Theos-Talk Archives (January 1999 Message tt00079)

Another quote from Alexandra David-Neels book, Initiations and Initiates in
Tibet (page 8):

"Even when they have rejected belief in an immmaterial and immortal soul
regarded as there true 'ego' , most Occidentals continue to picture to
themselves an homogenous entity which endures from birth to death at least.
This entity may undergo change, may become better or worse, but it is not
supposed that these changes must follow one another from minute to minute.
Thus, failing to observe the manifestations which break the continuity of a
persons habitual aspect, we talk of a man who is good or bad, austere or
dissolute, etc.....
The Lamaist Mystics deny the existence of this 'ego'. They assert that it
is no more than a concatenation of transformations, an aggregate whose
elements, material and mental alike, act and re-act upon one another and
are incessantly being exchanged for those of the neighbouring aggregates.
Thus the individual, as they see him, is like the swift current of a river
or the many aspects of a whirlpool.
Advanced disciples are able to recognise, amid this succession of
individuals showing themselves in their master, the one from whom useful
lessons and counsels may be obtained. In order to profit thereby, they
tolerate the inferior manifestations which appear to them in the same Lama,
just as they would patiently wait the passing of a sage in a crowd of people"

Any response to this item?

Namaste

NOS the Red Cap Dugpa (aka Darren)
but only 49% of the time.