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Page 1 of 21904 · PDF PAGE 42
… think divinely) In name and form : a fault perhaps— Reviewers are such funny chaps ! I think that ordinary folk, Though, understood the things I spoke. For Gods, and devils too, I find Are merely modes of my own mind ! The poet needs enthusiasm ! Vese-making is a sort of spasm, Degeneration of the mind, And things of that unpleasant kind. 515 520 525 530 535 540 545 Nothing. The Apotheosis of Realism and Idealism alike Gayatri. Is “The Soul of Osiris” a Hymn Book ? How verse is written. Prayer.
1904 · PDF PAGE 43
THE SWORD OF SONG 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 G…
1904 · PDF PAGE 121
…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 great difficulty; for this syllogism is perfectly sound, and y et we speak of attaining Nirvana, tasting Nir- vana, &c. [We must distinguish the Hindu Nirvana, which means Cessation of Existence in certain Lokas; never absolute Cessation, as the 1 Or International Buddhi…
1904 · PDF PAGE 101
… long-lost and central Arcanum of those divine philosophers. I have no serious objection to a finite god, or gods, distinct from men and things. In fact, personally , I believe in them all, and admit them to possess inconceivable though not infinite power. The Buddhists admit the existence of Maha-Brahma, but his power and knowledge are limited; and his agelong day must end. I find evidence every where, even in our garbled and mutilated version of the Hebrew Scriptures, that Jehovah’s power was limited in all sorts of way s. At the Fall, for in…
1904 · PDF PAGE 100
… back to our previous irritable agnosti- cism, and look for our Messiah elsewhere. But if we can see together on this one point, I think things will go fairly smoothly after- wards. Consider1 Darkness ! Can we philosophi- cally or actually regard as different the dark- ness produced by interference of light and that existing in the mere absence of light ? Is Unity really identical with .9 recurring? Do we not mean different things when we s peak res pectively of 2 sine 60° and of 3 ? Charcoal and diamond are obviously dif- ferent in the categor…
1904 · PDF PAGE 77
… a change: s o that he cried, ‘W ho then am I ?’ And he saw that all this was sorrow. And he turned his thought without and saw that all things were alike in this; that nought might es cape the threefold m isery. ‘The soul,’ he said, ‘the soul, the I, is a s all of these ; it is im permanent as the e phemeral flower of beauty in the water that is born and shines and dies ere sun be risen and set again.’ “And he hum iliated his heart and sang the following verse: Brahma, and Vishnu, and great Shiva ! Truly I see the Trinity in all things dwell, …
1904 · PDF PAGE 79
APPENDIX I 72 V. “Now the great elephant strode with lordly footsteps in the forest, and Jehjaour shut himself up with his caldrons and things and felt quite happy, for he knew his danger was not near till the approachin of Perdu’ R Abu’s Arahatship. But in spite of the young gently-ambling cows which Ganesha took care to throw in his way , 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 th…
1904 · PDF PAGE 94
… lady ! So that our Father sank into deep sleep and dreamed a dream, and in that m irific dream it seemed unto him that the walls of all things slid into and acros s each other, s o that he feared 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 mo…
1904 · PDF PAGE 38
…nthinkable and wicked too, A great deal that I know is true ! In short, the mind is capable, Besides mere ratiocination, Of twenty other things as well, The first of which is concentration ! Here most philosohers agree ; Claim that the truth must so intend, Explain at once all agony Of doubt, make people comprehend 350 355 260 365 370 375 380 385 The Advaitist position. Mind’s superior functions. Does truth make itself in- stantly appa- rent ? Not reason.
1904 · PDF PAGE 48
… 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 sense. What is the quarrel between us ? Why do our thoughts so idly clatter ? I do not care one jot for matter, One jot for spirit, while you say One is pure ether, one pure clay. I’ve talked too long : you’re very good— I only hope you’ve understood ! Remember that “conversion” lurks Nowhere behind my words and works. Go home and think ! my talk refined To the sheer needs of your own mind. You canno…
1904 · PDF PAGE 45
…Besides, it’s you, and you, I find, Are but a mode of my own mind. But then you argue, and with sense; “I have this worthy evidence That things are real, since I cease The painter’s ecstasy of peace, And find them all unchanged.” To-day I cannot brush that doubt away ; It leads to tedious argument Uncertain, in the best event : Unless, indeed, I should invoke The fourth dimension, clear the smoke Psychology still leaves. This question Needs a more adequate digestion. Yet I may answer that the universe Of meditation suffers less From time’s insu…
1904 · PDF PAGE 41
… you scripture 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…
1904 · PDF PAGE 36
…e now if you list From Tennyson. It isn’t much ; (Skip this and ’twill be even less) He say : “I am not what I see,38 And other than the things I touch.”* How lucid is our Alfred T. ! The Hindu, an Advaitist, Crosses off Maya from the list ; Believes in one—exactly so, Dhyana-consciousness, you know ! May it not be that one step further “’This lotused Buddha roaring murther !” ?39 Nibbana is the state above you Christians and them Hindus—Lord love you !— Where Nothing is perceived as such. This clever thought doth please me much. But if das Ess…
1904 · PDF PAGE 19
… antithesis implied, The irony, the curse-fruition, The calm assumption of Hell’s fevers As fit, as just, for unbelievers— These are the things that stick beside And hamper my quite serious wish To harbour kind thoughts of the “Fish.”58 Here goes my arrow to the gold ! I’ll make no magpies ! Though I hold Your Christianity a lie, Abortion and iniquity, The most immoral and absurd —(A priest’s invention, in a word)— Of all religions, I have hope In the good Dhamma’s59 wider scope, Nay, certainty ! that all at last, However came they in the past,…
1904 · PDF PAGE 83
…h and Light and P eace and Love; deeper and deeper enmeshed in the net of Circumstance, bogged in the mire of Tanha1 and Avigga2 and all things base and vile. False Vichi-Kichi 3 had caught him at last ! XIII. “Aye! The hour was at hand. Perdu R Abu was reincarnated as a child of Western parents, ignorant of all his wonderful past. But a strange fate has brought him to this village.” The Buddha paused, probalby for effect. A young man there, sole among them not yet an Arahat, turned pale. He alone was of Western birth in all that multitude. “Br…
1904 · PDF PAGE 22
… all is freed, And is not merely the result Of sex, environment, and cult, Habit and climate, health and mind, And twenty thousand other things ! So many a metaphysic sings. (I wish they did indeed : I find Their prose the hardest of hard reading.) “But if,” you cry, “the world’s designed As a mere mirage in the mind, Up jumps free will.” But all I’m pleading Is against pain and hell. Freewill Then can damn man ? No fearful mill, Grinding catastrophe, is speeding Outside—some whence, some whither ? And67 I think we easier understand Where Schel…
1904 · PDF PAGE 115
…f externality, or no;1 whether or no we fly to the extrem e idealistic position; there is no question that, to our normal consciousness, things as they present themselves—apart from obvious illusion, if even we dare to except this—are undisprovable to the immediate apprehen- sion. Whatever our reason may tell us, we act precisely as through Berkeley had never lived, and the herculean Kant had been strangled while yet in his cradle by the twin serpents of his own perversity and termi- nology. What criterion shall we apply to the relative realiti…
1904 · PDF PAGE 37
…o Buddha, fleeing The dreadful problem with the word “Who answers, as who asks, hath erred,” I must decidedly insist On asking why these things exist. My mind refuses to admit All-Power can be all-Wickedness. —Nay ! but it may ! What shadows flit Across the awful veil of mist ? What thoughts invade, insult, impress ? There comes a lightning of my wit And sees—nor good nor ill address Itself to task, creation’s ill, But a mere law without a will,40 Nothing resolved in something, fit Phantom of dull stupidity, And evolution’s endless stress All t…
1904 · PDF PAGE 47
…his may be fancy or a fact ; At least it squares with super-sense Or “spiritual experience.” You do not well to swell the list Of horrid things to me imputed By calling me “materialist.” At least this thought is better suited To Western minds than is embalmed Among the doctrines of Mohammed, The dogma parthenogenetic * As told me by a fat ascetic. He said : “Your worthy friends may lack you late, But learn how Mary was immaculate !” I sat in vague expectant bliss. The story as it runs is thus : (I quote my Eastern friend60 verbatim !) The Virgi…
1904 · PDF PAGE 25
… the less A cross, be sure ! The worst man’s thought In hell itself, bereft of bliss, Were less unmerciful than this ! No ! for material things, I hear, Will burn away, and cease to be— (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.…