Chapter LII: Section LI: The “doctrine of the Eye” & the “doctrine of the Heart,” or (1)

THE “HEART’S SEAL.”

Prof. Albrecht Weber was right when he declared that the Northern Buddhists

Alone possess these [Buddhist] Scriptures complete.

For, while the Southern Buddhists have no idea of the existence of an Esoteric Doctrine—enshrined like a pearl within the shell of every religion—the Chinese and the Tibetans have preserved numerous records of the fact. Degenerate, fallen as is now the Doctrine publicly preached by Gautama, it is yet preserved in those monasteries in China that are placed beyond the reach of visitors. And though for over two millennia every new “reformer,” taking something out of the original has replaced it by some speculation of his own, still truth lingers even now among the masses. But it is only in the Trans‐Himâlayan fastnesses—loosely called Tibet—in the most inaccessible spots of desert and mountain, that the Esoteric “Good Law”—the “Heart’s Seal”—lives to the present day in all its pristine purity.

Was Emanuel Swedenborg wrong when he remarked of the forgotten, long‐lost Word:

Seek for it in China; peradventure you may find it in Great
Tartary.

He had obtained this information, he tells his readers, from certain “Spirits,” who told him that they performed their worship according to this (lost) ancient Word. On this it was remarked in _Isis Unveiled_ that

Other students of Occult Sciences had more than the word of
“spirits” to rely upon in this special case: they have seen the
books

that contain the “Word.”(750) Perchance the names of those “Spirits” who visited the great Swedish Theosophist were Eastern. The word of a man of such undeniable and recognised integrity, of one whose learning in Mathematics, Astronomy, the natural Sciences and Philosophy was far in advance of his age, cannot be trifled with or rejected as unceremoniously as if it were the statement of a modern Theosophist; further, he claimed to pass at will into that state when the Inner Self frees itself entirely from every physical sense, and lives and breathes in a world where every secret of Nature is an open book to the Soul‐eye.(751) Unfortunately two‐ thirds of his public writings are also allegorical in one sense; and, as they have been accepted literally, criticism has not spared the great Swedish Seer any more than other Seers.

Having taken a panoramic view of the hidden Sciences and Magic with their Adepts in Europe, Eastern Initiates must now be mentioned. If the presence of Esotericism in the Sacred Scriptures of the West only now begins to be suspected, after nearly two thousand years of blind faith in their _verbatim_ wisdom, the same may well be granted as to the Sacred Books of the East. Therefore neither the Indian nor the Buddhist system can be understood without a key, nor can the study of comparative Religion become a “Science” until the symbols of every Religion yield their final secrets. At the best such a study will remain a loss of time, a playing at hide‐ and‐seek.

On the authority of a Japanese _Encyclopædia_, Remusat shows the Buddha, before His death, committing the secrets of His system to His disciple, Kâsyapa, to whom alone was entrusted the sacred keeping of the Esoteric interpretation. It is called in China _Ching‐fa‐yin‐Tsang_ (“the Mystery of the Eye of the Good Doctrine”). To any student of Buddhist Esotericism the term, “the Mystery of the Eye,” would show the absence of any Esotericism. Had the word “Heart” stood in its place, then it would have meant what it now only professes to convey. The “Eye Doctrine” means dogma and dead‐letter form, church ritualism intended for those who are content with exoteric formulæ. The “Heart Doctrine,” or the “Heart’s Seal” (the Sin Yin), is the only real one. This may be found corroborated by Hiuen Tsang. In his translation of _Mahâ‐Prajnâ‐Pâramitâ_ (_Ta‐poh‐je‐King_), in one hundred and twenty volumes, it is stated that it was Buddha’s “favourite disciple Ânanda,” who, after his great Master had gone into Nirvâna, was commissioned by Kâsyapa to promulgate “the Eye of the Doctrine,” the “Heart” of the Law having been left with the Arhats alone.

The essential difference that exists between the two—the “Eye” and the “Heart,” or the outward form and the hidden meaning, the cold metaphysics and the Divine Wisdom—is clearly demonstrated in several volumes on “Chinese Buddhism,” written by sundry missionaries. Having lived for years in China, they still know no more than they have learned from pretentious schools calling themselves esoteric, yet freely supplying the open enemies of their faith with professedly ancient manuscripts and esoteric works! This ludicrous contradiction between profession and practice has never, as it seems, struck any of the western and reverend historians of other peoples’ secret tenets. Thus many esoteric schools are mentioned in _Chinese Buddhism_ by the Rev. Joseph Edkins, who believes quite sincerely that he has made “a minute examination” of the secret tenets of Buddhists whose works “were until lately inaccessible in their original form.” It really will not be saying too much to state at once that the genuine Esoteric literature is “inaccessible” to this day, and that the respectable gentleman who was inspired to state that

It does not appear that there was any secret doctrine which those
who knew it would not divulge,

made a great mistake if he ever believed in what he says on page 161 of his work. Let him know at once that all those Yû‐luh (“Records of the Sayings”) of celebrated teachers are simply blinds, as complete—if not more so—than those in the Purânas of the Brâhmans. It is useless to enumerate an endless string of the finest Oriental scholars or to bring forward the researches of Remusat, Burnouf, Koeppen, St. Hilaire, and St. Julian, who are credited with having exposed to view the ancient Hindu world, by revealing the sacred and secret books of Buddhism: the world that they reveal has never been veiled. The mistakes of all the Orientalists may be judged by the mistake of one of the most popular, if not the greatest among them all—Prof. Max Müller. It is made with reference to what he laughingly translates as the “god Who” (Ka).

The authors of the Brâhmanas had so completely broken with the
past, that, forgetful of the poetical character of the hymns and
the yearning of the poets after the Unknown God, they exalted the
interrogative pronoun itself into a deity, and acknowledged a god
Ka (or Who?)... Wherever interrogative verses occur the author
states that Ka is Prajâpati, or the Lord of Creatures. Nor did
they stop here. Some of the hymns in which the interrogative
pronoun occurred were called Kadvat, _i.e._, having Kad or Quid.
But soon a new adjective was formed, and not only the hymns but
the sacrifice also offered to the god were called Kaya, or
“Who”‐ish.... At the time of Pânini this word acquired such
legitimacy as to call for a separate rule explaining its
formation. The Commentator here explains Ka by Brahman.

Had the commentator explained It even by Parabrahman he would have been still more in the right than he was by rendering It as “Brahman.” One fails to see why the secret and sacred Mystery‐Name of the highest, sexless, formless Spirit, the Absolute,—Whom no one would have dared to classify with the rest of the manifested Deities, or even to name during the primitive nomenclature of the symbolical Panthenon, should not be expressed by an interrogative pronoun. Is it those who belong to the most anthropomorphic Religion in the world who have a right to take ancient Philosophers to task for even an exaggerated religious awe and veneration?

But we are now concerned with Buddhism. Its Esotericism and oral instruction, which is written down and preserved in single copies by the highest chiefs in genuine Esoteric Schools, is shown by the author San‐ Kian‐yi‐su. Contrasting Bodhidharma with Buddha, he exclaims:

“Julai” (Tathâgata) taught great truths and the causes of things.
He became the instructor of men and Devas. He saved multitudes,
and spoke the contents of more than five hundred works. Hence
arose the Kiau‐men, or exoteric branch of the system, and it was
believed to be the tradition of the _words_ of Buddha. Bodhidharma
brought from the Western Heaven [Shamballa] the “Seal of Truth”
(true seal) and opened the fountain of contemplation in the East.
He pointed directly to Buddha’s heart and nature, swept away the
parasitic and alien growth of book‐instruction, and thus
established the Tsung‐men, or Esoteric branch of the system
containing the tradition of the heart of Buddha.(752)

A few remarks made by the author of _Chinese Buddhism_ throw a flood of light on the universal misconceptions of Orientalists in general, and of the missionaries in the “lands of the Gentiles” in particular. They appeal very forcibly to the intuition of Theosophists—more particularly of those in India. The sentences to be noticed are italicized.

The common [Chinese] word for the esoteric Schools is _dan_, the
Sanskrit _Dhyâna_.... Orthodox Buddhism has in China slowly but
steadily _become heterodox_. The Buddhism of books and ancient
traditions _has become the Buddhism of mystic contemplation_....
The history of ancient schools springing up long ago in the
Buddhist communities of India _can now be only very partially
recovered_. Possibly some light may be thrown back by China upon
the religious history of the country from which Buddhism
came.(753) In no part of the story is aid to the recovery of the
lost knowledge more likely to be found than in the accounts of the
patriarchs, the line of whom was completed by Bodhidharma. In
seeking the best explanation of the Chinese and Japanese narrative
of the patriarchs, and the _seven Buddhas_ terminating in Gautama,
or Shâkyamuni, it is important to know the Jain traditions as they
were early in the sixth century of our era, when the Patriarch
Bodhidharma removed to China....

In tracing the rise of the various schools of esoteric Buddhism it
must be kept in mind that a principle somewhat similar to the
dogma of apostolical succession belongs to them all. They all
profess _to derive their doctrines through a succession of
teachers, each instructed personally by his predecessor, till the
time of Bodhidharma, and so further up in the series to Shâkyamuni
himself and the earlier Buddhas_.(754)

It is complained further on, and is mentioned as a falling away from strict orthodox Buddhism, that _the Lamas of Tibet are received in Pekin with the utmost respect_ by the Emperor.

The following passages, taken from different parts of the book, summarise Mr. Edkins’ views:

Hermits are not uncommonly met with in the vicinity of large
Buddhist temples ... their hair being allowed to grow unshorn....
The doctrine of metempsychosis is rejected. Buddhism is one form
of Pantheism on the ground that the doctrine of metempsychosis
makes all nature instinct with life, and that that life is the
Deity assuming different forms of personality, that Deity not
being a self‐conscious, free‐acting Self‐Cause, but an all‐
pervading Spirit. The esoteric Buddhists of China, keeping rigidly
to their one doctrine,(755) say nothing of the metempsychosis, ...
or any other of the more material parts of the Buddhist system....
The Western paradise promised to the worshippers of Amida Buddha
is ... inconsistent with the doctrine of Nirvana [?].(756)... _It
promises immortality_ instead of annihilation. The great antiquity
of this School is evident from the early date of the translation
of the _Amida Sûtra_, which came from the hands of Kumârajîva, and
the _Ku‐liang‐sheu‐King_, dating from the Han dynasty. Its extent
of influence is seen in the attachment of the Tibetans and Moguls
to the worship of this Buddha, and in the fact that the name of
this fictitious personage [?] is more commonly heard in China than
that of the historical Shâkyamuni.

We fear the learned writer is on a false track as to Nirvâna and Amita Buddha. However, here we have the evidence of a missionary to show that there are several schools of Esoteric Buddhism in the Celestial Empire. When the misuse of dogmatical orthodox Buddhist Scriptures had reached its climax, and the true spirit of the Buddha’s Philosophy was nearly lost, several reformers appeared from India, who established an oral teaching. Such were Bodhidharma and Nâgârjuna, the authors of the most important works of the contemplative School in China during the first centuries of our era. It is known, moreover, as is said in _Chinese Buddhism_, that Bodhidharma became the chief founder of the Esoteric Schools, which were divided into five principal branches. The data given are correct enough, but every conclusion, without one single exception, is wrong. It was said in _Isis Unveiled_ that—

Buddha teaches the doctrine of a new birth as plainly as Jesus
does. Desiring to break with the ancient Mysteries, to which it
was impossible to admit the ignorant masses, the Hindu reformer,
though generally silent upon more than one secret dogma, clearly
states his thought in several passages. Thus, he says: “_Some
people are born again_; evil‐doers go to hell [Avitchi]; righteous
people go to heaven [Devachan]; those who are free from all
worldly desires enter Nirvâna” (_Precepts of the Dhammapada_, v.
126). Elsewhere Buddha states that “it is better to believe in a
future life, in which happiness or misery can be felt: for if the
heart believes therein it will abandon sin and act virtuously; and
even if there is no resurrection [rebirth], such a life will bring
a good name and the reward of men. But those who believe in
extinction at death will not fail to commit any sin that they may
choose, because of their disbelief in a future.” (See _Wheel of
the Law_.)

How is immortality, then, “inconsistent with the doctrine of Nirvâna?” The above are only a few of Buddha’s openly‐expressed thoughts to his chosen Arhats; the great Saint said much more. As a comment upon the mistaken views held in our century by the Orientalists, “who vainly try to fathom Tathâgata’s thoughts,” and those of Brâhmans, “who repudiate the great Teacher to this day,” here are some original thoughts expressed in relation to the Buddha and the study of the Secret Sciences. They are from a work written in Chinese by a Tibetan, and published in the monastery of Tientaï for circulation among the Buddhists

Who live in foreign lands, and are in danger of being spoiled by
missionaries,

as the author truly says, every convert being not only “spoiled” for his own creed, but being also a sorry acquisition for Christianity. A translation of a few passages, kindly made from that work for the present volumes is now given.

No profane ears having heard the mighty Chau‐yan [secret and
enlightening _precepts_] of Vu‐vei‐Tchen‐jen [Buddha _within_
Buddha],(757) of our beloved Lord and Bodhisattva, how can one
tell what his thoughts really were? The holy Sang‐gyas‐
Panchhen(758) never offered an insight into the _One Reality_ to
the unreformed [uninitiated] Bhikkus. Few are those even among the
Tu‐fon [Tibetans] who knew it; as for the Tsung‐men(759) Schools,
they are going with every day more down hill.... Not even the Fa‐
siong‐Tsung(760) can give one the wisdom taught in real Naljor‐
chod‐pa [Sanskrit:(761) Yogâchârya]: ... it is all “Eye” Doctrine,
and no more. The loss of a restraining guidance is felt, since the
Tch’‐an‐si [teachers] of inward meditation [self‐contemplation or
Tchung‐kwan] have become rare, and the Good Law is replaced by
idol‐worship [Siang‐kyan]. It is of this [idol‐ or image‐worship]
that the Barbarians [Western people] have heard, and know nothing
of Bas‐pa‐Dharma [the secret Dharma or doctrine]. Why has truth to
hide like a tortoise within its shell? Because it is now found to
have become like the Lama’s tonsure knife,(762) a weapon too
dangerous to use even for the Lanoo. Therefore no one can be
entrusted with the knowledge [Secret Science] before his time. The
Chagpa‐Thog‐mad have become rare, and the best have retired to
Tushita the Blessed.(763)

Further on, a man seeking to master the mysteries of Esotericism before he had been declared by the initiated Tch’‐an‐si (teachers) to be ready to receive them, is likened to

One who would, without a lantern and on a dark night, proceed to a
place full of scorpions, determined to feel on the ground for a
needle his neighbour has dropped.

Again:

He who would acquire the Sacred Knowledge should, before he goes
any farther “_trim his lamp_ of inner understanding,” and then
“with the help of such good light” use his meritorious actions as
a dust‐cloth to remove every impurity from his mystic mirror,(764)
so that he should be enabled to see in its lustre the faithful
reflection of Self.... First, this; then Tong‐pa‐nya,(765) lastly;
Samma Sambuddha.(766)

In _Chinese Buddhism_ a corroboration of these statements is to be found in the aphorisms of Lin‐tsi:

Within the body which admits sensations, acquires knowledge,
thinks, and acts, there is the “true man without a position” Wu‐
wei‐chen‐jen. He makes himself clearly visible; not the thinnest
separating film hides him. Why do you not recognise him?... If the
mind does not come to conscious existence, there is deliverance
everywhere.... What is Buddha? _Ans._ A mind clear and at rest.
What is the Law? _Ans._ A mind clear and enlightened. What is
_Tau_? _Ans._ In every place absence of impediments and pure
enlightenment. These three are one.

The reverend author of _Chinese Buddhism_ makes merry over the symbolism of Buddhist discipline. Yet the self‐inflicted “slaps on the cheek” and “blows under the ribs” find their pendants in the mortifications of the body and self‐flagellation—“the discipline of the scourge”—of the Christian monks, from the first centuries of Christianity down to our own day. But then the said author is a Protestant, who substitutes for mortification and discipline—good living and comfort. The sentence in the Lin‐tsi,

The “true man, without a position,” Wu‐wei‐chen‐jen, is wrapped in
a prickly shell, like the chestnut. He cannot be approached. This
is Buddha—the Buddha within you,

is laughed at. Truly

An infant cannot understand the seven enigmas!

SOME PAPERS ON THE BEARING OF OCCULT PHILOSOPHY ON LIFE.

NOTE.

Papers I. II. III. of the following were written by H. P. B. and were circulated privately during her lifetime, but they were written with the idea that they would be published after a time. They are papers intended for students rather than for the ordinary reader, and will repay careful study and thought. The “Notes of some Oral Teaching” were written down by some of her pupils and were partially corrected by her, but no attempt has been made to relieve them of their fragmentary character. She had intended to make them the basis for written papers similar to the first three, but her failing health rendered this impossible, and they are published with her consent, the time for restricting them to a limited circle having expired.

ANNIE BESANT.

Paper I. A Warning.

There is a strange law in Occultism which has been ascertained and proven by thousands of years of experience; nor has it failed to demonstrate itself, almost in every case, during the years that the Theosophical Society has been in existence. As soon as anyone pledges himself as a “Probationer,” certain Occult effects ensue. Of these the first is the _throwing outward_ of everything latent in the nature of the man; his faults, habits, qualities or subdued desires, whether good, bad or indifferent.

For instance, if a man be vain or a sensualist, or ambitious, whether by atavism or by karmic heirloom, those vices are sure to break out, even if he has hitherto successfully concealed and repressed them. They will come to the front irrepressibly, and he will have to fight a hundred times harder than before, until he kills all such tendencies in himself.

On the other hand, if he be good, generous, chaste and abstemious, or has any virtue hitherto latent and concealed in him, it will work its way out as irrepressibly as the rest. Thus a civilized man who hates to be considered a saint, and therefore assumes a mask, will not be able to conceal his true nature, whether base or noble.

THIS IS AN IMMUTABLE LAW IN THE DOMAIN OF THE OCCULT.

Its action is the more marked, the more earnest and sincere the desire of the candidate, and the more deeply he has felt the reality and importance of his pledge.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

The ancient occult axiom, “Know Thyself,” must be familiar to every student; but few if any have apprehended the real meaning of this wise exhortation of the Delphic Oracle. You all know your earthly pedigree, but who of you has ever traced all the links of heredity, astral, psychic and spiritual, which go to make you what you are? Many have written and expressed their desire to unite themselves with their Higher Ego, yet none seem to know the indissoluble link connecting their “Higher Egos” with the One Universal SELF.

For all purposes of Occultism, whether practical or purely metaphysical, such knowledge is absolutely requisite. It is proposed, therefore, to begin these papers by showing this connection in all directions with the worlds: Absolute, Archetypal, Spiritual, Mânasic, Psychic, Astral, and Elemental. Before, however, we can touch upon the higher worlds—Archetypal, Spiritual and Mânasic—we must master the relations of the seventh, the terrestrial world, the lower Prakriti, or Malkuth as in the Kabalah, to the worlds or planes which immediately follow it.

OM.

“OM,” says the Âryan Adept, the son of the Fifth Race, who with this syllable begins and ends his salutation to the human being, his conjuration of, or appeal to, non‐human PRESENCES.

“OM‐MANI,” murmurs the Turanian Adept, the descendant of the Fourth Race; and after pausing he adds, “PADME‐HUM.”

This famous invocation is very erroneously translated by the Orientalists as meaning, “Oh the Jewel in the Lotus.” For although, literally, OM is a syllable sacred to the Deity, PADME means “in the Lotus,” and MANI is any precious stone, still neither the words themselves, nor their symbolical meaning, are thus really correctly rendered.

In this, the most sacred of all Eastern formulas, not only has every syllable a secret potency producing a definite result, but the whole invocation has seven different meanings and can produce seven distinct results, each of which may differ from the others.

The seven meanings and the seven results depend upon the intonation which is given to the whole formula and to each of its syllables; and even the numerical value of the letters is added to or diminished according as such or another rhythm is made use of. Let the student remember that number underlies form, and number guides sound. Number lies at the root of the manifested Universe: numbers and harmonious proportions guide the first differentiations of homogeneous substance into heterogeneous elements; and number and numbers set limits to the formative hand of Nature.

Know the corresponding numbers of the fundamental principle of every element and its sub‐elements, learn their interaction and behaviour on the occult side of manifesting Nature, and the law of correspondences will lead you to the discovery of the greatest mysteries of macrocosmical life.

But to arrive at the macrocosmical, you must begin by the microcosmical, _i.e._, you must study MAN, the microcosm—in this case as physical science does—inductively, proceeding from particulars to universals. At the same time, however, since a key‐note is required to analyze and comprehend any combination of differentiations of sound, we must never lose sight of the Platonic method, which starts with one general view of all, and descends from the universal to the individual. This is the method adopted in Mathematics—the only _exact_ science that exists in our day.

Let us study Man, therefore; but if we separate him for one moment from the Universal Whole, or view him in isolation, from a single aspect, apart from the “Heavenly Man”—the Universe symbolized by Adam Kadmon or his equivalents in every Philosophy—we shall either land in Black Magic or fail most ingloriously in our attempt.

Thus the mystic sentence, “_Om Mani Padme Hum_,” when rightly understood, instead of being composed of the almost meaningless words, “Oh the Jewel in the Lotus,” contains a reference to this indissoluble union between Man and the Universe, rendered in seven different ways, and having the capability of seven different applications to as many planes of thought and action.

From whatever aspect we examine it, it means: “I am that I am”: “I am in thee and thou art in me.” In this conjunction and close union the good and pure man becomes a God. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he will bring about, or innocently cause to happen, unavoidable results. In the first case, if an Initiate (of course an Adept of the Right‐hand Path alone is meant), he can guide a beneficent or a protecting current, and thus benefit and protect individuals and even whole nations. In the second case, although quite unaware of what he is doing, the good man becomes a shield to whomsoever he is with.

Such is the fact; but its how and why have to be explained, and this can be done only when the actual presence and potency of numbers in sounds, and hence in words and letters, have been rendered clear. The formula, “_Om Mani Padme Hum_,” has been chosen as an illustration on account of its almost infinite potency in the mouth of an Adept, and of its potentiality when pronounced by any man. Be careful, all you who read this: do not use these words in vain, or when in anger, lest you become yourself the first sacrificial victim, or, what is worse, endanger those whom you love.

The profane Orientalist, who all his life skims mere externals, will tell you flippantly, and laughing at the superstition, that in Tibet this sentence is the most powerful six‐syllabled incantation and is said to have been delivered to the nations of Central Asia by Padmapâni, the Tibetan Chenresi.(767)

But who is Padmapâni, in reality? Each of us must recognize him for himself, whenever he is ready. Each of us has within himself the “Jewel in the Lotus,” call it Padmapâni, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, or whatever name we may give to our Divine Self. The exoteric story runs thus:

The supreme Buddha, or Amitâbha, they say, at the hour of the creation of man, caused a rosy ray of light to issue from his right eye. The ray emitted a sound and became Padmapâni Bodhisattva. Then the Deity allowed to stream forth from his left eye a blue ray of light, which, becoming incarnate in the two virgins Dolma, acquired the power to enlighten the minds of living beings. Amitâbha then called the combination, which forthwith took up its abode in man, “_Om Mani Padme Hum_,” “I am the Jewel in the Lotus and in it I will remain.” Then Padmapâni, “the One in the Lotus” vowed never to cease working until he had made Humanity feel his presence in itself and had thus saved it from the misery of rebirth. He vowed to perform the feat before the end of the Kalpa, adding that, in case of failure, he wished that his head should split into numberless fragments. The Kalpa closed; but Humanity felt him not within its cold, evil heart. Then Padmapâni’s head split and was shattered into a thousand fragments. Moved with compassion, the Deity re‐formed the pieces into _ten_ heads, three white, and seven of various colours. And since that day man has become a perfect number, or TEN.

In this allegory the potency of SOUND, COLOUR, and NUMBER is so ingeniously introduced as to veil the real Esoteric meaning. To the outsider it reads like one of the many meaningless fairy‐tales of creation; but it is pregnant with spiritual and divine, physical and magical meaning. From Amitâbha—_no colour_, or the _white glory_—are born the seven differentiated colours of the prism. These each emit a corresponding sound, forming the seven of the _musical scale_. As Geometry, among the Mathematical Sciences, is specially related to Architecture, and also (proceeding to Universals) to Cosmogony, so the ten Jods of the Pythagorean Tetrad, or Tetraktys, being made to symbolize the Macrocosm, the Microcosm, or man, its image, had also to be divided into ten points. For this Nature herself has provided, as will be seen.

But before this statement can be proved and the perfect correspondences between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm demonstrated, a few words of explanation are necessary.

To the learner who would study the Esoteric Sciences with their double object: (_a_) of proving Man to be identical in spiritual and physical essence with both the Absolute Principle and with God in Nature; and (_b_) of demonstrating the presence in him of the same potential powers as exist in the creative forces in Nature—to such a one a perfect knowledge of the correspondences between Colours, Sounds, and Numbers is the first requisite. As already said, the sacred formula of the far East, “_Om Mani Padme Hum_,” is the one best calculated to make these correspondential qualities and functions clear to the learner.

In the allegory of Padmapâni, the Jewel (or Spiritual Ego) in the Lotus, or the symbol of androgynous man, the numbers 3, 4, 7, 10, as synthesizing the _Unit_, Man, are prominent, as I have already said. It is on the thorough knowledge and comprehension of the meaning and potency of these numbers, in their various and multiform combinations, and in their mutual correspondence with sounds or words, and colours or rates of motion (represented in physical science by vibrations), that the progress of a student in Occultism depends. Therefore we must begin with the first, initial word, OM, or AUM. OM is a “blind.” The sentence “_Om Mani Padme Hum_” is not a six‐ but a seven‐syllabled phrase, as the first syllable is double in its right pronunciation, and triple in its essence, A‐UM. It represents the for ever concealed primeval triune differentiation, not _from_ but _in_ the ONE Absolute, and is therefore symbolized by the 4, or the Tetraktys, in the metaphysical world. It is the Unit‐ray, or Âtman.

It is the Âtman, this highest Spirit in man, which, in conjunction with Buddhi and Manas, is called the upper Triad, or Trinity. This Triad with its four lower human principles, is, moreover, enveloped with an auric atmosphere, like the yolk of an egg (the future embryo) by the albumen and shell. This, to the perceptions of higher Beings from other planes, makes of each individuality an oval sphere of more or less radiancy.

To show the student the perfect correspondence between the birth of Kosmos, a World, a Planetary Being, or a Child of Sin and Earth, a more definite and clear description must be given. Those acquainted with Physiology will understand it better than others.

Who, having read say the _Vishnu_ or other _Purâna_, is not familiar with the exoteric allegory of the birth of Brahmâ (male‐female) in the Egg of the World, Hiranyagarbha, surrounded by its seven zones, or rather planes, which in the world of form and matter become seven and fourteen Lokas; the numbers seven and fourteen reäppearing as occasion requires.

Without giving out the secret analysis, the Hindus have from time immemorial compared the matrix of the Universe, and also the solar matrix, to the female uterus. It is written of the former: “Its womb is vast as the Meru,” and

The future mighty oceans lay asleep in the waters that filled its
cavities, the continents, seas and mountains, the stars, planets,
the gods, demons and mankind.

The whole resembled, in its inner and outer coverings, the cocoanut filled interiorly with pulp, and covered externally with husk and rind. “Vast as Meru,” say the texts.

Meru was its Amnion, and the other mountains were its Chorion,

adds a verse in _Vishnu Purâna_.(768)

In the same way is man born in his mother’s womb. As Brahmâ is surrounded, in exoteric traditions, by seven layers within and seven without the Mundane Egg, so is the embryo (the first or the seventh layer, according to the end from which we begin to count). Thus, just as Esotericism in its Cosmogony enumerates seven inner and seven outer layers, so Physiology notes the contents of the uterus as seven also, although it is completely ignorant of this being a copy of what takes place in the Universal Matrix. These contents are:

1. _Embryo._ 2. _Amniotic Fluid_, immediately surrounding the Embryo. 3. _Amnion_, a membrane derived from the Fœtus, which contains the fluid. 4. _Umbilical Vesicle_, which serves to convey nourishment originally to the Embryo and to nourish it. 5. _Allantois_, a protrusion from the Embryo in the form of a closed bag, which spreads itself between 3 and 7, in the midst of 6, and which, after being specialized into the Placenta, serves to conduct nourishment to the Embryo. 6. _Interspace_ between 3 and 7 (the Amnion and Chorion), filled with an albuminous fluid. 7. _Chorion_, or outer layer.

Now, each of these seven contents severally corresponds with, and is formed after, an antetype, one on each of the seven planes of being, with which in their turn correspond the seven states of Matter and all other forces, sensational or functional, in Nature.

The following is a bird’s‐eye view of the seven correspondential contents of the wombs of Nature and of Woman. We may contrast them thus:

(1) Cosmic Process: The mathematical Point, called the “Cosmic
Seed,” the Monad of Leibnitz; which contains the whole Universe,
as the acorn the oak. This is the first bubble on the surface of
boundless homogeneous Substance, or Space, the bubble of
differentiation in its incipient stage. It is the beginning of the
Orphic or Brahmâ’s Egg. It corresponds in Astrology and Astronomy
to the Sun.

Human Process: The terrestrial Embryo, which contains in it the
future man with all his potentialities. In the series of
principles of the human system it is the Âtman, or the super‐
spiritual principle, just as in the physical Solar System it is
the Sun.

(2) Cosmic Process: The _vis vitæ_ of our solar system exudes from
the Sun. Human Process: The Amniotic Fluid exudes from the Embryo.

(_a_) Cosmic Process: It is called, when referred to the higher
planes, Âkâsha. Human Process: It is called, on the plane of
matter, Prâna.(769)

(_b_) Cosmic Process: It proceeds from the ten “divinities,” the
ten numbers of the Sun, which is itself the “Perfect Number.”
These are called Dis—in reality Space—the forces spread in Space,
three of which are contained in the Sun’s Âtman, or seventh
principle, and seven are the rays shot out by the Sun.

Human Process: It proceeds, taking its source in the universal One
Life, from the heart of man and Buddhi, over which the Seven Solar
Rays (Gods) preside.

(3) Cosmic Process: The Ether of Space, which, in its external
aspect, is the plastic crust which is supposed to envelope the
Sun. On the higher plane it is the whole Universe, as the third
differentiation of evolving Substance, Mûlaprakriti becoming
Prakriti.

Human Process: The Amnion, the membrane containing the Amniotic
Fluid and enveloping the Embryo. After the birth of man it becomes
the third layer, so to say, of his magneto‐vital aura.

(_a_) Cosmic Process: It corresponds mystically to the manifested
Mahat, or the Intellect or Soul of the World. Human Process:
Manas, the third principle (counting from above), or the Human
Soul in Man.

(4) Cosmic Process: The sidereal contents of Ether, the
substantial parts of it, unknown to Modern Science, represented as
follows. Human Process: Umbilical Vesicle, serving, as Science
teaches, to nourish the Embryo originally, but, as Occult Science
avers, to carry to the Fœtus by osmosis the cosmic influences
extraneous to the mother.

(_a_) Cosmic Process: In Occult and Kabalistic Mysteries, by
Elementals. Human Process: In the grown man these become the
feeders of Kâma, over which they preside.

(_b_) Cosmic Process: In physical Astronomy, by meteors, comets,
and all kinds of casual and phenomenal cosmic bodies. Human
Process: In the physical man, his passions and emotions, the moral
meteors and comets of human nature.

(5) Cosmic Process: Life currents in Ether, having their origin in
the Sun: the canals through which the vital principle of that
Ether (the blood of the Cosmic Body) passes to nourish everything
on the Earth and on the other Planets: from the minerals, which
are thus made to grow and become specialized, from the plants,
which are thus fed, to animal and man, to whom life is thus
imparted.

Human Process: The Allantois, a protrusion from the Embryo, which
spreads itself between the Amnion and Chorion; it is supposed to
conduct the nourishment from the mother to the Embryo. It
corresponds to the life‐principle, Prâna or Jîva.

(6) Cosmic Process: The double radiation, psychic and physical,
which radiates from the Cosmic Seed and expands around the whole
Kosmos, as well as around the Solar System and every Planet. In
Occultism it is called the upper divine, and the lower material,
Astral Light.

Human Process: The Allantois is divided into two layers. The
interspace between the Amnion and the Chorion contains the
Allantois and also an albuminous fluid.(770)

(7) Cosmic Process: The outer crust of every sidereal body, the
Shell of the Mundane Egg, or the sphere of our Solar System, of
our Earth, and of every man and animal. In sidereal space, Ether
proper; on the terrestrial plane, Air, which again is built in
seven layers.

Human Process: The Chorion, or the _Zona Pellucida_, the globular
object called Blastodermic Vesicle, the outer and the inner layers
of the membrane of which go to form the physical man. The outer,
or ectoderm, forms his epidermis; the inner, or endoderm, his
muscles, bones, etc. Man’s skin, again, is composed of seven
layers.

(_a_) Cosmic Process: The primordial potential world‐stuff becomes
(for the Manvantaric period) the permanent globe or globes. Human
Process: The “primitive” becomes the “permanent” Chorion.

Even in the evolution of the Races we see the same order as in Nature and Man.(771) Placental animal‐man became such only after the separation of sexes in the Third Root‐Race. In the physiological evolution, the placenta is fully formed and functional only after the third month of uterine life.

Let us put aside such human conceptions as a personal God, and hold to the purely divine, to that which underlies all and everything in boundless Nature. It is called by its Sanskrit Esoteric name in the _Vedas_, TAT (or THAT), a term for the unknowable Rootless Root. If we do so, we may answer these seven questions of the _Esoteric Catechism_ thus:

(1) Q.—What is the Eternal Absolute?

A.—THAT.

(2) Q.—How came Kosmos into being?

A.—Through THAT.

(3) Q.—How, or what will it be when it falls back into Pralaya?

A.—In THAT.

(4) Q.—Whence all the animate, and suppositionally, the
“inanimate” nature?

A.—From THAT.

(5) Q.—What is the Substance and Essence of which the Universe is
formed?

A.—THAT.

(6) Q.—Into what has it been and will be again and again resolved?

A.—Into THAT.

(7) Q.—Is THAT then both the instrumental and material cause of
the Universe?

A.—What else is it or can it be than THAT?

As the Universe, the Macrocosm and the Microcosm,(772) are _ten_, why should we divide Man into _seven_ “principles”? This is the reason why the perfect number ten is divided into two: in their completeness, _i.e._, super‐spiritually and physically, the forces are TEN: to wit, three on the subjective and inconceivable, and seven on the objective plane. Bear in mind that I am now giving you the description of the two opposite poles: (_a_) the primordial Triangle, which, as soon as it has reflected itself in the “Heavenly Man,” the highest of the lower seven—disappears, returning into “Silence and Darkness”; and (_b_) the astral paradigmatic man, whose Monad (Âtmâ) is also represented by a triangle, as it has to become a ternary in conscious Devachanic interludes. The purely terrestrial man being reflected in the universe of Matter, so to say, upside down, the upper Triangle, wherein the creative ideation and the subjective potentiality of the formative faculty resides, is shifted in the man of clay below the seven. Thus three of the ten, containing in the archetypal world only ideative and paradigmatical potentiality, _i.e._, existing in possibility, not in action, are in fact one. The potency of formative creation resides in the Logos, the synthesis of the seven Forces or Rays, which becomes forthwith the Quaternary, the sacred Tetraktys. This process is repeated in man, in whom the lower physical triangle becomes, in conjunction with the female One, the male‐female creator, or generator. The same on a still lower plane in the animal world. A mystery above, a mystery below, truly.

This is how the upper and highest, and the lower and most animal, stand in mutual relation.

Diagram I

1st—Macrocosm and Its 3, 7, or 10 Centres of Creative Forces

A. B. C. The Unknowable A. Sexless, Unmanifested Logos B. Potential Wisdom C. Universal Ideation

a. Creative Logos b. Eternal Substance c. Spirit

a. b. c. This is Pradhâna, undifferentiated matter in Sânkhya philosophy, or Good, Evil and Chaotic Darkness (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas), neutralizing each other. When differentiated, they become the Seven Creative Potencies: Spirit, Substance and Fire stimulating Matter to form itself.

D. The Spiritual Forces acting in Matter

2nd.—Microcosm (the Inner Man) and his 3, 7, or 10 Centres of Potential Forces

(ÂTMAN, although exoterically reckoned as the seventh principle, is no individual principle at all, and belongs to the Universal Soul; 7 is the AURIC EGG, the Magnetic Sphere round every human and animal being.)

1. BUDDHI, the vehicle of ÂTMÂ.

2. MANAS, the vehicle of BUDDHI.

3. LOWER MANAS (the Upper and Lower MANAS are two aspects of one and the same principle) and

4. KÂMA RÛPA, its vehicle.

5. PRÂNA, Life, and

6. LINGA SHARIRA, its vehicle

I. II. III. are the Three Hypostases of ÂTMAN, its contact with Nature and Man being the Fourth, making it a Quaternary, or Tetraktys, the Higher self.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. These six principles, acting on four different planes, and having their AURIC ENVELOPE on the seventh (_vide infra_), are those used by the Adepts of the Right‐Hand, or White Magicians.

3rd.—Microcosm (the Physical Man) and his 10 Orifices, or centres of Action

1. (BUDDHI) Right Eye

3. (LOWER MANAS) Right Ear

5. (LIFE PRINCIPLE) Right Nostril

7. The Organ of the CREATIVE LOGOS, the Mouth

8. 9. 10. As this Lower Ternary has a direct connection with the Higher Âtmic Triad and its three aspects (creative, preservative and destructive, or rather regenerative), the abuse of the corresponding functions is the most terrible of Karmic Sins—the Sin against the Holy Ghost with the Christians.

2. (MANAS) Left Eye

4. (KÂMA RÛPA) Left Ear

6. (LIFE VEHICLE) Left Nostril

7. The Paradigm of the 10th (creative) orifice in the Lower Triad.

These Physical Organs are used only by Dugpas in Black Magic.

In this diagram, we see that physical man (or his body) does not share in the _direct_ pure waves of the divine Essence which flows from the _One in Three_, the Unmanifested, through the Manifested Logos (the upper face in the diagram). Purusha, the primeval Spirit, touches the human head and stops there. But the Spiritual Man (the synthesis of the seven principles) is directly connected with it. And here a few words ought to be said about the usual exoteric enumeration of the principles. At first an approximate division only was made and given out. _Esoteric Buddhism_ begins with Âtmâ, the seventh, and ends with the Physical Body, the first. Now neither Âtmâ, which is no individual “principle,” but a radiation _from_ and _one with_ the Unmanifested Logos; nor the Body, which is the material rind, or shell, of the Spiritual Man, can be, in strict truth, referred to as “principles.” Moreover, the chief “principle” of all, one not even mentioned heretofore, is the “Luminous Egg” (Hiranyagarbha), or the invisible magnetic sphere in which every man is enveloped.(773) It is the direct emanation: (_a_) from the Âtmic Ray in its triple aspect of Creator, Preserver and Destroyer (Regenerator); and (_b_) from Buddhi‐ Manas. The _seventh_ aspect of this individual Aura is the faculty of assuming the form of its body and becoming the “Radiant,” the Luminous Augoeides. It is this, strictly speaking, which at times becomes the form called Mâyâvi Rûpa. Therefore, as explained in the second face of the diagram (the astral man), the Spiritual Man consists of only five principles, as taught by the Vedântins,(774) who substitute, tacitly, for the physical this sixth, or Auric, Body, and merge the dual Manas (the dual mind, or consciousness) into one. Thus they speak of five Koshas (sheaths or principles), and call Âtmâ the sixth yet no “principle.” This is the secret of the late Subba Row’s criticism of the division in _Esoteric Buddhism_. But let the student now learn the true Esoteric enumeration.

The reason why public mention of the Auric Body was not permitted was on account of its being so sacred. It is this Body which, at death, assimilates the essence of Buddhi and Manas and becomes the vehicle of these spiritual principles, _which are not objective_, and then, with the full radiation of Âtmâ upon it ascends as Manas‐Taijasi into the Devachanic state. Therefore is it called by many names. It is the Sûtrâtmâ, the silver “thread” which “incarnates” from the beginning of Manvantara to the end, stringing upon itself the pearls of human existence, in other words, the spiritual aroma of every personality it _follows_ through the pilgrimage of life.(775) It is also the material from which the Adept forms his Astral Bodies, from the Augoeides and the Mâyâvi Rûpa downwards. After the death of man, when its most ethereal particles have drawn into themselves the spiritual principles of Buddhi and the Upper Manas, and are illuminated with the radiance of Âtmâ, the Auric Body remains either in the Devachanic state of consciousness, or, in the case of a full Adept, prefers the state of a Nirmânakâya, that is, one who has so purified his whole system that he is above even the divine illusion of a Devachanî. Such an Adept remains in the astral (invisible) plane connected with our earth, and henceforth moves and lives in the possession of all his principles except the Kâma Rûpa and Physical Body. In the case of the Devachanî, the Linga Sharîra—the _alter ego_ of the body, which during life is within the physical envelope while the radiant aura is without—strengthened by the material particles which this aura leaves behind, remains close to the dead body and outside it, and soon fades away. In the case of the full Adept, the body alone becomes subject to dissolution, while the centre of that force which was the seat of desires and passions, disappears with its cause—the animal body. But during the life of the latter all these centres are more or less active and in constant correspondence with their prototypes, the cosmic centres, and their microcosms, the principles. It is only through these cosmic and spiritual centres that the physical centres (the upper seven orifices and the lower triad) can benefit by their Occult interaction, for these orifices, or openings, are channels conducting into the body the influences that _the will of man_ attracts and uses, _viz._, the cosmic forces.

This will has, of course, to act primarily through the spiritual principles. To make this clearer, let us take an example. In order to stop pain, let us say in the right eye, you have to attract to it the potent magnetism from that cosmic principle which corresponds to this eye and also to Buddhi. Create, by a powerful will effort, an imaginary line of communication between the right eye and Buddhi, locating the latter as a _centre_ in the same part of the head. This line, though you may call it “imaginary,” is, once you succeed in seeing it with your mental eye and give it a shape and colour, in truth as good as real. A rope in a dream _is not_ and yet _is_. Moreover, according to the prismatic colour with which you endow your line, so will the influence act. Now Buddhi and Mercury correspond with each other, and both are yellow, or radiant and golden coloured. In the human system, the right eye corresponds with Buddhi and Mercury; and the left with Manas and Venus or Lucifer. Thus, if your line is golden or silvery, it will stop the pain; if red, it will increase it, for red is the colour of Kâma and corresponds with Mars. Mental or Christian Scientists have stumbled upon the _effects_ without understanding the _causes_. Having found by chance the secret of producing such results owing to mental abstraction, they attribute them to their union with God (whether a personal or impersonal God they know best), whereas it is simply the effect of one or another principle. However it may be, they are on the path of discovery, although they must remain wandering for a long time to come.

Let not Esoteric students commit the same mistake. It has often been explained that neither the cosmic planes of substance nor even the human principles—with the exception of the lowest material plane or world and the physical body, which, as has been said, are no “principles,”—can be located or thought of as being in Space and Time. As the former are seven in ONE, so are we seven in ONE—that same absolute Soul of the World, which is both Matter and non‐Matter, Spirit and non‐Spirit, Being and non‐Being. Impress yourselves well with this idea, all those of you who would study the mysteries of SELF.

Remember that with our physical senses alone at our command, none of us can hope to reach beyond gross Matter. We can do so only through one or another of our seven _spiritual_ senses, either by training, or if one is a born Seer. Yet even a clairvoyant possessed of such faculties, if not an Adept, no matter how honest and sincere he may be, will, through his ignorance of the truths of Occult Science, be led by the visions he sees in the Astral Light only to mistake for God or Angels the denizens of those spheres of which he may occasionally catch a glimpse, as witness Swedenborg and others.

These seven senses of ours correspond with every other septenate in nature and in ourselves. Physically, though invisibly, the human Auric Envelope (the amnion of the physical man in every age of life) has seven layers, just as Cosmic Space and our physical epidermis have. It is this Aura which, according to our mental and physical state of purity or impurity, either opens for us vistas into other worlds, or shuts us out altogether from anything but this three‐dimensional world of Matter.

Each of our seven physical senses (two of which are still unknown to profane Science), and also of our seven states of consciousness—_viz._: (1) waking; (2) waking‐dreaming; (3) natural sleeping; (4) induced or trance‐sleep; (5) psychic; (6) super‐psychic; and (7) purely spiritual—corresponds with one of the seven Cosmic Planes, develops and uses one of the seven super‐senses, and is connected directly, in its use on the terrestro‐spiritual plane, with the cosmic and divine centre of force that gave it birth, and which is its direct creator. Each is also connected with, and under the direct influence of, one of the seven sacred Planets.(776) These belonged to the Lesser Mysteries, whose followers were called Mystai (the veiled), seeing that they were allowed to perceive things only through a mist, as it were “with the eyes closed”; while the Initiates or “Seers” of the Greater Mysteries were called Epoptai (those who see things unveiled). It was the latter only who were taught the true mysteries of the Zodiac and the relations and correspondences between its twelve signs (two secret) and the ten human orifices. The latter are now of course ten in the female, and only nine in the male; but this is merely an external difference. In the second volume of this work it is stated that till the end of the Third Root‐Race (when androgynous man separated into male and female) the ten orifices existed in the hermaphrodite, first potentially, then functionally. The evolution of the human embryo shows this. For instance, the only opening formed at first is the buccal cavity, “a _cloaca_ communicating with the anterior extremity of the intestine.” These become later the mouth and the posterior orifice: the Logos differentiating and emanating gross matter on the lower plane, in Occult parlance. The difficulty which some students will experience in reconciling the correspondences between the Zodiac and the orifices can be easily explained. Magic is coëval with the Third Root‐Race, which began by creating through Kriyâshakti and ended by generating its species in the present way.(777) Woman, being left with the full or perfect cosmic number 10 (the divine number of Jehovah), was deemed higher and more spiritual than man. In Egypt, in days of old, the marriage service contained an article that the woman should be the “lady of the lord,” and real lord over him, the husband pledging himself to be “obedient to his wife” for the production of alchemical results such as the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher’s Stone, for the _spiritual_ help of the woman was needed by the male Alchemist. But woe to the Alchemist who should take this in the dead‐letter sense of _physical_ union. Such sacrilege would become Black Magic and be followed by certain failure. The true Alchemist of old took _aged_ women to help him, carefully avoiding the young ones; and if any of them happened to be married they treated their wives for months both before and during their operations as sisters.