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.
33 matching pages
Page 1 of 21904 · PDF PAGE 34
…he line By which divide they and define Being a shadowy sort of test ; A verbal lusus at the best, At worst a wicked lie devised To bind men’s thoughts ; but we must work With our own instruments, nor shirk Discarding what we erstwhile prized ; Should we perceive it disagree With the first-born necessity. I come to tell you why I shun The sight of men, the life and fun You know I can enjoy so well, The Nature that I love as none (I think) before me ever loved. You know I scorn the fear of Hell, By worship and all else unmoved 190 195 200 205 21…
1904 · PDF PAGE 21
…Than John’s third chapter (sixteenth verse). But now (you say) broad-minded folk Think that those words the Master spoke Should save all men at last. But mind ! The text says nothing of the kind ! Read the next verses !† Then—one third Of all humanity are steady In a belief in Buddha’s word, Possess eternal 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 r…
1904 · PDF PAGE 120
… faith? Or how far can we proceed even from partial truth, unless a perfectly open mind be kept regarding it, aware that some new pheno- menon may possibly overthrow our most fun- damental hypotheses ! Give me a reasonable proof of some (intelligent) existence which is not liable to sorrow, and I will throw the First Noble Truth to the dogs without a pang. And, knowing this, how splendid is it to read the grand words uttered m ore than two thousand y ears ago: “Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge to yourselves. Beta…
1904 · PDF PAGE 62
…e no longer any doubt of his complete insanity ; for three weeks he had been raving with absinthe and satyriasis. He survived his confinement no long time ; the burning of the asylum with its in-mates was one of the most terrible events of the war of 1870. So died one of the most talented Englishmen of his century, a man who for wide knowledge of men and things was truly to be envied, yet one who sold his birthright for a mess of beastlier pottage than ever Esau guzzled, who sold soul and body to Satan for sheer love of sin, whose mere lust of …
1904 · PDF PAGE 75
…al magic that toyed.” Granted. Astronomy’s no myth, But it produced Piazzi Smyth. What crazes actors ? Why do surgeons Go mad and cut up men like sturgeons ? (The questions are the late Chas. Spur- geon’s.) Of yogi I could quote you hundreds In science, law, art, commerce noted. They fear no lunacy : their on dread’s Not for their noddles doom-devoted. They are not like black bulls (that shunned reds In vain) that madly charge the goathead Of rural Pan, because some gay puss Had smeared with blood his stone Priapus. They are as sane as politici…
1904 · PDF PAGE 94
…greatly, for the stability of the universe is the great enemy; the unstable being the ever- lasting, saith Adhou Bim Aram, the Arab. O Elmen Zata, our Sophic Pilaster ! Further in the dream there was let down from heaven a mighty tessaract, bounded by eight cubes, whereon sat a mighty dolphin having eight senses. Further, he beheld a cavern full of most ancient bones of men, and therein a lion with the voice of a dog. Then came a voice: “Thirteen1 are they, who are one. Once is a oneness : twice is the Name: thrice let us say not : by four is t…
1904 · PDF PAGE 121
…rnished (and even this is not every where the cas e), its methods, its organisation, are sadly in need of repair; research must be done, men must be perfected, error must be fought. And if in the West a great Buddhist society is built up of m en of intellect, of the men in whose hands the future lie s, there is then an awakening, a true redem ption, of the weary and forgetful Empires of the East. X THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH To return from our little digression to the original plan of our essay . It is time to note the “Noble Eightfold Path,” ref…
1904 · PDF PAGE 20
ASCENSION DAY 13 One year’s effect, one moment’s cause; What mind could estimate such laws ? Who then (much more !) may act aright Judged by and in ten centuries’ sight? (Yet I believe, whate’er we do Is best for me and best for you And best 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 sa…
1904 · PDF PAGE 14
… of wrath—Ascension-tide ! Oh ! ’tis a worthy day to wrest Hate’s diadem from Jesus’ Crest ! Ascends he ? ’Tis the very test By which we men may fairly judge, From the rough roads we mortals trudge Or God’s paths paved with heliotrope, The morals of the crucified. (Both standpoints joined in one, I hope, In metaphysic’s stereoscope !) But for the moment be denied A metaphysical inspection— Bring out the antiseptic soap !— We’ll judge the Christ by simple section, And strictly on the moral side. But first ; I must insist on taking The ordinary s…
1904 · PDF PAGE 66
…omplete the logical sequence from 1898 till now . A ll, how ever, has been repeatedly revised. Wherever there seemed a lacuna in the argument an insertion was made, till all appeared a perfect chrysolite. Most of this was done, while the weary hours of the summer (save the mark !) of 1902 rolled over Camp Misery and Camp Despair on the Chogo Ri Glacier, in those rare intervals when one’s preoccuption with lice, tinned food, malaria, insoaking water, general soreness, mental misery, and the everlasting snowstorm gave place to a momentary glimmer…
1904 · PDF PAGE 113
…t or not, depends for its information on so absurd a series of bodies as are groups under that “Crowley”! Yet the Buddhist meets all arguments of the spiritual order with a sim ple statem ent which, if not certain, is at least not im prob- able. There is, he will tell y ou, a “ spiritual” world, or to avoid any (most unjustifiable) misunderstandings, let us say a world of subtler matter than the visible and tangible, which has its own laws (analogous to, if not identical with, those laws of matter with which we are acquainted) and whose inhabi-…
1904 · PDF PAGE 59
…n they were placarded with rival posters— Ne buvez pas de l’Alcool ! L’Alcool est un poison ! and Buvez de l’Alcool ! L’Alcool est un aliment ! We know now that alcohol is a food up to a certain amount; the precept, good enough for a rough rule as it stands, will not bear close inspection. What Buddha really commands with that grim humour of his, is: Avoid Intoxication. But what is intoxication? unless it be the loss of power to use perfectly a truth-telling set of faculties. If I w alk unsteadily it is ow ing to nervous lies—and so for all the…
1904 · PDF PAGE 89
…nd earth was utterly darkened. And the marriage of that virgin was on this wise: She had three arrows, y et but two flanks, and the wise men s aid that who knew two was three,1 should know three was eight, 2 if the circle were but squared; and this also one day shall ye know, my Brethren ! And she gave him the great and perfect gift of Magic, so that he fared forth right comely and well-provided. N ow at that great wedding was a Suggler, 3 a riddler : for he said, “Thou hast beasts : I will give thee weapons one for one.” For the Lion did our F…
1904 · PDF PAGE 109
…of Thomas Henry Huxley.) I. THE purpose of this essay is to draw a strict comparison between the modern scien- tific conceptions of Phenomena and their explanation, where such exis ts, and the ancient ideas of the Buddhists; to show that Buddhism, alike in theory and practice, is a scientific religion; a logical superstructure on a basis of experimentally verifiable truth ; and that its method is identical with that of science. W e m ust resolutely exclude the accidental features of both, es pecially of Buddhism; and unfortunately in both cases…
1904 · PDF PAGE 85
…that I, Am brose, called I.A.O., should set down the life of our great Father (who now is not, yet whose name must never be spoken among men), in order that the Brethren may know what journey s he undertook in pursuit of that Knowledge whose attainment is their constant study. It was at his 119th year,1 the S tar Suaconch2 being in the sign of the Lion, that our Father set out from his Castle of Ug 3 to attain the Quint- essence or Philosophical Tincture. The way being dark and the Golden Dawn at hand, he did call forth four se rvants to keep h…
1904 · PDF PAGE 50
…y own interpreter, And I will make it plain.” NOTE TO INTRODUCTION 1 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AN APPRECIATION BY ALEISTER CROWLEY.* IT is a lamentable circumstance that so many colossal brains (W. H . Mallock, &c. ) have been hitherto thrown away in attacking what is after all a problem of mere academic interest, the authorship of the plays our fathers accepted as those of Shakespeare. To me it seems of immediate and vital importance to do for Shakespeare what Verrall has done so ably for Euripides. The third tabernacle must be filled; Shaw and “the…
1904 · PDF PAGE 125
…perfect and can never be overcome, 1 in another s ense as sociates are pos sible and desirable. One third of humanity are Buddhists; add men of Science and we form an absolute majority ; among Buddhists a very large proportion have deliberately gone out from social life of any kind to tread t hese paths of Research. Is the Way very hard? Is the brain tired? The results slow to com e? Others are working, failing, struggling, crowned here and there with rare garlands of success. Success for ourse lves, success for othe rs; is it not Compassion th…
1904 · PDF PAGE 65
…dists. 548. The heathen.68—“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” 580. Satan and Judas.69—At the moment of passing the final proofs I am informed that the character of Judas has been rehabilitated by Mr. Stead (and rightly: is Mr. Abington* paid with a rope ? ) and the defence of Satan undertaken by a young society lady authoress —a Miss C orelli—who represents him as an Angel of Light, i.e. one who has been intro- duced to the Prince of Wales. But surely there is some one w ho is the object of universal re…
1904 · PDF PAGE 95
…herefore, will I set down the exact truth of all that happened. In the year of the Great Passing Over were signs and wonders seen of all men, O m y Brethren, as it is written, and well known unto this day. And the first sign was of dancing: for every woman that was under the moon began to dance and was mad, so that headlong and hot-mouthed she flung herself down, desirous. Whence the second sign, that of musical inventions ; for in that year, and of Ros ewomen, came A and U and M,1 the mighty musicians ! And the third sign likewise, namely , of…
1904 · PDF PAGE 82
…not prove the actual existence of any such oxy moron.1 The truth is that you’re a very spiritual sort of being and a prey to longevity . Men’s lives are so short that yours seems eternal in com parison. But —why, youre a nice one to talk ! You’ll be dead in a week from now.’ “ ‘I quite appreciate the force of your remarks !’ said the s eeming cowherd; ‘that about the Characteristics is very clever; and curiously enough, my perception of this had always jus t preceded m y death for the las t six goes.’ “ ‘Well, so long, old chap,’ said G autama…