The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE EQUINOX ations of metaphysics, and it was about these that the battle raged. I fancy that their critics imagine the Schoolmen dis- puting whether the number was 25 or 26, which argues their own shallowness by the readiness with which they attribute the same quality to others. However, a great deal of mis- chief has been done by the pedant, and the distinctions be- tween the various Jhanas will convey little to the Western mind, even of a man who has some experience of them. The question of mistranslation alone renders the majority of Buddhist documents, if not valueless, at least unreliable. We, however, taking this book as an original work by Bla- vatsky, need not be bothered by any doubts more deadly than that as to whether her command of English was per- fect; and in this treatise, in spite of certain obvious senti- mentalities and bombasticisms, we find at least the founda- tions of a fairly fine style. I think that what she says in this sub-section refers to a statement which I got from my Guru in Madura to the effect that there was a certain point in the body suitable for meditation, which, if once discovered, drew the thought naturally towards itself, the difficulty of concen- tration consequently disappearing, and that the knowledge of this particular point could be communicated by the Guru to his approved disciples. (Subsection VII.) We now find a muddle between the keys and the gates. The first five are all obviously keys. The last two seem to be gates, in spite of the statements in the text. We also find the term Bodhisattva in a quite unin- telligible sense. We shall discuss this question more fully a little later on. The Dhyanis are gods of sorts, either perfect men or what one may call natural gods, who occupy eternity in a cease- 90