THE EQUINOX
the Vogay tree. It is the seed of freedom from rebirth. It
isolates the Arhat both from strife and lust, it leads him
through the fields of Being unto the peace and bliss known
only in the land of Silence and Non-Being.
The “midnight blossom” is a phrase connected with the
doctrine of the Night of Pan, familiar to Masters of the
Temple. “The Poppy that flowers in the dusk” is another
name for it. A most secret Formula of Magick is connected
with this “Heart of the Circle.”
54. Kill out desire; but if thou killest it, take heed lest
from the dead it should again rise.
By “desire” in all mystic treatises of any merit is meant
tendency. Desire is manifested universally in the law of
gravitation, in that of chemical attraction, and so on; in fact,
everything that is done is caused by the desire to do it, in this
technical sense of the word. The ‘midnight blossom’ implies
a certain monastic Renunciation of all desire, which reaches
to all planes. One must however distinguish between de-
sire, which means unnatural attraction to an ideal, and love,
which is natural Motion.
55. Kill love of life; but if thou slayest Tanhd, let this not
be for thirst of life eternal, but to replace the fleeting by the
everlasting.
This particularises a special form of desire. The English
is very obscure to any one unacquainted with Buddhist liter-
ature. The “everlasting” referred to is not a life-condition
at all. [Tanha is the instinct of self-preservation.]
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