FOURTEEN LESSONS in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism, By Yogi Ramacharaka.
Light On The Path by Mabel Collins
COMMENTS - On Parts I & II
I : "BEFORE THE EYES CAN SEE THEY MUST BE INCAPABLE OF
TEARS."
It should be very clearly remembered by all readers of this volume that it
is a book which may appear to have some little philosophy in it, but very
little sense, to those who believe it to be written in ordinary English. To
the many, who read in this manner it will be -- not caviare so much as
olives strong of their salt. Be warned and read but a little in this way.
There is another way of reading, which is, indeed, the only one of any
use with many authors. It is reading, not between the lines but within
the words. In fact, it is deciphering a profound cipher. All alchemical
works are written in the cipher of which I speak; it has been used by the
great philosophers and poets of all time. It is used systematically by the
adepts in life and knowledge, who, seemingly giving out their deepest
wisdom, hide in the very words which frame is its actual mystery. They
cannot do more. There is a law of nature which insists that a man shall
read these mysteries for himself. By no other method can he obtain
them. A man who desires to live must eat his food himself: this is the
simple law of nature -- which applies also to the higher life. A man who
would live and act in it cannot be fed like a babe with a spoon; he must
eat for himself.
I propose to put into new and sometimes plainer language parts of "Light
on the Path"; but whether this effort of mine will really be any
interpretation I cannot say. To a deaf and dumb man, a truth is made no
more intelligible if, in order to make it so, some misguided linguist
translates the words in which it is couched into every living or dead
language, and shouts these different phrases in his ear. But for those
who are not deaf and dumb one language is generally easier than the
rest; and it is to such as these I address myself.
The very first aphorisms of "Light on the Path," included under Number
I. have, I know well, remained sealed as to their inner meaning to many
who have otherwise followed the purpose of the book.
PART I - The 1st Set of Rules
These rules are written for all disciples: Attend you to them.
Before the eyes can see, they must be incapable of tears. Before the ear
can hear, it must have lost its sensitiveness. Before the voice can speak
in the presence of the Masters it must have lost the power to wound.
Before the soul can stand in the presence of the Masters its feet must be
washed in the blood of the heart.
1. Kill out ambition.
Ambition is the first curse: the great tempter of the man who is rising
above his fellows. It is the simplest form of looking for reward. Men of
intelligence and power are led away from their higher possibilities by it
continually. Yet it is a necessary teacher. Its results turn to dust and
ashes in the mouth; like death and estrangement it shows the man at
last that to work for self is to work for disappointment. But though this
first rule seems so simple and easy, do not quickly pass it by. For these
vices of the ordinary man pass through a subtle transformation and
reappear with changed aspect in the heart of the disciple. It is easy to
say, I will not be ambitious: it is not so easy to say, when the Master
reads my heart he will find it clean utterly. The pure artist who works for
the love of his work is sometimes more firmly planted on the right road
than the occultist, who fancies he has removed his interest from self, but
who has in reality only enlarged the limits of experience and desire, and
transferred his interest to the things which concern his larger span of
life. The same principle applies to the other two seemingly simple rules.
Linger over them and do not let yourself be easily deceived by your own
heart. For now, at the threshold, a mistake can be corrected. But carry it
on with you and it will grow and come to fruition, or else you must suffer
bitterly in its destruction.
2. Kill out desire of life.
3. Kill out desire of comfort.
4. Work as those work who are ambitious. Respect life as those do who
desire it. Be happy as those are who live for happiness. Seek in the
heart the source of evil and expunge it. It lives fruitfully in the heart of
the devoted disciple as well as in the heart of the man of desire. Only the
strong can kill it out. The weak must wait for its growth, its fruition, its
death. And it is a plant that lives and increases throughout the ages. It
flowers when the man has accumulated unto himself innumerable
existences. He who will enter upon the path of power must tear this
thing out of his heart. And then the heart will bleed, and the whole life
of the man seem to be utterly dissolved. This ordeal must be endured; it
may come at the first step of the perilous ladder which leads to the path
of life: it may not come until the last. But, O disciple, remember that it
has to be endured: and fasten the energies of your soul upon the task.
Live neither in the present nor the future, but in the eternal. This giant
weed cannot flower there: this blot upon existence is wiped out by the
very atmosphere of eternal thought.
5. Kill out all sense of separateness.
Author's Note: Do not fancy you can stand aside from the bad man or
the foolish man. They are yourself, though in a less degree than your
friend or your master. But if you allow the idea of separateness from any
evil thing or person to grow up within you, by so doing you create
Karma, which will bind you to that thing or person till your soul
recognizes that it cannot be isolated. Remember that the sin and shame
of the world are your sin and shame; for you are a part of it; your Karma
is inextricably interwoven with the great Karma. And before you can
attain knowledge you must have passed through all places, foul and
clean alike. Therefore, remember that the soiled garment you shrink
from touching may have been yours yesterday, may be yours tomorrow.
And if you turn with horror from it, when it is flung upon your
shoulders, it will cling the more closely to you. The self-righteous man
makes for himself a bed of mire. Abstain because it is right to abstain -not
that yourself shall be kept clean.
6. Kill out desire for sensation.
7. Kill out the hunger for growth.
8. Yet stand alone and isolated, because nothing that is imbodied,
nothing that is conscious of separation, nothing that is out of the
eternal, can aid you. Learn from sensation and observe it, because only
so can you commence the science of self-knowledge, and plant your foot
on the first step of the ladder. Grow as the flower grows, unconsciously,
but eagerly anxious to open its soul to the air. So must you press
forward to open your soul to the eternal. But it must be the eternal that
draws forth your strength and beauty, not desire of growth. For in the
one case you develop in the luxuriance of purity, in the other you
harden by the forcible passion for personal stature.
9. Desire only that which is within you.
10. Desire only that which is beyond you.
11. Desire only that which is unattainable.
12. For within you is the light of the world -- the only light that can be
shed upon the Path. If you are unable to perceive it within you, it is
useless to look for it elsewhere. It is beyond you; because when you
reach it you have lost yourself. It is unattainable, because it for ever
recedes. You will enter the light, but you will never touch the flame.
13. Desire power ardently.
14. Desire peace fervently.
15. Desire possessions above all.
16. But those possessions must belong to the pure soul only, and be
possessed therefore by all pure souls equally, and thus be the especial
property of the whole only when united. Hunger for such possessions as
can be held by the pure soul, that you may accumulate wealth for that
united spirit of life which is your only true self. The peace you shall
desire is that sacred peace which nothing can disturb, and in which the
soul grows as does the holy flower upon the still lagoons. And that power
which the disciple shall covet is that which shall make him appear as
nothing in the eyes of men.
17. Seek out the way.
Author's Note: These four words seem, perhaps, too slight to stand
alone. The disciple may say, Should I study these thoughts at all did I
not seek out the way? Yet do not pass on hastily. Pause and consider
awhile. Is it the way you desire, or is it that there is a dim perspective in
your visions of great heights to be scaled by yourself, of a great future for
you to compass? Be warned. The way is to be sought for its own sake,
not with regard to your feet that shall tread it.
There is a correspondence between this rule and the 17th of the 2nd
series. When after ages of struggle and many victories the final battle is
won, the final secret demanded, then you are prepared for a further
path. When the final secret of this great lesson is told, in it is opened the
mystery of the new way -- a path which leads out of all human
experience, and which is utterly beyond human perception or
imagination. At each of these points it is needful to pause long and
consider well. At each of these points it is necessary to be sure that the
way is chosen for its own sake. The way and the truth come first, then
follows the life.
18. Seek the way by retreating within.
19. Seek the way by advancing boldly without.
20. Seek it not by any one road. To each temperament there is one road
which seems the most desirable. But the way is not found by devotion
alone, by religious contemplation alone, by ardent progress, by
self-sacrificing labor, by studious observation of life. None alone can take
the disciple more than one step onward. All steps are necessary to make
up the ladder. The vices of men become steps in the ladder, one by one,
as they are surmounted. The virtues of man are steps indeed, necessary
-- not by any means to be dispensed with. Yet, though they create a fair
atmosphere and a happy future, they are useless if they stand alone.
The whole nature of man must be used wisely by the one who desires to
enter the way. Each man is to himself absolutely the way, the truth, and
the life. But he is only so when he grasps his whole individuality firmly,
and, by the force of his awakened spiritual will, recognizes this
individuality as not himself, but that thing which he has with pain
created for his own use, and by means of which he purposes, as his
growth slowly develops his intelligence, to reach to the life beyond
individuality. When he knows that for this his wonderful complex
separated life exists, then, indeed, and then only, he is upon the way.
Seek it by plunging into the mysterious and glorious depths of your own
inmost being. Seek it by testing all experience, by utilizing the senses in
order to understand the growth and meaning of individuality, and the
beauty and obscurity of those other divine fragments which are
struggling side by side with you, and form the race to which you belong.
Seek it by study of the laws of being, the laws of nature, the laws of the
supernatural: and seek it by making the profound obeisance of the soul
to the dim star that burns within. Steadily, as you watch and worship,
its light will grow stronger. Then you may know you have found the
beginning of the way. And when you have found the end its light will
suddenly become the infinite light.
Note: Seek it by testing all experience, and remember that when I say
this I do not say, Yield to the seductions of sense in order to know it.
Before you have become an occultist you may do this; but not
afterwards. When you have chosen and entered the path you cannot
yield to these seductions without shame.
Yet you can experience them without horror: can weigh, observe and test
them, and wait with the patience of confidence for the hour when they
shall affect you no longer. But do not condemn the man that yields;
stretch out your hand to him as a brother pilgrim whose feet have
become heavy with mire. Remember, O disciple, that great though the
gulf may be between the good man and the sinner, it is greater between
the good man and the man who has attained knowledge; it is
immeasurable between the good man and the one on the threshold of
divinity. Therefore be wary lest too soon you fancy yourself a thing apart
from the mass. When you have found the beginning of the way the star
of your soul will show its light; and by that light you will perceive how
great is the darkness in which it burns. Mind, heart, brain, all are
obscure and dark until the first great battle has been won. Be not
appalled and terrified by this sight; keep your eyes fixed on the small
light and it will grow. But let the darkness within help you to
understand the helplessness of those who have seen no light, whose
souls are in profound gloom. Blame them not, shrink not from them, but
try to lift a little of the heavy Karma of the world; give your aid to the few
strong hands that hold back the powers of darkness from obtaining
complete victory. Then do you enter into a partnership of joy, which
brings indeed terrible toil and profound sadness, but also a great and
ever-increasing delight.
21. Look for the flower to bloom in the silence that follows the storm: not
till then. It shall grow, it will shoot up, it will make branches and leaves
and form buds, while the storm continues, while the battle lasts. But not
till the whole personality of the man is dissolved and melted -- not until
it is held by the divine fragment which has created it, as a mere subject
for grave experiment and experience -- not until the whole nature has
yielded and become subject unto its higher self, can the bloom open.
Then will come a calm such as comes in a tropical country after the
heavy rain, when Nature works so swiftly that one may see her action.
Such a calm will come to the harassed spirit. And in the deep silence the
mysterious event will occur which will prove that the way has been
found.
Call it by what name you will, it is a voice that speaks where there is
none to speak -- it is a messenger that comes, a messenger without form
or substance; or it is the flower of the soul that has opened. It cannot be
described by any metaphor. But it can be felt after, looked for, and
desired, even amid the raging of the storm. The silence may last a
moment of time or it may last a thousand years. But it will end. Yet you
will carry its strength with you. Again and again the battle must be
fought and won. It is only for an interval that Nature can be still.
Author's Note: The opening of the bloom is the glorious moment when
perception awakes: with it comes confidence, knowledge, certainty. The
pause of the soul is the moment of wonder, and the next moment of
satisfaction, that is the silence.
Know, O disciple, that those who have passed through the silence, and
felt its peace and retained its strength, they long that you shall pass
through it also. Therefore, in the Hall of Learning, when he is capable of
entering there, the disciple will always find his master.
Those that ask shall have. But though the ordinary man asks
perpetually, his voice is not heard. For he asks with his mind only; and
the voice of the mind is only heard on that plane on which the mind
acts. Therefore, not until the first twenty-one rules are past do I say
those that ask shall have.
To read, in the occult sense, is to read with the eyes of the spirit. To ask
is to feel the hunger within -- the yearning of spiritual aspiration. To be
able to read means having obtained the power in a small degree of
gratifying that hunger. When the disciple is ready to learn, then he is
accepted, acknowledged, recognized. It must be so, for he has lit his
lamp, and it cannot be hidden. But to learn is impossible until the first
great battle has been won. The mind may recognize truth, but the spirit
cannot receive it. Once having passed through the storm and attained
the peace, it is then always possible to learn, even though the disciple
waver, hesitate, and turn aside.
The voice of the silence remains within him, and though he leave the
path utterly, yet one day it will resound and rend him asunder and
separate his passions from his divine possibilities. Then with pain and
desperate cries from the deserted lower self he will return.
Therefore I say, Peace be with you. My peace I give unto you can only be
said by the Master to the beloved disciples who are as himself. There are
some even among those who are ignorant of the Eastern wisdom to
whom this can be said, and to whom it can daily be said with more
completeness. Regard the three truths. They are equal.
These written above are the first of the rules which are written on the
walls of the Hall of Learning. Those that ask shall have. Those that desire
to read shall read. Those who desire to learn shall learn.
PEACE BE WITH YOU.
(And don't forget.....kill, kill, kill, kill, kill...)
----
This is the very beginning of the book. That what you just read is at the very end of the PDF book.
THE FIRST LESSON.
THE FIRST THREE PRINCIPLES.
It is with no ordinary feelings that we address ourselves to our students
of the Yogi class of 1904. We see, as they perhaps do not, that to many
of them this series of lessons will be as seed planted in fertile soil,
which will in due time put forth sprouts which will force their way
gradually into the sunlight of consciousness, where they will put forth
leaves, blossom, and fruit. Many of the fragments of truth which will be
presented to you will not be recognized by you at this time, but in years
to come you will recognize the verity of the impressions which will be
conveyed to you in these lessons, and then, and then only, will you
make these truths your own.
We intend to speak to you just as if you were gathered before us in
person, and as if we were standing before you in the flesh. We feel sure
that the bond of sympathy between us will soon grow so strong and real
that as you read our words you will feel our presence almost as strongly
as if we were with you in person. We will be with you in spirit, and, according
to our philosophy, the student who is in harmonious sympathy with his teachers
really establishes a psychic connection with them, and is in consequence
enabled to grasp the "spirit" of the teaching and to receive the benefit of the
teacher's thought in a degree impossible to one who merely reads the words
in cold print.
We are sure that the members of the class of 1904 will get into
harmony with each other, and with us, from the very start, and that we
will obtain results that will surprise even ourselves, and that the term of
the class will mark a wonderful spiritual growth and unfoldment for
many of the class. This result would be impossible were the class
composed of the general public, in which the adverse thought vibrations
of many would counteract, or at least retard, the impelling force
generated in the minds of those who are in sympathy with the work.
But we will not have this obstacle to overcome, as the class has been
recruited only from that class of students who are interested in the
occult. The announcements sent out by us have been worded in such a
way as to attract the attention only of those for whom they were
intended. The mere sensation hunters and the "faddists" have not been
attracted by our call, while those for whom the call was intended have
heard and have hastened to communicate with us. As the poet has
sung: "Where I pass, all my children know me." The members of the
class having been attracted to us, and we to them, will form a harmonious
body working with us to the common end of self-improvement, growth,
development, and unfoldment. The spirit of harmony and unity of purpose
will do much for us, and the united thought of the class, coupled with our
own, will be a tower of strength, and each student will receive the benefit of
it, and will be strengthened and sustained thereby.
We will follow the system of instruction of the East, rather than that of the
Western world. In the East, the teacher does not stop to "prove" each
statement or theory as he makes or advances it; nor does he make a
blackboard demonstration of spiritual truths; nor does he argue with his
class or invite discussion. On the contrary, his teaching is authoritative,
and he proceeds to deliver his message to his students as it was delivered
to him, without stopping to see whether they all agree with him. He does
not care whether his statements are accepted as truth by all, for he feels
sure that those who are ready for the truth which he teaches will
intuitively recognize it, and as for the others, if they are not prepared to
receive the truth, no amount of argument will help matters. When a soul is
ready for a spiritual truth, and that truth, or a part of it, is uttered in its
presence or presented to its attention by means of writings, it will
intuitively recognize and appropriate it. The Eastern teacher knows that
much of his teaching is but the planting of seed, and that for every idea
which the student grasps at first there will be a hundred which will come
into the field of conscious recognition only after the lapse of time.
We do not mean that the Eastern teachers insist upon the student blindly
accepting every truth that is presented to him. On the contrary, they
instruct the pupil to accept as truth only that which he can prove for
himself, as no truth is truth to one until he can prove it by his own
experiments. But the student is taught that before many truths may be so
proven he must develop and unfold. The teacher asks only that the student
have confidence in him as a pointer-out of the way, and he says, in effect, to
the student: "This is the way; enter upon it, and on the path you will find
the things of which I have taught you; handle them, weigh them, measure
them, taste them, and know for yourself. When you reach any point of the
path you will know as much of it as did I or any other soul at that particular
stage of the journey; but until you reach a particular point, you must either
accept the statements of those who have gone before or reject the whole
subject of that particular point. Accept nothing as final until you have
proven it; but, if you are wise, you will profit by the advice and experience of
those who have gone before. Every man must learn by experience, but men
may serve others as pointers of the way. At each stage of the journey it will
be found that those who have progressed a little further on the way have left
signs and marks and guideposts for those who follow. The wise man will take
advantage of these signs. I do not ask for blind faith, but only for confidence
until you are able to demonstrate for yourselves the truths I am passing on to
you, as they were passed on to me, by those who went before.
We ask the student to have patience. Many things which will appear dark to
him at first will be made clear as we progress.
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN.
Man is a far more complete being than is generally imagined. He has not
only a body and a soul, but he is a spirit possessing a soul, which soul has
several vehicles for expression, these several vehicles being of different
degrees of density, the body being the lowest form of expression. These
different vehicles manifest upon different "planes," such as the "physical
plane," the "astral plane," etc., all of which will be explained as we proceed.
The real self is pure spirit, a spark of the divine fire. This spirit is encased
within numerous sheaths, which prevent its full expression. As man
advances in development, his consciousness passes from the lower planes to
the higher, and he becomes more and more aware of his higher nature.
The spirit contains within it all potentialities, and as man progresses he
unfolds new powers, new qualities, into the light.
The Yogi philosophy teaches that man is composed of seven principles - is a
sevenfold creature. The best way to think of man is to realize that the spirit
is the real self, and that the lower principles are but confining sheaths. Man
may manifest upon seven planes, that is, the highly developed man, as the
majority of men of this age can manifest only upon the lower planes, the
higher planes not having as yet been reached by them, although every man,
no matter how undeveloped, possesses the seven principles potentially. The
first five planes have been attained by many, the sixth by a few, the seventh
by practically none of this race at this time.
THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF MAN.
The seven principles of man, as known to the Yogi philosophy, are herewith
stated, English terms being substituted for Sanscrit words, so far as may be:
7. Spirit.
6. Spiritual-Mind.
5. Intellect.
4. Instinctive-Mind.
3. Prana, or Vital Force.
2. Astral Body.
1. Physical Body.
No comments:
Post a Comment