Theos-Talk Archives (November 2005 Message tt00097)

November 18, 2005

ESOTERIC BUDDHISM

By W. Q. Judge

In consequence of a book with this title having been written by A. P.
Sinnett, much controversy and inquiry has arisen, on the one hand, as to
what Esoteric Buddhism is and on the other, as to whether there be any such
thing.

The term as it has been used since the Theosophical Society began to be the
means of bringing the sublime philosophies of the East before a large body
of students, is held to refer to some hitherto hidden knowledge or
explanation of the laws governing the evolution of the universe. 
While there is in fact an Esoteric Buddhism, some other name for the book
referred to might have been perhaps better, because the student speedily
finds that there is no essential difference between Esoteric Buddhism and
Esoteric Brahmanism, although as a matter of history, the Brahmans drove the
Buddhists out of India, several hundred years after the death of Buddha. 

If the title selected had been "Esoteric Brahmanism," it would have done
just as well. 


THE ESOTERIC DOCTRINE

In briefly considering the matter then, it must be understood that we are
not confined solely to Buddhism but to what would be more properly called
the "Esoteric doctrine," which underlies Brahmanism and Buddhism alike. And
it should also be well understood that much that is now called "Esoteric" by
us, has been long known in India and cannot therefore be properly said to be
Esoteric.

Very much as the secret meaning of the Hebrew Bible has been plainly before
the eyes of all in what is known among the rabbins as the Kabalah, so this
Esoteric doctrine has been buried in the Indian scriptures for ages under
many allegories, the key to which has been held by the Brahmans, the priests
of India, and they, like the priests of other religions, have kept that key
to themselves or thrown it away. 

A very good illustration of this may be found in the story of Draupadi, who
is said to have been the wife of all the five Pandu brothers at the same
time, as related in the great epic poem of the Aryans, the Mahabharata. This
is taken as proof by many prominent orientalists of the existence of
polyandry in India at that period. 

The key to the story is found in the Indian psychological system, which
locates in the human body five vital centers. The union of these centers is
in this system said to take place when a man has become completely master of
himself and is called the marriage of Draupadi with the five Pandus, as
those vital centers are the Pandus.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Edwin Arnold under the title of The Song
Celestial, the entire doctrine called Esoteric Buddhism may be found; and
this book is held in the highest esteem by both Brahmans and Buddhists. The
reason why this doctrine has not been long ago apparent to us is because of
the extremely narrow way in which all Indian psychology and philosophy has
hitherto been regarded, with the aid of such eminent authority as Max
Muller.

	
A KEY TO ESOTERICISM EXISTS

It has been said above that the Bhagavad-Gita contains all of this Esoteric
doctrine, but while such is the case it cannot be found in its entirety
without the key. That key was deliberately suppressed at the time of the
driving out of the Buddhists from India when the Pauranikas, or those who
followed the ancient Puranas, were desirous of concealing the similarity
between Buddhism and Brahmanism. 

The missing key is said to be contained in a work three times as bulky as
the Mahabharata, and to have been carried away by the Buddhist Initiates;
and the tradition now claims that in Ceylon at the Kandy Temple is a copy.
It is from this key that whatever is new in Mr. Sinnett's book has been
taken, although it is improbable that he was aware of that fact.


WHENCE THE UNIVERSE ?

Most orthodox Aryans believe that the universe came out of something, while
a few say that it came out of nothing. The Esoteric doctrine reconciles
these by saying that that something is no thing. The particular sect which
holds to the coming out of nothing is known as the Madhyamika, and is not
numerous.

The exoteric Indian philosophies, call the Universe, Brahma, consisting of
(Sat) absolute existence, (Chit) absolute intelligence and (Ananda) absolute
bliss, with two other divisions called (Nama) name and (Rupa) form. 

The Esoteric doctrine does not content itself with a mere metaphysical
juggling with these terms, but goes to the length of claiming to explain the
method of universal evolution and the hidden things in nature. This of
course includes declarations in regard to the state of the soul of man
preceding birth and his condition and course after death. 


THE COURSE OF EVOLUTION

As to the course of evolution, it is said, as far as our solar system is
concerned, that there are seven planets corresponding to a seven fold
division of man's nature which are necessary to carry out the process. This
earth is one of these and the other planets known to astronomy are not
necessarily a part of that portion of the process so far given out. 

In these this earth is the turning point where the soul of man begins its
conscious career. 


HOW KARMA WORKS

Here, after having passed through all forms of animate and inanimate life he
begins to come consciously under the operation of the law of Karma, which is
a law demanding complete compensation for every act, word and thought, and
which results in removing the idea of the possibility of a vicarious
atonement; and here he is born over and over again, reaping in each life the
exact results due to him from the life preceding, and being therefore at any
one instant of time the exact product or resultant of all his previous lives
and experiences. So that these two doctrines of Karma and Rebirth, are
interwoven one with the other.

After death the real man -- the ego -- goes to what the Christians call
Heaven, and which in the East is called Devachan. The words of the
Bhagavad-Gita will best enunciate this. In Chapter VI, Arjuna asks, 

"Whither O Krishna, doth the man go after death, who although he be endowed
with faith, hath not obtained perfection in his devotion?" 

To which Krishna replied: 

"His destruction is found neither here nor in the world above. A man whose
devotions have been broken off by death, having enjoyed for an immensity of
years the rewards of his virtues in the regions above, is at length born
again. . . . Being thus born again he resumes in his new body the same habit
he had before acquired and the same advancement of the understanding and
here he begins again his labor (where he left it off)."


HEAVEN IS DEVACHAN BETWEEN REBIRTHS

This law applies to all, righteous or not, and the period of rest which is
had in Devachan is the exact length of time the spiritual energy stored up
in earth life will last. The length of time one stays in Devachan has been
put by one or two English writers at fifteen hundred years, but this is
erroneous, for the stay there depends in each particular instance upon the
application of the immutable law to the facts of that case. 

The Devachanic period is the great resting spell for all, and is one of the
means provided by Nature for preventing a total degradation. During that
state the Ego acquires some goodness for the next earth life, and when the
Ego of a man who had before been extremely wicked is reborn, the new
personality has to feel the consequences of all the evil done in that
preceding life but comes to the task with the aid of the good influences of
the rest in Devachan.


"RACES" VIEWED THEOSOPHICALLY

The doctrine does not leave out of view the different races of men, but in
this instance the word "races" must be extended in its meaning so that it
includes not merely a few varieties, such as ethnologists now admit, but
gathers several of those varieties into one class. 

Those races were developed as man himself developed different senses and
different uses for them, and as the necessity for each race ceased, that
race gradually almost disappeared, leaving now on earth only a few examples
of each. In this way each ego had to pass successively through all the great
races with their offshoots and being in every case subject to the law that
it could not pass on to any new race until the one to which it belonged had
finished its course and become converted into another. 

This law is capable of modification in the case of adepts -- sometimes
called Mahatmas -- who by the use of another law are able to rise above the
limitations to which the ordinary man is subject.

The different races come and go, according to this doctrine, for enormous
periods of time and all forms of life and nature pass and repass, until the
hour arrives when the universal dissolution takes place. This dissolution is
called the end of the Manvantara, and the name for it is Pralaya. 


PRALAYA AND REBIRTH OF THE UNIVERSE

The succeeding chaotic period is known as the night of Brahma and is said to
be as long as the Day, each lasting one thousand ages. When the night ends
then all manifested nature begins again to appear as before, the
evolutionary process commencing with nebulous matter or fire mist which
cools gradually into various planets and stars where come forth forms of
life. 

Each world is held to be subject in its own small way to the law governing
the outbreathing and inbreathing of the whole, just as man has his own
pralaya each night in sleep and his great, or Maha pralaya, at death. So it
follows that while in one solar system a minor pralaya had covered all with
night, other systems might be perfecting their evolution, until the Maha
pralaya when the whole manifested universe of Brahma comes to an end. From
this follows the doctrine held by some Indian pandits, that Brahma
containing potentially all manifested nature -- or manifestable nature --
converts itself into the Universe, and in no case creates anything but
leaves all to be regularly evolved.

Much detail, very necessary for a proper understanding of the subject, has
been omitted, but even from this inadequate view of only a portion of the
Esoteric Doctrine, it will be seen that it is one which has a perfect scheme
of evolution where both spirit and matter are given their proper places.

>From THE THEOSOPHICAL FORUM, October 15, 1934, pp. 33-37.


 
 





Dallas