Theos-Talk Archives (January 1999 Message tt00085)

David-Neel was a true initiate and her writings contain genuine
Tibetan Buddhist teachings.  Many of today's Tibetans have
acknowledged her.  Personally, I agree completely with the
quote you posted and I repeat below.

Jerry S.


>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.
>
>
>
>