FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION
Search the corpus.
Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
20 matching pages
Page 1 of 11904 · PDF PAGE 103
…ot the black pig, are not in the sty” ? I im ply that the black pig is in the sty. All I have done is to represent the con- version as a change, rather than as m erely another way of expressi ng the same thing. And “change” is really not my meaning either; for change, to our minds, involves the idea of tim e. But the whole thing is inconceivable—to ratiocination, though not to thought. Note well too that if I say “Absence-of-books is not on the table,” I cannot convert it only “All books are on the table” but only to “some books are on the tabl…
1904 · PDF PAGE 111
…particular, to man.2 IV. THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS. The Three Characteris tics (which we may predicate of all known existing things: (a) Change. Anikka. (b) Sorrow. Dukkha. (c) Absence of an Ego. Anatta. 1 Change is the great enem y, the im mediate cause of pain. Unable to arrest it, I slo w the process, and render it tem porarily painless, by eating. T his is a concession to weakness, no doubt, in one sense. Do I eat r eally in or der to check change, or to m aintain m y ego- consciousness? Change I desire, for my present condition is sorrow. …
1904 · PDF PAGE 77
…took fair maidens, and was their servant. And he builded a fine house and dwelt therein. And he took no thought. But he said : Here is a change indeed ! 1 T he com mon for mula for beginning a “Jataka,” or story of a previous incarnation of the Buddha. Brahmadatta reigned 120,000 years. 2 The Sun. 3 The Moon. 4 Perdurabo. Crowley’s motto. “Now it came to pass that after many years he looked upon his love, the bride of his heart, the rose of his garden, the jewel of his rosary; and behold, the olive loveliness of smooth skin was darkened, and th…
1904 · PDF PAGE 121
…ation deferred, in Sec-tion III. In this Fourth Noble Truth we approach the true direction of Buddhism; progress is but another word for change; is it possible to move in a direction whose goal is the changeless? The answer is Yea and Am en! and it is detailed in the Noble Eightfold Path, of which I propose to give a short resumé. First, however, of the goal. It may be readily syllogised: All existing things are (by nature, inevi- tably) subject to change. In Nirvana is no change. ∴ No existing thing is or can be in Nirvana. Now here is the gre…
1904 · PDF PAGE 81
…But far was it from Indra’s pious m ind to flirt with his distinguished guest ! Rather, he thought of the hollow nature of the Safe, the change of money and of position; the sorrow of the too confiding bankers, and above all the absence of an Ego in the Brothers Crawford. “While he was thus musing, Bhavani got fairly mad at him. The Spretæ Injuria Formæ gnawed her vitals with pangs unassuageable : so, shaking him roughly by the arm, she Put It To Him Straight. ‘O Madam !’ said Indra. “This part of the story has been told before—about Joseph; bu…
1904 · PDF PAGE 73
…ty apparently not essential, that of ex- ceeding impermanence. If we examine what we call steady thought, we shall find that its rate of change is in reality inconceivably sw ift. To consider it, to watch it, is beweildering, and to some people becomes intensely terrifying. It is as if the solid earth were suddenly swept away from under one, and there were some dread awakening in outer space amid the rush of incessant meteors—lost in the void. All this is old knowledge; but who has taken steps to alter it ? The answer is forbidding: truth compe…
1904 · PDF PAGE 36
…; At worst, a play of fiends uncouth, Mocking the soul foredoomed to pain. In any case, its run must range Through countless miseries of change. So far, no farther, gentle youth ! The mind can see. So much, no more. So runs the premiss major plain ; Identical, the Noble truth First of the Buddha’s Noble Four! The premiss minor. I deplore These limitations of the mind I strain my eyes until they’re blind, And cannot pierce the awful veil * In Memoriam † All is Sorrow 270 275 280 285 290 295 300 305 Bard is pleased with himself. Poetee mani- fest…
1904 · PDF PAGE 24
…forgive The middle time of misery, Forgive the wrong creation first Or evolution’s iron key Did them—provided they are passed Beyond all change and pain at last Out of this universe accurst. But otherwise ! I lift my voice, Deliberately take my choice Promethean, eager to rejoice, In the grim protest’s joy to revel Betwixt Iscariot and the Devil, Throned in their midst ! No pain to feel, Tossed on some burning bed of steel, But theirs : my soul of love should swell And, on those piteous floors they trod, Feel, and make God feel, out of Hell, Ac…
1904 · PDF PAGE 20
… so The plain words of your sacred books Behind friend Swedenborg his spooks ! Says Huxley63 in his works (q. v.) “The microcosmic lives change daily In state or body”—yet you gaily Arm a false Hegel cap-à-pie— Your self, his weapons—make him wear False favours of a ladye fayre (The scarlet woman !) bray and blare A false note on the trumpet, shout : “A champion ? Faith’s defender ! Out ! Sceptic and sinner ! See me ! Quail I ?” I cite the Little-go. You stare, And have no further use for Paley ! Caird’s inter- pretation of Hegel. His identific…
1904 · PDF PAGE 106
…egories he is infinitely unextended; though the categories t hemselves exist; he is in fact 0A+B+C+D+E+ +N and capable of no conceivable change, unless w e imagine Nirvana to b e i ncomprehensibly divided by Nirvana, w hich w ould (supposing the two Nirvanas to pos sess identical cate-g ories) result in the production of the o riginal 00. But a further change would be necessary even then before serious mischief could result. In short, I think we may dismiss from our minds any alarm in res pect of this contingency. On mature consideration, there…
1904 · PDF PAGE 85
… on the “Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz.” A few only of the serious problem s are elucidated in footnotes. 1 I.e. when 118 = change, a ferment, strength. Also = befor e he was 120, the mystic age of a Rosicrucian. 2 Her-shell = Herschell, or Uranus, the planet which was ascending ( in Leo) at Crowley’s birth. 3 Vau and Gimel, the Hierophant and High-Priestess in the Tarot. Hence “from his Castle of Ug” m eans “from his initiati on.” We cannot in future do m ore than indicate the allusions. 4 The Kerubim. 5 See Table of Correspondenc…
1904 · PDF PAGE 79
…y , in spite of the tender shoots of green and the soft cocoanuts, this elephant was not as other elephants. The seasons spoke to him of change—the forest is ever full of sorrow— and nobody need preach to him the absence of an ego, for the brutes have had more sense than ever to im agine there was one. So the tusker was usually to be found, still as a rock, in s ome secluded place, m editating on the Three Characteris tics. And when Ganesha appeared in all his glory , he found him to his disgust quite free from e lephanto- morphism. In fact, he…
1904 · PDF PAGE 124
… result striking at the very condition of consciousness; which I may formulate as follows: “If a single state of consciousness persist unchanged for a period exceeding a very few seconds, its duality is annihilated; its nature is violently overthrown; this phenomenon is accompanied by an indes cribable s ensation of bliss.” Very well! but I want this formula verified a hundred times, a t housand times, by independent investigators. I want it better stated; its conditions modified, defined ex- actly. I want it to leave its humble station as my o…
1904 · PDF PAGE 82
…ntly, even shamefacedly, went on : “ ‘But what I really wished to know was about my incarnation. How is it I have so suddenly risen from change and death to the unchangeable ?’ “ ‘Child !’ answered Gautama, ‘your facts are wrong—you can hardly expect to make 1 Feet. 2 This astonishing piece of bombastic drivel is verbatim from a note by S. L. M athers to the “Kabbalah Unveiled.” correct deductions.’ ‘Yes, y ou can, if only your logical methods are unsound. That’s the Christian way of getting truth.’ ‘True!’ replied the sage, ‘but precious littl…
1904 · PDF PAGE 101
…ast the appalling question is answered, and the pas t ceases to intrude its problems upon my mind. Here y ou are! Three s hies a penny ! Change all bad arguments. I ASSERT THE ABSOLUTENESS OF THE QABALISTIC ZERO. When we s ay that the Cos mos s prang from 0, what kind of 0 do we mean ? By 0 in the ordinary sense of the term we mean “absence of extension in any of the categories.” When I say “No cat has two tails,” I do not mean, as the old fallacy runs , that “Absence-of-cat possesses two tails” ; but that “In the category of two-tailed things,…
1904 · PDF PAGE 105
…a task from which almightiness m ight well recoil baffled !—I much fear that eternal life, and consequently eternal suffering, joy , and change of all kinds, will be their m elancholy fate. Such persons are in truth their own real enemies. Many of them, however, believing errone- ously that they are being “ unselfish,” do fill their hearts with devotion for the beloved Saviour, and this process is, in its ultimation, so similar to the earlier s tages of the Great Work itself, that some confusion has, s tupidly enough, arisen ; but for all that …
1904 · PDF PAGE 122
…nd pity that is in his heart—that man has attained to Stage the Third. “And becaus e of the great power of a man’s thoughts and words to change his being, because by thinking of the pitiful our acts grow full of m ercy, therefore is Stage the Fourth called Right Conduct. To him who has gained this Fourth Stage, his intense as-piration, his right understanding, his care-fully guarded speech—perhaps for many years of self-control—have at last borne outward fruit, till all his acts are loving, and pure, and done without hope of gain, he has attain…
1904 · PDF PAGE 71
…s as alternating between Evolution and In- volution. But apparently, in either state, it is the other which appears desirable, since the change is operated by Will, not by Necessity. 341. Blavatskys Himalayan Balm.43—See the corkscrew theories of A . P. Sinnet in that masterpiece of confusion of thought—and nomenclature !—“Esoteric Buddhism.” Also see the “Voice of the Silence, or, The Butler’s Revenge.” Not Bp. Butler. 366. Ekam Advaita.44—Of course I now re- ject this utterly. B ut it is, I believe, a stage of thought necessary for many or m…
1904 · PDF PAGE 113
SCIENCE AND BUDDHISM 106 consciousness to consciousness by its eternity, while it fixes a great gulf between them by its changelessness. He states the knowable, states it accurately , and leaves it there. But there is a practical application of this analysis which I will treat of later. (See VIII. Maha- satipatthana.) We are told that the memory is a proof of some real “ I.” But how treacherous is this ground! Did a past event in my life not happen because I have forgotten it? O the analogy of the river water given above is most valid! I who wr…
1904 · PDF PAGE 62
…am to be beloved of men, it shall be because my work is for all times and all men, because it is greater than all the gods of chance and change, because it has the heart of the human race beating in every line.” This is a patch of magenta to mauve, undoubtedly ; but — ! The present collection of verses w ill hardly be popular ; if the lost works turn up, of course it may be that there may be found “shelter for songs that recede.” Still, even here, one is, on the w hole, more attracted than repelled ; the author has enormous power, and he never …