Collected Works (Vol. II)

44 ORACLES To illume the whole with final Rapture And destroy the House of pain for ever, Leave its laughter and its tears, and shatter All the causes of its mockery, master All the workings of its will, and vanish Into peace and light and bliss, whose nature Baffles so the little tongues of mortals That we name it not, but from its threshold, From the golden word upon its gateway, Style ‘‘ Cessation”; that whose self we guess not. Thus the wise most mystically interpret Into wisdom the worst folly spoken By the mortal of a god deluded. So, the last wise word rejected, Pentheus Cries, ‘‘ dy’ ws rdxuora, To0 xpbvov dé co. POovar’” —“ Why waste we time in talking ? Let us now away unto the mountains !” So the wise, enlightened by compassion, Seeks that bliss for all the world of sorrow, Swears the bitter oath of Vajrapani: ‘‘ Ere the cycle rush to utter darkness Work I so that every living being Pass beyond this constant chain of causes. If I fail, may all my being shatter Into millions of far-whirling pieces !” Swears that oath, and works, and studies silence, Takes his refuge in the triple jewel, Strangles all desires in their beginning, Leaves no egg of thought to hatch its serpent Thrice detested for unnatural breeding— Basilisk, to slay the maddened gazer. Thus the wise man, for no glory-guerdon, Hope of life or joy in earth or heaven, Works, rejecting all the flowers of promise Dew-lit that surround his path; but keepeth Steady all his will to one endeavour, Till the light, the might, the joy, the sorrow, Life and death and love and hate are broken : Work effaces work, avails the worker. Strength, speed, ardour, courage and endur- ance (Needed never more) depart for ever. All dissolves, an unsubstantial phantom, Ghost of morning seen before the sunrise, Ghost of daylight seen beyond the sunset. All hath past beyond the soul’s delusion. All hath changéd to the ever changeless. Name and form in nameless and in formless Vanish, vanish and are lost for ever. DHAMMAPADA.! I. ANTITHESES. (THE TWINS.) ALL that we are from mind results, on mind is founded, built of mind. Who acts or speaks with evil thought, him doth pain follow sure and blind :? So the ox plants his foot and so the car-wheel follows hard behind. All that we are from mind results, on mind is founded, built of mind. Who acts or speaks with righteous thought, him happiness doth surely find. So failing not, the shadow falls for ever in its place assigned. ‘“Me he abused and me he beat, he robbed me, he defeated me.” In whom such thoughts find harbourage hatred will never cease to be. ‘‘Me he abused and me he beat, he robbed me, he defeated me.” In whom such thoughts no harbourage may find, will hatred cease to be. ‘‘ The state of hate doth not abate by hate in any clime or time, But hate will cease if love increase,’’? so soothly runs the ancient rhyme. 1 An attempt to translate this noblest of the Buddhist books into the original metres. The task soon tired.—A, C. 2 Blind, z.e., operated by law, not by caprice of a deity. 3 Crowley has imitated the punning of the Pali by the repeated rhymes, which further gives the flavour of the Old English proverbial saw.