THE EQUINOX
out the Four Noble Truths, that is in the understanding of
the Three Characteristics—the three fundamental principles of
Buddhism. Besides representing Malkuth, the Four Noble
Truths (viewed in an elementary manner) represent the four
lower Sephiroth—Malkuth, Yesod, Hod and Netzach, the
state of Right Views carrying with its attainment a transcend-
ency over all wrong views, that is to say all crude and unskilful
views, all dogmas, assertions, all doubts, which are as unfertile
as the elements are when uncombined, by applying to them
what we have termed elsewhere the Pyrrhonic Serpent of
Selection.
The attainment of Right Views is arrived at in three suc-
cessive steps. (1) The Aspirant contemplates the ills of life;
(2) he meditates upon them; (3) by strenuous will power he
commences to strip the mind of the Cause of Sorrow, namely
Change.
During this stage a series of humiliations must be under-
gone, and, not onlymust the Nephesch be conquered, but also the
lower states of the Ruach, until the illumination of the Second
Noble Truth of the Eightfold Path shatter the step of Right
Views which the Aspirant is standing upon just as the fire
of God consumed the Elemental Pyramid—the Tower of the
Taro.
Having attained to mastery over Right Comprehension
the aspirant begins to see things not as they are but in their
right proportions. His views become balanced, he enters
Tiphareth, the Solar Plexus, ‘‘ He sees naked facts behind the
garments of hypotheses in which men have clothed them, and
by which they have become obscured; and he perceives that
behind the changing and conflicting opinions of men there are
144