Theos-Talk Archives (January 2004 Message tt00459)

Feb 1 2004

Dear Gopi:

Re: Compassion and crime


Fully agreed that your observations and questions are most valuable.
Also they are difficult to answer unless one has a grasp of the
theosophical concepts of individual immortality and universal Karma.

I find in an article on "Capital Punishment" some valuable clues:: --


"From ignorance of the truth about man's real nature and faculties and
their action and condition after bodily death, a number of evils flow.
The effect of such want of knowledge is much wider than the concerns of
one or several persons.

Government and the administration of human justice under man-made laws
will improve in proportion as there exists a greater amount of
information on this all-important subject. When a wide and deep
knowledge and belief in respect to the occult side of nature and of man
shall have become the property of the people then may we expect a great
change in the matter of capital punishment.

The killing of a human being by the authority of the state is morally
wrong and also an injury to all the people; no criminal should be
executed no matter what the offence. If the administration of the law is
so faulty as to permit the release of the hardened criminal before the
term of his sentence has expired, that has nothing to do with the
question of killing him.

Under Christianity this killing is contrary to the law supposed to have
emanated from the Supreme Lawgiver. 

The commandment is: "Thou shalt not kill!" No exception is made for
states or governments; it does not even except the animal kingdom. ...

And for the Theosophist the term violent as applied to death must mean
more than it does to those who do not hold theosophical views. For the
latter, a violent death is distinguished from an easy natural one solely
by the violence used against the victim. 

But for us such a death is THE VIOLENT SEPARATION OF THE MAN FROM HIS
BODY, and is a serious matter, of interest to the whole state. It
creates in fact a paradox, for such persons are not dead; they remain
with us as unseen criminals, able to do harm to the living and to cause
damage to the whole of Society.

What happens? All the onlooker sees is that the sudden cutting off is
accomplished; but what of the reality? 

A NATURAL DEATH is like the falling of a leaf near the winter time. The
time is fully ripe, all the powers of the leaf having separated; those
acting no longer, its stem has but a slight hold on the branch and the
slightest wind takes it away. So with us; we begin to separate our
different inner powers and parts one from the other because their full
term has ended, and when the final tremor comes the various inner
component parts of the man fall away from each other and let the soul go
free. 

But the poor criminal has not come to the natural end of his life. His
astral body is not ready to separate from his physical body, nor is the
vital, nervous energy ready to leave. The entire inner man is closely
knit together, and he is the reality. I have said these parts are not
ready to separate - they are in fact not able to separate because they
are bound together by law and a force over which only great Nature has
control.

When then, the mere physical body is so treated that a sudden, premature
separation from the real man is effected, he is merely dazed for a time,
after which he wakes up in the atmosphere of the earth, fully a sentient
living being save for the body. He sees the people, he sees and feels
again the pursuit of him by the law. 

HIS PASSIONS ARE ALIVE. HE HAS BECOME A RAGING FIRE, A MASS OF HATE; the
victim of his fellows and of his own crime. Few of us are able, even
under favorable circumstances, to admit ourselves as wholly wrong and to
say that punishment inflicted on us by man is right and just, and the
criminal has only hate and desire for revenge.

If now we remember that his state of mind was made worse by his trial
and execution, we can see that he has become a menace to the living.
Even if he be not so bad and full of revenge as said, he is himself the
repository of his own deeds; he carries with him into the astral realm
surrounding us the pictures of his crimes, and these are ever living
creatures, as it were. In any case he is dangerous. 

Floating as he does in the very realm in which our mind and senses
operate, he is forever coming in contact with the mind and senses of the
living. 

More people than we suspect are nervous and sensitive. If these
sensitives are touched by this invisible criminal they have injected
into them at once the pictures of his crime and punishment, the
vibrations from his hate, malice and revenge. Like creates like, and
thus these vibrations create their like. Many a person has been impelled
by some unknown force to commit crime; and that force came from such an
inhabitant of our sphere.

And even with those not called "sensitive" these floating criminals have
an effect, arousing evil thoughts where any basis for such exist in
those individuals....


The Theosophist who believes in the multiple nature of man and in the
complexity of his inner nature, and knows that that is governed by law
and not by mere chance or by the fancy of those who prate of the need
for protecting society when they do not know the right way to do it,
relying only on the punitive and retaliatory Mosaic law - will oppose
capital punishment. He sees it is unjust to the living, a danger to the
state, and that it allows no chance whatever for any reformation of the
criminal.

Extracts from THEOSOPHY AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT -- JUDGE, Path,
September, 1895
 

---------------------------


Concerning COMPASSION, perhaps the most valuable statements will be
found in The VOICE:  

1

Nay, O thou candidate for Nature's hidden lore! If one would
follow in the steps of holy Tathagata, those gifts and powers are not
for Self.
	
Would'st thou thus dam the waters born on Sumeru? (1) Shalt thou
divert the stream for thine own sake, or send it back to its prime
source along the crests of cycles?

If thou would'st have that stream of hard-earn'd knowledge, of Wisdom
heaven-born, remain sweet running waters, thou should'st not leave it to
become a stagnant pond.

Know, if of Amitabha, the "Boundless Age," thou would'st become
co-worker, then must thou shed the light acquired, like to the
Bodhisattvas twain, (2) upon the span of all three worlds. (3)

Know that the stream of superhuman knowledge and the Deva-Wisdom
thou hast won, must, from thyself, the channel of Alaya, be poured forth
into another bed.

Know, O Narjol, thou of the Secret Path, its pure fresh waters
must be used to sweeter make the Ocean's bitter waves-that mighty sea of
sorrow formed of the tears of men.

Alas! when once thou hast become like the fix'd star in highest
heaven, that bright celestial orb must shine from out the spatial depths
for all-save for itself; give light to all, but take from none.

Alas! when once thou hast become like the pure snow in mountain
vales, cold and unfeeling to the touch, warm and protective to the seed
that sleepeth deep beneath its bosom-'tis now that snow which must
receive the biting frost, the northern blasts, thus shielding from their
sharp and cruel tooth the earth that holds the promised harvest, the
harvest that will feed the hungry.

Self-doomed to live through future Kalpas, (1) unthanked and
unperceived by man; wedged as a stone with countless other stones which
form the "Guardian Wall", (2) such is thy future if the seventh gate
thou passest. Built by the hands of many Masters of Compassion, raised
by their tortures, by their blood cemented, it shields mankind, since
man is man, protecting it from further and far greater misery and
sorrow.

Withal man sees it not, will not perceive it, nor will he heed
the word of Wisdom . . . for he knows it not.

But thou hast heard it, thou knowest all, O thou of eager
guileless Soul. . . . and thou must choose. Then hearken yet again.

On Sowan's Path, O Srotapatti, (3) thou art secure. Aye, on that
Marga, (4) where nought but

============================
Footnotes

(2) The "Guardian Wall" or the "Wall of Protection." It is taught that
the accumulated efforts of long generations of Yogis, Saints and Adepts,
especially of the Nirmanakayas-have created, so to say, a wall of
protection around mankind, which wall shields mankind invisibly from
still worse evils.

-----------------------------------------

75

darkness meets the weary pilgrim, where torn by thorns the hands drip
blood, the feet are cut by sharp unyielding flints, and Mara wields his
strongest arms-there lies a great reward immediately beyond.
 
Calm and unmoved the Pilgrim glideth up the stream that to
Nirvana leads. He knoweth that the more his feet will bleed, the whiter
will himself be washed. He knoweth well that after seven short and
fleeting births Nirvana will be his . . .

Such is the Dhyana Path, the haven of the Yogi, the blessed goal
that Srotapattis crave.

Not so when he hath crossed and won the Aryahata Path. (1) . . .
. . . .

There Klesha is destroyed for ever, Tanha's roots (3) torn out.
But stay, Disciple . . . Yet, one word. Canst thou destroy divine
COMPASSION? Compassion is no attribute. It is the LAW

76

of LAWS-eternal Harmony, Alaya's SELF; a shoreless universal essence,
the light of everlasting Right, and fitness of all things, the law of
love eternal.

The more thou dost become at one with it, thy being melted in its BEING,
the more thy Soul unites with that which IS, the more thou wilt become
COMPASSION ABSOLUTE. (1)

Such is the Arya Path, Path of the Buddhas of perfection.

Withal, what mean the sacred scrolls which make thee say?

"OM! I believe it is not all the Arhats that get of the Nirvanic Path
the sweet fruition."

"OM! I believe that the Nirvana-Dharma is entered not by all the
Buddhas". (2)

==============================
Footnotes

(1) This "compassion" must not be regarded in the same light as "God,
the divine love" of the Theists. Compassion stands here as an abstract,
impersonal law whose nature, being absolute Harmony, is thrown into
confusion by discord, suffering and sin.

(2) Thegpa Chenpoido, "Mahayana Sutra," Invocations to the Buddhas of
Confession," Part I., iv. In the Northern Buddhist phraseology all the
great Arhats, Adepts and Saints are called Buddhas.

------------------------------------

77

"Yea; on the Arya Path thou art no more Srotapatti, thou art a
Bodhisattva. (1) The stream is cross'd. 'Tis true thou hast a right to
Dharmakaya vesture; but Sambogakaya is greater than a Nirvanee, and
greater still is a Nirmanakaya-the BUDDHA OF COMPASSION. (2)

================================
Footnotes

(1) A Bodhisattva is, in the hierarchy, less than a "perfect Buddha." In
the exoteric parlance these two are very much confused. Yet the innate
and right popular perception, owing to that self-sacrifice, has placed a
Bodhisattva higher in its reverence than a Buddha.

(2) This same popular reverence calls "BUDDHAS OF COMPASSION" those
Bodhisattvas who, having reached the rank of an Arhat (i.e., having
completed the fourth or seventh Path), refuse to pass into the Nirvanic
state or "don the Dharmakaya robe and cross to the other shore," as it
would then become beyond their power to assist men even so little as
Karma permits. They prefer to remain invisibly (in Spirit, so to speak)
in the world, and contribute toward man's salvation by influencing them
to follow the Good Law, i.e., lead them on the Path of Righteousness. It
is part of the exoteric Northern Buddhism to honour all such great
characters as Saints, and to offer even prayers to them, as the Greeks
and Catholics do to their Saints and Patrons; on the other hand, the
esoteric teachings countenance no such thing. There is a great
difference between the two teachings. The exoteric layman hardly knows
the real meaning of the word Nirmanakaya-hence the confusion and
inadequate explanations of the Orientalists. For example Schlagintweit
believes that Nirmanakaya-body, means the physical form assumed by the
Buddhas when they incarnate on earth-"the least sublime of their earthly
encumbrances" (vide Buddhism in Tibet)-and he proceeds to give an
entirely false view on the subject. The real teaching is, however, this:

The three Buddhic bodies or forms are styled

1. Nirmanakaya.

2. Sambhogakaya.

3. Dharmakaya.

The first is that ethereal form which one would assume when leaving his
physical he would appear in his astral body-having in addition all the
knowledge of an Adept. The Bodhisattva develops it in himself as he
proceeds on the Path. Having reached the goal and refused its fruition,
he remains on Earth, as an Adept; and when he dies, instead of going
into Nirvana, he remains in that glorious body he has woven for himself,
invisible to uninitiated mankind, to watch over and protect it.

Sambhogakaya is the same, but with the additional lustre of "three
perfections," one of which is entire obliteration of all earthly
concerns.

The Dharmakaya body is that of a complete Buddha, i.e., no body at all,
but an ideal breath: Consciousness merged in the Universal
Consciousness, or Soul devoid of every attribute. Once a Dharmakaya, an
Adept or Buddha leaves behind every possible relation with, or thought
for this earth. Thus, to be enabled to help humanity, an Adept who has
won the right to Nirvana, "renounces the Dharmakaya body" in mystic
parlance; keeps, of the Sambhogakaya, only the great and complete
knowledge, and remains in his Nirmanakaya body. The Esoteric School
teaches that Gautama Buddha with several of his Arhats is such a
Nirmanakaya, higher than whom, on account of the great renunciation and
sacrifice to mankind there is none known.
-----------------------------------

78

Now bend thy head and listen well, O Bodhisattva-Compassion speaks and
saith: "Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou
be saved and hear the whole world cry?"

Now thou hast heard that which was said.

Thou shalt attain the seventh step and cross the gate of final knowledge
but only to wed woe-if thou would'st be Tathagata, follow upon thy
predecessor's steps, remain unselfish till the endless end.

Thou art enlightened-Choose thy way.

*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
*	*

79

Behold, the mellow light that floods the Eastern sky. In signs of praise
both heaven and earth unite. And from the four-fold manifested Powers a
chant of love ariseth, both from the flaming Fire and flowing Water, and
from sweet-smelling Earth and rushing Wind.

Hark! . . . from the deep unfathomable vortex of that golden light in
which the Victor bathes, ALL NATURE'S wordless voice in thousand tones
ariseth to proclaim:

JOY UNTO YE, O MEN OF MYALBA. (1)

A PILGRIM HATH RETURNED BACK "FROM THE OTHER SHORE."

A NEW ARHAN (2) IS BORN. . . .

Peace to all beings. (3)


------------------------------------------------------------------

2


Studies in The Voice of the Silence, Part 4

by B. P. Wadia

[From the 1989 ULT pamphlet containing a reprint from The Theosophical
Movement, X, October 1940, pages 189-91.] 

Universal respect is paid to a man of virtue. A good-hearted man is
admired, but so is a clever-minded man. In our modern civilization
mental capacity and moral power are allowed to remain dissociated,
education almost fostering the dissociation. A gentleman in clubland
will not cheat at the card-table, but the same man will not hesitate to
cut the throat of his friend who happens to be a business competitor.
Most Occidental church-going people condemn polygamy and polyandry most
severely, but they connive at adultery in both men and women. The
orthodox Hindu, philosophizing, argues and proves that Brahman is in the
heart of each, but he sees no illogicality in observing in practice the
immortal doctrine of untouchability. We can go on multiplying instances
to show how moral principles are set at nought by intelligent minds,
even by so-called logicians and philosophers. 

The integration of hands, head and heart is the central and fundamental
teaching of The Voice of the Silence. Moral principles are not only to
be acknowledged - all the world does that - they are to be applied. The
value of the mental habit of looking for the underlying moral principle
before any deed is done or any word spoken is not all recognized by the
"educated and cultured." 

Occultism demands the constant practice of bringing into juxtaposition
moral principles and intellectual doctrines. If it is immoral to cheat
at the club, it is also immoral to cheat in the office; if polygamy is
wrong, adultery is worse, for in the latter hypocrisy is present; if
Brahman is in all men, then untouchability is false and its practitioner
is an irreligious man. 

The man on the path of chelaship is called upon to consult his code of
rules and laws at every turn. Like a lawyer he has his memory, but
almost always the lawyer refreshes his memory and before acting consults
his code-books. This the learner of Occultism is expected to do. "To
sleep over a letter and to wait on a plan" is a rule because it gives
the necessary time to refresh the memory and to search the scriptures.
To seek the principles of action, both moral and mental, is essential,
and even on the field of battle the Master Krishna thought it necessary
to set them forth. 

The general rule, the fundamental and foundational law to be always and
ever kept in mind, is that of Brotherhood. If a thought or a feeling, a
word or a deed, harms another soul, it is wrong. To the true
practitioner H.P.B. gives this advice: 

He must think of himself as an infinitesimal something, not even as an
individual atom, but as a part of the world-atoms as a whole, or become
an illusion, a nobody, and vanish like a breath leaving no trace behind.
As illusions, we are separate distinct [16] bodies, living in masks
furnished by Maya. Can we claim one single atom in our body as
distinctly our own? Everything, from spirit to the tiniest particle, is
part of the whole, at best a link. Break a single link and all passes
into annihilation; but this is impossible. There is a series of vehicles
becoming more and more gross, from spirit to the densest matter, so that
with each step downward and outward we get more and more the sense of
separateness developed in us. Yet this is illusory, for if there were a
real and complete separation between any two human beings, they could
not communicate with, or understand each other in any way. 
-	Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge, ULT 138; Secret Doctrine
Commentary, Part II, TUP, 40; 
BCW, X, 395. 
-	
The Law of Brotherhood is intellectually recognized by all students, and
earnest practitioners begin to make applications. But the influence of
the race-mind is very strong, and so even practitioners are swayed by
the difference between mental understanding and moral application. All
Probationers are called upon to examine themselves by the light of their
own Inner Ego and with the help of the divine virtues - the paramitas.
Ordinarily, virtues are considered to be attributes of the heart; we do
not usually speak of mind-feelings integration or yoga-union between
mind and heart demands that the mind become virtuous. We have to learn
to think of virtues and to use our reason and our intelligence, our
discrimination and our discernment, in practising the paramitas, with
which deals the third fragment of our textbook, called "The Seven
Portals." It is from the point of view of the relation between mind and
morals that we want to examine the golden Keys. 

Because the mind is driven by human feelings and passions, it roams in
the field of the senses, destroying them and itself. Therefore the
injunction: "Thou shalt not let thy senses make a playground of thy
mind." [54; 49] 

Before the mind can absorb the virtues the learner has to see within
himself the difference between desire-mind and soul-mind. A bridge
called Conscience exists as a third factor. Conscience is Antahkarana -
the internal organ - and it is both the voice of experience accumulated
in the world of matter and the channel of divine light streaming forth
from the world of Spirit. Conscience rightly activated bridges the gulf
which ordinarily exists between mental and moral activities. Before the
actual treading of the Path begins and the first of the divine paramitas
can be correctly practised, the integration between head and heart is
necessary. 

Before thou canst approach the foremost gate thou hast to learn to part
thy body from thy mind, to dissipate the shadow, and to live in the
eternal. [U L T Voice 53-54; T.U.P. 49] 

This does not imply that the art of separating the body from the mind is
acquired; but it does mean that each time, if Dana- Charity is to be
rightly expressed, an attempt has to be made to examine the relative
position of body and mind, to live, be it but for a moment, in the
eternal, to feel that something of ourself abides in all things and that
all things are in the One Self. This preliminary to the exercise of the
Dana-paramita [17] brings to it the strength of the mind and of true
ideas. As it is most difficult, almost impossible, to attune our mind to
the mind of the whole of humanity, advantage is taken of the
Chela-institution, and we are told to attune our mind to "the collective
minds of Lanoo- Shravakas." The feeling of unity illuminates the mind;
the enlightened mind uses the virtue of Dana, charity and love immortal,
not sentimentally and sensuously, but Egoically. 

What is true of Dana is equally true of Shila and of Kshanti; these form
a triad, for love creates harmony, and without patience, harmony cannot
be created. The balanced offspring, whether a word or an act, a poem or
a picture, has for its father love and for its mother patience. When the
child is created, its nature of perfection makes it a masterpiece, and
there is Bliss "for ever after." 

Similarly, the last three paramitas, Virya, Dhyana and Prajna, form a
triad. When, with dauntless energy, the father pursues contemplation,
the result is Prajna - full spiritual perception. 

Between the two triads is the paramita of Viraga (Vairagya) without
which neither can Maya-Illusion be conquered nor can Truth- Sat be
perceived. Detachment, dispassion, indifference, is, in more than one
sense, the most important of the virtues. And we are told: 

Have mastery o'er thy thoughts, O striver for perfection, if thou
would'st cross its [the middle portal's] threshold. [64; 58] 

It is the mind which fructifies attachment to objects of sense. If the
mind did not lend itself to the dictates of the desires and the passions
there would be no attachment. Detached from the lower, it has within
itself the power to attach itself to the higher. 

Now, the gratification felt by the elemental beings who make up our
desire nature is due to the interplay between them and the senses and
the organs - the Gnyana-Indriyas and the Karma- Indriyas.
Desire-perception leads to desire-action. Therefore we are told: 

Stern and exacting is the virtue of Viraga. If thou its path would'st
master thou must keep thy mind and thy perceptions far freer than before
from killing action. [62; 57] 

The action which is not pleasing to Ishvara and which kills the Soul is
selfish action; its opposite is sacrifice; sacramental action is yagna.
Any action, however trivial, can be transformed into a sacrament by the
magic called Yagna (see The Theosophical Glossary under "yagna"). All
the Karmas we inherit from the past form our duties, our Dharma; the
Esotericist has to perform his Dharma, so that each performance becomes
sacramental. But - 

Before thine hand is lifted to upraise the fourth gate's latch, thou
must have mastered all the mental changes in thyself and slain the army
of the thought sensations that, subtle and insidious, creep unasked
within the Soul's bright shrine. [60-61; 55] 

[18] The unwanted thoughts overpower the consciousness even before their
presence is registered - that is the first stage. To oust them is
difficult, but the effort brings the Siddhi, the power, of sensing their
approach. In this second stage danger lies in keeping the mind vacant.
It is important to learn to keep ourselves mentally engaged. It is
necessary ever to have near at hand thoughts and things which would hold
the mind steady and firm. "Possession in nine points of the law," it is
said, and that is equally true of the mind possessing true ideas, which
make it immune to attack from the enemy. 

If thou would'st not be slain by them, then must thou harmless make thy
own creations, the children of thy thoughts, unseen, impalpable, that
swarm round humankind, the progeny and heirs to man and his terrestrial
spoils. [61; 55] 

It is through our thoughts, good and bad, that we bind ourselves to
humanity, and to the universe. The thought-links are very powerful
binders and Vairagya is detachment of our own mind from all
thought-links. The thoughts of others bind us to them, in proportion as
we are consubstantial with them. This law, however, works on the
beneficent side as well: thoughts link us to the Supreme Self, to the
Blessed Ones who live in the infinitudes of space or on earth. 

Our desires fill our world now; they impel us to think, to plan, to act;
a void is the world of Spirit for the man of flesh. But when the higher
choice is made and the resolve taken, the emptiness of the world of the
senses is seen. Invocation of the higher, daily contact with the higher,
sustained repose in the higher reveal how grand and blissful the plenum
is. Detachment from the lower, cleaving to the higher, transfer the
loves of the aspiring practitioner to a spiritual realm, and from there
the Maya of the material universe looks like a play, a drama, a lila.
The symbols of the vacuum and the plenum are excellent metaphysical
ideas, contemplation on which strengthens the virtue of Vairagya. 

Thou hast to study the Voidness of the seeming full, the fullness of the
seeming Void. O fearless Aspirant, look deep within the well of thine
own heart, and answer. Knowest thou of Self the powers, O thou perceiver
of external shadows? [61; 55-56] 

Every effort to reach and to hold a new position in a higher world
requires spiritual energy - Virya. The source thereof is in the
spiritual pole of man's being. Bodily energy related to the
prana-principle in man is but the lowest expression of Virya. Virya is
called the semen of the Soul and it is activated by spiritual celibacy -
Brahmacharya of the mind. 

The Chelas of the Great Gurus are real Brahmacharis - young learners
gaining the strength of knowledge, who presently will enter the Great
House of the Fathers of the Race. If the practice of bodily Brahmacharya
is a difficult undertaking, much more difficult is Soul-celibacy,
necessary for real one-pointedness, Dhyana. As in all else, unfoldment
from within without is the law in Brahmacharya: inner psycho-spiritual
[19] celibacy makes the outer psycho-physiological celibacy possible.
Those who try to practise the latter without a basis of the former fail
- and worse than fail. 

For attaining Dhyana-paramita the learner has to acquire the art of
using energy for both offensive and defensive purposes. The
consciousness has to attain a state wherein attacks from the lower
regions do not touch it; and also in that state the movement towards the
ultimate goal is steadily continued. The Dhyana-state is static in
relation to the lower, but dynamic in relation to the higher. In it the
attacks from the astral light have to be met and warded off, while a
steady rising in the Divine Astral or Akasha has to be attempted. This
dual task is implicit in the following verses, arranged to facilitate
the reader's understanding: 

Ere the gold flame can burn with steady light, the lamp must stand well
guarded in a spot free from all wind." Exposed to shifting breeze, the
jet will flicker and the quivering flame cast shades deceptive, dark and
ever-changing, on the Soul's white shrine. 

And then, O thou pursuer of the truth, thy Mind-Soul will become as a
mad elephant, that rages in the jungle. Mistaking forest trees for
living foes, he perishes in his attempts to kill the ever-shifting
shadows dancing on the wall of sunlit rocks. 

Thou hast to reach that fixity of mind in which no breeze, however
strong, can waft an earthly thought within. Thus purified, the shrine
must of all action, sound, or earthly light be void; e'en as the
butterfly, o'ertaken by the frost, falls lifeless at the threshold - -
so must all earthly thoughts fall dead before the fane. 

Build high, Lanoo, the wall that shall hedge in the Holy Isle, the dam
that will protect thy mind from pride and satisfaction at thoughts of
the great feat achieved. 

Thine "Isle" is the deer, thy thoughts the hounds that weary and pursue
his progress to the stream of Life. Woe to the deer that is o'ertaken by
the barking fiends before he reach the Vale of Refuge - Dhyana-Marga,
"path of pure knowledge" named. 

Ere thou canst settle in Dhyana-Marga and call it thine, thy Soul has to
become as the ripe mango fruit: as soft and sweet as its bright golden
pulp for others' woes, as hard as that fruit's stone for thine own
throes and sorrows, O Conqueror of Weal and Woe. 

As the diamond buried deep within the throbbing heart of earth can never
mirror back the earthly lights, so are thy mind and Soul; plunged in
Dhyana-Marga, these must mirror nought of Maya's realm illusive. 

A task far harder still awaits thee: thou hast to feel thyself
all-thought, and yet exile all thoughts from out thy Soul. 

The Dhyana gate is like an alabaster vase, white and transparent; within
there burns a steady golden fire, the flame of Prajna that radiates from
Atman. 

[20] The Dhyana Path, the haven of the Yogi, the blessed goal that
Srotapattis crave. 

The Probationer is on the shore of the Manasa-sarovara where, Occult
tradition teaches, great Sages recorded what they had heard as the
Vedas. He has to enter the Waters of Wisdom and dive deep and deeper
till he sees the Naga, the Dragon-Lord of the Lake. He teaches, it is
said, the mantram to the new Arhan who comes out into Myalba to repeat
it, and it is - 
Peace to All Beings 

=======================================================



Best wishes,

Dallas






Dallas

-----Original Message-----
From: Gopi
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 8:24 AM
To: 
Subject	Re: crime


Crimes

Loving Friend is normal, Do I Know how to Love my Enemy?

It is easy to be compassionate towards victim, Do I know hoe to be
Compassionate to a Criminal?

My heart goes out to a child that just got killed by a Nazi, How about
the Nazi?

It seems to me that a true Theosophist is compassionate to both!
It seems to me that a true Spiritualist is compassionate to both!

The Universal Karmic Suffering needs Compassion, the Karmic Law has no
duality. It just is! Even the Chaos of Pralaya as well as beautiful
Creation is bound by this Law of Karma! Do I know how to be a witness to
this law without contributing to this Pain and Suffering. May be Ramana
Maharshu knew how to be so!!!

Gopi