{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/esoteric-buddhism/01-chapter-i.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "esoteric-buddhism",
    "name": "Esoteric Buddhism"
  },
  "parents": [],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 2,
    "slug": "01-chapter-i",
    "title": "CHAPTER I.",
    "of": 12,
    "words": 4271,
    "text": "## CHAPTER I.\n\nESOTERIC TEACHEES.\n\nThe information contained in the following\npages is no collection of inferences deduced\nfrom study. I am bringing to my readers\nknowledge which I have obtained by favor\nrather than by effort. It will not be found\nthe less valuable on that account ; I venture,\non the contrary, to declare that it will be found\nof incalculably greater value, easily as I have\nobtained it, than any results in a similar direc-\ntion which I could possibly have procured by\nordinary methods of research, even had I pos-\nsessed, in the highest degree, that which I\nmake no claim to possess at all, Oriental schol-\narship.\n\nEvery one who has been concerned with In-\ndian literature, and still more, any one who in\nIndia has taken interest in talking with culti-\nvated natives on philosophical subjects, will be\n\n42 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\naware of a general conviction existing in the\nEast that there are men living who know a\ngreat deal more about philosophy, in the high-\nest acceptation of the word, — the science, the\ntrue knowledge of spiritual things, — than can\nbe found recorded in any books. In Europe\nthe notion of secrecy as applied to science is so\nrepulsive to the prevailing instinct, that the\nfirst inclination of European thinkers is to deny\nthe existence of that which they so much dis-\nlike. Bat circumstances have fully assured me\nduring my residence in India that the convic-\ntion just referred to is perfectly well founded,\nand I have been privileged at last to receive a\nvery considerable mass of instruction in the\nhitherto secret knowledge over which Oriental\nphilosophers have brooded silently till now;\ninstruction which has hitherto been only im-\nparted to sympathetic students, prepared them-\nselves to migrate into the camp of secrecy.\nTheir teachers have been more than content\nthat all other inquirers should be left in doubt\nas to whether there was anything of importance\nto learn at their hands.\n\nWith quite as much antipathy at starting\nas any one could have entertained to the old\nOriental policy in regard to knowledge, I came\nnevertheless to perceive that the old Oriental\nknowledge itself was a very real and important\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 43\n\npossession. It may be excusable to regard the\nhigh grapes as sour, so long as they are quite\nout of reach ; but it would be foolish to persist\nin that opinion if a tall friend hands down a\nbunch, and one finds them sweet.\n\nFor reasons that will appear, as the present\nexplanations proceed, the very considerable\nblock of hitherto secret teaching this volume\ncontains, has been conveyed to me, not only\nwithout conditions of the usual kind, but to\nthe express end that I might convey it in my\nturn to the world at large.\n\nWithout the light of hitherto secret Oriental\nknowledge, it is impossible by any study of its\npublished literature, English or Sanskrit, for\nstudents of even the most scholarly qualifica-\ntions to reach a comprehension of the inner\ndoctrines and real meaning of any Oriental\nreligion. This assertion conveys no reproach\nto the sympathetic, learned, and industrious\nwriters of great ability who have studied Ori-\nental religions generally, and Buddhism espe-\ncially, in their external aspects. Buddhism,\nabove all, is a religion which has enjoyed a\ndual existence from the very beginning of its\nintroduction to the world. The real inner\nmeaning of its doctrines has been kept back\nfrom uninitiated students, while the outer\nteachings have merely presented the multitude\n\n44 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwith a code of moral lessons, and a veiled,\nsymbolical literature, hinting at the existence\nof knowledge in the background.\n\nThis secret knowledge, in reality, long ante-\ndated the passage through earth-life of Gau-\ntama Buddha. Brahmanical philosophy, in\nages before Buddha, embodied the identical\ndoctrine which may now be described as Eso-\nteric Buddhism. Its outlines had indeed been\nblurred, its scientific form partially confused,\nbut the general body of knowledge was already\nin possession of a select few before Buddha\ncame to deal with it. Buddha, however, un-\ndertook the task of revising and refreshing the\nesoteric science of the inner circle of initiates,\nas well as the morality of the outer world. The\ncircumstances under which this work was done\nhave been wholly misunderstood, nor would a\nstraightforward explanation thereof be intelli-\ngible without explanations, which must first be\nfurnished by a survey of the esoteric science\nitself.\n\nFrom Buddha's time till now the esoteric sci-\nence referred to has been jealously guarded as\na precious heritage belonging exclusively to\nregularly initiated members of mysteriously or-\nganized associations. These, so 'far as Bud-\ndhism is concerned, are the Arahats, or, more\nproperly, Arhats, referred to in Buddhist liter-\n\n.\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 45\n\nature. They are the initiates who tread the\n\" fourth path of holiness,\" spoken of in esoteric\nBuddhist writings. Mr. Rhys Davids, refer-\nring to a multiplicity of original texts and\nSanskrit authorities, says : \" One might fill\npages with the awe-struck and ecstatic praise\nwhich is lavished in Buddhist writings on this\ncondition of mind, the fruit of the fourth path,\nthe state of an Arahat, of a man made perfect\naccording to the Buddhist faith.\" And then\nmaking a series of running quotations from\nSanskrit authorities, he says : \" To him who\nhas finished the path and passed beyond sor-\nrow, who has freed himself on all sides, thrown\naway every fetter, there is no more fever or\ngrief. . . . For such there are no more births,\n. . . they are in the enjoyment of Nirvana.\nTheir old karma is exhausted, no new karma\nis being produced ; their hearts are free from\nthe longing after future life, and no new yearn-\nings springing up within them, they, the wise,\nare extinguished like a lamp.\" These passages,\nand all like them, convey to European readers,\nat all events, an entirely false idea as to what\nsort of person an Arhat really is, as to the life\nhe leads while on earth, and what he antici-\npates later on. But the elucidation of such\npoints may be postponed for the moment.\nSome further passages from exoteric treatises\n\n46 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmay first be selected to show what an Arhat is\ngenerally supposed to be.\n\nMr. Rhys Davids, speaking of Jliana and\nSamadhi, — the belief that it was possible by\nintense self-absorption to attain supernatural\nfaculties and powers, — goes on to say : \" So\nfar as I am aware, no instance is recorded of\nany one, not either a member of the order,\nor a Brahman ascetic, acquiring these powers.\nA Buddha always possessed them ; whether\nArahats, as such, could work the particular\nmiracles in question, and whether of mendicants\nonly, Arahats or only Asekhas could do so, is at\npresent not clear.\" Very little in the sources\nof information on the subject that have hitherto\nbeen explored will be found clear. But I am\nnow merely endeavoring to show that Bud-\ndhist literature teems with allusions to the\ngreatness and powers of the Arhats. For more\nintimate knowledge concerning them, special\ncircumstances must furnish us with the required\nexplanations.\n\nMr. Arthur Lillie, in \"Buddha and Early\nBuddhism,\" tells us : \" Six supernatural fac-\nulties were expected of the ascetic before he\ncould claim the grade of Arhat. They are\nconstantly alluded to in the Sutras as the six\nsupernatural faculties, usually without further\nspecification. . . . Man has a body composed\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 47\n\nof the four elements. ... In this transitory body\nhis intelligence is enchained. The ascetic find-\ning himself thus confused, directs his mind to\nthe creation of the Manas. He represents to\nhimself, in thought, another body created from\nthis material body, — a body with a form,\nmembers, and organs. This body, in relation\nto the material body, is like the sword and the\nscabbard, or a serpent issuing from a basket in\nwhich it is confined. The ascetic then, purified\nand perfected, begins to practice supernatural\nfaculties. He finds himself able to pass through\nmaterial obstacles, walls, ramparts, etc. ; he is\nable to throw his phantasmal appearance into\nmany places at once, ... he can leave this\nworld and even reach the heaven of Brahma\nhimself. . . . He acquires the power of hearing\nthe sounds of the unseen world as distinctly as\nthose of the phenomenal world, — more dis-\ntinctly, in point of fact. Also by the power of\nManas he is able to read the most secret\nthoughts of others, and to tell their characters.\"\nAnd so on with illustrations. Mr. Lillie has\nnot quite accurately divined the nature of the\ntruth lying behind this popular version of the\nfacts ; but it is hardly necessary to quote more\nto show that the powers of the Arhats and their\ninsight into spiritual things are respected by\nthe world of Buddhism most profoundly, even\n\n48 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthough the Arhats themselves have been singu-\nlarly indisposed to favor the world with auto-\nbiographies or scientific accounts of \"the six\nsupernatural powers.\"\n\nA few sentences from Mr. Hoey's recent\ntranslation of Dr. Oldenberg's \"Buddha: his\nLife, his Doctrine, bis Order,\" may fall con-\nveniently into this place, and then we may pass\non. We read : \" Buddhist proverbial philos-\nophy attributes in innumerable passages the\npossession of Nirvana to the saint who still\ntreads the earth, ' The disciple who has put off\nlust and desire, rich in wisdom, has here on\nearth attained deliverance from death, the rest,\nthe Nirvana, the eternal state. He who has\nescaped from the trackless hard mazes of the\nSansara, who has crossed over and reached the\nshore, self - absorbed, without stumbling and\nwithout doubt, who has delivered himself from\nthe earthly and attained Nirvana, him I call a\ntrue Brahman.' If the saint will even now put\nan end to his state of being, he can do so, but\nthe majority stand fast until Nature has reached\nher goal ; of such may those words be said which\nare put in the mouth of the most prominent of\nBuddha's disciples, ' I long not for death ;\nI long not for life ; I wait till mine hour come,\nlike a servant who awaiteth his reward..' *\n\nA multiplication of such quotations would\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 49\n\nmerely involve the repetition in various forms\nof exoteric conceptions concerning the Arhats.\nLike every fact or thought in Buddhism, the\nArhat has two aspects, that in which he is pre-\nsented to the world at large, and that in which\nhe lives, moves, and has his being. In the\npopular estimation he is a saint waiting for a\nspiritual reward of the kind the populace can\nunderstand, — a wonder-worker meanwhile by\nfavor of supernatural agencies. In reality he\nis the long-tried and proved-worthy custodian\nof the deepest and innermost philosophy of\nthe one fundamental religion which Buddha re-\nfreshed and restored, and a student of natural\nscience standing in the very foremost front of\nhuman knowledge, in regard not merely to the\nmysteries of spirit, but to the material constitu-\ntion of the world as well.\n\nArhat is a Buddhist designation. That\nwhich is more familiar in India, where the\nattributes of Arhatship are not necessarily\nassociated with professions of Buddhism, is\nMahatma. With stories about the Mahatmas\nIndia is saturated. > The older Mahatmas are\ngenerally spoken of as Rishis ; but the terms\nare interchangeable, and I have heard the title\nRishi applied to men now living. All the at-\ntributes of the Arhats mentioned in Buddhist\nwritings are described, with no less reverence,\n\n50 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nin Indian literature as those of the Mahatmas ;\nand this volume might be readily filled with\ntranslations of vernacular books, giving accounts\nof miraculous achievements by such of them as\nare known to history and tradition by name.\n\nIn reality, the Arhats and the Mahatmas are\nthe same men. At that level of spiritual .ex-\naltation, supreme knowledge of the esoteric\ndoctrine blends all original sectarian distinc-\ntions. By whatever name such illuminati may\nbe called, they are the adepts of occult knowl-\nedge, sometimes spoken of in India now as the\nBrothers, and the custodians of the spiritual\nscience which has been handed down to them\nby their predecessors.\n\nWe may search both ancient and modern lit-\nerature in vain, however, for any systematic\nexplanation of their doctrine or science. A\ngood deal of this is dimly set forth in occult\nwriting ; but very little of this is of the least\nuse to readers who take up the subject without\nprevious knowledge acquired independently of\nbooks. It is under favor of direct instruction\nfrom one of their numbers that I am now en'\nabled to attempt an outline of the Mahatmas'\nteaching, and it is in the same way that I have\npicked up what I know concerning the organ-\nization to which most of them, and the great*\nest, in the present day belong.\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 51\n\nAll over the world there are occultists of vari- |\ndus degrees of eminence, and occult fraternities\neven, which have a great deal in common with\nthe leading fraternity now established in Tibet.\nBut all my inquiries into the subject have con-\nvinced me that the Tibetan Brotherhood is (\nincomparably the highest of such associations,\nand regarded as such by all other associations,\n- — worthy of being looked upon themselves as\nreally \" enlightened \" in the occult sense of\nthe term. There are, it is true, many isolated\nmystics in India who are altogether self-taught\nand unconnected with occult bodies. Many of\nthese will explain that they themselves attain\nto higher pinnacles of spiritual enlightenment\nthan the Brothers of Tibet, or any other peo-\nple on earth. But the examination of such\nclaims in all cases I have encountered would,\nI think, lead any impartial outsider, however\nlittle qualified himself by personal development\nto be a judge of occult enlightenment, to the\nconclusion that they are altogether unfounded.\nI know one native of India, for example, a man\nof European education, holding a high appoint-\nment under government, of good station in\nsociety, most elevated character, and enjoying\nunusual respect with such Europeans as are\nconcerned with him in official life, who will\nonly accord to the Brothers of Tibet a second\n\n52 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nplace in the world of spiritual enlightenment. /\nThe first place he regards as occupied by one v\nperson, now in this world no longer, — his own\noccult master in life, — whom he resolutely /\nasserts to have been an incarnation of the\nSupreme Being. His own (my friend's) inner\nsenses were so far awakened by this Master,\nthat the visions of his entranced state, into\nwhich he can still throw himself at will, are to\nhim the only spiritual region in which he can\nfeel interested. Convinced that the Supreme /\nBeing was his personal instructor from the be-\nginning, and continues so still in the subjective\nstate, he is naturally inaccessible to suggestions\nthat his impressions may be distorted by rea-\nson of his own misdirected psychological de-\nvelopment. Again, the highly cultivated dev-\notees, to be met with occasionally in India,\nwho build up a conception of Nature, the uni-\nverse, and God entirely on a metaphysical\nbasis, and who have evolved their systems by\nsheer force of transcendental thinking, will\ntake some established system of philosophy as\nits groundwork, and amplify on this to an\nextent which only an Oriental metaphysician\ncould dream of. They win disciples who put\nimplicit faith in them, and found their little\nschool, which flourishes for a time within its\nown limits ; but speculative philosophy of such\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 53\n\na kind is rather occupation for the mind than\nknowledge. Such \"Masters,\" by comparison\nwith the organized adepts of the highest\nbrotherhood, are like rowing boats compared\nwith ocean steamships, — helpful conveyances\non their own native lake or river, but not craft\nto whose protection you can trust yourself on a\nworld-wide voyage of exploration over the sea.\n\nDescending lower again in the scale, we find\nIndia dotted all over with Yogis and Fakirs, in\nall stages of self-development, from that of dirty\nsavages, but little elevated above the gypsy for-\ntune-tellers of an English race-course, to men\nwhose seclusion a stranger will find it very dif-\nficult to penetrate, and whose abnormal facul-\nties and powers need only be seen or experi-\nenced to shatter the incredulity of the most\ncontented representative of modern Western\nskepticism. Careless inquirers are very apt to\nconfound such persons with the great adepts of\nwhom they may vaguely hear.\n\nConcerning the real adepts, meanwhile, I\ncannot at present venture on any account of\nwhat the Tibetan organization is like, as re-\ngards its highest ruling authorities. Those\nMahatmas themselves, of whom some more\nor less adequate conception may perhaps be\nformed by readers who will follow me pa-\ntiently to the end, are subordinate by several\n\n54 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ndegrees to the chief of all. Let us deal rather\nwith the earlier conditions of occult training,\nwhich can more easily be grasped.\n\nThe level of elevation which constitutes a\nman — what the outer world calls a Mahatma\nor \" Brother \" — is only attained after pro-\nlonged and weary probation, and anxious or-\ndeals of really terrible severity. One may find\npeople who have spent twenty or thirty years\nor more in blameless and arduous devotion to\nthe life-task on which they have entered, and\nare still in the earlier degrees of chelaship, still\nlooking up to the heights of adeptship as far\nabove their heads. And at whatever age a boy\nor man dedicates himself to the occult career,\nhe dedicates himself to it, be it remembered,\nwithout any reservations and for life. The task\nhe undertakes is the development in himself of\na great many faculties and attributes which are\nso utterly dormant in ordinary mankind, that\ntheir very existence is unsuspected, the possi-\nbility of their development denied. And these\nfaculties and attributes must be developed by\nthe chela himself, with very little, if any, help,\nbeyond guidance and direction from his master.\n\" The adept,\" says an occult aphorism, \" be-\ncomes : he is not made.\" One may illustrate\nthis point by reference to a very commonplace\nphysical exercise. Every man living, having\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 55\n\nthe ordinary use of his limbs, is qualified to\nswim. But put those who, as the common\nphrase goes, cannot swim, into deep water, and\nthey will struggle and be drowned. The mere\nway to move the limbs is no mystery ; but un-\nless the swimmer, in moving them, has a full\nbelief that such movement will produce the\nrequired result, the required result is not pro-\nduced. In this case, we are dealing with me-\nchanical forces merely, but the same principle\nruns up into dealings with subtler forces. Very\nmuch further than people generally imagine\nwill mere \"confidence\" carry the occult neo-\nphyte. How many European readers, who\nwould be quite incredulous if told of some re-\nsults which occult chelas in the most incipient\nstages of their training have to accomplish by\nsheer force of confidence, hear constantly in\nchurch, nevertheless, the familiar biblical as-\nsurances of the power which resides in faith,\nand let the words pass by like the wind, leav-\ning no impression.\n\nThe great end and purpose of adeptship is\nthe achievement of spiritual development, the\nnature of which is only veiled and disguised\nby the common phrases of exoteric language.\nThat the adept seeks to unite his soul with\nGod, that he may thereby pass into Nirvana, is\na statement that conveys no definite meaning\n\n56 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nto the ordinary reader ; and the more he ex-\namines it with the help of ordinary books and\nmethods, the less likely will he be to realize\nthe nature of the process contemplated or of\nthe condition desired. It will be necessary to\ndeal first with the esoteric conception of Na-\nture, and the origin and destinies of Man,\nwhich -differ widely from theological concep-\ntions, before an explanation of the aim which\nthe adept pursues can become intelligible.\nMeanwhile, however, it is desirable, at the very\noutset, to disabuse the reader of one misconcep-\ntion in regard to the objects of adeptship that\nhe may very likely have framed.\n\nThe development of those spiritual faculties,\nwhose culture has to do with the highest ob-\njects of the occult life, gives rise as it pro-\ngresses to a great deal of incidental knowledge,\nhaving to do with physical laws of Nature not\nyet generally understood. This knowledge, and\nthe practical art of manipulating certain ob-\nscure forces of Nature, which it brings in its\ntrain, invest an adept, and even an adept's\npupils, at a comparatively early stage of their\neducation, with very extraordinary powers, the\napplication of which to matters of daily life\nwill sometimes produce results that seem alto-\ngether miraculous ; and, from the ordinary\npoint of view, the acquisition of apparently\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 57\n\nmiraculous power is such a stupendous achieve-\nment, that people are sometimes apt to fancy\nthe adept's object in seeking the knowledge he\nattains has been to invest himself with these\ncoveted powers. It would be as reasonable to\nsay of any great patriot of military history that\nhis object in becoming a soldier had been to\nwear a gay uniform and impress the imagina-\ntion of the nurse-maids.\n\nThe Oriental method of cultivating knowl-\nedge has always differed diametrically from\nthat pursued in the West during the growth\nof modern science. Whilst Europe has investi-\ngated Nature as publicly as possible, every step\nbeing discussed with the utmost freedom, and\nevery fresh fact acquired circulated at once\nfor the benefit of all, Asiatic science has been\nstudied secretly and its conquests jealously\nguarded. I need not as yet attempt either\ncriticism or defense of its methods. But at\nall events these methods have been relaxed to\nsome extent in my own case ; and, as already\nstated, it is with the full consent of my teach-\ners that I now follow the bent of my own in-\nclinations as a European, and communicate\nwhat I have learned to all who may be will-\ning to receive it. Later on it will be seen how\nthe departure from the ordinary rules of occult\nstudy embodied in the concessions now made,\nfalls naturally into its place in the whole scheme\n\n58 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nof occult philosophy. The approaches to that\nphilosophy have always been open, in one sense,\nto all. Vaguely throughout the world in vari-\nous ways has been diffused the idea that some\nprocess of study which men here and there did\nactually follow, might lead to the acquisition of\na higher kind of knowledge than that taught\nto mankind at large in books or by public relig-\nious preachers. The East, as pointed out, has\nalways been more than vaguely impressed with\nthis belief; but even in the West the whole\nblock of symbolical literature relating to astrol-\nogy, alchemy, and mysticism generally has fer-\nmented in European society, carrying to some\nfew peculiarly receptive and qualified minds\nthe conviction that behind all this superficially\nmeaningless nonsense great truths lay con-\ncealed. For such persons eccentric study has\nsometimes revealed hidden passages leading to\nthe grandest imaginable realms of enlighten-\nment. But till now, in all such cases, in ac-\ncordance with the law of those schools, the neo-\nphyte no sooner forced his way into the region\nof mystery, than he was bound over to the most\ninviolable secrecy as to everything connected\nwith his entrance and further progress there.\nIn Asia, in the same way, the chela, or pupil\nof occultism, no sooner became a chela than he\nceased to be a witness on behalf of the reality\nof occult knowledge. I have been astonished\n\nESOTERIC TEACHERS. 59\n\nto find, since my own connection with the sub-\nject, how numerous such chelas are. But it is\nimpossible to imagine any human act more im-\nprobable than the unauthorized revelation by\nany such chela, to persons in the outer world,\nthat he is one ; and so the great esoteric school\nof philosophy successfully guards its seclusion.\n\nIn a former book, \" The Occult World,\" I\nhave given a full and straightforward narrative\nof the circumstances under which I came in con-\ntact with the gifted and deeply instructed men\nfrom whom I have since obtained the teaching\nthis volume contains. I need not repeat the\nstory. I now come forward prepared to deal\nwith the subject in a new way. The existence\nof occult adepts, and the importance of their\nacquirements, may be established along two dif-\nferent lines of argument: firstly, by means of\nexternal evidence, — the testimony of qualified\nwitnesses, the manifestation by or through per-\nsons connected with adepts of abnormal facul-\nties, affording more than a presumption of ab-\nnormally enlarged knowledge ; secondly, by the\npresentation of such a considerable portion of\nthis knowledge as may convey intrinsic assur-\nances of its own value. My first book pro-\nceeded by the former method ; I now approach\nthe more formidable task of working on the\nlatter.",
    "project_translation": false,
    "text_trust": "verbatim",
    "quote_safe": true,
    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}