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Page 1 of 31904 · PDF PAGE 98
… Advaitism, and Dvaitism. Taking the ordinary hy pothesis of the universe, that of its infinity , or at any rate that of the infinity of God, or of the infinity of some substance or idea actually existing, we first come to the question of the possi- bility of the co-existence of God and man. The Christians, in the category of the ex- istent, enumerate among other things, whose consideration we may discard for the purposes of this argumen t, God, an infinite being; man; Satan and his angels; man certainly, Satan presum ably, finite beings. These…
1904 · PDF PAGE 25
… (Nibbanna ! Ah ! Thou shoreless Sea !) Man, man alone, is doomed to fear, To suffer the eternal woe, Or else, to meet man’s subtle foe, God—and oh ! infamy of terror ! Be like him—like him ! And for ever ! At least I make not such an error : My soul must utterly dissever Its very silliest thought, belief, From such a God as possible, Its vilest from his worship. Never ! Avaunt, abominable chief Of Hate’s grim legions ; let me well Gird up my loins and make endeavour, And seek a refuge from my grief, O never in Heaven—but in Hell! “Oh, very wel…
1904 · PDF PAGE 23
THE SWORD OF SONG 16 (Granting him Godhead) merciless To all the anguish and distress About him—save to him it clung And prayed. Give me omnipotence? I am no fool that I should fence That power, demanding every tongue To call me God—I would exert That power to heal creation’s hurt ; Not to divide my devotees From those who scorned me to the close : A worm, a fire, a thirst for these ; A harp-resounding heaven for those ! And though you claim Salvation sure For all the heathen68—there again New Christians give the lie to plain Scripture, those w…
1904 · PDF PAGE 99
…on earth, however great, can s tretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line that shall be absolutely straight.” The definition of God as infinite therefore denies man implicitly; while if he be finite, there is an end of the usual Christian reasons for worship, though I daresay I could myself discover some reasonably good ones. [I hardly expect to be asked, somehow.] The resulting equilibrium of God and man, destructive of worship, is of course absurd. We must reject it, unless we want to fall into Positivism, Materialism, or something o…
1904 · PDF PAGE 43
…G 36 So to the laws all bards obey I bend, and seek in my own way By false things to expound the real. But never think I shall appeal To Gods. What folly can compare With such stupidity as prayer ? Some years ago I thought to try Prayer51—tests its efficacity. I fished by a Norwegian lake. “O God,” I prayed, “for Jesus’ sake Grant thy poor servant all his wish ! For every prayer produce a fish !” Nine times the prayer went up the spout, And eight times—what a thumping trout ! (This is the only true fish-story I ever heard—give God the glory !) …
1904 · PDF PAGE 21
…ernal life already, And shun delights, laborious days Of labour living (Milton’s phrase) In strenuous purpose to—? to cease ! “A fig for God’s eternal peace ! True peace is to annihilate The chain of causes men call Fate, So that no Sattva66 may renew Once death has run life’s shuttle through.” (Their dages put it somewhat thus) What’s fun to them is death to us ! That’s clear at least. B ut never mind! Call them idolaters and blind! We’ll talk of Christ. As Shelley sang, “Shall an eternal issue hang * Great slam—a term of Bridge-Whist. Bara is…
1904 · PDF PAGE 9
…UNG out of chapel1* and church, Temple and hall and meeting-room, Venus’ Bower and Osiris’ Tomb,2 And left the devil in the lurch, While God3 got lost in the crowd of gods,4 And soul went down5 in the turbid tide Of the metaphysical lotus-eyed,6 And I was—anyhow, what’s the odds ? The life to live ? The thought to think ? Shall I take refuge In a tower like once Childe Roland‡ found, blind, deaf, huge, Or in that forest of two hundred thousand Trees,8 fit alike to shelter man and mouse, and— Shall I say God? Be patient, your Reverence,9 I warra…
1904 · PDF PAGE 10
…nally coffin, ease, Love being filth? let us ask Aristophanes ! Or, heaven’s sun bake us, while Earth’s bugs and fleas kill us, Love the God’s scourge ? I refer you to Aeschylus ! (Nay ! that’s a slip ! Say we “Earth’s grim device, cool loss !—” Better the old Greek orthography !—Aischulos !14) Or, love be God’s cham pagne’s foam ; deat h i n m an’s trough, hock lees, Pathos our port’s beeswing ? what answers Sophocles ? Brief, with love’s medicine let’s draught, bolus, globule us ! Wise and succinct bids, I think, Aristobulus.15 Whether my Mus…
1904 · PDF PAGE 55
…SCENSION DAY 1. I flung out of chapel.1—Browning, Xmas Eve, III. last line. 3. Venus Bower and Osiris Tomb.2— Crowley, Tannhaäuser. 5. God.3—Hebrew, \yhla, Gen. iii. 5. 5. gods.4— Hebrew, \yhla, Gen. iii. 5. The Revisers, seeing this most awkard juxtaposition, have gone yet one step lower and translated both words by “God.” In other passages, however, they have been compelled to disclose their own dishonesty and translate \yhla by “gods.” For evidence of this the reader may look up such passages as Ex. xviii. 11; Deut . xxxii. 17; Ps. lxxxii.…
1904 · PDF PAGE 6
… bid me purify the same, To such a process I discern no end . . . First cut the liquefaction, what comes last But Fichte’s clever cut at God himself ? . . . I trust nor hand, nor eye, nor heart, nor brain To stop betimes: they all get drunk alike. The first step, I am master not to take.” This is surely the apotheosis of wilful ignorance! We may think, perhaps, that Browning is “hedging” when, in the last paragraph, he say s : “For Blougram, he believed, say, half he spoke,”* and hints at some deeper ground. It is useless to say, “This is Bloug…
1904 · PDF PAGE 48
PENTECOST 41 Out of a silver Tube a Dart Shooting Gods Spirit to her heart—61 This beats the orthodox Dove-Suitor ! What explanation could be cuter Than—Gabriel with a pea-shooter ? In such a conflict I stand neuter. But oh ! mistake not gold for pewter ! The plain fact is : materialise What spiritual fact you choose, And all such turn to folly—lose The subtle splendour, and the wise Love and dear bliss of truth. Beware Lest your lewd laughter set a snare For any ! Thus and only thus Will I admit a difference ’Twixt spirit and the things of se…
1904 · PDF PAGE 41
…ture anyhow) What did the Sage mean when he wrote (I am the Devil when I quote) “The mere terrestrial-minded man Knows not the Things of God, nor can Their subtle meaning understand ?” A sage, I say, although he mentions Perhaps the best of his inventions, God. For at first this practice tends To holy thoughts (the holy deeds Precede success) and reverent gaze Upon the Ancient One of Days, Beyond which fancy lies the Truth. To find which I have left my youth, All I held dear, and sit alone Still meditating, on my throne Of Kusha-grass,48 and co…
1904 · PDF PAGE 81
APPENDIX I 74 British Governm ent, when he was a baby Nat. “The Queen of Heaven and the Lord of the Gods chewed betel for quite a long time, conversed of the weather, the crops, the affaire Hum bert, and the law in relation to motor-cars, with ease and affability. 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 wa…
1904 · PDF PAGE 24
…l, 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, Across the gulf impassable, That He was damned and I was God ! Ay! Let him rise and answer me That false creative Deity, Whence came his right to rack the Earth With pangs of death,70 disease, and birth : No joy unmarred by pain and grief : Insult on injury heaped high In that quack-doctor infamy The Panacea of—Belief ! Only the selfish soul of man Could ever have conceived a plan Man on…
1904 · PDF PAGE 20
… for all : I line no brow With wrinkles, meditating how.) Well, but another way remains. Shall we expound the cosmic plan By symbolising God and man And nature thus? As man contains Cells, nerves, grey matter in his brains, Each cell a life, self-centred, free Yet self-subordinate to the whole For its own sake—expand !—so we Molecules of a central soul, Time’s sons, judged by Eternity. Nature is gone—our joys, our pains, Our little lives—and God remains. Were this the truth—why ! worship then Were not so imbecile for men! But that’s no Christia…
1904 · PDF PAGE 16
…Ding an sich*—as Germans term it—” We stop him short ; he readjusts his glasses, Turns to his folio—’twill eclipse all precedent, Reveal God’s nature, every dent a blessed dent ! The Donkey : written by an ass, for asses. So, with permission, let us be Orthodox to our finger-ends; What the bulk hold, High Church or Friends, Or Hard-shall Baptists—and we’ll see. I will not now invite attack By proving white a shade of black, Or Christ (as some47 have lately tried) An epileptic mania, Citing some case, “where a dose Of Bromide duly given in time …
1904 · PDF PAGE 66
…, If thou wilt that of Egypt’s crocodile.” 746. Lost ! Lost ! Lost !78—See The Lay of the Last Minstrel. 759. Ain Elohim.79—“There is no God !” so our Bible. But this is really the most sublime affirmation of the Q abalist. “A in is God” For the meaning of Ain, and of this idea, see “Berashith,” infra. The “fool” is He of the Tarot, to whom the number 0 is attached, to make the meaning patent to a child. “I insult your idol,” quoth the good missionary ; “ he is but of dead stone. He does not avenge himself. He does not punish me.” “I insult you…
1904 · PDF PAGE 79
…when Ganesha appeared in all his glory , he found him to his disgust quite free from e lephanto- morphism. In fact, he quietly asked the God to leave him alone. “Now he was still quite a y oung elephant when there came into the jungle, tripping merrily along, with a light-hearted song in its nucleolus, no less than a Bacillus. “And the elephant died. He was only seventeen years old.” VI. “A brief consultation ; and the Srotapatti was reincarnated as a parrot. For the parrot, said the wicked Jehjaour, may live 500 years and never feel it. “So a …
1904 · PDF PAGE 106
… a m aster-idea. We have dismissed infinity as the figment of a morbid mathematic: but in any case the same disproof applies to it as to God.—A.C. 3 Hail unto Thee, the Blessed One, the Perfect One, the Enlightened One! antitheses of noum enon and phenomenon, unity and multiplicity, and their kind, are all reconciled, and the only question that re- mains is that of finding the most satisfactory means of attaining Nirvana—extinction of all that exists, knows, or feels; extinction final and com plete, utter and absolute ex- tinction. For by these…
1904 · PDF PAGE 28
… Ascension Day.) He’s gone—his belly filled enough ! This Robert-Browning-manqué stuff ! ’Twill serve—Mercutio’s scratch !—to show Where God and I are disagreed. There ! I have let my feelings go This once. Again ? I deem not so. Once for my fellow-creature’s need ! The rest of life, for self-control,81 For liberation of the soul !82 This once, the truth ! In future, best Dismissing Jesus with a jest. Ah ! Christ ascends ?83 Ascension day ? Old wonders bear the bell84 away ? Santos-Dumont, though ! Who can say ? 745 750 755 760 765 770 775 780 …