair.
Pendulum146 (E).147 ? Good as regards plane kept by the pendu-
,,
lum; but thoughts wandered.
Winged-Globe. ? ,, The result was pretty good.
Tejas-Vâyu (E). ? ,, Fair.
Ankh148 (a green). ? ,, Not bad.
Pentagram (E). ? ,, Rather good.
The L. I. L.149 (E). ? Burning till extinct. Rather good, but oil
,,
level descended very irregularly.150
Cross. ? ,, Result fair.
Cross. 10 m. 15 s. Three breaks.
Isis151 (E). 18 m. 30 s. Five breaks. A very difficult practice, as Isis
behaved like a living object.152
 OBJECT MEDITATED UPON. TIME. REMARKS.
Winged-Globe. 29 m. Seven breaks. Result would have been
much better but for an epicene enuch
with an alleged flute. My mind revolved
various methods of killing it.
Tejas-Akâsa. 18 ,, Seven breaks.
R. R. et A. C.153 19 ,, Seven breaks.
Pendulum. ? ,, After 3 m. lost control and gave up.
Winged-Globe. (E). 10 ,, Ten breaks.154
Black egg and white ray between pil- 10 Five breaks.
,,
lars155 (E).
Golden Dawn Symbol156 (E). ? Very bad. Bad cold, dust, shaking, etc.,
,,
prevented concentration.157
Golden Dawn Symbol (E). 10 ,, Four breaks.
R. R. et A. C. 23 ,, Nine breaks.
 Against this particular practice P. wrote: “I think breaks are longer in themselves than of old; for I
find myself concentrating on them and forgetting the primary altogether. But I have no means of telling
how long it is before the error is discovered.”
Some very much more elaborate and difficult meditations were attempted by P. at this time; in na-
ture they are very similar to many of St. Loyola's. We give the account in his own words:

I tried to imagine the sound of a waterfall. This was very difficult to get at; and it makes one’s ears
sing for a long time afterwards. If I really got it, it was however not strong enough to shut outer physical
sounds. I also tried to imagine the “puff-puff” of an engine. This resulted better than the last, but it
caused the skin of my head to commence vibrating. I then tried to imagine the taste of chocolate; this
proved extremely difficult; and after this the ticking of a watch. This proved easier, and the result was
quite good; but there was a tendency to slow up with the right ear, which however was easy to test by
approaching a watch against the ear.158
During this whole period of rough travel, work is fatiguing, difficult and uncertain. Regularity is im-
possible, as regards hours and even days, and the mind, being so full of other things, seems to refuse to
compose itself. Nearly always I was too tired to do two (let alone three) meditations; and the weariness
of the morrow was another hostile factor. Let me hope that my return here (Mexico City) will work won-
ders.

Three days after this entry on a certain Wednesday evening we find a very extraordinary mental ex-
periment recorded in P.'s diary.
D. A. made to P. the following suggestion for a meditation practice.

1. Imagine that I am standing before you in my climbing clothes.

2. When you have visualized the figure, forbid it to move its limbs, etc.
3. Then allow the figure to change, as a whole, its illumination, position and appearance.
4. Carefully observe and remember any phenomenon in connection therewith.

All this P. attempted with the following result:

The figure of D.A.: leaning on an ice-axe was clearly seen, but at first it was a shade difficult to fix.
The figure at once went 35° to my left, and stayed there; then I observed a scarlet Tiphereth above
the head and the blue path of ‫( ג‬gimel) going upwards. Around the head was bluish light, and tiphereth
was surrounded by rays as of a sun. I then noticed that the figure had the power to reduplicate itself at
various further distances; but the main figure was very steady.
Above and over the figure there towered a devil in the shape of some antediluvian beast. How long I
mentally watched the figure I cannot say, but after a period it became obscure and difficult to see, and in
order to prevent it vanishing it had to be willed to stay. After a further time the Plesiosaurus (?) above
the figure became a vast shadowy form including the figure itself.
The experiment being at an end D. A. put the following question to P. “How do you judge of distance
of secondary replicas of me?”
P. answered: “By size only.”
D. A. comments on the above were as follows:
1. That the test partially failed.
2. That he expected his figure to move more often. 159
3. the vast shadowy form was very satisfactory and promising. 160
On the following day P. records first: Meditation upon Winged-Globe to compose himself. He then
imagined D. A. sitting forward with his arms around his knees and his hands clasped. Around the figure
was an aura of heaving surfaces, and then a focussing movement which brought the surfaces very close
together. “The figure then started growing rapidly in all dimensions till it reached a vast form, and as it
grew it left behind it tiny emaciated withered old men sitting in similar positions, but with changed fea-
tures, so much so that I should think it were due to other reasons besides emaciation.”
 D. A. considered this meditation very satisfactory, but that neverthe-
less P. should attempt it again the next day.
This, however, was impossible; as on the next day, Friday, he was
suffering severely from headache and neuralgia; so instead, in order to
compose himself, he meditated upon a cross for an hour and a quarter.
The next living object meditation he attempted is described in the di-
ary as follows:

To meditate upon the image of D. A. sitting with his hands on his

knees like a God.161 Spirals were seen moving up him to a great height,
and then descending till they expanded to a great size. Besides this no
other change took place.
D. A.'s comments on these remarkable experiments are as follows:
The hidden secret is that the change of size and distance is not in accordance with optical laws. No
one has kept living objects “dead still.”162
One of two things may occur:
(a) The figure remains in one spot, but alters in size.
(b) The figure remains same apparent size, but alters in distance.
Further that the Yogi theories on this experiment were:
(1) That a living object is the reflection of the Actual, the living object being purely unreal.
(2) That from this type of meditation can be discovered the character of the person meditated upon.
e.g. Q. Is A. pious?
A. If he grows large, yes he is very pious.
Q. Is B. a villain?
A. If he shrivels, he is a small villain, not a man to be afraid of.
Also of ordinary occult things—e.g. change of face, expressions, etc.
There are also further theories regarding the disintegration of man. Theories concerning the danger
of this process to the meditator and meditatee alike.163
The next practice was to meditate upon the image of D. A. standing.
The figure remained in the same place, but altered much like a form reflected in glasses of various
curves. The general tendency was to increase slightly, but the most fixed idea was of a figure about 9
feet high but of normal breadth. Next, of normal height and of about double normal breadth.
D. A.'s comment on this meditation was that the result was not good.
This practice was attempted again on the following day: and resulted in many superposed images of
various sizes and at various distances. One of the figures had moustaches like the horns of a buffalo. The
expression of the figures became bold and fierce; especially at four feet distance, where there were two
very real images, one small and one large respectively. The comment of D. A. on this meditation was that
it was most clear, and represented complete success.

On the fifteenth of April 1901 we find P. writing in his diary:

“I agree to project my astral to Soror F.164 in Hong-Kong every Saturday evening at nine o'clock,
which should reach her at 4.6 p.m. on Sunday by Hong-Kong time. She is to start at 10 a.m. Sunday by
Hong-Kong time to reach me by 12.2 p.m. Saturday.”

These spirit journeys were to commence on the 31st of May; but this date seems to have been an-
ticipated, for two days later we read the following:

10 p.m. Enclosing myself in an egg of white light I travelled to Hong-Kong. This city is white and on a
rocky hill, the lower part is narrow and dirty. I found F. in a room of white and pale green. She was
dressed in white soft stuff with velvet lapels. We conversed awhile. I remember trying to lift a cloisonné
vase from the shelf to a table, but cannot remember whether I accomplished the act or not. I said “Ave
Soror” aloud (and I think audibly) and remained some time.165
 This astral projection is an operation of Chokmah; for the Chiah must vivify the Nephesch shell. After
returning P. records that on his journey back he saw “his Magical Mirror of the Universe very clearly in its
colours.”
Towards the end of April P. drew up for himself the following daily Task:

(1) To work through the first five of the seven mental operations.166
(2) The assumption of God forms.167
(3) To meditate on simple symbols with the idea of discovering their meaning.
(4) Rising on planes.
(5) Astral Visions.168
(6) Adonai ha Aretz.169
(7) Meditation practices on men and things.170
(8) Elemental evocations.171
(9) Meditation to vivify telesmata.172
(10) Astral projections.173

PHYSICAL WORK.

(2) Careful drawings of the Gods in their colours.

(6) Figure of Adonai ha Aretz in colour. [See Illustration.]
(8) Completion of Watch-towers and instruments.174
(9) The making of simple talismans.
During each day this programme of work was to be divided as follows:
(1) In the Morning the ‫ ש‬of ‫ ש‬Operation, and Assumption of a God-form.
(2) Before Tiffin. An Astral projection practice.
(3) After Tiffin. Rising on a plane, or Vision, or Adonai ha Aretz.
(4) In the Evening. A magical ceremony of same sort, or any of above except astral projection.175

On March the 3rd we find P. wandering among the fastnesses of the Nevado de Colima. Here he lived
for a fortnight, returning to Mexico City on the 18th only to leave it again two days later on an expedition
to the Nevado de Touca. On the 16th of April he journeyed to Amecameca, from which place he visited
Soror F., by projection, and thence up Popocatapetl, encamped on whose slopes he resolved the ‫ ש‬of ‫ש‬
into seven Mental Operations:

1. Ray of Divine White Brilliance descending upon the Akâsic Egg set between the two pillars.
2. Aspire by the Serpent, and concentrate on Flashing Sword. Imagine the stroke of the Sword upon
the Daäth junction (nape of neck).
3. Make the Egg grow gray, by a threefold spiral of light.
4. Make the Egg grow nearly white. (Repeat spiral formula.)
5. Repeat 2. Above head. Triangle of Fire (red).
6. Invoke Light. Withdraw. See Golden Dawn Symbol.
7. Let all things vanish in the Illimitable Light.

On the 22nd of April P., having bidden farewell to D. A., who had been to him both friend and mas-
ter, left for San Francisco.
At this city, on the first of May, he solemnly began anew the Operations of the Great Work, and
bought a steel rod for a wand, and tools to work it. On the second he bought gold, silver, and a jewel
wherewith to make a Crown; and on the third set sail for Japan.
During the voyage the following practices have been recorded:
May 4th. Prithivi-Apas.176 45m.
Also went on an Astral Journey to Japan. In which I found myself crossing great
quantities of Coral-pearl entangled with seaweed and shells. After having journeyed for
some time I came to a spot where I saw the form of a King standing above that of Venus
who was surrounded by many mermaids; they all had the appearance of having just been
frozen. Above the nymphs bowing towards them were many pale yellow angels chained
together, and amongst them stood Archangels of a pale silver which flashed forth rays of
gold. Above all was the Formless Light. The Archangels showed me curious types of
horned beings riding along a circle in different directions.
5th. Concentration on Position 1.177 This resulted in many strange dreams.
6th. Concentration on Position 1. 32 m. Ten breaks. Better towards the end; but best after
tenth break. Concentration must have then
lasted quite 6 or 7 minutes.
7th. Position 1. 15 m. Three breaks, but end very doubtful having become
very sleepy.
Position 1. 6 m. Three breaks. I seemed to collapse suddenly.
Went to Devachan178 on Astral Journey. I found myself surrounded by a wonderful
pearly lustre, and then among great trees between the branches of which bright birds
were flying. After this I saw a captain on his ship and also a lover contemplating his bride.
The real inhabitants of this land to which I went were as of flame, and the imaginary ones
were depicted as we physical beings are. Then the images of my vision sped past me rap-
idly. I saw a mountaineer; my father preaching with me in his old home; my mother, his
mother; a man doing Rajayoga on white god-form. At last a wave of pale light, or rather
of a silky texture passed through and over me; then one of the strange inhabitants passed
through me unconscious of me, and I returned.
Golden Dawn symbol. 14 m. Three breaks.
8th. Position 1. 22 m. Seven breaks.
Calvary Cross. 50 m. Did I go to sleep?
11th. Designed Abrahadabra for a pantacle.179
12th. I performed a Magic Ceremonial at night, followed by attempt at Astral Projection. I prefer
the Esoteric Theosophist Society’s sevenfold division for these practical purposes. I think
Physical Astral Projection should be preceded by a (ceremonial) “loosening of the girders
of the soul.”180 How to do it is the great problem. I am inclined to believe in drugs—if one
only knew the right drug.
13th. Drew a pantacle.
16th. Painted wicked black-magic pantacle.
Held a magical ceremony in the evening.
Lesser banishing Ritual of Pentagram and Hexagram.
Invocation of Thoth and the Elements by Keys 1-6181 and G∴ D∴ Opening Rituals.
Consecrated Lamen Crown and Abrahadabra Wand with great force.
Did the seven ‫ ש‬of ‫ ש‬Operations.
Worked at a Z for 5 = 6 Ritual.182
17th. Position 1. 12 m. Not good
Evening Invocation of Mercury, Chokmah and Thoth.
18th. Completed Z for 5 = 6 Ritual.
19th. 1. Assumption of the god-form of Harpocrates: It lasted nine minutes: the result was good,
for I got a distinct aura around me.
2. Physical Astral Projection. I formed a sphere which took a human shape but rather
corpse-like. I then projected a gray183 ray from the left side of my head; this was very tiring
and there was no result physically.
3. Concentrated on imaginary self for ten minutes, and then projected self into it with fearful
force. Chiah nearly passed.184
4. Red sphere darkened and glorified and return to light in Tiphereth. The result was good.
 20th. 1. Tejas-Apas Meditation.
2. Meditation on living object with the usual two figure result.
3. Astral Vision.185 I found myself in a boiling sea with geysers spouting around me. Sud-
denly monsters shaped like lions and bulls and dragons rose from the deep, and about
them sped many fiery angels, and Titanic god-forms plunged and wheeled and rose
amongst the waters. Above all was built a white temple of marble through which a rose-
flame flickered. there stood Aphrodite with a torch in one hand and a cup in the other,186
and above her hovered Archangels. Then suddenly all was an immense void, and as I
looked into it I beheld the dawn of creation. Gusts of liquid fire flamed and whirled
through the darkness. Then nothing but the brilliance of fire and water. I was away fifteen
minutes.
4. Seven minutes breathing exercise fifteen seconds each way. (Breathing in, withholding,
and breathing out.)
5. White Lion on Gray. 5 m. Result bad.
21st. Position 1. 45 m. Fair.
Worked out a “double” formula for Physical Astral Projection. First project with Enterer
Sign; simulacrum answers with Harpocrates sign.187 Then as soon as Enterer sign weak-
ens change consciousness as for Astral Visions. After which attack body from Simulacrum
with sign of Enterer to draw force. This cycle repeat until Simulacrum is at least capable of
audible speech.
I tried this and started by invoking the forces of Chokmah and Thoth, but omitted stat-
ing purpose of Operation in so many words. Yet with three projections (each way) I ob-
tained a shadowy grayness somewhat human in shape. But found difficulty where least
expected—in transferring consciousness to Simulacrum.
22nd. God-form Thoth. 16 m. Result fair.
Akâsa-Akâsa. During the meditation the following Vision was seen. All things around
me were surrounded by silver flashes or streaks. But about the human corpse which I saw
before me there were fewer, and they moved more slowly. Above me was a pyramid of
flashing light, and around me purple hangings. Five silver candlesticks were brought in,
and then I saw a throne with pentagram in white brilliance above it. There was a rose of
five by five petals within; and above Qesheth the rainbow. Rising from the ground were
formless demons—all faces! Even as X. A. R. P.188 etc., are evil. Above were the Gods of
E. H. N. B.; and above them svastika wheels whirling, and again above this the Light inef-
fable.
24th. Green ankh. 7 m. Poor.
Worked at 5°=6° explanation.
Cross in brilliance. 10 m. Medium result.
Thoth in front of me. 5 m. Poor.
June 3rd. Astral Vision. Dressed in white and red Abramelin robes with crown, wand, ankh, and
rose-cross, etc., etc., went on an Astral Journey to Hong-Kong. I found Soror F. sitting or
kneeling in a temple. On the Altar were elemental instruments also Symbol of Golden
Dawn. She was waiting in awe, almost in fear. On my entering she saw me and started.
Then I heard the words “carry it” or “wish to carry”; apparently with reference to idea of
carrying away a physical token. The room was full of incense, which I took to materialize
myself. At the time I was really tired and really not fit to travel.
15th. The Buddha appeared to me in the Northern Heaven and said: “Fear not for money.188 Go
and work, as thou hast indended.” I go.
July 14th. Triangle of Fire. 10 m. Middling to bad.
Winged-Globe. 6 m. Not good.
R.R. et A.C. ? Fairly good.
[Somewhere on this journey (Yokohama to Hong-Kong) BECAME the GREAT PEACE.
15th. R.R. et A.C. 16 m. An improvement.
16th. Svastika 6 m. Very poor.
 R.R. et A.C. 4 m. Very bad.
H. P. K.189 10 m. Better.
Pentagram. 16 m. Not at all bad.
18th. Calvary Cross. 15 m. Bad, but I was very sleepy.
H. P. K. on lotus. 16 m. Ten breaks; very strictly counted.
R.R. et A.C. 8 m. One break. Got very sleepy; but this seems surpris-
ingly good.
R.R. et A.C. 4 m. Very bad.
Scarlet Sphere 10 m. Good. One or two breaks only.
Operation
(Tiphereth)
Buddha position. 5 m. Hopeless; I was nearly asleep.
19th. Winged-Globe 9 m.
H. P. K. on Lotus. 9 m.
R.R. et A.C. 8 m.
Position 1. 13 m.
Thoth. ?
Attempted meditation on solar spectrum as a band. By working at each colour sepa-
rately, or lighting each one by one, it is not bad; but taken altogether is no good.
20th. Thoth. 10 m.
Cross. 15 m.
Golden Dawn Symbol. 10 m.
[My thought seems terribly wandering nowadays.]
Isis. 19 m. Not so bad.
Winged-Globe. 12 m. Bad, sleepy.
23rd. Triangle of Fire 15 m. Very wandering.
with Cross in
centre.
Abrahadabra 17 m. Pretty good, though perhaps the whole was hardly
pantacle ever absolutely clear
25th. Tried Physical Astral Projection twice. In the first one the person employed to watch—my
beloved Soror F.—saw physical arm bent whilst my own was straight.
26th. I did the H. P. K. ritual at night to enter into the silence. I think the result was pretty
good.
27th. Nirvana.191 38 m. If I was not asleep, result pretty good. Fair.
White circle. 13 m.
[This day I got my first clear perception in consciousness192 of the illusory nature of ma-
terial objects.]
H.P.K. on Lotus. 17 m. Good, as I employed my identity to resolve prob-
lems.193
R.R. et A.C. 5 m.
28th. Nirvana. 15 m.
Calvary Cross. 24 m. Ten breaks. Never got settled till after 8 breaks.
29th. Rising on planes. Malkuth to Kether; this took thirty-six minutes. The result not very good.
Calvary Cross. 22 m. Four breaks.
30th. Buddha. 15 m.
Calvary Cross. 11 m. Five breaks, but had headache.
One hundred indrawn breaths in reclining position with belt on. 7 minutes 50 seconds.
(4.7 secs. per breath).
Ten indrawn breaths as slow as possible 7 m. 26 sec. (44.6 secs. per breath.)
31st. Went to sleep doing Buddha.
Buddha. 32 m. It seemed much more.
Pendulum 1,000 23½ m. The pendulum kept in its plane.194 At end of 940
 single strokes. strokes pendulum wanted to swing right over
several times.
Calvary Cross. 15 m. Too tired to settle at all.
August 1st. Position 1. 10 μ Not bad.
2nd. Buddha. 8μ It seems very difficult nowadays to settle down.
Red Cross. 22 μ Ten breaks.
Nirvana.195 13 μ Not bad.
I tried to put (astrally) a fly on a man’s nose. It seemed to disturb him much: but he
did not try to brush it off.
Tried the same with Chinaman, great success.
Tried to make a Chinaman look round, instant success.
Tried the same with a European, but failed.
3rd. Tried in vain two “practical volitions” but was too unwell to do any work.
4th. Nirvana, Selfish- 28 m.
ness, Magical Power
Hierophantship, etc.
After this meditation I arrived at the following decision: I must not cling to the
Peace.196 It certainly has been real to me, but if I make a God out of it it will become but
an illusion. I am ready to receive the Magical Power as I should not abuse it. I must needs
accomplish the Finished Work.
Buddha. 33m. The best Meditation I have so far done. I regard this
as a real meditation; for 13 minutes quite forgot
time.
Rose on Planes of ‫ת‬.‫י‬.‫ם‬.‫ת‬.‫ג‬.‫כ‬197 from Malkuth to Kether.
5th. Meditated on Thoth concerning Frater I.A.
6th. Arrive in Colombo.

We now arrive at another turning-point in the progress of P. Up to the first of this year 1901 he had
studied Western methods of Magic alone, from this date, at first under the tuition of D.A., and then solely
under his own mastership, he had begun to study Raja Yoga, practising meditation and a few simple
breathing exercises. Now he was going, if not entirely under a Guru, to work daily with one with whom
he had, before his departure from England, carried out so many extraordinary magical operations. And
this one was no other than Frater I. A.
On account of ill health Frater I. A. had journeyed to Ceylon to see if a warmer climate would not re-
store to him what a colder one had taken away; and now, that once again his old friend P. had joined
him, these two determined to work out the Eastern systems under an Eastern sky and by Eastern meth-
ods alone.
On the 1st of August we find P. writing:
“I exist not: there is no God: no place: no time: wherefore I exactly particularize and specify these
things.” And five days later he began what he called “The Writings of Truth.” Before we begin these, it
will be necessary to enter upon the doctrines of Buddhism at some little length, for Frater I. A. was now
at heart a follower of Gotama, being rather disgusted with his Tamil Guru; and under his guidance it was
that P. grasped the fundamental importance of Concentration through meditation.
 THE DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM

Having sat for seven long years under the Bôdhi tree Gotama opened his eyes and perceiving the
world of Samsâra198 exclaimed: “Quod erat demonstrandum!” True, he had attained to the spotless eye
of Truth and had become Buddha the Enlightened One; he had entered the Nothingness of Nibbâna,199
and had become one with the Uncreated and the Indestructible. And now he stood once again on the
shore line of existence and watched the waves of life roll landwards, curve, break and hiss up the beach
only to surge back into the ocean from which they came. He did not deny the existence of the Divine,
(how could he when he had become one with it?) but so filled was he with the light of Amitâbha,200 that
he fully saw that by Silence alone could the world be saved, and that by the denial of the Unknowable of
the uninitiate, the Kether, the Âtman, the First Cause, the God of the unenlightened, could he ever hope
to draw mankind to that great illimitable LVX, from which he had descended a God-illumined Adept. He
fully realized that to admit into his argument the comment of God was to erase all hope of deliverance
from the text, and therefore, though he had become The Buddha, nevertheless, in his selflessness he
stooped down to the level of the lowest of mankind, and abandoning as dross the stupendous powers he
had acquired, helped his fellows to realize the right path by the most universal of all symbols—the woe of
the world, the sorrow of mankind.
Like the Vendântis, he saw that the crux of the whole trouble was Ignorance (Avijjâ). Dispel this ig-
norance, and illumination would take its place, that insight into the real nature of things, which, little by
little, leads the Aspirant out of the world of birth and death, the world of Samsâra, into that inscrutable
Nibbâna where things in themselves cease to exist and with them the thoughts which go to build them
up. Ignorance is the greatest of all Fetters, and, “he who sins inadvertently,” as Nâgasena said, “has the
greater demerit.”
Enquiring into the particular nature of Ignorance Buddha discovered that the Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil had three main branches, namely: Lobha, Dosa and Moha; Craving, Passion and the Delu-
sion of Self, and that these three forms of Ignorance alone could be conquered by right understanding
the Three Great Signs or Characteristics of all Existence, namely: Change, Sorrow, and Absence of an
Ego—Anikka, Dukkha, and Anatta, which were attained by meditating on the inmost meaning of the Four
Noble Truths:
“The Truth about Suffering; the Truth about the Cause of Suffering; the Truth about the Cessation of
Suffering; and the Truth about the Path which leads to the Cessation of Suffering.” These consist of the
above Three Characteristics with the addition of the Noble Eightfold Path, which contains as we shall
presently see the whole of Canonical Buddhism.
Up to this point, save for the denial of the Ego, the whole of the above doctrine might have been ex-
tracted from almost any of the Upanishads. But there is a difference, and the difference is this. Though
the Vedântist realized that Ignorance (Avidyâ) was the foundation of all Sorrow, and that all, possessing
the essence of Change, was but illusion or Mâyâ, a matter of name and form;201 Buddha now pointed out
that the true path of deliverance was through the Reason (Ruach) and not through the senses
(Nephesh), as many of the Upanishads would give one to believe. Further, this was the path that Gotama
had trod, and therefore, naturally he besought others to tread it. The Vedântist attempted to attain unity
with the Âtman (Kether)202 by means of his Emotions (Nephesh) intermingled with his Reason (Ruach),
but the Buddha by means of his Reason (Ruach) alone. Buddha attempted to cut off all joy from the
world, substituting in its place an implacable rationalism, a stern and inflexible morality, little seeing that
the sorrows of Earth which his system substituted in place of the joys of Heaven, though they might not
ruffle his self-conquered self, must perturb the minds of his followers, and produce emotions of an almost
equal intensity though perhaps of an opposite character to those of his opponents. Yet nevertheless, for
a space, the unbending Rationalism of his System prevailed and crushed down the Emotions of his fol-
lowers, those Emotions which had found so rich and fertile a soil in the decaying philosophy of the old
Vedânta. The statement in the Dhammapada that: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought:
it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts:”203 is as equally true of the Vedânta as it is
of Buddhism. But, in the former we get the great doctrine and practice of the Siddhis directly attributable
to a mastering of the emotions and then to a use of the same, which is strictly forbidden to the Buddhist,
but which eventually under the Mahâyâna Buddhism of China and Tibet forced itself once again into rec-
ognition, and which, even as early as the writing of “The Questions of King Milinda,” unless the beautiful
story of the courtesan Bindumati be a latter day interpolation, was highly thought of under the name of
an “Act of Truth.” Thus, though King Sivi gave his eyes to the man who begged them of him, he re-
ceived others by an Act of Truth, by the gift of Siddhi, or Iddhi as the Buddhists call it. An Act, which is
explained by the fair courtesan Bindumati as follows. When King Asoka asked her by what power she had
caused the waters of the Ganges to flow backwards, she answered:

Whosoever, O King, gives me gold—be he a noble, or a brahman, or a tradesman, or a servant—I

regard them all alike. When I see he is a noble I make no distinction in his favour. If I know him to be a
slave I despise him not. Free alike from fawning and from dislike do I do service to him who has bought
me. This, your Majesty, is the basis of the Act of Truth by the force of which I turned the Ganges back.204

In other words, by ignoring all accidents, all matters of chance, and setting to work, without favour
or prejudice, to accomplish the one object in view, and so finally “to interpret every phenomenon as a
particular dealing of God with the soul.” In truth this is an “Act of Truth,” the Power begot by Concentra-
tion and nothing else.
We have seen at the commencement of this chapter how the Âtman (that Essence beyond Being and
Not Being) allegorically fell becrying “It is I,” and how the great Hypocrisy arose by supposing individual
Âtmans for all beings, and things which had to incarnate again and again before finally they were swal-
lowed up in the One Âtman of the Beginning. This Individualistic Conception Gotama banned, he would
have none of it; a Soul, a Spirit, a separate entity was anathema to him; but in overthrowing the corrupt
Vedânta of the latter-day pundits, like Luther, who many centuries later tore the tawdry vanities from off
the back of the prostitute Rome, approximating his reformed Church to the communistic brotherhood of
Christ, Gotama, the Enlightened One, the Buddha, now similarly went back to Vedic times and to the wis-
dom of the old Rishis. But, fearing the evil associations clinging to a name, he, anathematizing the Ât-
man, in its place wrote Nibbâna, which according to Nâgasena is cessation,205 a passing away in which
nothing remains, an end.206 Soon, however, under Mahâyâna-Buddhism, was the Âtman to be revived in
all its old glory under the name of Amitâbha, or that Source of all Light, which so enlightens a man who
is aspiring to the Bodhi that he becomes a Buddha. “Amitâbha,” so Paul Carus informs us, “is the final
norm of wisdom and of morality207, the standard of truth and of righteousness, the ultimate raison d’être
of the Cosmic Order.” This of course is “bosh.” Amitâbha, as the Âtman, is “the light which shines there
beyond the heaven behind all things, behind each in the highest worlds, the highest of all.”208
Once logically having crushed out the idea of an individual soul, a personal God and then an imper-
sonal God had to be set aside and with them the idea of a First Cause or Beginning; concerning which
question Buddha refused to give an answer. For, he well saw, that the idea of a Supreme God was the
greatest of the dog-faced demons that seduced man from the path. “There is no God, and I refuse to
discuss what is not!” cries Buddha, “but there is Sorrow and I intend to destroy it.” If I can only get peo-
ple to start on the upward journey they will very soon cease to care if there is a God or if there is a No-
God; but if I give them the slightest cause to expect any reward outside cessation of Sorrow, it would set
them all cackling over the future like hens over a china egg, and soon they would be back at the old
game of counting their chickens before they were hatched. He must also have seen, that if he postulated
a God, or First Cause, every unfledged rationalist in Pâtaliputta would cry, “Oh, but what a God, what a
wicked God yours must be to allow all this sorrow you talk of . . . now look at mine . . .” little seeing that
sorrow was just the same with the idea of God as without it, and that all was indeed Moha or Mâyâ—both
God and No-God, Sorrow and Joy.
But Buddha being a practical physician, though he knew sorrow to be but a form of thought, was
most careful in keeping as real a calamity as he could; for he well saw, that if he could only get people to
concentrate upon Sorrow and its Causes, that the end could not be far off, of both Sorrow and Joy; but,
if they began to speculate on its illusiveness, this happy deliverance would always remain distant. His
business upon Earth was entirely a practical and exoteric one, in no way mystical; it was rational not
emotional, catholic and not secret.
What then is the Cause of Sorrow? and the answer given by Gotama is: Karma or Action, which when
once completed becomes latent and static, and according to how it was accomplished, when once again
it becomes dynamic, is its resultant effect. Thus a good action produces a good reaction, and a bad one a
bad one. This presupposes a code of morals, furnished by what?209 We cannot call it Âtman, Conscience,
or Soul; and a Selecting Power, which however is strenuously denied by the rigid law of Cause and Effect.
However the mental eyes of the vast majority of his followers were not so clear as to pierce far into the
darkness of metaphysical philosophy, and so it happened that, where the idealism of the Venânta had
failed the realism of Buddhism succeeded.210
This denial of a Universal Âtman, and a personal Âtman, soon brought the ethical and philosophical
arguments of Gotama up against a brick wall (Kan’t “à priori”). As we have seen he could not prop up a
fictitious beginning by the supposition of the former, and he dared not use Nibbâna as such, though in
truth the Beginning is just as incomprehensible with or without at Âtman. But, in spite of his having de-
nied the latter, he had to account for Causality and the transmission of his Good and Evil (Karma) by
some means or another. Now, according to Nâgasena, the Blessed One refused to answer any such ques-
tions as “Is the universe everlasting?” “Is it not everlasting?” “Has it an end?” ”Has it not an end?” “Is it
both ending and unending?” ”It is neither the one nor the other?” And further all such questions as “Are
the soul and the body the same thing?” ”Is the soul distinct from the body?” “Does a Tathâgata exist af-
ter death?” “Does he not exist after death?” “Does he both exist and not exist after death?” “Does he
neither exist nor not exist after death?” . . . Because “the Blessed Buddhas lift not up their voice without
a reason and without an object.”211 But in spite of their being no soul “in the highest sense,”212 Gotama
had to postulate some vehicle which would transmit the sorrow of one generation to another, of one in-
stant of time to the next; and, not being able to use the familiar idea of Âtman, he instead made that of
Karma do a double duty. “He does not die until that evil Karma is exhausted,” says Nâgasena.213
Now this brings us to an extraordinary complex question, namely the practical difference between the
Karma minus Âtman of the Buddhists and the Karma plus Âtman of the later Vedântists?
The Brahman’s idea, at first, was one of complete whole, this, as the comment supplanted the text,
got frayed into innumerable units or Âtmans, which, on account of Karma, were born again and again
until Karma was used up and the individual Âtman went back to the universal Âtman. Buddha, erasing
the Âtman, though he refused to discuss the Beginning, postulated Nibbâna as the end, which fact con-
versely also postulates the Beginning as Nibbâna. Therefore we have all things originating from an x sign,
Âtman, Nibbâna, God, Ain or First Cause, and eventually returning to this primordial Equilibrium. The dif-
ficulty which now remains is the bridging over of this divided middle. To Gotama there is no unit, and
existence per se is Ignorance caused as it were by a bad dream in the head of the undefinable Nibbâna;
which itself, however, is non-existent. Each man is, as it were, a thought in an universal brain, each
thought jarring against the next and prolonging the dream. As each individual thought dies it enters Nib-
bâna and ceases to be, and eventually when all thoughts die the dream passes and Nibbâna wakes.214
This bad dream seems to be caused by a separateness of Subject and Object which means Sorrow; when
sleep vanished this separateness vanishes with it, things assume their correct proportion and may be
equated to a state of bliss or non-Sorrow.
Thus we find that Nirvana and Nibbâna are the same215 in fact as in etymology, and that absorption
into either the one or the other may be considered as re-entering that Equilibrium from which we origi-
nated.
The first and the last words have been written on this final absorption by both the Vedântist and the
Buddha alike.

There no sun shines, no moon, nor glimmering star, nor yonder lightning, the fire of earth is
quenched; from him, who alone shines, all else borrows its brightness, the whole world bursts into splen-
dour at his shining.216

And—
 There exists, O Brothers, a Realm wherein is neither Earth nor Water neither Flame nor Air; nor the
vast Æthyr nor the Infinity of Thought, not Utter Void nor the co-existence of Cognition and Non-
cognition is there:—not this World nor Another, neither Sun nor Moon. That, Brothers, I declare unto you
as neither a Becoming nor yet a Passing-away:—not Life nor Death nor Birth; Unlocalised, Unchanging
and Uncaused:—That is the end of Sorrow.217

Gotama therefore had to hedge. Unquestionably the Soul-idea must go, but in order to account for
the Universal law of Causation Karma must remain, and further, surreptitiously perform all the old duties
the individual Âtman had carried out. He had abandoned the animism of a low civilization, it is true, but
he could not, for a want of the exemption from morality itself, abandon the fetish of a slightly higher civi-
lization, namely ethics. He saw that though mankind was tired of being ruled by Spirits, they were only
too eager to be ruled by Virtues, which gave those who maintained these fictitious qualifications a sure
standpoint from which to rail at those who had not. Therefore he banned Reincarnation and Soul and
substituted in their place Transmigration and Karma (Doing) the Sankhârâ or Tendencies that form the
character (individuality!) of the individual.
Ânanda Metteya in “Buddhism”218 explains transmigration in contradistinction to reincarnation as fol-
lows. Two men standing on the shore of a lake watch the waves rolling landwards. To the one who is
unversed in science it appears that the wave travelling towards him maintains its identity and shape, it is
to him a mass of water that moves over the surface impelled by the wind. The other, who has a scientifi-
cally trained mind, knows that at each point upon the surface of the lake the particles of water are only
rising and then falling in their place, that each particle in turn is passing on its motion to its neighbours.
To the first there is a translation of matter, to the second one of force. “The Vedântist has seen Sub-
stance, an enduring principle, an End; the Buddhist only Qualities, themselves in all their elements ever
changing, but the sum-total of their Doing passing steadily on, till the wave breaks upon Nibbâna’s shore,
and is no more a wave forever.”
We have not space to criticise this, all we will ask is—what is the difference between Force and Mat-
ter, and if the annihilation of the one does not carry with it the annihilation of the other irrespective of
which is first—if either?
Ânanda Metteya carries his illustration further still.

John Smith, then, in a sense, is immortal; nay, every thought he thinks is deathless, and will persist,
somewhere, in the depths of infinity. . . . But it is not this part of his energy that results in the formation
of a new being when he dies. . . . We may then consider the moment of John Smith’s death. . . . During
his life he has not alone been setting in vibration the great ocean of the Æther, he has been affecting the
structure of his own brain. So that at the moment of his death all his own life, and all his past lives are
existing pictured in a definition and characteristic molecular structure, a tremendous complicated repre-
sentation of all that we have meant by the term John Smith—the record of the thoughts and doings of
unnumbered lives. Each cell of the millions of his brain may be likened to a charged leyden-jar, the
nerve-paths radiating from it thrill betimes with its discharges, carrying its meaning through man’s body,
and, through the Æther, even to the infinitude of space. When it is functioning normally, its total dis-
charge is prevented, so that never at any time can more than a fraction of its stored up energy be dissi-
pated. . . . And then Death comes; and the moment of its coming, all that locked up energy flames on
the universe like a new-born star.219

Ânanda Metteya then in a lengthy and lucid explanation demonstrates how the light of a flame giving
off the yellow light of sodium may be absorbed by a layer of sodium vapour, so the Karma, released from
the body of the dead man, will circle round until it finds the body of a new-born child tuned or synchro-
nized to its particular waves.
Now we are not concerned here with stray children who like the receivers of a wireless telegraph pick
up either good or evil messages; but it is an interesting fact to learn that at least certain orthodox Bud-
dhists attribute so complex and considerable power to the brain, that by the fact of leaving one body that
body perishes, and of entering another that body revives. Can it be that we have got back to our old
friend the Prâna which in its individual form so closely resembled the individual Karma, and in its entirety
the totality of Nibbâna? Let us turn to Brihadâranyaka Upanishad. There in 1, 6, 3. we find a mystical
formula which reads Amritam satyena channam. This means “The immortal (Brahman) veiled by the
(empirical) reality;” and immediately afterwards this is explained as follows: “The Prâna (i.e. the Âtman)
to wit is the immortal, name and form are the reality; by these the Prâna is veiled.” Once again we are
back at our starting-point. To become one with the Prâna or Âtman is to enter Nibbâna, and as the
means which lead to the former consisted of concentration exercises such as Prânâyâma, etc.; so now
shall we find almost identical exercises used to hasten the Aspirant into Nibbâna.

Frater P. was by now well acquainted with the Yoga Philosophy, further he was beginning to feel that
the crude Animism employed by many of its expounders scarcely tallied with his attainments. The nearer
he approached the Âtman the less did it appear to him to resemble what he had been taught to expect.
Indeed its translation into worldly comments was a matter of experience, so it came about that he dis-
covered that the Great Attainment per se was identical in all systems irrespective of the symbol man
sought it under. Thus Yahweh as a clay phallus in a band-box was as much a reality to the Jews of Gene-
sis as Brahman in Brahma-loka was to the Aryas of Vedic India; that the vision of Moses when he beheld
God as a burning bush is similar to the vision of the fire-flashing Courser of the Chaldean Oracles; and
that Nibbâna the Non-existent is little removed, if at all, from the Christian heaven with its harps, halos,
and hovering angels. And the reason is, that the man who does attain to any of these states, on his re-
turn to consciousness, at once attributes his attainment to his particular business partner—Christ, Bud-
dha, Mrs. Besant, etc., etc., and attempts to rationalize about the suprarational, and describe what is be-
yond description in the language of his country.
P., under the gentle guidance of Ânanda Metteta, at first found the outward simplicity most refresh-
ing; but soon he discovered that like all other religious systems Buddhism was entangled in a veritable
network of words. Realizing this, he went a step further than Gotama, and said: “Why bother about Sor-
row at all, or about Transmigration? for these are not ‘wrong view ness,’ as Mr. Rhys Davids would so
poetically put it, but matters of the Kindergarten and not of the Temple; matters for police regulation,
and for underpaid curates to chatter about, and matters that have nothing to do with true progress.” He
then divided life into two compartments; into the first he threw science, learning, philosophy, and all
things built of words—the toys of life; and into the second The Invocations of Adonai—the work of at-
tainment.
Then he took another step forward. “Do as thou wilt!” Not only is Animism absurd, but so also is Mo-
rality; not only is Reincarnation absurd, but so also is Transmigration; not only is the Ego absurd, but so
also is the Non-Ego; not only is Karma absurd, but so also is Nibbâna. For, all things and no-things are
absurd save “I,” who am Soul and Body, Good and Evil, Sorrow and Joy, Change and Equilibrium; who in
the temple of Adonai, am beyond all these, and by the fire side in my study—Mr. X, one with each and
all.
Thus it came about that the study of Buddhism caused Frater P. to abandon the tinsel of the Vedânta
as well as its own cherished baubles, and induced him, more than ever, to rely on Work and Work alone
and not on philosophizing, moralizing and rationalizing. The more rational he became, the less he rea-
soned outwardly; and the more he became endowed with the Spirit of the Buddha in place of the vapour-
ings of Buddhism, the more he saw that personal endeavour was the key; not the Scriptures, which at
best could but indicate the way.
It (the Dharma) is to be attained to by the wise, each one for himself. Salvation rests on Work, and
not on Faith, not in reforming the so-called fallen, but in conquering oneself. “If one man conquer in bat-
tle a thousand times a thousand men: and another conquer but himself;—he is the greatest of conquer-
ors.”220
This is the whole of Buddhism, as it is of any and all systems of self-control.
Strenuousness is the Immortal Path—sloth is the way of death. The Strenuous live always,—the
slothful are already as the dead.221 Impermanent are the Tendencies—therefore do ye deliver yourselves
by Strenuousness. Frater P. now saw more clearly than ever that this last charge of the Buddha was the
one supremely important thing that he ever said.
 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH

In place of producing a dissolution of the individual Âtman in the universal Âtman, the method of
Buddha produced a submersion of Karma in the bournless ocean of Nibbâna.
In Chapter I of Book II of “The Questions of King Milinda” Nâgasena lays down that he who escapes
rebirth does so through Wisdom (Paññâ) and Reasoning (Yonisomanasikâra) and by other “Good Quali-
ties.” The Reason grasps the object and Wisdom cuts if off, whilst the good qualities seem to be the
united action of these two, thus we get Good Conduct (Sîlam), Faith (Saddhâ), Perseverance (Viriyam),
Mindfulness (Sati) and Meditation (Samâdhi), all of which rather than being separate states are but quali-
ties of the one state of Meditation at various stages in that state of Samâdhi which Nâgasena calls “the
leader” . . . “All good qualities have meditation as their chief, then incline to it, lead up towards it, are as
so many slopes up the side of the mountain of meditation.”222 Just as Yama, Niyama, Prânâyâma, Pra-
tyâhâra, Dhâranâ and Dhyâna are of Samâdhi. Further Nâgasena says “Cultivate in yourselves O Bhikkus,
the habit of meditation. He who is established therein knows things as they really are.”223
Under Faith, is classed Tranquilization (Sampasâdaba) and Aspiration (Sampakkhandana). Under Per-
severance, the rendering of Support—tension (Paggaha). Under Mindfulness, Repetition (Apilâpana) and
“keeping up” (Upaganhana). Under Good Conduct, the whole of the Royal Road from Aspirant to Ara-
hat—The five Moral Powers (Indriyabalâin); The seven Conditions of Arahatship (Bogghangâ); The Path,
readiness of memory, (Satipatthâna); The four kinds of Right Exertion (Sammappadhâna); The four
Stages of Ecstasy (Ghâna); The eight forms of spiritual Emancipation (Vimokhâ); The four modes of Self-
Concentration (Samâdhi);224 The eight states of Intense contemplation (Samâpatti).
It would be a waste of time to compare the above states with the states of the Hindu Yoga, or enu-
merate other similarities which exist by the score, but one point we must not overlook, and that is The
Noble Eightfold Path, which contains the very essence of Gotama’s teaching, as he said:

There is a Middle Path, O Monks, the Two Extremes avoiding, by the Tathâgata attained:—a Path
which makes for Insight and gives Understanding, which leads to Peace of Mind, to the Higher Wisdom,
to the Great Awakening, to Nibbâna!225

Let us now examine these eight truths.226 The first is:

I. Right Comprehension or Right Views.

Right Comprehension is the first practical step in carrying out the Four Noble Truths, that is in the
understanding of the Three Characteristics—the three fundamental principles of Buddhism. Besides rep-
resenting Malkuth, the Four Noble Truths (viewed in an elementary manner) represent the four lower
Sephiroth—Malkuth, Yesod, Hod and Netzach, the state of Right Views carrying with its attainment a
transcendency over all wrong views, that is to say all crude and unskilful views, all dogmas, assertions, all
doubts, which are as unfertile as the elements are when uncombined, by applying to them what we have
termed eslewhere the Pyrronhic Serpent of Selection.
The attainment of Right Views is arrived at in three successive steps. (1) The Aspriant contemplates
the ills of life; (2) he meditates upon them; (3) by strenuous will power he commences to strip the mind
of the Cause of Sorrow, namely Change.
During this stage a series of humiliations must be undergone, and, not only must the Nephesch be
conquered, but also the lower states of the Ruach, until the illumination of the Second Noble Truth of the
Eightfold Path shatter the step of Right Views which the Aspirant is standing upon just as the fire of God
consumed the Elemental Pyramid—the Tower of the Taro.
Having attained to mastery over Right Comprehension the aspirant beings to see things not as they
are but in their right proportions. His views become balanced, he enters Tiphareth, the Solar Plexus, “He
sees naked facts behind the garments of hypotheses in which men have clothed them, and by which they
have become obscured; and he perceives that behind the changing and conflicting opinions of men there
are permanent principles which constitute the eternal Reality in the Cosmic Order.227
In Tiphareth the aspirant attains to no less a state than that of conversation with his Holy Guardian
Angel, his Jechidah, “The permanent principle behind the conflicting opinions.” Once Right Comprehen-
sion has been attained to, he has discovered a Master who will never desert him until he becomes one
with him.

II. Right Resolutions or Right Aspirations.

Having perceived the changing nature of all things, even of men’s minds, and having acquired that
glorified vision by which he can distinguish between the permanent and the impermanent, he aspires to
the attainment of a perfect knowledge of that which is beyond change and sorrow, and resolves that he
will, by strenuous effort,228 reach to the peace beyond; to where his heart may find rest, his mind be-
come steadfast, untroubled, and serene.229

At this stage the Bodhi Satva of Work commences to revolve within the heart of the aspirant and to
break up the harmony of the elements only to attune his aspirations for a time to a discord nobler than
all harmony, and eventually to that Peace which passeth Understanding.

III. Right Speech.

Right Speech is a furthering of Right Aspirations. It consists of a discipline wherein a man not only
converses with his Holy Guardian Angel, but outwardly and inwardly lives up to His holy conversation,
turning his whole life into one stupendous magical exercise to enter that Silence which is beyond all
thought.

IV. Right Acts or Right Conduct.

Having become obedient to his Holy Guardian Angel (the aspirant’s Spiritual Guru) or to the Universal
Law as the Buddhist prefers to call it, man naturally enters the stage of Right Conduct, which brings with
it supernormal or magical powers. Self is now put aside from action as well as from speech, and the
striver only progresses by a stupendous courage and endurance. The canonical Buddhists however
strenuously deny the value of these magical powers, Iddhis or Siddhis, and attribute the purification of
the striver, the attainment of the state of “stainless deeds,” to the great love wherein he must now en-
shrine all things. In detail the differences between Buddhism and the Yoga are verbal; in essence, man,
at this stage, becomes the lover of the World, and love is the wand of the Magician, that wand which
conquers and subdues, vivifies, fructifies, and replenishes the worlds, and like the Caduceus of Hermes it
is formed of two twining snakes.

V. Right Livelihood.
Up to this stage man has been but a disciple to his Holy Guardian Angel, but now he grows to be his
equal, and in the flesh becomes a flame-shod Adept whose white feet are not soiled by the dust and mud
of earth. He has gained perfect control over his body and his mind; and not only are his speech and ac-
tions right, but his very life is right, in fact his actions have become a Temple wherein he can at will
withdraw himself to pray. He has become a priest unto himself his own Guardian, he may administer to
himself the holy sacrament of God in Truth and in Right, he has become Exempt from the shackles of
Earth. He is the Supreme Man, one step more he enters the Sanctuary of God and becomes one with the
Brotherhood of Light.
Up to this stage progress has meant Work, work terrible and Titanic, one great striving after union
which roughly may be compared to the five methods of Yoga.
From this fifth stage work gives place to knowledge. Qabalistically the aspirant enters Daäth.

VI. Right Effort.

Man is now Master of Virtue and Vice and no longer their slave, servant, enemy, or friend. The LVX
has descended upon him, and just as the dew of the moon within the Sahasâra Chakkra falling upon the
two-petalled Ajna-lotus causes the leaves to open out, so now does this celestial light lift him out and
beyond the world, as wings life a bird from the fields of earth, encompassing him, extending to his right
hand and to his left like the wings of the Solar Globe which shut out from the ruby ball the twin serpents
which twine beneath it.230

. . . Having purified himself, he understands the perfect life; being a doer of Holiness, he is a knower
of Holiness; having practiced Truth, he has become accomplished in the knowledge of Truth. He per-
ceives the working of the inner Law of things, and is loving, wise, enlightened. And being loving, wise
and enlightened, he does everything with a wise purpose, in the full knowledge of what he is doing, and
what he will accomplish. He wastes no drachm of energy, and does everything with calm directness of
purpose, and with penetrating intelligence. This is the stage of Masterly Power in which effort is freed
from strife and error, and perfect tranquility of mind is maintained under all circumstances. He who has
reached it, accomplishes everything upon which he sets his mind.231

VII. Right Thought.

So filled with Understanding is he now that he becomes, as it were, the actual mind of the Universe,
nothing remains uncomprehended; he comes face to face with his goal, he sees HIMSELF as one who
gazes in a mirror.

VIII Right Meditation, or the Right State of a Peaceful Mind.

The glass vanishes and with it the reflection, the illusion of Mara or of Mâyâ. He is Reality! He is
Truth! He is Âtman! He is God. Then Reality vanishes. Truth vanishes. Âtman vanished. God vanishes. He
himself vanishes. He is past; he is present; he is future. He is here, he is there. He is everything. He is
nowhere. He is nothing. He is blessed, he has attained to the Great Deliverance. He IS; he IS NOT. He is
one with Nibbâna.232
 THE WRITINGS OF TRUTH233

The seeker after Wisdom, whose Bliss is non-existence, the Devotee of the Most Excellent Bhâvani,234
the Wanderer in the Samsâra Câkkra, the Insect that crawls on Earth, on Seb beneath Nuit, the Purusha
beyond Ishwara: He taketh up the Pen of the Ready Writer, to record those Mysterious Happenings which
came unto Him in His search for Himself. And the beginning is of Spells, and of Conjurations, and of Evo-
cations of the Evil Ones; Things Unlawful to write of, dangerous even to think of; wherefore they are not
here written. But he beginneth with his sojourning in the Isle of Lanka:235 the time of his dwelling with
Mâitrânanda Swâmi.236 Wherefore, O Bhâvani, bring Thou all unto the Proper End! To Thee be Glory—
OM.
On the 6th of August P. landed in Colombo, and on the following day he went to see his old friend
Frater I.A. who was now studying Buddhism with the view of becoming a Buddhist monk. On this very
day he commenced, or rather continued his meditation practices: for we find him trying with Mâitrânanda
the result of speech as a disturbing factor in Dhâranâ (meditation). The experiment was as follows:
P. sat and meditated for five minutes on a white Tau (T) during which Mâitrânanda spoke six times
with the object of seeing if it would interrupt P.’s meditation. The result on the first occasion was a bad
break; second, two bad breaks; third to sixth, no breaks occurred. At the end of the experiment P. was
able to repeat all Mâitrânanda had said except the last remark.237

August
9th. Practised Mental Muttering of the Mantra: “Namo Shivaya Namaha Aum.” I found that with Re-
chaka the voice sounds as if from the Confines of the Universe: but with the Puraka as if from the
third eye. Whilst doing this in the Saivite Â’sana.238 I found the eyes, without conscious volition,
are drawn up and behold the third eye. (Ajna Chakkra.)
10th. A day of revelation of Arcana. Ten minutes A’sana and breathing exercise. Latter unexpectedly
trying. Also practised Mental Muttering whilst in Â’sana. Repeating “Namo Shivaya Namaha Aum,”
which takes, roughly, 86 seconds for 50 repetitions, i.e. about 1,000 in half an hour. I practised
this Mantra for thirty minutes: 10 minutes aloud; 10 minutes in silence; 10 minutes by hearing.239
11th. Recited the Mantra for about 1½ hour while painting a talisman.
It was on this day I got a broken-bell-sound240 in my head when not doing anything particular.
12th. Â’sana and Breathing 10 minutes. One fears to do Rechaka, so tremendous and terrible is the
Voice of the Universe. But with Puraka is a still small Voice. Concerning which Mâitrânanda said to
me: “Listen not to that Great and terrible Voice: but penetrate and hear the subtle soul thereof.”
13th. Prânâyâma: Five cycles 5 minutes 15 seconds. Mantra (N.S.N.A.)241 Half an hour. Ears begin to
sing at about the twentieth minute. Towards the end I heard a soft sound as of a silver tube being
struck very gently with a soft mallet.

These sounds are known as the Voice of the Nada, and are a sure sign that progress is being made.
They, as already mentioned, are the mystical inner sounds which proceed from the Anahata Chakkra.
According to the Hatha Yoga Pradipika these sounds proceed from the Sushumnâ. “They are in all of ten
sorts; buzzing sound, sound of the flute, of bells, of waves, of thunder, of falling rain, etc.”

Close the ears, the nose, the mouth and the eyes: then a clear sound is heard distinctly in the Su-
shumnâ (which has been purified by Prânâyâma).242

The “Pradipika” further states that in all Yogi practices there are four stages: Arambha, Ghata,
Parichaya and Nish-patti. In the first (Arambhâvasthâ) that is when the Anahata Chakkra is pierced by
Prânâyâma various sweet tinkling sounds arise from the Âkâsa of the heart.

When the sound begins to be heard in the Shunya (Âkâsa), the Yogi possessed of a body resplendent
and giving out sweet odour, is free from all diseases and his heart is filled (with Prâna).243
In the second stage (Ghatâvasthâ) the Prâna becomes one with the Nada in the Vishuddhi Chakkra and
make a sound like that of a kettledrum; this is a sign that Bramhânanda is about to follow. In the third stage
(Parichayâvastha) a sound like a drum is heard in the Ajna Chakkra. Having overcome the blissful state arising
from hearing the sounds the Yogi begins to experience a greater bliss from the increasing realization of the
Âtman.

The Prâna, having forced the Rudra Granthi existing in the Ajna Chakkra goes to the seat of Ishwara.
Then the fourth state (Nishpatti) sets in: wherein are heard the sounds of the flute and Vînâ (a stringed in-
strument).244

At this stage the Prâna goes to the Bramharandhra, and enters the Silence.
This is all most beautifully described in the various Shastras. In the Shiva Sanhita we read:

27. The first sound is like the hum of the honey-intoxicated bee, next that of a flute, then of a harp; after
this, by the gradual practice of Yoga,245 the destroyer of the darkness of the world, he hears the sounds of the
ringing bells, then sounds like roars of thunder. When one fixes his full attention on this sound, being free
from fear, he gets absorption, O my beloved.
28. When the mind of the Yogi is exceedingly engaged in this sound, he forgets all external things, and is
absorbed in this sound.246

H. P. Blavatsky in “The Voice of the Silence” classifies these sounds under seven distinct heads.

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 Dhyânis, 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 vînâ.
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.247

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a great deal more exact in its description of these sounds than the famous
Theosophist; concerning them Swâtmârâm Swâmi writes:

In the beginning, the sounds resemble those of the ocean, the clouds, the kettledrum, and Zarzara (a sort
of drum cymbal); in the middle they resemble those arising from the Mardala, the conch, the bell and the
horn.
In the end they resemble those of the tinkling bells, the flutes, the vînâ, and the bees. Thus are heard the
various sounds from the middle of the body.
Even when the loud sounds of the clouds and the kettledrum are heard, he should try to fix his attention
on the subtler sounds.
He may change his attention from the lull to the subtle sounds, but should never allow his attention to
wander to other extraneous objects.
The mind fixes itself upon the Nâda to which it is first attracted until it becomes one with it.248

Many other passages occur in this little text book on Yoga dealing with these mystical sounds some of
them of a combined beauty and wisdom which is hard to rival. Such as:

When the mind, divested of its flighty nature, is bound by the cords of the Nâda, it attains a state of ex-
treme concentration and remains quiet as a bird that has lost its wings.
Nâda is like a snare for catching a deer, i.e. the mind. It, like a hunter, kills the deer.
The mind, having become unconsious, like a serpent, on hearing the musical sounds, does not run away.
 The fire, that burns a piece of wood, dies, as soon as the wood is burnt out. So the mind concen-
trated upon the Nâda gets absorbed with it.
When the Antahkarana, like a deer, is attracted by the sound of bells, etc., and remains immovable, a
skilful archer can kill it. Whatever is heard of the nature of sound is only Shakti.249
The conception of Akâsa250 (the generator of sound) exists, as long as the sound is heard. The
Soundless is called Parabramha or Paramâtma.251

August.
14th. Bought a meditation-mat and also a bronze Buddha.
Nadi-Yama252 10 minutes in the Saivit eposture, in which my body-seat fits exactly into a
square of about 18 inches forming the letter Aleph.
Mantra (N.S.N.A.). At the 28th minute got faint sounds like a musical box worked by a mallet
on metal bars. As I stopped I heard a piano very distant. The intense attention requisite to try
to catch the subtle sounds of the Universe when in Rechaka prevents Mantra, as my mental
muttering is not yet absolutely perfect.
15th. By the five signs my Nadi are now purified.253 But this appears to me as unlikely.
Eyes on tip of nose. 5 minutes. The nose grows very filmy and the rest of the field of vision
loses its uprightness and is continually sliding into itself across itself. A most annoying phe-
nomenon.
Nadi-Yama. 15 minutes. This becomes easier.
Mental muttering of Aum Shivayavashi.

On the 17th August P. and Mâitrânanda left Colombo and journeyed to Kandy; Swami Mâitrânanda
more particularly for his health; but P. so that he might escape the turmoil of a seaport and to discover a
suitable and secluded spot for a magical retirement, which he had now made up his mind to perform.

19th. Concentrated on point of base of brain. [To find this imagine cross-wires drawn between (a)
ear to ear, as if a line had been stretched between them, and from the centre of this line to
the top of the skull. (b) from above the bridge of my nose horizontally backwards.]
28th. The result was that I felt a throbbing in my head, principally at the spot concentrated on. I
hereby formulate unto myself a Vow of Silence for a period of at least three days. My time to
be occupied by Nadi-Yami and Â’sana, also by meditations of the Buddha and “Aum Mani
Padme Hum.” The vow to begin from Midnight. This vow I took ceremonially.
11.40-12.7 Suddhi.254 Very painful and jerky, especially Rechaka. Â’sana much pain on
p.m. a.m. moving
7.40-7.55 Suddhi. Result was better, but goes off whilst meditating on “Aum Mani
a.m. a.m. Padme Hum.”
10.3-10.50 Began Mental Muttering of “Aum Mani Padme Hum” meditating on Buddha.
a.m. a.m. This developed into Pratyâhâric Dhâranâ; loss of Ego and a vision of mysterious
power; loss of all objects mental and physical. I do not know how long this
lasted I woke meditating Anahata.255 The voice of Nada was like a far-off sol-
emn song; it became “Aum” only, dropping “Mani Padme Hum,” and then was
more like thunder without harmonics.
Did Dhâranâ on Anahata.
11.45-12.15 Suddhi. Â’sana very painful.
a.m. p.m.
12.15-1.0 Meditation on “Aum Mani Padme Hum,” and sleep.
p.m. p.m.
4.15-4.45 Dhâranâ on Anahata with “Aum Mani Padme Hum.” The latter sounds like
p.m. p.m. the flight of a great bird in windy weather.
5.50-6.20 Suddhi. When meditating on my bronze Buddha I obtained a great standing
p.m. p.m. self-luminous but rayless Buddha.
30th. 12.12-12.42 Suddhi.
 a.m. a.m. I passed a bad night, and in the morning my will and control of thought
seemed shortened.
8.45-9.15 Suddhi.
a.m. a.m. Thoughts hopelessly wandering
9.45-10.29 Dhâranâ on Buddha with “Aum Mani Padme Hum.” A much better medita-
a.m. a.m. tion. I felt a spiral force whirring around the top of my spine. This signifies an
induction current of Prâna.
11.30-12.0 Suddhi.
a.m. noon.
6.15-6.45 Suddhi.
p.m. p.m.
9.34-10.4 Suddhi.
p.m. p.m.
12.30-1.0 Suddhi.
a.m. a.m.
31st 6.10-6.40 Suddhi. “Sweet as a singing rain of silver dew” is the Voice of Nâda.
Â’sana is evidently a question of training. At one point there were two or
three distinct sharp throbs in the third eye. (Ajna.)
9.15-9.55 Dhâranâ on Ajna.256 Tendency to become strained and rigid, with internal
a.m. a.m. Kumbhaka, quite unconsciously. Exactly like a difficult stool, only the direction
of force is upwards—very fatiguing.
10.24-10.28 Suddhi. Ida stopped up.
a.m. a.m. Change of Nâda-note to a dull sound. Extreme excitement of Chitta, sleep
impossible. Concentrating on Anahata gives sleepiness at once. I felt the
pump action of the blood very plainly and also experienced Suksham-
Kumbhaka,257 the subtle involuntary Kumbhaka.
6.10-6.40 Suddhi. One minute thirty-five seconds for a cycle.
p.m. p.m. Repeated waking with nightmare.
Test Kumbhaka, 45 and 55 seconds.

September.
2nd. 12.5-12.35 Suddhi with Kumbhaka. Test Kumbhaka 85 seconds, 1 minute 25 seconds.
p.m. p.m. Pain (or concentration of Prâna) in the back of head, level with eyes.
3rd. Sunset. Suddhi in the jungle. Concentration on Anahata, but did not go to sleep.
Heard the following sounds:
(1) A noise as of blood filtering through.
(2) The tramp of armed men. This grew more distant on closing ears.
(3) The noise of a distant Siren. This grew stronger on closing ears.
(For a short time I distinctly saw the head of a nun in the centre of the
Chakkra.)
5th. 12.15-12.52 Fifty-two Suddi-Kumbhakas or Prânâyâmas. 5. 10. 20 for 30 minutes. 10. 15.
p.m. p.m. 30 for 6 minutes.
5.25-6.26 Prânâyâma. 5. 10. 20 for 31 minutes without any breaks.
p.m. p.m.
9.25-9.50 Dhâranâ on the Shiva Pantacle given me by Mâitrânanda Swami, mentally
a.m. a.m. muttering “Aum Shivaya Vashi.”258 Nothing particular occurred, though
(were I not fixed in the knowledge of the vanity of physiological tests ) I
should judge my weight had diminished.259 The Â’sana gave no pain till I
moved. I had my eyes turned up to the third eye.
Vivekânanda says: “vibration of body” is the second stage of Prânâyâma. I
get this, but put it down to weakness. Dhâranâ on tip of nose for five minutes.
Heard a voice saying: “And if you’re passing, won’t you?”
Concentration on any organ seems to make it very sensitive—a fleck of down
 lighting on my nose made me jump.
6th. 9.20-9.50 Prânâyâma. Three cycles of 7 minutes (i.e. Twelve cycles of 5. 10. 20 = one
a.m. a.m. cycle of 7 minutes) with intervals of 3 minutes after each cycle.
6.10-6.40 Prânâyâma. Two cycles of 5.10.20. The counting got mixed and things
a.m. a.m. seemed to tend to get buzzy and obscure. Found it difficult to follow clearly
the second-hand of a watch. One cycle of four minutes of 10. 20. 30.
7.0 p.m. Heard astral bell, not mine but Shri Mâitrânanda’s.260
10.45-10.55 Dhâranâ on tip of nose. I obtained a clear understanding of the unreality of
p.m. p.m. that nose. This persists. An hour later whilst breathing on my arm as I was
asleep I said to myself: “What is this hot breath from?” I was forced to think
before I could answer “my nose.” Then I pinched myself and remembered at
once; but again breathing the same thing happened again. Therefore the
“Dhâranâtion” of my nose dividualizes Me and My Nose, affects my nose, dis-
proves my nose, abolishes, annihilates and expunges my nose.
11.25-11.34 Dhâranâ on end of Verendum.261
p.m. p.m.
7th. 7.0-7.7 Prânâyâma. 5. 10. 20.
a.m. a.m.
7.15-7.37 Prânâyâma. 5. 10. 20, and five minutes of 10. 20. 30.
a.m. a.m. Tried external Kumbhaka with poorest of results.
8th. 11.0-11.5 Dhâranâ on nose.
a.m. a.m.
11.10-11.13 Dhâranâ, covering face with a sheet of thick white paper. Very complex phe-
a.m. a.m. nomena occur.
But this production of two noses seems to be the falling back of the eyes to
the parallel. Everything vanishes.
11.45-11.51 Dhâranâ. Ditto. There are two noses all the time. The delusion is that you
a.m. a.m. think your right eye is seeing your left nose!
6.10-6.50 Prânâyâma 7 minutes 5. 10. 20; 6 minutes 10. 20. 30. Dhâranâ on nose 9
p.m. p.m. minutes 50 seconds. I actually lost the nose on one occasion, and could not
think what I wished to find or where to find it; my mind having become a per-
fect blank. (Shri Mâitrânanda say this is very good, and means I approach
“neighbourhood-concentration”). Six minutes more at 10. 20. 30. Forty min-
utes in the Â’sana.
10.20-10.34 Mentally muttering “Namo Shivaya Namah Aum” I did Dhâranâ as before on
p.m. p.m. my nose. I understand one Buddhist constipation now; for: I was (a) con-
scious of external things seen behind, after my nose had vanished, i.e. altar,
etc.: and (b) conscious that I was not conscious of these things. These two
consciousnesses being simultaneous. This seems absurd and inexplicable, it is
noted in Buddhist Psychology, yet I know it.
9th. 9.50-10.20 Prânâyâma. Ten minutes 5. 10. 20; 4 minutes 10. 25. 30; 6 minutes 10. 25.
a.m. a.m. 30. Looking at the light at the top of my head. It was of a misty blue colour, its
shape was that of an ordinary cone of flame, long and homogeneous. At in-
tervals it dropped and opened out like a flower, its texture was that of fine
hair. Mâitrânanda told me that this result was very good, and that these petals
are of the Ajna Chakkra.262
2.10-2.45 Prânâyâma. Seven minutes 5. 10. 20.; Dhâranâ on nose thirteen minutes.
p.m. p.m. During this Prânâyâma I heard the Astral Bell twice or thrice. Prânâyâma 8 min-
utes. 10. 20. 30.
Perspiration which has been almost suppressed of late has reappeared to
excess.
6.12-6.38 Prânâyâma. Four minutes and 6 minutes 10. 20. 30.
p.m. p.m.
 Late Dhâranâ. Become quite unconscious. Recovered saying: “and not take the first
step on Virtue’s giddy road,” with the idea that this had some reference to the
instruction to begin Suddhi with Ida. Forgot that I had been doing Dhâranâ;
but I felt quite pleased and a conviction that my thoughts had been very im-
portant.
10th. 7.12-7.34 Prânâyâma. Seven minutes 5. 10. 20; and 10 minutes
a.m. a.m. 10. 20. 30. This was very good and regular.
11.50-12.5 Prânâyâma. Fourteen minutes 5. 10. 20. Ida stopped up.
a.m. p.m.
6.15-6.50 Dhâranâ on nose 22 minutes.
p.m. p.m. Prânâyâma. 10. 20. 30.
9.15-9.34 Dhâranâ on nose. During this I heard a Siren-cooing Nâda; it sounded very
p.m. p.m. audible and continuous; but loudest during Rechaka.
1.23 a.m. I awoke, lying on left side. This being unusual. . . . I did not know I had been
asleep, and the time much surprised me. The one dominant thought in my
brain was: “That is it,” i.e. Dhyâna. The characteristic perspiration which
marks the first stage of success in Prânâyâma possesses the odour, taste, col-
our, and almost the consistency of semen.
11th. 6.25-6.45 Prânâyâma. Fifteen minutes. 10. 20. 30. No perspiration.
a.m. a.m.
10.30-10.45 Prânâyâma. Twelve minutes: 10. 20. 30.
a.m. a.m. Prânâyâma. Eight minutes: 10. 20. 30.
6.0-6.30 With great effort.
p.m. p.m. Cannot do Prânâyâma 30. 60. 15 more than once through, I tried twice.
Dhâranâ on nose ten minutes.
11.15 p.m. Dhâranâ on nose.
12th. 7.35-7.55 Prânâyâma. Six minutes 10. 20. 30.
a.m. a.m. Dhâranâ. Six minutes.
(P. was called away for a few days on business (or in disgust?) to Colombo.)
On the 20th of September P. returned from Colombo and then he made the
following entry in his diary: “The Blessed Abhavânanda said: ‘Thus have I
heard. One day in Thy courts is better than a thousand’; let me recommence
Prânâyâma.” Thus he thought, and said. Further he said: “Let me abandon
these follies of poesy and Vamacharya (“debauchery,” i.e. normal life) and
health and vain things and let me put in some work.
22nd. Began Suddhi and “Namo Shivaya Namaha Aum.”
10.15-11.15 Â’sana. Prânâyâma. Nine minutes 10. 20. 30.
a.m. a.m. Dhârâna on nose ten minutes.
5.55-6.25 Prânâyâma. Four minutes: 10. 20. 30.
p.m. p.m. Prânâyâma. Ten minutes: 10. 20. 30.
Prânâyâma. One of 30. 15. 60. twice. Two such consecutively quite out of
the question.
9.12-9.45 Prânâyâma. Twelve minutes. 10. 20. 30.
a.m. a.m. Prânâyâma. Two consecutive cycles as above declared impossible!
23rd. 3.5-3.37 Prânâyâma. Sixteen minutes. 10. 20. 30.
a.m. a.m. Dhâranâ on nose. Seven minutes.
5.20-5.50 Dhâranâ on nose. Seventeen minutes.
a.m. a.m. Heard astral bell repeatedly, apparently from above my head, perhaps
slightly to the left of median.
Two practices of Prânâyâma: 30. 15. 60.
Concentration on Ajna Chakkra. The effect was as of light gradually glimmer-
ing forth and becoming very bright.
24th. Tried drinking through nose;263 but could not accomplish it properly.
 7.0-7.10 Tried Dhâranâ on Nose as Ida was stopped up. Eyes watered, and the
a.m. a.m. breathing was difficult, could not concentrate.
7.15-7.38 Prânâyâma. Twenty-two minutes 10. 20. 30. Could have gone on.
a.m. a.m.
5.35-6.5 Prânâyâma very difficult.
p.m. p.m. Dhâranâ on nose nine minutes. The nose is perhaps my least sensitive or-
gan. Would I do better to try my tongue?
Dhâranâ, four minutes on tip of tongue. Burning feeling as usual. Can feel
every tooth as if each had become a conscious being.
Prânâyâma. Broke down badly on second Rechaka of 30.
15. 60. I will do this, and often.
10.15-10.44 Prânâyâma. Ten minutes 10. 20. 30.
p.m. p.m. Dhâranâ on nose seven minutes.
One Grand Prânâyâma. 30. 15. 60.
[N.B. for Prânâyâma be fresh, cool, not excited, not sleepy, not full of food,
not ready to urinate or defæcate.]
25th. 6.0-6.42 Prânâyâma. Twenty-six minutes: 10. 20. 30.
a.m. a.m. Dhâranâ on nose. Five minutes.
Dhâranâ on nose. Six minutes.
8.30-9.0 Dhâranâ on nose. Twelve and a half minutes.
a.m. a.m. Grand Prânâyâma. 30. 15. 60. very difficult.
10.45-11.20 Dhâranâ on nose. Thirty-four minutes. Stopped by an alarum going off—
a.m. a.m. rather a shock—did not know where I was for a bit.
4.36-5.8 Prânâyâma. Eight minutes: 10. 20. 30.
p.m. p.m. Prânâyâma. Eleven minutes: 10. 20. 30.
7.45-8.5 Prânâyâma. Eleven minutes: 10. 20. 30.
a.m. a.m. Mental Muttering “Aum Shivayvashi.”
8.40-9.23 Thirty-seven minutes concentrated on Pentacle, right globe of ear throbs;
a.m. a.m. left ear cold current; left hand tingles. I do get a sort of Sukshma-Kumbhaka
which I cannot reproduce at will.
Rigidity of body and the fading of all vision are its stigmata. Curiously this
happened on coming out of Mental Muttering back to audible, or rather at one
loud slow Mantra, i.e. when no Kumbhaka was possible.
26th. 8.50-9.3 Mental Muttering for ten minutes “Aum Shivayavashi.” Results similar to last
a.m. a.m. night’s, somewhat more easily obtained.
5.25-5.57 Mental Muttering of “Aum Shivayavashi.” Results better than usual.
p.m. p.m. Prânâyâma. Seven minutes after 10 seconds of Kumbhaka. This seventh
time I forgot all about everything and breathed out of both nostrils. Quite qui-
etly—pure mental abstraction.
8.10-9.30 Mental Muttering of “Aum Shivayavashi,” for seventy-five minutes. Several
p.m. p.m. times lost concentration or consciousness or something, i.e. either vision or
voice or both were interrupted.
(N.B. at one particular rate the third eye throbs violently in time with the
mantra.)
27th. Constant dreams of Dhâranâ.
10.20-10.33 Prânâyâma . Seven minutes 10. 20. 30. Twice forgot myself in Kumbhaka by
a.m. a.m. exceeding the thirty seconds. I was trying to kill thoughts entering Ajna. On
the first occasion I was still saying “Shiva” for this purpose; on the second I
was meditating on Devi [a name of Bhâvani].
4.45-4.50 One Grand Prânâyâma. 30. 15. 60.
p.m. p.m. New Prânâyâma of 25. 15. 50; twice.
5.12-5.40 Prânâyâma. Seven minutes 10. 20. 30.
a.m. a.m. Mental Muttering. “Aum Shivayavashi” Fifteen minutes, at rate when Ajna
 throbs.
(N.B. of late my many years’ habit of sleeping only on the right side has van-
ished. I now sleep always on my left side.)
28th. 7 a.m. Prânâyâma. 10. 20. 30.
4.35-5.16 Prânâyâma. Four minutes: 10. 20. 30.
p.m. p.m. Mantra: “Aum Shivayavashi.” Twenty minutes. I feel on the brink of some-
thing every time—Aid me, Lord Self!
His Holiness the Guru Swami says: “It is not well, O child, that thou contem-
platest the external objects about thee. Let rather thy Chakkras be on-
meditated. Aum!”
10.50 p.m. Dhâranâ on Ajna eighteen minutes muttering “Aum Tat Sat Aum!”
29th. 12.0 m.n. Dhâranâ on Ajna and “Aum Tat Sat Aum” thirty-one minutes. At one time
Ajna seemed enormously, perhaps infinitely, elongated.
11.15-11.41 Mantra “Aum Tat Sat Aum” with usual throbbing.
a.m. a.m. Took 210 drops of Laudanum as an experiment under Mâitrânanda’s guid-
ance. (Absolutely no mental result, and hardly any physical result. I must be
most resistant to this drug, which I had never previously taken).
30th. Recovering from the Laudanum.
10.5 a.m. Prânâyâma and Dhâranâ hopeless.264
October. Another month of this great work commences, and though the toil has not
been wasted the reward indeed seems still far off.

On the first of the month P. writes:—

“Blessed be thou, O Bhâvâni, O Isis my Sister, my Bride, my Mother! Blessed be Thou, O Shiva, O
Amoun, Concealed of the Concealed. By Thy most secret and Holy Name of Apophis be Thou blessed,
Lucifer, Star of the Dawn, Satan-Jeheshua, Light of the World! Blessed be Thou, Buddha, Osiris, by
whatever Name I call Thee Thou art nameless to Eternity.
“Blessed by Thou, O Day, that Thou hast risen in the Night of Time; First Dawn in the Chaos of poor
P.’s poor mind! Accursed be Thou, Jehovah, Brahma, unto the Æons of Æons: thou who didst create
Darkness and not Light! Mâra, vile Mask of Matter!
“Arise, O Shiva, and destroy! That in destruction these at last be blest.”

1st. 5.30 p.m. Prânâyâma.

Mantra seventeen minutes. Noise of glass being rubbed persistent.
9.30 p.m. From now I decide to work more seriously, and follow out the following pro-
gramme:
Mantra “Aum Tat Sat Aum.”
Dhâranâ on Ajna Chakkra.
Read Bhagavad-Gita.
Vegetarian diet.
Normal amount of sleep.
Speech only when necessary.
Prânâyâma.
Â’sana with eyes turned up.
Walking as exercise.
2nd. 8.30 a.m. Mantra “Aum Tat Sat Aum.”
9.10-10.50 Â’sana with Mantra and eyes turned to Ajna Chakkra. Chittam distinctly slow-
a.m. a.m. ing towards end.
10.50-12.5 Continued lying down. [Did I sleep?]
a.m. p.m.
12.35-1.45 For a walk muttering Mantra.
a.m. a.m.
2.20-2.45 Â’sana. Always forgetting to repeat the Mantra, Mâitrânandra Swami says
 p.m. p.m. this is right. Ajna is now more steely in appearance and is open at a constant
angle of about 30° to 40°.
3.10-3.45 Prânâyâma. Thirty minutes 10. 20. 30.
p.m. p.m.
4.10 p.m. Resumed Â’sana. The “invading” thoughts are more and more fragmentary
and ridiculous. I cannot mentally pronounce the Mantra with correctness, e.g.
“Op tap sapa” or “shastra” for “sat,” etc. Now arose, with Music of the Vînâ
the Golden Dawn.265 At 5.15 I arose.
5.42 p.m. Resumed my Â’sana and did three Prânâyâmas of 25. 15. 50. Also of 20. 10.
40.
Mâitrânanda Swami explained above as follows: Unto the sunset, moonrise,
Agni;266 then Vishvarupa Darshana,267 and one’s own personal God;268 then
Âtma-Darshana269 and Shiva-Darshana.270
3rd. 12.20 a.m. Prânâyâma. Eighteen minutes. 10. 20. 30.
10-11.30 Walk with Mantra.
a.m. a.m.
11.30-12.41 Â’sana. Always with Mantra and Ajna.
a.m. p.m. Prânâyâma. Eighteen minutes. 10. 20. 30.
1.50-2.30 Dhâranâ. Got very tired and lay down till 3.35 (not sleeping) then resumed
p.m. p.m. Â’sana till 5.5 p.m. Now again at last the Golden Dawn. This, as my intuition
had already taught me, had the effect of slowing the Dhyâna and also keeping
me fixed therein. Yet, I fear, of partially destroying its perfection—He knows!
Thus the disk came clear: but I began to be worried by body and clouded by
doubt, and an effort to return only brought up a memory-picture.
The flaming clouds are “thought”; the shadowy or hinted Form is Adonai!
5.35 p.m. Three Prânâyâmas of 50. 25. 15.
5.40 p.m. Prânâyâma. Twenty minutes 10. 20. 30.
9.30 p.m. Holiday; which was fatal folly!

The full account of this wonderful realization of Dhyâna is set forth by P. in this note book entitled
“The Writings of Truth,” in which we find the following:
“After some eight hours’ discipline by Prânâyâma arose ‘The Golden Dawn.’
“While meditating, suddenly I became conscious of a shoreless space of darkness and a glow of crim-
son athwart it. Deepening and brightening, scarred by dull bars of slate-blue cloud arose the Dawn of
Dawns. In splendour not of earth and its mean sun, blood-red, rayless, adamant, it rose, it rose! Carried
out of myself, I asked not ‘Who is the Witness?’ absorbed utterly in contemplation of so stupendous and
marvellous a fact. For here was no doubt, no change, no wavering; infinitely more real than aught ‘physi-
cal’ is the Golden Dawn of this Eternal Sun! But ere the Orb of Glory rose clear of its banks of black-
ness—alas my soul!—that Light Ineffable was withdrawn beneath the falling veil of darkness, and in pur-
ples and greys glorious beyond imagining, sad beyond conceiving, faded the superb Herald of the Day.
But mine eyes have seen it! And this, then, is Dhyána! Walk with it, yet all but unremarked, came a mel-
ody as of the sweet-souled Vinâ.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Again, by the Grace ineffable of Bhâvani to the meanest of Her devotees, arose the Splendour of the
Inner Sun. As bidden by my Guru, I saluted the
Dawn with Pranava. This, as I foresaw, retained the Dhyânic Consciousness. The Disk grew golden:
rose clear of all its clouds, flinging great fleecy cumuli of rose and gold, fiery with light, into the aethyr of
space. Hollow it seemed and rayless as the Sun in Sagittarius, yet incomparably brighter: but rising clear
of cloud, it began to revolve, to coruscate, to throw of streamers of jetted fire! [This from a hill-top I be-
held, dark as of a dying world. Covered with black decayed wet peaty wood, a few pines stood stricken,
unutterably alone.271] But behind the glory of its coruscations seemed to shape, an idea less solid than a
shadow! an Idea of some Human-seeming Form! Now grew doubt and thought in P.’s miserable mind;
and the One Wave grew many waves and all was lost! Alas! Alas! for P.! And Glory Eternal unto Her, She
the twin-Breasted that hath encroached even upon the other half of the Destroyer! “OM Namo Bhâvaniya
OM.”

Filled with the glory of the great light that had arisen in him, for many days P. communed in silence
with the Vision that days upon days of labour had revealed to him, and then leaving his place of retire-
ment near Kandy he journeyed to Anhuradhapura, and thence to many sacred shrines and temples
throughout the island of Ceylon, gathering as he travelled spiritual knowledge, and learning the ancient
customs of the people and the manner of their lives.
Towards the end of November his work in Ceylon being accomplished he arrived at Madura, and from
there he journeyed to Calcutta. At this city he remained for about a month, during almost the whole of
which time he suffered from sickness and fever. He however records on interesting incident, which took
place during an early morning walk whilst he was in deep meditation.
“Whilst in this meditation, a kind of inverted Manichæism
seemed to develop and take possession of it, Nature appearing
as a great evil and fatal force, unwittingly developing within it-
self a suicidal Will called Buddha or Christ.” This perhaps is most
easily explained by imagining “Mâyâ” to be a circle of particles
moving from right to left which after a time through its own in-
trinsic motion sets up within itself a counter motion, a kind of
back-water current which moves in the opposite direction, from
left to right, and little by little destroys the Mâyâ circle, marked
“B”; and then becoming its Mâyâ, in its turn sets up a counter
circle which in time will likewise be destroyed. The outer circle
“B” is the world Mâyâ or the Samasâra Chakkra, the inner “A”
the Bodhi Satva, the Buddha, the Christ.
Thus is fulfilled again and again the great prophecy: When-
ever the dhamma decays, and a-dhamma prevails, then I mani-
fest myself. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the evil, for the firm establishment of
the National Righteousness I am born again and again!272
“It is a fallacy,” wrote P., “that the Absolute must be the All-Good. There is not an Intelligence direct-
ing law; but only a line of least resistance along which all things move. Its own selfishness has not even
the wit to prevent Buddha, and so its own selfishness proves its destruction.
“We cannot call Nature evil: Fatal is the exact word, for Necessity implies stupidity, and this stupidity
is the chief attribute of Nature.”

So P. argued, for the little Bodhi Satva has started whirling within him, hungry and thirsty, slowly de-
vouring its Mother Mâyâ.
On the 21st of January, 1902, P. left Calcutta for Burma, where for a short time he again joined
Mâitrânanda. During the month of February he journeyed through the districts about Rangoon visiting
many sacred cities and holy men, practising Dhâranâ on Maitri Bhâvana (Compassion) and taking his ref-
uge in Triratna. (The triple jewel of Buddhism—Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.) On the 14th of February
he visited Lamma Sayadaw Kyoung and Bhikku Ânanda Metteyya, and on the 23rd shipped by S.S. Ka-
purthala from Rangoon to Calcutta, arriving there on the 26th.
For the first three months of 1902 no record was kept by P. of his meditations and mystical exercises,
except one which is as curious as it is interesting, and which consists of a minutely detailed table showing
the Classification of the Dreams he dreamt from the 8th of February to the 19th of March.
P., it may be mentioned, was much subject to dreaming, but perhaps rarely were they so persistent
and vivid as he now experienced. For he found that by trying to remember dreams he could remember
more. Probably most men dream subconsciously; just as they breathe without knowing it unless the at-
tention be directed to the act.
We append the following table. As it will be seen P. divides his dream-states into seven main divi-
sions, each being again split up into further subdivisions to enable the various correspondences to be
seen at a glance.

CLASSIFICATION OF DREAMS

A. Depth of impression.
1. Vivid. 2. Ordinary. 3. Slight. 4. Doubtful.
B. Degree of Memory.
1. Detailed. 2. Outlined. 3. Partially outlined. 4. Central idea only. 5. Incident
only. 6. Nothing save fact of dream.
C. Cause.
1. Traceable to thoughts of previous day. 2. Traceable to local circumstances (e.g.
Dream of river from rain falling on face). 3. Not so traceable.
D. Character.
1. Surprising. 2. Ordinary.
E. Character.
1. Rational. 2. Irrational.
F. Character General.
1. Lascivious, (a) Finished, (b) Baffled. 2. Of travel. 3. Of literature. 4. Of art.
5. Of magic. 6. Of beauty. 7. Of religion. 8. Of social affairs. 9. Of disgust. 10. Of
old friends (or foes). 11. Various. 12. Humorous. 13. Of very definite men not
known to P. 14. Of combat. 15. Of money.
G. Character Special.
1. Of losing a tooth. 2. Of beard being shaved off. 3. Of climbing a mountain.
4. Of being taken in adultery. 5. Of Poem or Magical book I have written (in dream).
6. Of being embarrassed. 7. Of flying, especially of escaping.

A B C D E F G
February 8th 1 2 — 1 — — —
,, 9th 1 1 Probably 2 — — — 1
,, 12th 1 1 1 — — 1 (b) —
,, 13th 1 1 1 1 — 6.12 —
,, 14th
,, 15th 1 2 1 2 1 1 1
,, ,, 1 2 1 2 1 1 1
,, 16th 1 1 1 2 1 4.2.8 —
,, 17th 3 6 — — — — —
,, 18th 2 2 Probably 1 2 1 11 —
,, 20th 1 ? ? 1 ? ? —
,, 21st 4 — — — — — —
,, 22nd 4 — — — — — —
,, 23rd 1 1 2 1 2 1 (a).2.10.9.11 —
,, 24th 1 4 1 2 — 1? —
,, 25th 2 (? 1) 3 1 2 1 2 —
,, 28th 1 1 1 2 3 1.10.11 4 (?)
,, ,, 2 2 1 2 1 3.7 —
March 1st 3 6 — — — — —
,, 2nd 1 1 1 (?) 2 1 8 6
,, 1 1 1 (?) 1 1 5 —
3rd 2 1 1 2 1 2.8 —
4th 1 4.5 1 1 — 8.10.13 —
5th (?) all
,, 2 2 1 2 1 2 —
 7th 1 1 1.2 2 2 1 (b).2.9. 6
8th 1 6 — — — — —
9th 1 1 1 1 1 1 (b).2.5.8.10.13 4.6
10th 1 1 3 2 1 8.10.13.14.15 —
11th 1 1 1 1 2 3.5.7.12 5.7
,, 1 1 1 1 2 1 (b) 4
12th 1 2 1 2 1 2 6
13th 1 2 3 1 2 1 (b) —
14th 4 — — — — — —
15th 1 1 3 2 1 1.2.8.10.13 —
,, 1 1 2 2 2 2 —
16th 1 2 1 1 2 3.10 —
17th 2 2 3 2 1 7.8 —
18th 1 5 1 1 1 5.6.11 —
19th 2 5 — — 1 11 —

On the 7th of March P. left Calcutta for Benares, arriving there on the following day, and lodging at
the Hôtel de Paris he continued his concentration practices. In his diary on this date he writes: “The fear
of the future seems practically destroyed, and during the last six months I have worked well. This re-
moves all possible selfishness of incentive (after 4¾ years) Maitri Bhâvana is left, and that alone. Aum!
At Benares he visited the temples, and had a long conversation with Sri Swami Swayam Praka-
shânanda Maithila; and then after three days’ sojourn there journeyed to Agra.

“I saw the Taj. A dream of beauty,” he writes, “with appallingly evil things dwelling therein. I actually
had to use H.P.K. formula! The building soon palls; the aura is apparent, and disgust succeeds. But the
central hall is of strained aura, like a magic circle after the banishing.”

At Agra P. met Astrologer and Geomancer Munshi Elihu Bux; who told him that by looking hard at a
point on the wall constantly and without winking for many days he would be able to obtain an hypnotic
power even to Deadly and Hostile Current of Will.
On the 16th P. left Agra and went to Delhi, and there on the 23rd he was joined by D.A., and these
two with their companions on the following day journeyed to Rawal Pindi and from this city they set out
together to travel for five months in the northern and little frequented districts of Baltistan, and to seek
that great solemnity and solitude which is only to be found amongst the greatest mountains of earth.
With the Dhyâna Visions and Trance we arrive at another turning point in Frater P.’s magical ascent.
For several years he had worked by the aid of Western methods, and with them he had laid a mighty and
unshakable foundation upon which he had now succeeded in building the great temple of Self-Control.
Working upon an Eastern line he had laid stone upon stone, and yet when the work was completed,
magnificent though it was, there was no God yet found to indwell it. It was indeed but an empty house.
Though we have now arrived at this turning point, it will be necessary before we review the contents
of this chapter to narrate the events from the present date—March 1902, down to the 11th of August
1903; when, by the chance (destined) meeting with Ourada the Seer, he was eventually enabled to set in
motion the great power he had gained, and by wrestling with the deity, as Jacob wrestled with the Angel
by the ford of Jabbok, see God face to face and LIVE.
For a space of nearly six months P. and D.A. journeyed amongst the vast mountains beyond Cashmir,
and though during this period no record of his meditations has been preserved, time was not idled away
and exercises in meditation of a more exalted kind, on the vastness of Nature and the ungraspable might
of God, were his daily joy and consolation.
In September he returned to Srinnagar, and thence journeyed to Bombay where he remained for but
a few days before his return journey to Europe.
Arriving in Egypt he remained in that ancient land for some three weeks, somehow feeling that it was
here that he should find what he had so long now been seeking for in vain. But realizing the hopeless-
ness of waiting in any definite country or city, without some clue to guide him to his goal, he left Egypt at
the beginning of November and continued his journey back to England only to break it again at Paris.
In this city he remained until April the following year (1903). In the month of January he met his old
College friend H. L.
From the very first moment of this meeting H. L. showed considerable perturbation of mind, and on
being asked by Frater P. what was exercising him, H. L. replied “Come and free Miss Q. from the wiles of
Mrs. M.” Being asked who Mrs. M. was, H. L. answered that she was a vampire and a sorceress who was
modelling a sphinx with the intention of one day endowing it with life so that it might carry out her evil
wishes; and that her victim was Miss Q. P. wishing to ease his friend’s mind asked H. L. to take him to
Miss Q.’s address at which Mrs. M. was then living. This H. L. did.
The following story is certainly one of the least remarkable of the many strange events which hap-
pened to Frater P. during his five month’s residence in Paris, but we give it in place of others because it
re-introduces several characters who have already figured in this history.
Miss Q. after an interview asked P. to tea to meet Mrs. M. After introductions she left the room to
make tea—the White Magic and the Black were left face to face.
On the mantelpiece stood a bronze of the head of Balzac, and P., taking it down, seated himself in a
chair by the fire and looked at it.
Presently a strange dreamy feeling seemed to come over him, and something velvet soft and sooth-
ing and withal lecherous moved across his hand. Suddenly looking up he saw that Mrs. M. had noiselessly
quitted her seat and was bending over him; her hair was scattered in a mass of curls over her shoulders,
and the tips of her fingers were touching the back of his hand.
No longer was she the middle aged woman, worn with strange lusts; but a young woman of bewitch-
ing beauty.
At once recognizing the power of her sorcery, and knowing that if he even so much as contemplated
her Gorgon head all the power of his magic would be petrified, and that he would become but a puppet
in her hands, but a toy to be played with and when broken cast aside, he quietly rose as if nothing un-
usual had occurred; and replacing the bust on the mantelpiece turned towards her and commenced with
her a magical conversation; that is to say a conversation which outwardly had but the appearance of the
politest small talk but which inwardly lacerated her evil heart, and burnt into her black bowels as if each
word had been a drop of some corrosive acid.
She writhed back from him; and then again approached him even more beautiful than she had been
before. She was battling for her life now, and no longer for the blood of another victim. If she lost, hell
yawned before her, the hell that every once beautiful woman who is approaching middle age, sees before
her the hell of lost beauty, of decrepitude, of wrinkles and fat. The odour of man seemed to fill her whole
subtle form with a feline agility, with a beauty irresistible. One step nearer and then she sprang at Frater
P. and with an obscene word sought to press her scarlet lips to his.
As she did so Frater P. caught her and holding her at arm’s length smote the sorceress with her own
current of evil, just as a would-be murderer is sometimes killed with the very weapon with which he has
attacked his victim.
A blue-greenish light seemed to play round the head of the vampire, and then the flaxen hair turned
the colour of muddy snow, and the fair skin wrinkled, and those eyes, that had turned so many happy
lives to stone, dulled, and became as pewter dappled with the dregs of wine. The girl of twenty had
gone, before him stood a hag of sixty, bent, decript, debauched. With dribbling curses she hobbled from
the room.
As Frater P. left the house, for some time he turned over in his mind these strange happenings, and
was not long in coming to the opinion that Mrs. M. was not working alone, and that behind her probably
were forces far greater than she. She was but the puppet of others, the salve that would catch the kids
and the lambs that were to be served upon her master’s table. Could P. prove this? could he discover
who the masters were? The task was a difficult one; it either meant months of work, which P. could not
afford to give, or the mere chance of a lucky stroke, which P. set aside as unworthy of the attempt.
That evening whilst relating the story to his friend H. L. he asked him if he knew of any reliable clair-
voyant. H. L. replied that he did, and that there was such a person at that very time in Paris known as
The Sibyl, his own “belle amie.” That night they called on her; and from her P. discovered, for he led her
in the spirit, the following remarkable facts.
 The vision at first was of little importance, then by degrees the seer was led to a house which P. at
once recognised as that in which D.D.C.F. lived. He entered one of the rooms, which he also at once rec-
ognised but curious to say, instead of finding D.D.C.F. and V.N.R. there he found Theo and Mrs. Horos.
Mr. Horos (M.S.R.) incarnated in the body of V.N.R. and Mrs. Horos (S.V.A.) in that of D.D.C.F. Their bod-
ies were in prison; but their spirits were in the house of the fallen chief of the Golden Dawn.
At first Frater P. was seized with horror at the sight, he knew not whether to direct a hostile current
of will against D.D.C.F. and V.N.R., supposing them to be guilty of cherishing within their bodies the spir-
its of two disincarnated vampires, or perhaps Abramelin demons under the assumed forms of S.V.A. and
M.S.R., or to warn D.D.C.F.; supposing him to be innocent, as he perhaps was, of so black and evil an
offence. But as he hesitated a voice entered the body of the Sibyl and bade him leave matters alone,
which he did. Not yet was the cup full.
In April he journeyed to London, and the month of May 1903 once again found him amongst the
fastness of the north in the house he had bought in which to carry out the Sacred Operation of Abra-
melin.
At this point of our history, in a prefatory note to one of Frater P.’s note-books, we find him recapitu-
lating, in the following words, the events of the last four years:

In the year 1899 I came to C . . . House, and put everything in order with the object of carrying out
the Operation of Abramelin the Mage.
I had studied Ceremonial Magic, and had obtained every remarkable success.
My Gods were those of Egypt, interpreted on lines closely akin to those of Greece.
In Philosophy I was a Realist of the Qabalistic School.
In 1900 I left England for Mexico, and later the Far East, Ceylon, India, Burma, Baltistan, Egypt and
France. It is idle here to detail the corresponding progress of my thought; and passing through a stage of
Hinduism, I had discarded all Deities as unimportant, and in Philosophy was an uncompromising Nominal-
ist, arrived at what I may describe as an orthodox Buddhist; but however with the following reservations:
(1) I cannot deny that certain phenomena do accompany the use of certain rituals; I only deny the
usefulness of such methods to the White Adept.
(2) That I consider Hindu methods of meditation as possibly useful to the beginner, and should not
therefore recommend them to be discarded at once.
With regard to my advancement, the redemption of the Cosmos, etc., etc., I leave for ever the “Blos-
som and Fruit” Theory and appear in the character of an Inquirer on strictly scientific lines.273
This is unhappily calculated to damp enthusiasm; but as I so carefully of old, for the magical path,
excluded from my life all other interests, that life has now no particular meaning, and the Path of Re-
search, on the only lines I can now approve of, remains the one Path possible for me to tread.
On the 11th of June P. records that he moved his bed into the temple that he had constructed at C . . .
House, for convenience of more absolute retirement. In this temple he was afflicted by dreams and visions
of the most appalling Abramelin devils, which had evidently clung to the spot ever since the operations of
February 1900.
On the night of the 16th of June he began to practise Mahasatipatthana274 and found it easy to get
into the way of it as a mantra which does not interfere much with sense-impressions, but remains
as an undercurrent. After several days of this desultory Mahasatipatthana, he turned his mind once again
to the Great Work and decided upon a fortnight’s strict magical retirement. Though his retirement culmi-
nated in no definite state of illumination, it is most interesting from a scientific point of view, as it has
been very carefully kept and the “breaks” that occurred in the meditations have been most minutely clas-
sified.

June
22nd. 10.20 p.m. Mahasatipatthana for half an hour.
(1) Breathing gets deeper, rather sleepier. (I am tired.)
(2) Notable throbbing in Ajna and front of brain generally, especially with in-
spiring.
(3) Tendency to forget what I am doing. (I am tired.)
 (4) Very bad concentration, but better than expected.
23rd. 10.11 a.m. Walk with Mahasatipatthana. I obtained a very clear intuition that “I breathe”
was a lie. With effort regained delusion.
11.30 a.m. Entered Temple.
11.33 a.m. Prânâyâma. 10. 20. 30. Resulting in a good deal of pain.
11.40 a.m. Mahasatipatthana.
11.57 a.m. Prânâyâma. 10. 20. 30. I do seem bad! My left nostril is not all it should be.
11.57 a.m. Left Temple.
12.30 p.m. Began Mahasatipatthana desultorily.
1.15 p.m. In Mahasatipatthana. Doing it very badly. Seem sleepy.
Went out for a walk feeling ill. Ill all the week.
28th. During the night began again meditation upon Ajna and Mantra “Aum Tat
Sat Aum.”
29th. Decide to do tests on old principle to see how I really stand.

BEGIN. END. OBJECT. TIME. NO. OF BREAKS.

10.21 a.m. 10.23 a.m. Red Cross 2 m. 10. s. Several breaks of the kind, “Oh,
how well I’m doing it.”
Seem to have forgotten what very long times I used to do.
White triangle 10 m. 20 breaks.
[This about harmonic of good; 20 m. 10 breaks is a good performance.]
Apas-Âkâsa.
[Very difficult: slightest noise is utterly disturbing.]
10.55 a.m. 11.1 a.m. Red Cross 6 m. 7 breaks.
[But it is to be observed that a break may be of varying length. doubt if this was as good as
White Triangle supra.]
11.44 a.m. 11.56 a.m. White triangle 12 m. 10 breaks.
[Above observation perhaps unimportant, as limit of variability is more or less constant (pre-
sumably) between 1901 and now.
It will be useless to attempt to devise any means of measuring the length of a break. The only
possible suggestion is to count the links in thought back to the object. But I do not think it is
worth the trouble.]
Note in White Triangle above:
I get considerably toward identification of self and object. This is probably a good result of my
philosophy-work.
It will perhaps be more scientific in these tests (and perhaps even in work) to stick to one or
two objects and always go on to a special number of breaks—say 10. Then success will vary as
time.275
July 3.14 p.m. 3.20 p.m. White triangle 6 m. 30 s. 6 breaks. Disturbed by carpen-
2nd. ter.
10.40 p.m. 11.9 p.m. White triangle 29 m. 23 breaks.
[A “break” shall be defined as: “A consciousness of the cessation of the object consciousness.”
A simple outside thought arising shall not constitute a “break,” since it may exist simultane-
ously with the object-consciousness.
It shall be meritorious to perform a rosary upon the Rudraksha-beads at least once (at one
time) daily; for why? Because 108 is a convenient number of breaks, and the large number will
aid determinations of rate of progress.
If it be true, as I suppose, that fatigue to a great extent determines frequency, it will then be
perhaps possible to predict a Geometrical Progression (or Mixed Progression).]
3rd. 10.58 a.m. 11.1 a.m. White triangle. 3 m. 5 breaks.
[I am in very bad state—nearly all breaks!—do a little Prânâyâma to steady me.]
11.10 a.m. 11.15½ a.m. White triangle. 5 m. 30 s. 4 breaks.
[Sneezed: totally forgot what I was doing. When I reflected, time as above.]
4th. 9.45 a.m. 9.58½ a.m. White triangle 13 m. 30 s. 20 breaks.
10.25 a.m. 10.57½ a.m. Ajna 32 m. 30 s. 20 breaks.
[With Mantra. Throbbing at once. “Invaders” nearly all irrational. Strong sub-current of swift
thought noted. Quite the old times! Excellent: I require less food and less literary work. I won-
der if it would be worth while to try irritation of skin over Ajna with tincture of Iodine.]
6th.
8th. } Ill.276
9th. 10.57 a.m. 11.4 a.m. Prânâyâma 7 m. Nose not clear.
11.15½ a.m. 11.18 a.m. Ajna 2 m. 6 breaks.
[Hyperæthesia of senses. Various sounds disturbed me much.]
10th. Again ill.
11th. 3.38 p.m. 3.46 p.m. Prânâyâma 8 m. Going easier.
3.48 p.m. 3.51 p.m. White triangle 3 m. 5 breaks.
5.51 p.m. 6.10½ p.m. Ajna 19 m. 30 s. 20 breaks.
[Difficult to set the sound Hyperæsthesia. Began to forget Mantra.]277
10.12½ a.m. 10.19 a.m. Prânâyâma 6 m. 30 s. Very hard.
[The smallest quantity of food injures one’s power immensely.]
10.21 a.m. 10.44 a.m. Ajna. 23 m. 20 breaks.
[Used cotton wool in ears.]
Thoughts of Ajna go obliquely up (from opening of pharynx about) and direct horizontally for-
ward. This gives an idea to chase consciousness, i.e., find by the obvious series of experiments
the stop in which the thoughts dwell. Probably however this moves about. If so, it is a clear
piece of evidence for the idealistic position. If not, “thinking of it” equals “it thinking of itself,”
and its falsity will become rapidly evident.
12th. 12.8 p.m. 12.19 p.m. Prânâyâma 11 m.
[The best so far: the incense troubled me somewhat.]
12.26 p.m. 12.57 a.m. 31 m. 30 breaks.
[Mantra evolved into “tartsano.”278 I was not in good form and suspect many breaks of long
duration.]
I keep Mantra going all day.
4.58 p.m. 5.9 p.m. Prânâyâma 16 m. Perspiration.
5.14 p.m. 5.25 p.m. Prânâyâma 32 m. Wound up with a Grand Prânâ
yâma.279
5.28 p.m. 6.6 p.m. 38 m. 30 breaks.
[Very tired towards end and difficult to get settled. To me it seems evident that the first ten
breaks or so are rapid.]
6.10 p.m. 6.26 p.m. Prânâyâma 16 m.
8.15 p.m. 8.47 p.m. Ajna with Mantra 32 m. 22 breaks.
[Light coming a little, one very long break, and some sound.]
10.5 p.m. 10.17½ p.m. Ajna 12 m. 30 s. 11 breaks.
13th. Casual Mutterings of Mantra.
10.44 a.m. Prânâyâma Quite hopeless.
10.48 a.m. 11.20 a.m. 32 m. 30 breaks.
[Went to Edinburgh to meet H.L.]280

The following analysis of breaks which Frater P. deduced from his practices during this retirement is
both of great interest and importance. It is the only analytical table of this character we know of, and
must prove of very great use to investigator and aspirant alike.
 THE CHARACTER OF BREAKS

1. Primary centres
The senses.
2. Secondary.
These seem to assume a morbid activity as soon as the primaries are stilled. Their character is that of
the shorter kind of memory. Events of the day, etc.
3. Tertiary.
Partake of the character of “reverie.” Very tempting and insidious.
4. Quaternary.
Are closely connected with the control centre itself. Their nature is “How well I’m doing it,” or
“Wouldn’t it be a good idea to . . .?” These are probably emanations from the control, not messages to it.
We might call them: “Aberrations of control.”
Of a similar depth are the reflections which discover a break, but these are healthy warnings and as-
sist.
5. Quinary.
Never rise into consciousness at all, being held down by most perfect control. Hence the blank of
thought, the forgetfulness of all things, including the object.
Not partaking of any character at all, are the “meteor” thoughts which seem to be quite independent
of anything the brain could think, or had ever thought. Probably this kind of thought is the root of irra-
tional hallucinations, e.g., “And if you’re passing, won’t you?”281
6.
Perhaps as a result of the intense control, a nervous storm breaks. This we call Dhyâna. Its character
is probably not determined by the antecedents in consciousness. Its essential characteristic being the
unity of Subject and Object, a new world is revealed. Samâdhi is but an expansion of this, so far as I can
see.
The slaying of any of these thoughts often leaves their echoes gradually dying away.

Now that we have come to the end of this long chapter, let us turn our back on the upward slope
and survey the road which winds beneath us, and lose not heart when but little of it can be seen, for the
mountain’s side is steep, and the distance from our last halting-place seems so short, not on account of
our idleness, but because of the many twists and turnings that the road has taken since we left our last
camp below, when the sun was rising and all was golden with the joy of great expectations. For, in truth,
we have progressed many a weary league, and from this high spot are apt to misjudge our journey, and
belittle our labours, as we gaze down the precipitous slope which sweeps away at our feet.
In the last two years and a half P. had journeyed far, further than he at this time was aware of; and
yet the goal of his journey seemed still so distance that only with difficulty could he bring himself to be-
lieve that he had progressed at all. Indeed, it must have been discouraging to him to think that on the
6th of May 1901 he, in a meditation of thirty-two minutes had only experienced ten breaks, whilst during
a meditation of similar length, on the 13th of July 1903, the number of breaks had been three times as
many. But like most statistics, such a comparison is misleading: for the beginner, almost invariably, so
clumsy in his will, catches quickly enough the gross breaks, but lets the minor ones dart away from his
grasp, like the small fry which with ease swim in and out of the fisherman’s net. Further, though in
twelve meditations the number of breaks may be identical, yet the class of the breaks, much more so
than the actual number, will tell the meditator, more certainly than anything else, whether he has pro-
gressed or has retrograded.
Thus at first, should the meditator practise with his eyes open, the number of breaks will in their
swift succession form almost one unbroken interruption. Again, should the eyes be closed, then the ears
detecting the slightest sound, the flow of the will will be broken, just as the faintest zephyr, on a still
evening, will throw out of the perpendicular an ascending column of smoke. But presently, as the will
gains power, the sense of hearing, little by little, as it comes under control, is held back from hearing the
lesser sounds, then the greater, then at length all sounds. The vibrations of the will having repelled the
sound vibrations of the air, and brought the sense of hearing into Equilibrium. Now the upward mountain
filament of smoke has become the ascending columns of a great volcano, there is a titanic blast behind
it,—a will to ascend. And as the smoke and flame is belched forth, so terrific is its strength, that even a
hurricane cannot shake it or drive it from its course.
As the five senses become subdued, fresh hosts of difficulties spring up irrationally from the brain it-
self. And, whichever way we turn, a mob of subconscious thoughts pull us this way and that, and our
plight in this truculent multitude is a hundred times worse than when we commenced to wrestle with the
five senses. Like wandering comets and meteorites they seemingly come from nowhere, splash like falling
stars through the firmament of our meditation, sparkle and are gone; but ever coming as a distraction to
hamper and harass our onward march.
Once the mind has conquered these, a fresh difficulty arises, the danger of not being strong enough
to overcome the occult powers which, though the reward of our toils, and liable, like the Queen in her
bedchamber, to seduce the Conqueror in spite of his having conquered the King her husband, and se-
cretly slay him as he sleeps in her arms. These are the powers known in the West as Miraculous Powers,
in the East as Siddhis.
The mind is now a blank, the senses have been subdued, the subconscious thoughts slain; it
stretches before us like some unspotted canvas upon which we may write or paint whatever we will. We
can produce entrancing sounds at will, beautiful sights at will, subtle tastes and delicious perfumes; and
after a time actual forms, living creatures, men and women and elementals. We smite the rock, and the
waters flow at our blow; we cry unto the heavens, and fire rushes down and consumes our sacrifice; we
become Magicians, begetters of illusion, and then, if we allow ourselves to become obsessed by them, a
time comes when these illusions will master us, when the children we have begotten will rise up and de-
throne us, and we shall be drowned in the waters that now we can no longer control and be burnt up by
the flames that mock obedience, and scorn our word.
Directly we perform a miracle we produce a change: a change is Mara the Devil, and not God the
Changeless One. And though we may have scraped clean the palimpset of our mind, our labours are in
vain, if, when once it is stretched out spotless before us, we start scribbling over it our silly riddles, our
little thoughts, our foolish “yeas” and “nays.” The finger of God alone may write upon it, cleanly and
beautifully, and the words that are written cannot be read by the eye or in the heart of man, for alone
can they be understood by him who is worthy to understand them.
Now, although Frater P. had not as yet proved this, had not as yet accomplished the cleansing of the
book of his mind, he had, however, built up on his own empirical observation so invulnerable a theory,
that it now only remained for him to obtain that fine proportion, that perfect adjustment, that balancing
of the Forces of the Will, which now lay before him like the chemicals in the crucible of a Chemist, before
applying that certain heat which would dissolve all into one. He did not wish to rule by the sceptre he had
won, but to transcend it; to rule the forces of this world, not by the authority that had been given him,
but by his own essential greatness. And just as long before Mendeljeff had propounded the law of Perio-
dicity, and by it had foreshadowed the existence of several undiscovered elements, so now did Frater P.
by his law of the Correspondences of the Ruach, prove, not only historically, philosophically, theologically
and mythologically the existence of the everywhere proclaimed Jechidah as being one, but in a lesser
degree: that when an Egyptian thought of Ptah, a Greek of Iacchus, a Hindu of Parabrahman and a
Christian of the Trinity as a Unity, they were not thinking of four Gods, but of one God, not of four condi-
tions but of one condition, not of four results but of one result; and, that should they set out to attain
unity with their ideal, the stages they would progress through would be in all cases essentially the same,
the differences, if any, being due to the mental limitations of the experimenter, his education and preju-
dice, and not because the roads were dissimilar. Thus by this law could he with certainty predict that if a
certain exercise were undertaken certain stages would be passed through, and what these stages meant
relative to the final result, irrespective of the creed, caste, or sect of the practitioner.
Further, he had proved beyond doubt or quibble, that the terrific strain caused by the Eastern breath-
ing exercises was no whit greater or less than that resulting from The Acts of Worship in an operation of
Ceremonial Magic, that Dhâranâ and the Mantra Yoga were in effect none other than a paraphrase of the
Sacred Magic and the Acts of Invocation; and ultimately that the whole system of Eastern Yoga was but a
synonym of Western Mysticism. Starting from the root, he had by now crept sufficiently far through the
darkness of the black earth to predict a great tree above, and to prophecy concerning a Kingdom of Light
and Loveliness; and, as a worm will detect its approach to the earth surface by the warmth of the mould,
so did he detect by a sense, new and unknown to him, a world as different from the world he lived in as
the world of awakenment differs from the world of dreams. Further, did he grow to understand, that,
though as a sustenance to the tree itself one root might not be as important as another, yet that they all
drew their strength from the self-same soil, and ultimately united in the one trunk above. Some were
rotten with age, some dying, some again but feeders of useless shoots, but more sympathetically, more
scientifically, they were all of one kind, the roots of one actual living tree, dissimilar in shape but similar
in substance, and all working for one definite end.
Thus did Frater P. by two years close and unabandoned experiment show, to his own satisfaction,
that Yoga was but the Art of uniting the mind to a single idea; and that Gnana-Yoga, Raja-Yoga, Bhakta-
Yoga and Hatha-Yoga281 were but one class of methods leading to the same Result as attained to by The
Holy Qabalah, The Sacred Magic, the Acts of Worship and The Ordeals of Western Ceremonial Magic;
which again are but subsections of that One Art, the Art of uniting the mind to a Single Idea. And, that all
these, The Union by Knowledge, The Union by Will, The Union by Love, The Union by Courage found
their vanishing point in the Supreme Union through Silence; that Union in which understanding fails us,
and beyond which we can no more progress than we can beyond the Equilibrium set forth as the Ulti-
mate End by Gustave le Bon. There all knowledge ceases, and we live Bâhva, when he was questioned
by Vâshkali, can only expound the nature of this Silence, as he expounded the nature of Brahman, by
remaining silent, as the story relates:

And he said, “Teach me, most reverend Sir, the nature of Brahman.” The other however remained
silent. But when the question was put for a second or third time he answers, “I teach you indeed, but
you do not understand; this Âtman is silent.”

P. had not yet attained to this Silence; indeed it was the goal he had set out to accomplish, and
though from the ridge of the great mountain upon which he was standing the summit seemed but a fur-
long above him, it was in truth many a year’s weary march away, and ridge upon ridge lay concealed,
and each as it was gained presented an increasing difficulty.
This Silence or Equilibrium is described in the “Shiva Sanhita”282 as Samâdhi:
“When the mind of the Yogi is absorbed in the Great God,283 then the fulness of Samâdhi284 is at-
tained, then the Yogi gets steadfastness.”285
Though Frater P. had not attained to this Steadfastness, he had won a decisive victory over the lower
states of Dhyanâ as far back as October 1901, which shows that though he was still distant he was by
degrees nearing a state in which he would find no more Worlds to Conquer.
However, up to this point, there are several results to record, which are of extreme importance to the
beginner, in so much that some of them are arrived at by methods diametrically opposed to those held
by the dogmatic Yogins.
At the very commencement of his Yoga exercises Frater P. discovered, that in so lecherous a race as
the Hindus it is absolutely necessary before a Chela can be accepted by a Guru to castrate him spiritually
and mentally.286 This being so, we therefore find almost every master of note, from Sankaracharya down
to Agamya Paramahamsa, insisting on the maintenance to the letter of the rules of Yama and Niyama,
that is absolute Chastity in body and mind amongst their pupils.287
Now P. proved that the strict letter of the law of Chastity had no more to do with the ultimate suc-
cess of attainment than refusing to work on a Sabbath had to do with a free pass to the Celestial regions,
unless every act of chastity was computed and performed in a magical manner, each act becoming as it
were a link in one great chain, a formula in one great operation, an operation not leading to Chastity, the
symbol, but beyond Chastity to the essence itself—namely the Âtman,—Adonai. Further he proved to his
own satisfaction that, though absolute Chastity might mean salvation to one man, inducing in the lecher-
ous a speedy concentration, it might be the greatest hindrance to another, who was by nature chaste.288
He realised that there were in this world she-mules as well as she-asses, and that though the former
would never foal in spite of all the stallions of Moultan, the latter seldom failed to do so after having been
for a few minutes in the presence of a Margate jackass.
Discarding Chastity (Brahmachârya)—a good purgative for the prurient—he wrote in its place the
word “Health.” Do not worry about this code and that law, about the jibber of this crank or the jabber of
that faddist. To hell with ethical pigs and prigs alike. Do what you like; but in the name of your own
Higher Self wilfully do no injury to your own body or mind by over indulgence or under indulgence. Dis-
cover your normal appetite; satisfy it. Do not become a glutton, and do not become a nut-cracking skin-
dlewig.
Soon after his arrival in Ceylon, and at the time that he was working with Frater I. A., the greatness
of the Buddha, as we have already seen, attracted him, and he turned his attention to the dogmatic lit-
erature of Buddhism only to find that behind its unsworded Cromwellian colossus,289 with all his rigid vir-
tues, his stern reasoning, his uncharitableness, judicialism and impartiality, slunk a pack of pig-headed
dolts, stubborn, asinine and mulish; slavish, menial and gutless; puritanic, pharisaical and “suburban” as
any seventeenth century presbyter, as biliously narrow-minded as any of the present day Bethelites, Bap-
tists, and Bible-beer brewers.290
The dogmatism of literal Buddhism appalled him. The Five Precepts, which are the Yama and Niyama
of Buddhism, he at once saw, in spite of Nagasena and prig Milinda, must be broken by every Arahat
each time he inhaled a breath of air. They were as absurd as they were valueless. But behind all this tan-
talizing frou-frou, this lingerie de cocotte, beautifully designed to cover the narded limbs of foolish vir-
gins, sits the Buddha in silent meditation; so that P. soon discovered that by stripping his body of all
these tawdry trappings, this feminine under-wear, and by utterly discarding the copy-book precepts of
Baptistical Buddhists, the Four Noble Truths were none other than the complete Yoga, and that in The
Three Characteristics291 the summit of philosophy (The Ruach) had been reached.
The terrific strain of Âsana and Prânâyâma, the two chief exercises of Hathavidya, P., by months of
trial proved to be not only methods of great use as a sedative before commencing a Magical Operation,
but methods of inordinate importance to such aspirants, who, having discarded the Shibboleths of sect,
have adopted the fatuities of reason. For it is more difficult for one who has no natural magical aptitude,
and one who perhaps has only just broken away from faith and corrupted ritual, to carry out an operation
of Western Magic, than it is for him to sit down and perform a rational exercise, such as the Prânâyâma
exercises of Yoga, which carry with them their own result, in spite of the mental attitude of the chela to-
wards them, so long as the instructions of the Guru are properly carried out.292
As already pointed out, the mere fact of sitting for a time in a certain position, of inhaling, exhaling
and of holding the breath, brings with it, even in the case of the most obdurate sceptic, a natural concen-
tration, an inevitable Pratyâhâra, which develops in the aspirant the Siddhis, those seemingly miraculous
powers which distinguish an Adeptus Major from an Adeptus Minor, and entitle the possessor to the rank
of 6°=5°.
From this discovery293 Frater P. made yet another, and this time one of still greater importance. And
this was, that if the Adept, when once the Siddhis were attained, by a self-control (a still higher concen-
tration) refused to expend these occult powers,294 by degrees he accumulated within himself a terrific
force; charged like a Leyden jar, instantaneously could he transmute this power into whatever he willed;
but the act brought with it a recoil, and caused an exhaustion and a void which nullified the powers
gained. Ultimately he proved that it was rather by the restraint of these occult (mental) powers than that
of the bodily ones that Ojas is produced.295
By now he was beginning to learn that there was more than one way of opening the Lion’s jaws; and
that gentleness and humility would often succeed where brutality and much boasting were sure to fail.
The higher he ascended into the realms of the Ruach the more he realized that the irrational folly of per-
forming wonders before a mob of gargoyle-headed apes, of pulling the strings of mystical marionettes
and reducing himself to the level of an occult Punch and Judy showman. He had attained to powers that
were beyond the normal, and now he carried them secretly like some precious blade of Damascus steel,
hidden in a velvet sheath, concealed from view, but every ready to hand. He did not display his weapon
to the wanton, neither did he brandish it before the eyes of the gilded courtesan—Babylon, thou harlot of
the seven mansions of God’s Glory! But he kept it free from rust, sharp and glittering bright, so that when
the time came wherein he should be called upon to use it, it might leap forth from its sheath like a flash
of lightning from betwixt the lips of God, and slay him who had ventured to cross his path, silently, with-
out even so much as grating against his bones.
NOTES:

1. ii Esdras, viii, 52-54.

2. Lamp of Invisible Light. L.I.L. The title of the first Æthyr derived from the initial letters of the Three
Mighty Names of God. In all there are thirty of these Æthyrs, “whose dominion extendeth in ever widen-
ing circles without end beyond the Watch Towers of the Universe.” In one sense rightly enough did P.
bring to completion the work L.I.L. at the end of the year 1900; but, in another, it took him nine long
years of toil before he perfected it, for it was not until the last days of the year 1909 that the work of the
Thirty Æthyrs was indeed brought to an end. In 1900 verily was the work conceived, but not until the
year 1909 was it brought forth a light unto the darkness, a little spark cast into the Well of Time. (P.
merely means that at this time he established a secret Order of this name.)
3. The Signs are of Projection and Withdrawal of Force; necessary complements.
4. Lost under dramatic circumstances at Frater P. A.’s house in 1909.
5. Verworn in his “General Physiology” says: “It was found that the sole reality that we are able to dis-
cover in the world is mind. The idea of the physical world is only a product of the mind. . . . But this idea
is not the whole of mind, for we have many mental constituents, such as the simple sensations of pain
and of pleasure, that are not ideas of bodies . . . every process of knowledge, including scientific knowl-
edge, is merely a psychical event. . . . This fact cannot be banished by the well-known method of the
ostrich” (pp. 39, 40).
“The real mystery of mysteries is the mind of man. Why, with a pen or brush, one man sits down and
makes a masterpiece, and yet another, with the self-same instruments and opportunities, turns out a
daub or botch, is twenty times more curious than all the musings of the mystics, works of the Rosicruci-
ans, or the mechanical contrivances which seem to-day so fine, and which our children will disdain as
clumsy” (R. B. Cumminghame Graham in his preface to “The Canon”).
6. Form here is synonymous with the Hindu Mâyâ, it is also the chief power of the Buddhist devil, Mara,
and even of that mighty devil, Choronzon.
7. “The forces of the universe are only known to us, in reality, but disturbances of equilibrium. The state
of equilibrium constitutes the limit beyond which we can no longer follow them” (Gustave le Bon, “The
Evolution of Matter,” p. 94).
8. Deussen, “The Philosophy of the Upansihads,” p. 40. See also Berkeley’s “Three Dialogues between
Hylas and Philonous.”
9. Once the Unknown becomes known it becomes untrue, it loses its Virginity, that mysterious power of
attraction the Unknown always possesses; it no longer represents our ideal, though it may form an excel-
lent foundation for the next ideal; and so on until Knowledge and Nescience are out-stepped. General
and popular Knowledge is like a common prostitute, the toy of any man. To maintain this purity, this vir-
ginity, are the mysteries kept secret from the multitude.
10. And yet again this is a sheer deceit, as every conceit must be.
11. Brihadâranyka Upanishad, 2. 4. 5b.
12. The highest men are calm, silent and unknown. They are the men who really know the power of
thought; they are sure that, even if they go into a cave and close the door and simply think five true
thoughts and then pass away, these five thoughts of theirs will live through eternity. (Vivekânanda,
“Karma Yoga,” Udbodhan edition, pp. 164, 165.)
13. Or the Unconsciously Known.
14. Deussen, op. cit., p. 76.
15. “Rigveda” (Griffiths), i. 164. 46. “You may call the Creator of all things by different names: Liber,
Hercules, Mercury, are but different names of the same divine being.” (Seneca, iv, 7. 8).
16. “Chândogya Upanishad,” 6. 1. 3. Also of “form.”
17. That is, when he gains knowledge.
18. That is the meaning of “Nequaquam Vacuum.” [a Rosicrucian motto]
19. Modern Materialism receives many a rude blow at the hands of Gustave le Bon. This great Frenchman
writes: “These fundamental dogmas, the bases of modern science, the researches detailed in this work
tend to destroy. If the principle of the conservation of energy—which, by the way, is simply a bold gen-
eralization of experiments made in very simple cases—likewise succumbs to the blows which are already
attacking it, the conclusion must be arrived at that nothing in the world is eternal.” (“The Evolution of
Matter,” p. 18) In other words, all is full of birth, growth, and decay, that is Mâyâ. Form to the Material-
ist, Name to the Idealist, and Nothing to him who has risen above both.
20. “There are two persons of the Deity, one in heaven, and one which descended upon earth in the form
of man (i.e. the Adam Qadmon), and the Holy One, praised by It! unites them (in the union of Samâdhi,
that is, of Sam (Greek σ×υ, together with) and Adhi, Hebrew, Adonai, the Lord). There are three Lights in
the Upper Holy Divine united in One, and this is the foundation of the doctrine of Every-Thing, this is the
beginning of the Faith, and Every-Thing is concentrated therein” (“Zohar III,” beginning of paragraph.
She’meneeh, fol. 36a.)
21. It is fully realized that outside the vastness of the symbol this “Fall of God” is as impertinent as it is
unthinkable.
22. Brihadâranyaka Upanishad, 2. 4. 12.
23. The illusion of thinking ourselves similar to the Unity and yet separated from It.
24. Kena Upanishad, II.
25. Taittirîya Brâhmana, 2. 7.
26. I.e. “Existence is” ‫אהיה אשר אהיה‬.
27. Brihadâranyaka Upanishad, 4. 3-4.
28. These refer to the mystic lights in man. Compare this with the Diagram 2 “The Paths and Grades” in
“The Neophyte.” After the Âtman in the aspirant has been awakened by the trumpet of Israfel (The An-
gel) he proceeds by the path of ‫ ש‬The next path the Aspirant must travel is that of ‫—ר‬the Sun; the next
that of ‫—ק‬the Moon; the next that of ‫—צ‬the Star. This path brings him to the Fire of Netzach. When this
fire is extinguished comes the Voice or Lightning, after which the Light which guides the aspirant is Him-
self, his Holy Guardian Angel, the Âtman—Adonai.
29. The Âtman.
30. As the light of a lamp brought into a dark room is reflected by all surfaces around it, so is the illumi-
nation of the Adept reflected even by his unilluminated followers.
31. Shiva Sanhita, ii. 43. 45. 51.
32. Work and the effects of work. The so-called law of Cause and Effect in the moral and physical worlds.
33. The four âshramas are (1) To live as a Brahmachârin—to spend a portion of one’s life with a Brahman
teacher. (2) To live as a Grihastha—to rear a family and carry out the obligatory sacrifices. (3) To live as
a Vânaprastha—to withdraw into solitude and meditate. (4) To live as a Sannyâsin—to await the spirit’s
release into the Supreme Spirit.
34. At the time of the Pralaya.
35. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. i.
36. Besides these, there are several lesser known Yogas, for the most part variant of the above such as:
Ashtânga, Laya, and Târaka. See “Hatha-Yoga Pradipika,” p. iii.
37. The “Bhagavad-Gita.” Fifth Discourse, 2-5.
38. Ibid. Second Discouse, 53.
39. Ibid. Ninth Discourse, 27, 34.
40. Vivekânanda, “Raja Yoga,” Udbodhan edition, pp. 51, 52. “Every valley shall be filled, and every
mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall
be made smooth. . . . Prepare ye the way of Adonai.”—Luke, iii, 5, 4.
41. “The Bhagavad-Gîta,” iv, 33, 37, 38. Compare with the above “The Wisdom of Solomon,” e.g.: For
wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me; for in her is an understanding spirit, holy, one only,
manifold, subtle, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, not subject to hurt, loving the thing that is good, quick,
which cannot be letted, ready to do good. . . . for wisdom is more moving than any motion; she passeth
and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness. For she is the breath of the power of God.”
(Chap. VII, 22, 24, 25.)
42. “Yoga or Transformation,” p. 196. Control, or Restraint, is the Key to Karma Yoga; weakness is its
damnation. Of the Karma Yogi Vivekânanda writes: “He goes through the streets of a big city with all
their traffic, and his mind is as calm as if he were in a cave, where not a sound could reach him; and he
is intensely working all the time.” “Karma Yoga,” p. 17.
43. See Vivekânanda’s “Bhakti-Yoga,” pp. 62-68.
44. Deussen. “The Upanishads,” p. 390.
45. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. v. The seed in each case is the Mantra.
46. The Absolute.
47. Nârada Sûtra. Translated by T. Sturdy. Also see the works of Bhagavan Ramanuja, Bhagavan Vyasa,
Prahlada, and more particularly Vivekânanda's "Bhakti Yoga." Bhakta Yoga is divided into two main divi-
sions. (1) The preparatory, known as “Gauni”; (2) The devotional, known as “Pará.” Thus it very closely
resembles, even in detail, the Operation of Abramelin, in which the aspirant, having thoroughly prepared
himself, devotes himself to the invocation of his Holy Guardian Angel.
48. In Bhakta Yoga the disciple usually devotes himself to his Guru, to whom he offers his devotion. The
Guru being treated as the God himself with which the Chela wishes to unite. Eventually “He alone sees no
distinctions! The mighty ocean of love has entered unto him, and he sees not men, animals and plants
or the sun, moon and the stars, but beholds his Beloved everywhere and in everything. Vivekânanda,
“Bhakti Yoga,” Udbodham edition, p. 111. The Sufis were Bhakti Yogis, so was Christ. Buddha was a
Gnani Yogi.
49. A Guru is as necessary in Yoga as a Music Master is in Music.
50. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. iii.
51. Ibid., chap. v, 184, 185. The aspirant should firstly, join the assembly of good men but talk little;
secondly, should eat little; thirdly, should renounce the company of men, the company of women, all
company. He should practise in secrecy in a retired palace. “For the sake of appearances he should re-
main in society, but should not have his heart in it. he should not renounce the duties of his profession,
caste or rank, but let him perform these merely as an instrument without any thought of the event. By
thus doing there is no sin.” This is sound Rosicrucian doctrine, by the way.
52. “Hatha-Yoga Pradipika,” pp. 5, 6. Note the similarity of these conditions to those laid down in “The
Book of the Sacred Magic.” Also see “Gheranda Sanhita,” p. 33.
53. “Hatha-Yoga Pradipika,” p. 22. On the question of food Vivekânanda in his “Bhakti Yoga,” p. 90, says:
"The cow does not eat meat, nor does the sheep. Are they great Yogins? . . . Any fool may abstain from
eating meat; surely that alone give him no more distinction than to herbivorous animals.” Also see “Gher-
anda Sanhita,” pp. 34-36.
54. “Shiva Sanhita,” iii, 37.
55. Ibid., iii, 33.
56. Vivekânanda, “Karma-Yoga,” p. 62.
57. As in the case of Jesus, the aspirant, for the joy that is set before him, must dare to endure the
cross, despising the shame; if he would be “set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews,
xii, 2.
58. “If there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to
God” (1 Corinthians, xiv, 28) has more than one meaning.
59. "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half and
hour" (Rev. viii, 1).
60. “Hatha-Yoga Pradipika,” p. 2.
61. In all the Mysteries the partakers of them were always such as had not committed crimes. It will be
remembered that Nero did not dare to present himself at the Eleusinia (Sueton. vit. Nero, e. 3A). And
Porphyry informs us that “in the Mysteries honour to parents was enjoined, and not to injure animals”
(“de Abstinentia,” iv, 22).
62. Certainly not in the case of the Mahometan Religion and its Sufi Adepts, who drank the vintage of
Bacchus as well as the wine of Iacchus. The question of Chastity is again one of those which rest on
temperament and not on dogma. It is curious that the astute Vivekânanda should have fallen into this
man-trap.
63. Swami Vivekânanda, “Raja Yoga,” p. 45.
64. The Bhagavad-Gita, vi, 16, 17.
65. Or more correctly as the Buddhist puts its—skilfulness and unskilfulness.
66. “Konx Om Pax,” by A. Crowley, pp. 62, 63.
67. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
68. Ibid.
69. Visions of the Daughters of Albion.
70. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 30. Dhauti is of four kinds: Antardhauti (internal washing); Dantdhauti
(cleaning the teeth); Hriddhauti (cleaning the heart); Mulashodhana (cleaning the anus). Basti is of two
kinds, Jala Basti (water Basti) and Sukshma Basti (dry Basti) and consists chiefly in dilating and contract-
ing the sphincter muscle of the anus. Neti consists of inserting a thread into the nostrils and pulling it out
through the mouth, Trataka in steadying the eyes, Nauli in moving the intestines, and Kapâlabhâti, which
is of three kinds, Vyât-krama, Vâma-krama, and Sit-krama, of drawing in wind or water through the nos-
trils and expelling it by the mouth, and vice versâ. Also see “Gheranda Sanhita,” pp. 2-10. This little book
should be read in conjunction with the “Hatha Yoga Pradipika.”
71. The “Gheranda Sanhita” gives thirty-two postures.
72. The “Shiva Sanhita,” pp. 25, 26.
73. The imaginary “triangle of flesh” near the perinaeum.
74. Besides the 72,000 nerves or veins there are often 101 others mentioned. These 101 chief veins each
have 100 branch veins which again each have 72,000 tributary veins. The total (101 + 101 x 100 x 100 x
72,000) equals 727,210,201. The 101st is the Sushumnâ. Yoga cuts through all these, except the 101st,
stripping away all consciousness until the Yogi “is merged in the supreme, indescribable, ineffable Brah-
man.” Also see “Gheranda Sanhita,” p. 37. The Nâdis are known to be purified by the following signs:
(1) A clear skin. (2) A beautiful voice. (3) A calm appearance of the face. (4) Bright eyes. (5) Hearing
constantly the Nâda.
75. The Sushumnâ may in more than one way be compared to Prometheus, or the hollow reed, who as
the mediator between heaven and earth transmitted the mystic fire from the moon. Again the Mahalin-
gam or ό Φαλλός. For further see “The Canon,” p. 119.
76. Manas and Chittam differ as the movement of the waters in a lake differ from the water itself.
77. H. P. Blavatsky in “Instruction No. 1” issued to members of the first degree of her Eastern School of
Theosophy (marked “Strictly Private and Confidential!”) deals with those Kos'as on p. 16. But it is quite
impossible here to attempt to extract from these instructions the little sense they may contain on account
of the numerous Auric Eggs, Âkâsic envelopes, Karmic records, Dêvâchanic states, etc., etc. On p. 89 of
“Instruction No. III” we are told that the Sushumnâ is the Brahmarandhra, and that there is “an enor-
mous difference between Hatha and Raja Yoga.” Plate III of Instructions No. II is quite Theosophical,
and the third rule out of the Probationers’ pledge, “I pledge myself never to listen, without protest, to any
evil thing spoken falsely, or yet unproven, of a brother Theosophist, and to abstain from condemning
others,” seems to have been consistently acted upon ever since.
78. Compare with the Kundalini the Serpent mentioned in paragraph 26 of “The Book of Concealed Mys-
tery.” Note too the lotus-leaf that backs the throne of a God is also the hood of the Cobra. So too the
Egyptian gods have the serpent upon the brow.
79. Provided the other exits are duly stopped by Practice. The danger of Yoga is this, that one may
awaken the Magic Power before all is balanced. A discharge takes place in some wrong direction and ob-
session results.
80. The forcing of the Kundalini up the Sushumnâ and through the six Chakkras to the Sahasrâra, is very
similar to Rising on the Planes through Malkuth, Yesod, the Path of p, Tiphereth, the Path of f, and Daäth
to Kether, by means of the Central Pillar of the Tree of Life.
81. The following Mystical Physiology is but a symbolic method of expressing what is nigh inexpressible,
and in phraseology is akin to Western Alchemy, the physiological terms taking the place of the chemical
ones.
82. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. v.
83. Ibid., chap. v, 107, 108, 109. This is probably wrong, as the sun is usually placed in the Manipûra
Chakkra. In the body of a man the Pingala is the solar current, the Ida the lunar. In a woman these are
reversed.
84. Ibid., chap. v, 75.
85. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. v, 76, 77. Compare this Chakkra to the lunar and sexual Yesod of the Qabalah;
also note that the power here attained to is that of Skrying.
86. Ibid., chap. ii, 32. This Chakkra corresponds to Tiphareth.
87. Ibid., chap. v, 82.
88. Ibid., chap. v, 85, 86, 87.
89. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. v, 110.
90. Ibid., chap. v, 49.
91. Though all Hindu works proclaim that the Sahasrâra has but one thousand petals, its true number is
one thousand and one as depicted in the diagram called the Yogi. 1001 = 91 x 11 (‫ אמן‬x ‫ ;)ארכי‬91 = ‫יהדה‬
+ ‫ ארכי‬11 = ABRAHADABRA = 418 (38 x 11) = Achad Osher, or one and ten, = the Eleven Averse
Sephiroth = Adonai. Also 91 = 13 x 7 ‫ · אחר‬ARARITA, etc., etc. 11 is the Number of the Great Work, the
Uniting of the Five and the Six, and 91 = mystic number (1+2+3 . . . + 13) of 13 = Achad = 1.
92. Ibid., chap. v, 50.
93. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. v. It does not follow that missionaries are Yogis.
94. Compare. “From the Skull of the Ancient Being wells forth Dew, and this Dew will wake up the dead
to a new life.”—The Zohar, Idra Rabba.
“I will be as a dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.”—
Hosea, xiv. 5.
95. This is according to the “Shiva Sanhita.” “The Hatha Yoga Pradipika” places the Sun in the
Svadisthâna Chakkra. The Manipûra Chakkra is however probably the correct one.
96. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 53.
97. Fabulous ages are attributed to many of the Yogis. See Flagg's “Yoga,” chap. xxviii; and “OM” by
Sabhapaty Swami, p. vi.
98. We believe this to be the exoteric explanation of this symbolism, the esoteric one being that Shiva
represents the Solar or Spiritual Force, and Shakti the lunar or Bodily, the union of these two cancels out
the pairs of opposites and produces Equilibrium.
99. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. iv, 1-11. Also see “Gheranda Sanhita,” p. 23.
100. The Jalandhara Banda is performed by contracting the throat and resting the chin firmly against the
breast.
101. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” pp. 45, 46. Also see “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. iv, 11-20. The breath is always
exhaled slowly so as not to expend the Prâna.
102. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 47; “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. iv, 21, 22.
103. “Hatha-Yoga Pradipika,” p. 48; “Shiva Sanhita,” vol. iv, 23-30.
104. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap iv, 31. This is perhaps the most important of the Mudras. The “Hatha Yoga
Pradipika” gives a long description of how the fraenum linguae is cut. See pp. 49-56.
105. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 57; "Shiva Sanhita," chap. iv, 48-52.
106. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 58; "Shiva Sanhita," chap. iv, 41-44.
107. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 60; "Shiva Sanhita," chap. iv, 38-40.
108. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 62; “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. iv, 45-47. Again this is the union of Shiva and
Shakti, and that of the solar and lunar Pingala and Ida by means of the Sushumnâ—the path of the gods.
109. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. iv, 76-81.
110. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” pp. 63, 69.
111. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. iv, 53-75.
112. On the doctrines of this mudra many popular American semi-occult works have been written, such
as “Karezza,” “Solar Biology,” and “The Goal of Life.”
113. It is to be noted here that the union is again that of the mystical Shakti and Shiva, but now within
the man. All this symbolism is akin to that made use of by the Sufis.
114. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. iv, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63.
115. “Any person if he actively practises Yoga becomes a Siddha; be he young, old or even very old,
sickly or weak. Siddhis are not obtained by wearing the dress of a Yogi, or by talking about them; untir-
ing practice is the secret of success” (“Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 25).
116. For further powers see Flagg’s “Transformation or Yoga,” pp. 169, 181.
117. Such as: Apana, Samana, Udana, Vyana, Haga, Kurma, Vrikodara, Devadatta, Dhanajaya, etc., etc.
118. Vivekânanda, “Raja-Yoga,” p. 23. See Eliphas Levi's “The Dogma and Ritual of Magic,” pp. 121, 158,
192, and Huxley's “Essay on Hume,” p. 155.
119. Vivekânanda, “Raja-Yoga,” pp. 36, 37.
120. “Bhagavad-Gita,” vi, 34, 35.
121. The whole of this ancient symbolism is indeed in its very simplicity of great beauty. The highest of
physical emotions, namely, love between man and woman, is taken as its foundation. This love, if al-
lowed its natural course, results in the creation of images of ourselves, our children, who are better
equipped to fight their way that we on account of the experiences we have gained. But, if this love is
turned into a supernatural channel, that is to say, if the joys and pleasures of this world are renounced
for some higher ideal still, an ideal super-worldly, then will it become a divine emotion, a love which will
awake the human soul and urge it on through all obstructions to its ultimate union with the Supreme
soul. To teach this celestial marriage to the Children of earth even the greatest masters must make use
of worldly symbols; thus it has come about that corruption has cankered the sublimest of truths, until
man’s eyes, no longer seeing the light, see but the flameless lantern, because of the filth that has been
cast about it.
122. Malay pearl divers can remain from three to five minutes under water.
123. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 79.
124. Also see “The Yogasara-Sangraha,” p. 54.
125. The Voice of the Nada.
126. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 43
127. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 28; the “Svetasvatara Upanishad;” and the “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. iii, 25.
128. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 28.
129. “Shiva Sanhita,” p. xlix. This in the “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 91, is called the Shanmukhi Mudra.
Enormous concentration is needed in all these Prânâyâma exercises, and, if the aspirant wishes to suc-
ceed, he must inflame himself with a will to carry them out to their utmost, just as in the Ceremonial Ex-
ercises of Abramelin he inflamed himself to attain to the Holy Vision through Prayer. The mere act of re-
straining the breath, breathing it in and out in a given time, so occupies the mind that it has “no time” to
think of any external object. For this reason the periods of Kumbhaka should always be increased in
length, so that, by making the exercise little by little more difficult, greater concentration may be gained.
Fra. P. writes: "If Kumbhaka be properly performed, the body and mind become suddenly ‘frozen.’
The will is for a moment free, and can hurl itself toward Adonai perhaps with success, before memory
again draws back the attention to the second-hand of the watch.”
130. Vivekânanda, “Raja Yoga,” p. 48. It will be noticed that Prânâyâma itself naturally merges into Pra-
tyâhâra as concentration on the breath increases.
131. “The Unity of Jîva and Brahman, Srimat Sânkarâchârya,” paragraph 121.
132. “Unity of Jîva and Brahman, Srimat Sânkarâchârya,” paragraph 122.
133. See Chapter V, 43-51.
134. Compare the Abramelin instructions with these.
135. The Nada.
136. Compare Eliphas Levi, “Doctrine and Ritual of Magic,” p. 195.
137. Imagine the objective world to be represented by a sheet of paper covered with letters and the
names of things, and our power of concentration to be a magnifying glass: that power is of no use,
should we wish to burn that paper, until the rays of light are focussed. By moving the glass or paper with
our hand we obtain the right distance. In the above the Will takes the place of the hand.
138. See also “The Yogasara-Sangraha,” p. 74.
139. It is to be noted that the symbolism made use of here is almost identical with that so often made
use of in the Yoga Shastras and n the Vedanta. The union of Kundalini (Shakti) and Shiva.
140. Revelation, xxi, 1-4.
141. “The Bhagavad-Gîta," ii, 69, 70; vi, 32. Cf. “Konx om Pax,” pp. 73-77.
142. The ordinary Egyptian Winged-Globe is here meant, but as visualized by the mind’s eye; the medita-
tion then takes place on the image in the mind. so with the following practises.
143. Tejas-Akâsa is the Element of Fire. It is symbolized by a red triangle of fire with a black egg in the
centre. See 777, col. LXXV, p. 16. See Diagram 84.
144. Apas-Vâyu is the Element of Water and is symbolized by a black egg of Spirit in the Silver Crescent
of Water. See 777, col. LXXV, p. 16. See Diagram 84.
145. The Golden Dawn symbol of the Flaming Sword. See Diagram 12.
146. By this is meant watching the swing of an imaginary pendulum. The difficulty is to keep it in one
plane, as it tries to swing round; also to change its rate.
147. In these records “M” means morning and “E” evening.
148. The Egyptian Key of Life. See Diagram 61.
149. Lamp of the Invisible Light.
150. In the mind.
151. The visualized form of the goddess Isis.
152. That is to say she kept on moving out of the line of mental sight.
153. See Diagram 80. A scarlet rose on a gold cross.
154. At this point P. made the following resolve: “I resolve to increase my powers very greatly by the aid
of the Most High, until I can meditate for twenty-four hours on one object.”
155. The Akâsic egg of spirit set between the Pillars of Mercy and Severity with a ray of light descending
upon it from Kether.
156. The Golden Dawn Symbol here meditated upon consisted of a white triangle surmounted by a red
cross. See Diagram 4.
157. This meditation took place while P. was on a journey.
158. These meditations are called Objective Cognitions, by concentrating on certain nerve centres super-
physical sensations are obtained.
159. Normally in these experiments the figure does move more often.
160. Normally this is so.
161. In the position many of the Egyptian gods assume.
162. Qy.: Is this from habit of expecting living things to move? I can, I think, succeed in keeping them
still.—Note by P.
163. This danger is also experienced by such as carry out Black Magical Operations. The current of will
often returns and injures the Magician who willed it.
164. Soror F. the same as Soror S.S.D.F.
165. This description of Hong-Kong is as correct as can be expected from so short a visit. The conversa-
tion was subsequently verified by letter, and also again when they met several years later.
166. He resolved the ‫ ש‬of ‫ ש‬Operation into seven parts.
167. The ‫ ש‬of ‫ ש‬Operation, see also the Magical invocation of the Higher Genius: chapter “The Sorcerer.”
And Liber O iii THE EQUINOX, vol. i, No. 2.
168. See chapter, "The Seer," also Liber O v THE EQUINOX, vol. i. No. 2.
169. The invocation of the Guardian Angel under the form of a talisman.
How to draw it.
Draw the name ‫ ארני‬as follows:
‫ = א‬A winged crown radiating white brilliance.
‫ = ר‬The head and neck of a beautiful woman with a stern and fixed expression, and hair long dark
and waving. (Malkuth.)
‫ = נ‬The arms and hands, which are bare and strong, stretched out to the right and left at right angles
to the body, in the left hand a gold cup and in right ears of ripe corn. From her shoulders dark
spreading wings.
‫ = י‬A deep yellow-green robe, upon the breast of which is a square gold lamen decorated with four
scarlet Greek crosses. Round her waist is a broad gold belt upon which in scarlet letters is written
the name ‫ ארני הארן‬in the letters of the alphabet of Honorius. Her feet are flesh coloured, and she
wears golden sandals. Her long yellow-green drapery is rayed with olive, and beneath her feet
roll black clouds lit with lurid patches of colour.
How to perform it.
(1) Commence with lesser pentagram Banishing Ritual.
(2) Formulate rose-cross round room (First, top to bottom; second left to right; third the rose as a
circle dextro-rotary).
(3) The LVX signs in 5°=6° towards the four cardinal points.
(4) Formulate before you in white flashing brilliance the eight letters thus:
 (5) Attach yourself to your Kether and imagine you see a d white light ‫א‬
there. ‫ר‬
(6) Having thus formulated the letters, take a deep breath and pronounce ‫ארמיחארץ‬
the name slowly making the letters flash
‫מ‬
(7) Invoke the Telesmatic image. Let it fill the Universe.
(8) Then whilst once again vibrating the Name absorb it into yourself; and ‫י‬
then will your aura radiate with whiteness. ‫ח‬
You should obtain your Divine White Brilliance before formulating the Im- ‫א‬
age. There are two methods, the involving and the expanding whorls respec- ‫ר‬
tively. ‫ץ‬
170. Similar to the D. A. Meditation Practices.
171. Similar to Fra. I. A.’s ritual of Jupiter.
172. This is done by making the telesmata flash by meditation.
173. This is done by projecting a physical image of the self in front of one by meditation.
174. The Elemental Tablets of Dr. Dee; see Diagrams in “The Vision and the Voice.” [See rather “The
Symbolic Representation of the Universe” in no. 7—T.S.]
175. Ideas for mental Concentration. Concentration on Scarlet Sphere in Tiphereth. Let it slowly rise into
Daäth and darken, after which into Kether and be a white brilliance; thence fling it flashing, or bring it
down and keep it in Tiphereth.
176. In all cases when the name alone is mentioned a meditation practice is understood. Prithivi-Apas
corresponds to water of earth. It is symbolized by a silver crescent drawn within a yellow square. See
Diagram 84.
177. I.e. Self in Âkâsas between pillars with white ray descending.
178. Heaven.
179. An Eleven pointed Star.
180. P. at various times used the “Invocation of the Bornless one” as given in “The Goetia”; also the Pen-
tagram rituals in Liber O.
181. The first six Angelic Keys of Dr. Dee.
182. The explanation of the 5°=6° Ritual. See Chapter “The Adept.”
183. The colour of Chokmah.
184. See Plate VI. “The Kabbalah Unveiled,” S. L. Mathers.
185. It is to be noted that this Vision is of a fiery nature, and that it was experienced shortly after medi-
tating upon Tejas-Apas.
186. Very similar to the older form of “Temperance” in the Taro.
187. See Liber O, THE EQUINOX, vol. i, No. 2; Plate, “Signs of the Grades,” i; and vol. i, No. 1; Plates the
“Silent Watcher” and “Blind Force.”
188. The four letters of the Air line in the “Little Tablet of Union”
which unites the four great Watch Towers of the Elements (see Dr.
Dee’s system, also Golden Dawn MS. entitled “The Concourse of the
Forces).” Thus the T of Nanta represents Earth of Earth—the Em-
press of Pantacles in the Taro, and that letter is used as an initial for
names of angels drawn from the Earthy corner of the Earth tablet.
For further see THE EQUINOX, vol. i, No 5.

189. A draft had been sent only payable in Hong-Kong on personal application. He was consequently
afraid lest by staying too long in Japan he should become “stranded.”
190. Harpocrates.
191. Meditation upon Nirvana.
192. I.e., no longer through reason or imagination.
193. Harpocrates being the meditative God.
194. In this exercise the pendulum tends to swing out of plane. Here are Frater P.’s two methods of con-
trolling it:
(a) Fix mind of the two points of a pendulum-swing and move pendulum sharply like chronograph
hand, keeping them fixed and equal in size. Pendulum recovers its plane.
(b) Follow swing carefully throughout keeping size exact. This is more legitimate but more difficult.
195. Invoked angel of Nirvana as H.P.K. on lotus. Note P.’s complete ignorance of Buddhism at this date.
196. I.e. the Peace which had been enfolding him for so many days. See entry July 14th.
197. ‫ = כ‬Kether ‫ = ג‬Path of Gimel ‫ = ת‬Tiphareth ‫ =ם‬Path of Samekh ‫ = י‬Yesod ‫ = ת‬Path of Tau.
198. The world of unrest and transiency, of birth and death.
199. The Great Attainment of Buddhism. Our terminology now degenerates into the disgusting vulgarity
of the Pali dialect.
200. The Mahâyâna Buddhists’ Boundless Light. Compared with the canonical Nibbâna it bears a very
similar relation to it as the Ain Soph Aur, the Illimitable Light, does to the Ain, the negatively Existent
One. In the Brihadâranyka Upanishad 4. 4. 66. Brahman is termed “jyotishâm jyotis” which means “the
light of lights”—a similar conception.
201. We have seen how in the Chândogya Upanishad that all things, including even the four Vedas, are
called “nâma eva”—mere name. Now in “The Questions of King Milinda” we find Nâgasena stating that all
things but “name and form,” the difference between which lies in that “Whatever is gross therein is
‘form:’ ” whatever is subtle, mental, is “name.” But that both are dependent on each other, and spring
up, not separately, but together. “The Questions of King Milinda,” ii. 2. 8.
202. It must not be forgotten that in its ultimate interpretation the Âtman is the Ain, however we use this
reading as seldom as possible, as it is so very vague.
203. Dhammapada, v. 1.
204. “The Questions of King Milinda,” iv, 1, 48. See also the story of the Holy Quail in Rhys Davids’ “Bud-
dhist Birth Stories,” p. 302. These Iddhis are also called Abhijnyâs. There are six of them: (1) clairvoy-
ance; (2) clairaudience; (3) powers of transformation; (4) powers of remembering past lives; (5) powers
of reading the thoughts of others; (6) the knowledge of comprehending the finality of the stream of life.
See also “Konx Om Pax,” pp. 47, 48.
205. “The Questions of King Milinda,” iii, 4, 6.
206. Ibid., iii, 5, 10.
207. It is curious how, inversely according to the amount of morality preached is morality practised in
America; in fact there are almost as many moral writers there as there are immoral readers. Paul Carus is
as completely ignorant of Buddhism as he is about the art of nursing babies—he has written on both
these subjects and many more, all flatulently.
208. Chândogya, 3, 13, 7.
209. Twenty-three centuries later Kant falling over this crux postulated his “twelve categories,” or shall
we say “emanations,” and thereby started revolving once again the Sephirothic Wheel of Fortune.
210. In spite of the fact that Buddhism urges that “the whole world is under the Law of Causation,” it
commands its followers to lead pure and noble lives, in place of dishonourable ones, in spite of their hav-
ing no freedom of choice between good and evil. “Let us not lose ourselves in vain speculations of prof-
itless subtleties,” says the Dhammapada, “let us surrender self and all selfishness, and as all things are
fixed by causation, let us practice good so that good may result from our actions.” Just as if it could pos-
sibly be done if “all things are fixed.” The Buddhist, in theory having postulated that all fowls lay hard-
boiled eggs, adds, the ideal man is he who can only make omlettes.
211. “The Questions of King Milinda,” iv, 2, 5.
212. Ibid., iii, 5, 6.
213. Ibid., iii, 4, 4.
214. Compare “Mândûkya Upanishad,” 1, 16.
In the infinite illusion of the universe
The soul sleeps; when it awakes

Then there wakes the Eternal,

 Free from time and sleep and dreams.
215. Most Buddhists will raise a terrific howl when they read this; but, in spite of their statement that the
Hindu Nirvana, the absorption into Brahman, corresponds not with their Nibbâna, but with their fourth
Arûpa-Vimokha, we nevertheless maintain, that in essence Nirvana and Nibbâna are the same, or in de-
tail, if logic is necessary in so illogical an argument, it certainly sided rather with Nirvana than Nibbâna.
Nibbâna is Final says the Buddhist, when once an individual enters it there is no getting out again, in fact
a kind of Spiritual Bastille, for it is Niccain, changeless; but Brahman is certainly not this, for all things in
the Universe originated from him. This is as it should be, though we see little difference between pro-
ceeding from to proceeding to, when it comes to a matter of First and Last Causes. The only reason why
the Buddhist does not fall into the snare, is, not because he has explained away Brahman, but because
he refuses to discuss him at all. Further the Buddhist argues that should the Hindu even attain by the
exaltation of his selfhood to Arûpa Brahma-loka, though for a period incalculable he would endure there,
yet in the end Karma would once again exert its sway over him, “and he would die as an Arûpabrah-
maloka-Deva, his Sankhâras giving rise to a being according to the nature of his unexhausted Karma.” In
“Buddhism,” vol. i, No. 2, p. 323, we read: “To put it another way; you say that the Universe came from
Brahman, and that at one time naught save the Brahman was. Then ‘In the beginning Desire arose in it,
which was the primal germ of Mind.’ Where did that desire come from, if the Brahman was the All, and
the Unchangeable. . . . Again, if the Brahman was the All, and was perfect, then what was the object of
this emanation of a Sorrow-filled Universe?” The Vedântist would naturally answer to this: “To put it in
another way: you say that the Universe will go to Nibbâna, and that at one time naught save Nibbâna will
be. Then in the end Desire dies in it, which was the primal germ of mind. Where will that desire go to, if
Nibbâna will be the All, and the Unchangeable. . . . Again, if Nibbâna will be the All, and will be perfect,
then what will be the object of this emanation of a Sorrow-filled Universe?” This is all the merest twaddle
of a Hyde Park atheist or Christian Evidence preacher. Granted the Hindu Brahman is rationally ridiculous,
yet nevertheless it is more rational to suppose a continuous chain of Sorrowful universes and states of
oblivion than an unaccounted for State of Sorrow and an unaccountable Finality. It is as rational or irra-
tional to ask where “Braham” came from, as it is to ask where “Karma” came from. Both are illusions, and
as discussion of the same will only create a greater tangle than ever, let us cut the Gordian knot by leav-
ing it alone, and set out to become Arahats, and enter the house which so mysteriously stands before us,
and see what is really inside it, instead of mooning in the back garden and speculating about it contents,
its furniture, the size of its rooms, and all the pretty ladies that scandal or rumour supposes that it shel-
ters. To work! over the garden wall, and with Romeo cry:
Can I go forward when my heart is here?
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.
216. Kâthaka Upanishad, 5, 15.
217. The Book of Solemn Utterances.
218. Vol. i, No. 2, p. 293.
219. Buddhism, vol. i, No. 2, p. 299, abridged.
220. Dhammapada, v, 103.
221. Dhammapada, v, 21.
222. “The Questions of King Milinda,” ii, 1, 7, 9, 13.
223. Ibid., 13.
224. It will be noticed that this is the third sense in which this hard-working word is employed.
225. The Sutta of the Foundation of the Kingdom of Truth.
226. [We respect the following noble attempt to rewrite Buddhism in the Universal Cipher, not unaware
that the flatulent Buddhists of to-day will eructate their cacodylic protests. An orthodox Buddhist account
is to be found in “The Sword of Song” by A. Crowley, article “Science and Buddhism.”—ED.]
227. “The Noble Eightfold Path,” by James Allen, in “Buddhism,” vol. i, No. 2, p. 213. A most illuminating
essay on this difficult subject.
228. The same as the “inflamed by prayer” of Abramelin.
229. Ibid., p. 213.
230. The two serpents and central rod of the Caduceus are in Yoga represented by the Ida, Pingala and
Sushumnâ. The wings closed, to the Ajna-lotus; open and displaying the solar disk, to the Sahasâra
Chakkra.
231. Ibid., p. 216.
232. Another and perhaps more comprehensive way of attributing the Noble Eightfold Path to the Tree of
Life is as follows: The first and second steps—Right Comprehension and Right Resolution, may from their
purging nature fitly be compared to Yama and Niyama and also the Earthy and Lunar natures of Malkuth
and Yesod. The third and fourth—Right Speech and Right Action, in their yearning and striving are by
nature as unbalanced as Hod and Netzach which are represented by Fire and Water and by Mercury and
Venus respectively. Then comes the fifth stage of poise—Right Livelihood; this is also a stage of exemp-
tion from worldly motion, and a stage which brings all below it to a finality which may be compared to
Tiphareth in its Solar Aspect or to the Manipura Chakkra. The sixth and seventh stages—Right Effort and
Right Thought, are stages of “definitely directed power” closely related to Geburah and Chesed—Mars
and Jupiter. And then finally comes the eighth stage—Right Meditation, again a summary of the three
stages below it, which may be compared as the Three Supernals or the Sahasâra Chakkra. [Compare with
the essay “Science and Buddhism” in the “Sword of Song” by A. Crowley, and the writings of Ânanda
Metteya. Here are then three men who have worked both severally and collectively, who yet apparently
hold irreconcilable views as to what Buddhism is. What better proof is needed of the fact that all intellec-
tual study ultimates in mental chaos?]
233. No rough working is given in this volume; it is only a compendium of Results.
234. The goddess Isis, Deir, Kali, Sakti, etc, in her aspect as the patroness of Meditation. There are five
principal meditations. Metta-Bhâvanâ, on love; Karunâ-Bhâvanâ, on pity; Muditâ-Bhâvanâ, on joy;
Asubha-Bhâvanâ, on impunity; and Upekshâ-Bhâvanâ, on serenity. But see 777, col. xxiii, p. 9.
235. Old native name for Ceylon.
236. Frater I.A.’s Eastern name, afterwards changed to Ânanda Metteya.
237. Any who have undergone this test will readily understand how severe it is. The speaker says some-
thing with a view to break the meditation of the meditator. Meanwhile the meditator must so strengthen
his will, that he wills to remain in his meditation uninterrupted; and yet in the end, though his mind has
never wandered in contemplating the object meditated upon, he, nevertheless, has to repeat what the
speaker said; which when the will is very strong may not even be heard as a sound, let alone as a coher-
ent sentence. The will has to keep the thinking faculty of the meditator from interrupting the meditation;
but meanwhile the thinking faculty without in any way breaking the meditation has to receive the mes-
sage of the speaker and deliver it unimpaired to the meditator directly the meditation is at an end. This
experiment, except that it is carried out by an act of will, differs very slightly, if at all, from those mo-
ments in which whilst absorbed in some work, we hear a clock strike, and only realize that the clock has
struck a certain hour some considerable time after the event.
238. The Thunderbolt: see Illustration in THE EQUINOX, vol. i, No. I.
239. I.e., no longer uttering the Mantra, but listening to the Mystic Voice of the Universe saying it.
240. These mystic sounds heard by the Yogi are supposed to proceed from the Anahata Chakkra.
241. Short for Namo Shivaya Namaha Aum.
242. “Hath Yoga Pradipika,” p. 91. The description here is of the Shanmukhi Murdra.
243. Ibid., p. 92.
244. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” p. 93.
245. Chiefly by the Yoga of Nâda-Laya, a Dhyâna.
246. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. v, p. 42.
247. “The Voice of the Silence,” pp. 24, 25.
248. “Hath Yoga Pradipika,” iv, 96. For some of these sounds also see Brahmavidyâ, 13, Dhyânabindu,
18, and the Hamsa Upanishad, 4.
249. Mental or bodily attributes.
250. See 777, col. lv, p. 17.
251. “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” pp. 97-100. Also, Amritabindu Upanishad, 24.
252. Nadi-Yama or Control of the nerve-channels by regular breathing, without Khumbaka or holding the
breath.
253. He whose Nadi are pure has (1) a clear complexion; (2) a sweet voice; (3) a calm appearance; (4)
bright eyes; (5) hearing constantly the Nada.
254. The same as Nadi-Yama.
255. Anahata Lotus, mystic ganglion in the heart. See diagram.
256. Dhâranâ on Ajna prevents sleep; ditto on Anahata causes it.
257. In practising Prânâyâma, the breath may get convulsively withheld, all the muscles going suddenly
rigid, without the will of the Yogi. This is called Sukshama-Kumbhaka, or Automatic holding in of the
breath. This phenomenon marks a stage in attainment.
258. A Mantra. Shi = Peace, Va = Power. It means “Thy peace by power increasing In me by power to
peace.”
259. The four characteristic results of Prânâyâma are (1) perspiration; (2) rigidity; (3) jumping about like
a frog; (4) levitation. P. never experienced this last result. But it is possible that, if there was an actual
loss of weight, that this was at least a step towards it.
260. We do not know what this means unless the note of Shri Mâitrânanda’s bell was different from that
of Frater P.’s.
261. Wand.
262. When Gods are near, or Kundalini arises thither, the petals bend down and out: thus is the Winged-
Globe of Egypt formed. These petals are the same as the horns of Pan which open out as the God de-
scends.
263. A Hatha Yoga practice. P.’s idea of the practice was to drink a pint right off! Hence disappointment.
264. Probably at this time a period of “dryness” supervened.
265. The Golden Dawn, Dhyâna of the Sun.
266. Or Rupa Visions. That is, visions of the three Lights of the Gunas. See “The Herb Dangerous.” THE
EQUINOX, vol. i, No. 2.
267. The great Vision of Vishnu. See the Eleventh Discourse in the Bhagavad-Gita. “Unnumbered arms,
the sun and moon. Thine eyes. I see Thy face, as sacrificial fire blazing, its splendour burneth up the
worlds.” Verse 19.
268. Adonai. The Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel.
269. Atma-Darshana, the universal vision of Pan, or the vision of the Universal Peacock. It has many
forms.
270. Vision of Shiva, which destroys the Âtma-Darshana. The God Shiva opens his eye, and Equilibrium is
re-established.
271. This is a mere thought-form induced by misunderstanding the instruction of Mâitrânanda Swami as
to observing the phenomenon.
272. Cf. Captain J. F. C. Fuller’s “Star in the West,” pp. 287, 288. “In his Essay ‘Eleusis,’ Crowley suggests
that the world’s history may roughly be divided into a continuous succession of periods, each embracing
three distinct cycles—of Renaissance, Decadence, and Slime. In the first the Adepts rise as artists, phi-
losophers, and men of science, who are sooner or later recognized as great men; in the second the ad-
epts as adepts appear, but seem as fools and knaves; and in the third, that of Slime, vanish altogether,
and are invisible. Then the chain starts again. Thus Crowley writes:
“ ‘Decadence marks the period when the adepts, nearing their earthly perfection, become true ad-
epts, not mere men of genius. They disappear, harvested by heaven: and perfect darkness (apparent
death) ensures until the youthful forerunners of the next crop begin to shoot in the form of artists.
273. Till 1906. The theory of the Great White Brotherhood, as set forth in the story called “The Blossom
and the Fruit,” by Miss Mabel Collins.
274. The practice of Mahasatipatthana is explained by Mr. A. Crowley in his “Science and Buddhism” very
fully. Briefly:
In this meditation the mind is not restrained to the contemplation of a single object, and there is no
interference with the natural functions of the body. It is essentially an observation-practice, which later
assumes an analytic aspect in regard to the question: “What is it that is really observed?”
The Ego-idea is excluded; all bodily motions are observed and recorded; for instance, one may sit
down quietly and say: “There is a raising of the right foot.” “There is an expiration,” etc., etc., just as it
happens. When once this habit of excluding the Ego becomes intuitive, the next step is to explain the
above thus: “There is a sensation (Vedana) of a raising, etc.” The next stage is that of perception
(Sañña) “There is a perception of a (pleasant and unpleasant) sensation of a raising, etc.” The two fur-
ther stages Sankhara and Viññanam pursue the analysis to its ultimation. “There is a consciousness of a
tendency to perceive the (pleasant and unpleasant) sensation of a raising of the right foot” being the fi-
nal form.
The Buddha himself said that if a man practices Mahasatipatthana honestly and intelligently a result
is certain.
275. This, though a good system, is a difficult one to carry out.
276. N.B. Frater P. did not practise when physically unfit.
277. Not understood.
278. Om Tat Sat Aum.
279. 30. 15. 60.
280. This meeting with H. L., though of no importance in itself, led to one of the most important happen-
ings in P.’s life; for it was through him that he again met Ourada the seer, as we shall see at a later date.
281. These interrupting voice suggestions have been named by P. Telephone-cross-voices on account of
their close resemblance to disjointed conversations so often heard whilst using a telephone.
A similar phenomenon occurs in wireless telegraphy; chance currents make words, and are so read
by the operator. They are called “atmospherics.” I propose the retention of this useful word in place of
the clumsy “Telephone cross-voices.”
281. To which may be added Mantra Yoga and Karma Yoga, which correspond with The Invocation and
The Acts of Service and represent Union through Speech and Union through Work.
282. “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. v, 155.
283. Âtman, Pan, Harpocrates, whose sign is silence, etc., etc. See 777.
284. The Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel—Adonai.
285. Equilibrium, Silence, Supreme Attainment, Zero.
286. As for women they are considered beyond the possibility of redemption, for in order of re-
incarnation they are placed seven stages below a man, three below a camel, and one below a pig. Manu
speaks of “the gliding of the soul through ten thousand millions of wombs.” And if a man steal grain in
the husk, he shall be born a rat; if honey, a great stinging gnat; if milk, a crow; if woven flax, a frog; if a
cow, a lizard; is a horse, a tiger; if roots or fruit, an ape; if a woman, a bear. “Institutes of Manu,” xii, 55-
67.
287. We find Christ insisting on this absolute chastity of body and mind, in a similar manner, and for simi-
lar reasons; for the Eastern Jew if he is not actually doing something dirty, is sure to be thinking about it.
288. The reason for this is very simple. Take for example a glutton who lives for his palate and his stom-
ach; he is always longing for tasty foods and spends his whole life seeking them. Let us now substitute
the symbol of the Augœides or Âtman for that of foot and drink, let him every time he thinks of food and
drink push the thought aside and in its place contemplate his Higher Self, and the result is a natural invo-
cation of the Âtman, Augœides, or Higher Self. If the aspirant be an artist let him do the same with his
art; if a musician, with his music; if a poet, with his verses and rhymes. For the best foundation to build
upon is always to be found upon that which a man loves best. It is no good asking a glutton who does
not care a row of brass pins for music, to turn music into a magical formula, neither is it of the slightest
use to impress upon a clean-minded individual the necessity of living a chaste life. It is like tapping Sam-
son on the shoulder, just after he has carried the gates of Gaza on to the top of the hill before Hebron
and saying: “My good boy, if you ever intend on becoming strong, the first thing you must do is to buy a
pair of my four pound dumb-bells and my sixpenny book on physical culture.”
289. The Buddha (it is true) did not encourage bloodshed, in spite of his having died from an overfeed of
pork, but as Mr. A. Crowley has said, many of his present-day followers are quite capable of killing their
own brothers for five rupees. The Western theory that Buddhists are lambs and models of virtue is due to
the fact that certain Western vices are not so congenial to the Asiatic as they are to the European; and
not because Buddhists are incapable of enjoying themselves.
290. Buddhism as a schism from the Brahmanical religion may in many respects be compared with Lu-
theranism as a schism from the Catholic Church. Both Buddha and Luther set aside the authority of mira-
cles, and appealed to the reason of the middle classes of their day. The Vedas were the outcome of aris-
tocratic thought; and so in truth was the Christianity of Constantine and the Popes, that full-blooded
Christianity which so soon swallowed the mystical Christ and the anaemic communism of the canaille
which followed him. Conventional Buddhism is pre-eminently the “nice” religion of the bourgeoisie; it nei-
ther panders to the superstition of the masses nor palliates the gallantries of the aristocracy; it is essen-
tially middle-class; and this no doubt is the chief reason why it has met with a kindly reception by this
nation of shop-walkers.
291. Anikka, Change; Dukka, Sorrow; Anatta, Absence of an Ego.
292. Prânâyâma acts on the mind just as Calomel acts on the bowels. It does not matter if a patient be-
lieves in Calomel or not. The physician administers it, and even if the patient be a most hostile Christian
Scientist, the result is certain. Similarly with Prânâyâma, the Guru gives his chela a certain exercise, and
as surely as the Calomel voided the noxious matter from the intestines of the sufferer, so will the
Prânâyâma void the capricious thoughts from the mind of the disciple.
293. By discovery here we mean individual experiment resulting in personal discovery; another person’s
discovery only begets illusion and comment. Individual discovery is the only true discovery worth consid-
eration.
294. Nearly all the Masters have been cautious how they handled this power; generally refusing to ex-
pend it at the mere caprice of their followers or opponents. The Siddhis are like the Gold of the Alche-
mist. Once discovered it is kept secret, and the more secretly it is kept and the more it is hoarded the
richer becomes the discoverer, and then one day will come wherein he will be able to pay his own ran-
som, and this is the only ransom that is acceptable unto God.
295. Possibly the restraint of Brahmachârya produced the Siddhis, and that further restraint in its turn
produced an accumulation of these occult powers, the benefit accruing from which is again placed to the
credit of the bodily powers.