Theos-Talk Archives (May 2002 Message tt00021)

Saturday, May 04, 2002



Dear Friends:


Here is another of Mr. Judge's interesting story about the Occult
world that was and is

Best wishes,



Dallas


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THE WANDERING EYE



By Bryan Kinnavan (W. Q. Judge)



This is not a tale in which I fable a mythical and impossible monster
such as the Head of Rahu, which the common people of India believe
swallows the moon at every eclipse. Rahu is but a tale that for the
vulgar embodies the fact that the shadow of the earth eats up the
white disk, but I tell you of a veritable human eye; a wanderer, a
seeker, a pleader; an eye that searched you out and held you, like
the bird fascinated by the serpent, while it sought within your nature
for what it never found. Such an eye as this is sometimes spoken of
now by various people, but they see it on the psychic plane, in the
astral light, and it is not to be seen or felt in the light of day
moving about like other objects.

This wandering eye I write of was always on the strange but sacred
Island where so many things took place long ages ago. Ah! yes, it is
still the sacred Island, now obscured and its power overthrown--some
think forever. But its real power will be spiritual and though the
minds of men today know not the spirit, caring only for temporal
glory, the old virtue of the Island will once again return. What
weird and ghostly shapes still flit around her shores; what strange,
low, level whisperings sweep across her mountains; how at the
evening's edge just parted from the day, her fairies suddenly
remembering their human rulers--
now sunk to men who partly fear them--gather for a moment about the
spots where mystery is buried, and then sighing speed away. It was
here the wandering eye was first seen..

By day if had simply a grey color, piercing, steady, and always bent
on finding out some certain thing, from which it could not be
diverted; at night it glowed with a light of its own, and could be
seen moving over the Island, now quickly, now slowly, as it settled to
look for that which it did not find.

The people had a fear of this eye, although they were then accustomed
to all sorts of magical occurrences now unknown to most Western men.
At first those who felt themselves annoyed by it tried to destroy or
catch it, but never succeeded, because the moment they made the
attempt the eye would disappear. It never manifested resentment, but
seemed filled with a definite purpose and bent toward a well-settled
end. Even those who had essayed to do away with it were surprised to
find no threatening in its depths when, in the darkness of the night,
it floated up by their bedsides and looked them over again.

If any one else save myself know of the occasion when this marvelous
wanderer first started, to whom it had belonged, I never heard. I was
bound to secrecy and could not reveal it.

In the same old temple and tower to which I have previously referred,
there was an old man who had always been on terms of great intimacy
with me. He was a disputer and a doubter, yet terribly in earnest and
anxious to know the truths of nature, but he continually raised the
question: "If I could only know the truth; that is all I wish to
know."

Then, whenever I suggested solutions received from my teachers, he
would wander away to the eternal doubts. The story was whispered
about the temple that he had entered life in that state of mind, and
was known to the superior as one who, in a preceding life, had raised
doubts and impossibilities merely for the sake of hearing solutions
without desire to prove anything, and had vowed, after many years of
such profitless discussion, to seek for truth alone. But the Karma
accumulated by the lifelong habit had not been exhausted, and in the
incarnation when I met him, although sincere and earnest, he was
hampered by the pernicious habit of the previous life. Hence the
solutions he sought were always near but ever missed.

But towards the close of the life of which I am speaking he obtained a
certainty that by peculiar practices he could concentrate in his eye
not only the sight but also all the other forces, and wilfully set
about the task against my strong protest. Gradually his eye assumed a
most extraordinary and piercing expression which was heightened
whenever he indulged in discussion. He was hugging the one certainty
to his breast and still suffering from the old Karma of doubt. So he
fell sick, and being old came near to death. One night I visited him
at his request, and on reaching his side I found him approaching
dissolution. We were alone . He spoke freely but very sadly, for, as
death drew near, he saw more clearly, and as the hours fled by his
eyes grew more extraordinarily piercing than ever, with a pleading,
questioning expression.

"Ah," he said, "I have erred again; but it is just Karma. I have
succeeded in but one thing, and that will ever delay me."

"What is that ?" I asked.

The expression of his eyes seemed to embrace futurity as he told me
that his peculiar practice would compel him for a long period to
remain chained to his strongest eye--the right one--until the force of
the energy expended in learning that one feat was fully exhausted. I
saw death slowly creeping over his features, and when I had thought
him dead he suddenly gained strength to make me promise not to reveal
the secret--and expired.

As he passed away, it was growing dark. After his body had become
cold, there in the darkness I saw a human eye glowing and gazing at
me. It was his, for I recognized the expression. All his
peculiarities and modes of thought seemed fastened into it, sweeping
out over you from it. Then it turned from me, soon disappearing. His
body was buried; none save myself and our superiors knew of these
things. But for many years afterwards the wandering eye was seen in
every part of the Island, ever seeking, ever asking, and never waiting
for the answer.,


Bryan Kinnevan
(W. Q. Judge)

PATH, May, 1889


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2



THE PERSIAN STUDENT'S DOCTRINE



BEFORE the flashing diamond in the mysterious mountain behind the
Temple began to lose its brilliance, many foreigners had visited the
Island. Among them were students who came from Persia. Coming that
great distance they sought more knowledge, as in their own land the
truth was already beginning to be forgotten. It was hidden under a
thick crust of fanciful interpretations of the sayings of their sages
which were fast turning into superstitious notions. And these young
men thought that in the Island, the fame of which had spread over land
and sea, they would find learning and wisdom and the way to power. But
yet while in such a frame of mind, they regarded some things as
settled even for sages. What they said did not have much influence on
me until they began to quote some of the old writings from the
prophets of their country, attempting to prove that men, though
god-like and immortal, transmigrated sometimes backwards into beasts
and birds and insects. As some old Buddhist monks had years before
given out the same idea with hints of mystery underneath, the sayings
of these visitors began to trouble me. They quoted these verses from
the prophet the Great Abad:[PARA]Those who, in the season of
prosperity, experience pain and grief, suffer them on account of their
words or deeds in a former body, for which the Most Just now punisheth
them.[PARA]Whosoever is an evil doer, on him He first inflicteth pain
under the human form; for sickness, the sufferings of children while
in their mothers womb, and after they are out of it, and suicide, and
being hurt by ravenous animals, and death, and being subjected to want
from birth till death, are all retributions for past actions; and in
like manner as to goodness.[PARA]The lion, the tiger, the leopard, the
panther, . . . with all ravenous animals, whether birds or quadrupeds
or creeping things, have once possessed authority: and every one whom
they kill hath been their aider or abetter, who did evil by
supporting, or assisting, or by the orders of, that exalted class; and
having given pain to harmless animals are now punished by their own
masters.[PARA]The horse submits to be ridden on, and the ox, the
camel, the mule, and the ass bear burdens. And these in a former life
were men who imposed burdens on others unjustly.[PARA]Such persons as
are foolish and evil doers, being enclosed in the body of vegetables,
meet with the reward of their stupidity and misdeeds. And such as
possess illaudable knowledge and do evil are enclosed in the body of
minerals until their sins be purified; after which they are delivered
from this suffering, and are once more united to a human body; and
according as they act in it they again meet with
retribution.[PARA]These young men made such good arguments of these
texts, and dwelt so strongly upon the great attainments of Abad, who
was beyond doubt a prophet of insight, that doubts arose in my mind.
While the verses did not deny the old doctrine of man's reincarnation,
they added a new view to the matter that had never suggested itself to
me before. The students pointed out that there was a very wise and
consistent doctrine in those verses wherein it was declared that
murderers, tyrants, and such men would be condemned to inhabit the
bodies of such murderous beasts as lions and tigers. They made out a
strong case on the other verses also, showing that those weak but
vicious men who had aided and abetted the stronger and more violent
murderers should be condemned to precipitation out of the human cycle
into the bodies of defenseless animals, in company with ferocious
beasts, by the strength and ferocity of which they would at last be
destroyed themselves. And thus, said these visitors, they proceed in
each other's company, lower and lower in the scale of organized life,
reaching at last those kingdoms of nature like the mineral, where
differentiation in the direction of man is not yet visible. And from
there the condemned beings would be ground out into the great mass and
slime at the very bottom of nature's ladder.[PARA]Not wishing to admit
or accept these doctrines from strangers, I engaged in many arguments
with them on the matter, until at last they left the Island to
continue their pilgrimage.[PARA][PARA]So one day, being troubled in
mind about these sayings of Abad, which, indeed, I heard from the
students were accepted in many countries and given by several other
prophets, I sought out the old man who so often before had solved
problems for me. He was a man of sorrow, for although possessor of
power and able to open up the inner planes of nature, able to give to
a questioner the inner sight for a time so that one could see for
himself the real truth of material things, something ever went with
him that spoke of a sorrow he could not tell about. Perhaps he was
suffering for a fault the magnitude of which no one knew but himself;
perhaps the final truths eluded him; or maybe he had a material belief
at bottom. But he was always kind, and ever ready to give me the help
I needed provided I had tried myself in every way and failed to obtain
it.[PARA][PARA]"Brother," I said, "do we go into animals when we
die?"[PARA][PARA]"Who said that we do?" was his answer.[PARA][PARA]"It
is declared by the old prophet Abad of the Worshippers of Fire that we
thus fall down from our high estate gained with pain and
difficulty."[PARA]"Do you believe it; have you reasoned it out or
accepted the doctrine?"[PARA]"No," I said, "I have not accepted it.
Much as I may reason on it, there are defects in my replies, for there
seems to be consistency in the doctrine that the ferocious may go into
the ferocious and vicious into the wild animals; the one destroying
the other and man, the hunter, killing the ferocious. Can you solve
it?"[PARA][PARA]Turning on me the deep and searching gaze he used for
those who asked when he would determine if curiosity alone moved them,
he said, "I will show you the facts and the corrupted doctrine
together, on the night of the next full moon."[PARA][PARA]Patiently I
waited for the moon to grow, wondering, supposing that the moon must
be connected with the question, because we were said to have come by
the way of the moon like a flock of birds who migrated north or south
according to their nature. At last the day came and I went to the old
man. He was ready. Turning from the room he took me to a small cave
near the foot of the Diamond Mountain. The light of the diamond seemed
to illuminate the sky as we paused at the entrance. We went in by the
short passage in front, and here, where I had never been before, soft
footfalls of invisible beings seemed to echo as if they were
retreating before us, and half-heard whispers floated by us out into
the night. But I had no fear. Those footfalls, though strange, had no
malice, and such faint and melodious whispering aroused no alarm. He
went to the side of the cave so that we looked at the other side. The
passage had a sharp turn near the inner entrance, and no light fell
around us. Thus we waited in silence for some time.[PARA][PARA]"Look
quietly toward the opposite wall," said the old man, "and waver not in
thought."[PARA][PARA]Fixing an unstrained gaze in the direction of the
other side, it soon seemed to quiver, then an even vibration began
across it until it looked like a tumbling mass of clouds. This soon
settled into a grey flat surface like a painter's canvas, that was
still as the clear sky and seemingly transparent. It gave us light and
made no reflection.[PARA][PARA]"Think of your question, of your
doubts, and of the young students who have raised them; think not of
Abad, for he is but a name," whispered my guide.[PARA][PARA]Then, as I
revolved the question, a cloud arose on the surface before me; it
moved, it grew into shapes that were dim at first. They soon became
those of human beings. They were the living pictures of my student
friends. They were conversing, and I too was there but less plain than
they. But instead of atmosphere being around them they were surrounded
with ether, and streams of ether full of what I took to be corporeal
atoms in a state of change continually rushed from one to the other.
After I had accustomed my sight to this, the old man directed me to
look at one of the students in particular. From him the stream of
ether loaded with atoms, very dark in places and red in others, did
not always run to his fellows, but seemed to be absorbed elsewhere.
Then when I had fixed this in my mind all the other students faded
from the space, their place taken by some ferocious beasts that
prowled around the remaining student, though still appearing to be a
long distance from him. And then I saw that the stream of atoms from
him was absorbed by those dreadful beasts, at the same time that a
mask fell off, as it were, from his face, showing me his real
ferocious, murderous mind.[PARA]"He killed a man on the way, in
secret. He is a murderer at heart," said my guide. "This is the truth
that Abad meant to tell. Those atoms fly from all of us at every
instant. They seek their appropriate center; that which is similar to
the character of him who evolves them. We absorb from our fellows
whatever is like unto us. It is thus that man reincarnates in the
lower kingdoms. He is the lord of nature, the key, the focus, the
highest concentrator of nature's laboratory. And the atoms he condemns
to fall thus to beasts will return to him in some future life for his
detriment or his sorrow. But he, as immortal man, cannot fall. That
which falls is the lower, the personal, the atomic. He is the brother
and teacher of all below him. See that you do not hinder and delay all
nature by your failure in virtue."[PARA][PARA]Then the ugly picture
faded out and a holy man, named in the air in gold "Abad," took his
place. From him the stream of atoms, full of his virtue, his hopes,
aspirations, and the impression of his knowledge and power, flowed out
to other Sages, to disciples, to the good in every land. They even
fell upon the unjust and the ferocious, and then thoughts of virtue,
of peace, of harmony grew up where those streams flowed. The picture
faded, the cloudy screen vibrated and rolled away. We were again in
the lonely cave. Faint footfalls echoed round the walls, and soft
whispers as of peace and hope trembled through the
air.[PARA][PARA]BRYAN KINNAVAN[PARA][PARA]Path, October, 1892



Best wishes,

DTB