The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE appears on the surface. The words “bud” and “worm” form a clue. 49. Thou canst not travel on the path before thou hast become that Path itself. Compare the scene in Parsifal, where the scenery comes to the knight instead of the knight going to the scenery. But there is also implied the doctrine of the Tao, and only one who is an accomplished Taoist can hope to understand this verse. (See “The Hermit of Esopus Island,” part of the Magical Record of 666, to be published in THE Equinox, Vol. III.) 50. Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun. 51. Let not the fierce sun dry one tear of pain before thy- self hast wiped it from the sufferer’s eye. 52. But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain; nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is removed. This is a counsel never to forget the original stimulus which has driven you to the Path, the ‘first noble truth.’ Everything is now “good.” This is why verse 53 says that these tears are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal. (Tears, by the way. Think!) 53. These tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal. ’Tis on such soil that grows the midnight blossom of Buddha, more difficult to find, more rare to view, than is the flower of 27