THE SEVEN PORTALS
92. Not so when he hath crossed and won the Aryahata
Path. :
From here to verse 95 is description of this last Path
which leads to the last Gate.
93. There Kleshais destroyed for ever, Tanhd@’s roots torn
out. But stay, Disciple . . . Yet one word. Canst thou de-
stroy divine COMPASSION? Compassion is no attribute.
It is the Law 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.
Here again is apparently a serious difficulty. The idea of
Klesha, here identified with Love of worldly enjoyment,
seems to put one back almost before the beginning. Is it
now only that the almost-Arhat no longer wants to go to the
theatre? It must not be interpreted in this low sense. At
the same time, it is difficult to discover a sense high enough
to fit the passage. With Tanha it is easier to find a meaning,
for Madame seems to identify Tanha with the creative
force of which we have spoken. But this is of course in-
compatible with the Buddhist teaching on the subject.
Tanha is properly defined as the hunger of the individual for
continuous personal existence, either in a material or a spir-
itual sense.
With regard to the rest of the verse, it certainly reads as if
yet again Blavatsky had taken the sword to a Gordian knot.
By saying that Compassion is no attribute she is merely
asserting what is evidently not true, and she therefore de-
fines it in a peculiar way, and I am afraid that she does so
in a somewhat misleading manner. It would be improper
here to disclose what is presumably the true meaning of this
verse. One can only commend it to the earnest considera-
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