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Page 79 of 871904 · PDF PAGE 105
tycarb 98 it must sink down with the other forces. But by creating in thought an infinite Impersonal Personality, by defining it as such, all religions except the Buddhist and, as I believe, the Qabalistic, have sought to annihilate their own personality . The Buddhist aims directly at extinction; the Hindu denies and abolished his own finity by the creation of an absolute. As this cannot be done in reality , the process is illusory ; y et it is useful in the early s tages—as far, at any rate, as the fourth stage of Dhy ana, where the Buddha pl…
1929 · PDF PAGE 101
101 who follow this interest. Crowley's doctor prescribed heroin at a time in the 'teens when it was thought to be non-addictive! Crowley experienced the terrors of withdrawal, recounted in his "Liber XCIII", and ultimately died of respiratory infection in 1947, fifty years after the events described here. {180} Allan Bennett was tall, but his sickness had already produced a stoop. His head, crowned with a shock of wild black hair, was intensely noble; the brows, both wide and lofty, overhung indomitable piercing eyes. The face would have been …
1929 · PDF PAGE 358
…s what we wanted, but did not seem in the least happy about it. Further investigation, however, finally revealed that having money, they thought we must be brigands. We let it go at that. However, misunderstandings were not yet over. Three times on the road we were arrested as anarchists. The soldiers could not understand why anyone should want to go to Madrid except to kill Alphonso, and I suppose there {577} is something really to be said for this point of view. They gave us no real annoyance, our passports being as impressive as they were un…
1929 · PDF PAGE 334
…en at infinite pains to make these volumes testify against the tyranny of time1. He had them taken to his camp with the greatest care. Although he could not read a word of the letterpress, the illustrations were in the universal language, which he could read at sight. The first standard work of reference --- the key to the wisdom of the buried past. With this vision before us, we determined on making our record of the highest attainments of human spirits of our generation as worthy as possible of its subject. It annoyed us that we could not eng…
1906 · PDF PAGE 244
…eally not my meaning either; for change, to our minds, involves the idea of time. 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 into ‘‘ All books are on the table” but only to ‘‘some_ books are on the table.” The proposition is an ‘“*T” and not an ‘‘A” proposition. It is the Advaita blunder to make it so; and many a schoolboy has fed off the mantelpiece for less. There is yet another proof—the proof by exclusion. I have sh…
1929 · PDF PAGE 149
…they could therefore see no object in doing it. The Hindu attitude towards sin, absurd as it is, compares favourably with ours; because, though afraid of it, they have not reached our own state of panic which makes us the prey of the most fantastic superstitions and perversions of truth. I have found it practically impossible to convince middle-class {257} Anlgo-Saxons of facts which anyone would think were bound to be known. They take refuge in angry denial. It seems to them that if they once admit the most elementary and obvious propositions,…
1929 · PDF PAGE 72
… a century old, of a party of quite distinguished men who ascended Saddleback. They speak of precipitous cliffs and yawning {137} gulfs, though as a matter of fact there is not a rock on the mountain which a child of three years old could call scrambling. They were, in fact on ponies! Shelley's descriptions of Mont Blanc are comically exaggerated; his powers of observation must have been completely in abeyance.
1929 · PDF PAGE 177
…lict of opinion between myself and Eckenstein at Askole. It was arranged that our valises should not exceed forty pounds on the glacier, though many of the loads exceeded fifty. I could not get my belongings within the limit. Eckenstein wanted me to leave behind my library. His theory of travelling in wild countries was that one should temporarily become an absolute savage; but my experience had already shown me that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. I attributed the almost universal m…
1929 · PDF PAGE 207
207 Importance of Being Earnest --- he "contracted an alliance with a tabloid and married into a pill- box", we thought that all was over. But no! he went around the world, and set to 1. C. Paul Bartlett, N.J.W.Morrice, D.Crowley, L.Kelly, I.Heward Bell, J. Ivor Back, I. One Kite, G?, B. Penrhyn Stanlaws, S. One Root. (348) work with his powers of observation to help an imagination which had by no become original and vigorous. He turned out some first-class work; and, what is in some ways better, work on the right side. He castigates the herd o…
1907 · PDF PAGE 230
…which he finds to pervade the otherwise disgusting chapel; but he cares nothing whatever for the ‘Sraree-show of Peter’s successor,” and though I daresay his ghost will be shocked and annoyed by my mention of the fact, Browning himself does not get his illumi- nation in any human temple, but only when he is out with the universe alone in the storm. Nor does Browning anywhere draw so perfect and so credible a picture of the inter- course between man and God as the exquisite vision of Pan in ‘* Pheidippides.” It is all perfectly natural and there…
1929 · PDF PAGE 33
…rom the Hall should come his way and leave the first-best butcher lamenting and the second-best bewildered. So that in my time the sect (though it is only fair to point out that they refused to be described as a sect, since what they had done was not to form a new sect, but to "Come out of Sect" --- this they maintained in spite of the fact that they were far more {76} exclusive than any other religious body in Europe) was composed of a few of the old guard, my father the last of them all, and the meanest crew of canaille that ever wriggled. Wi…
1907 · PDF PAGE 115
…etaphysical position. Ilis conversation is like that of Planchette : or if William Horton were vocal-—— But Heaven forbid! What he said, though parrot-talk, caught up in some fifth-rate sculptor’s studio, no doubt, had so much truth in it, carefully concealed by the lying misinterpretation he had put on it, that, as I said, the pellet hit me. This was what it came to. Rodin’s works, it is said, meaz nothing. He makes a study: people see it in his studio: A. goes up and says to the Master: ‘* Ah, how beautiful,” &c., ad mauseam-—‘ I suppose it i…
1929 · PDF PAGE 76
… literature to which he introduced me was thus one which I instinctively despised, even while I adored it. The intense refinement of its thought and the blazing brilliance of its techinque helped me to key myself up to a pitch of artistry entirely beyond my original scope; but I never allowed myself to fall under its dominion. I was determined to triumph, to find my way out on the other side. Baudelaire and Swinburne, at their best, succeed in celebrating the victory of the human soul over its adversaries, just as truly as Milton and Shelly. I …
1929 · PDF PAGE 353
…such slight changes as "failed" for "resulted in failure", and occasional additions or omissions. I like Maugham well enough personally, though many people resent a curious trick which he has of saying spiteful things about everybody. I always feel that he, like myself, makes such remarks without malice, for the sake of their cleverness. I was not in the least offended by the attempts of the book to represent me as, in many ways, the most atrocious scoundrel, for he had done more than justice to the qualities of which I was proud; and despite h…
1906 · PDF PAGE 258
… to cause one class of people to see a blue pig where none existed, and another to deny or suspect the blue pig when it really appeared, though the latter alternative is unlikely. The con- sciousness phenomenon, and the bliss, is of so stupendous and well-defined a nature that I cannot imagineany preconceived idea power- ful enough to diminish it appreciably. But for the sake of the former class I hold my tongue.’ I trust it is now perfectly clear, if my statements are accepted—and I can only 1 On the advisability of so doing I am open to convi…
1929 · PDF PAGE 228
…hes were festooned with legions of flying foxes, as they call the species of bat whose breast is furred with marvellous red and white. I thought I would kill a few dozen and make my wife a toque and myself a waistcoat. We went out in a boat not unlike a clumsy variety of punt to catch them in their sleep. They keep no guard; but at the firs gunshot they awake and the air literally becomes dark with their multitude. One has merely to fire into the mass. One of the bats, wounded, fell right on my wife and frightened her. It may have been thirty s…
1929 · PDF PAGE 512
…rms to meet round it. My only instrument for moving this was a wooden pole. The tree had fallen about a hundred yards from the bank; and though it was downhill all the way to the lake, the ground was very uneven and the path so narrow that it was impossible to roll the log at all. Nevertheless, I moved it singlehanded into the lake, where I fixed it by driving piles. Passers- by spread the story of the hermit with superhuman strength, and people came from all parts to gaze upon the miracle. I should mention that normally my physical strength is…
1929 · PDF PAGE 21
…r. I was genuinely fond of my Aunt Ada. She was womanly in the oldfashioned sense of the word; a purely passive type. Naturally talented though she was, she was both ignorant and bigoted. In her situation, she could not have been anything else. But her opinions did not interfere with her charity. A woman of infinite kindness. Her health was naturally delicate; an attack of rheumatic fever had damaged her heart and she died before her time. The meanness and selfishness of my Uncle Tom were principally responsible. He would not engage a secretary…
1929 · PDF PAGE 338
…er seen. He was deeply religious, with more than a touch of mysticism, and a really deep insight into the Cabbala, which he understood although he knew little or nothing about it. I thought I could cure him and undertook the task. My plan in such cases is not to undeceive the patient. I proposed to treat his story as literally true in every way and to fight fire with fire. I said to him: "What you must do is to develop your own magical powers so as to beat your mother at her own game." He had considerable capacity for Magick and understood the …
1906 · PDF PAGE 286
… Western mind. (My mother was of German extraction.) How so? Because my teacher, himselfa Western scientific man of no mean attainments, thought no trouble too great, no language too violent (though he is ordinarily a man of unusual mildness and suavity of manner) to be used, to impress upon me the extreme danger of too vigorous attempts to reach the state of concentration. ‘If you feel the least tired in the course of your daily practice,” he never wearied of repeat- ing, ‘you have done too much, and must absolutely rest for four-and-twenty ho…