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Page 1 of 11912 · PDF PAGE 75
…ning, and one cannot think what town one is living in. The similarity of these two things is rather significant. It suggests that what is really happening is that you are waking up from the sleep which men call waking, the sleep Whose dreams are life. There is another way to test one’s progress in this practice, and that is by the character of the breaks. Breaks are classed as follows: E'rsz‘ly, physical sensations. These should have been overcome by Asana. Secondly, breaks that seem to be dictated by events immediately pre- ceding the meditatio…
1912 · PDF PAGE 7
… is expected to know a little of the literature of the subject, and to be able to take an intelligent View of it. This part is, however, really explanatory of Part I, which is a crude outline sketch only. If both parts are thoroughly studied and understood, the pupil will have obtained a real graspof all the fundamentals and essentialsof both Magick and Mysticism. I wrote this book down from Frater Perdurabo’s dictation at the Villa Caldarazzo, Posilippo, Naples, where I was studying under him, v
1912 · PDF PAGE 82
…hing takes place on a higher level. Also the conditions of thought, time, and space are abolished. It is impossible to explain what this really means :i only experience can furnish you with apprehension. (This, too, has its analogies in ordinary life; the conceptions of higher mathematics cannot be grasped by the beginner, cannot be explained to the layman.) Α further development is the appearance of the Form which has been universallydescribed as human; although the persons describing it proceed to add a great number of details which are not h…
1912 · PDF PAGE 22
…he phenomenon which occurred. Theorists have not been at a loss to explain; but they differ. The Mohammedan insists that God is, and did really send Gabriel with messages for Mohammed: but all others contradict him. And from the nature of the case proof is impossible. The lack of proof has been so severely felt by Christianity (and in a much less degree by Islam) that fresh miracles have been manufactured almost daily to support the tottering structure. Modern thought, rejecting these miracles, has adopted theories involving epilepsy and madnes…
1912 · PDF PAGE 18
… inquire whether there is not any one thing upon which all religions have agreed: for, if so, it seems possible that it may be worthy of really thorough consideration. It is certainly not to be found in dogma. Even so simple an idea as that of a supreme and eternal being is denied by a third of the human race. Legends of miracle are perhaps universal, but these, in the absence of demonstrative proof, are repugnant to common sense. But what of the origin of religions? How is it that unproved assertion has so frequently compelled the assent of al…
1912 · PDF PAGE 85
69 probably be the first to admit that if any man were really tired of life, in his deepest being, a state very different from that in which a man goes about saying he is tired of life, he could manage somehow or other to kill someone first. “ Νονν the man whohas experienced any of the more intense forms of Dhyana is thus liberated. The Universe is thus destroyed for him, and he for it. His will can therefore go on its way unhampered. One may imagine that in the case of Mohammed he had cherished for years a tremendous ambition, and never done any…
1912 · PDF PAGE 64
…!” “No more of that kind of thought, please!” It is only then that we discover that what we thought was a school of playful porpoises is really the con- volutions of the sea-serpent. The attempt to repress has the effect of exciting. When the unsuspecting pupil first approaches his holy but Wily Guru, and demands magical powers, that Wise One replies that he will confer them, points outwith much caution and secrecy some particular spot on the pupil’s body which has never previously attracted his attention, and says: “ In order to obtain this mag…
1912 · PDF PAGE 29
…the good stroke which we associate, and rightly, with fixed attention ,' and the perfect stroke, which we do not understand, but which is really caused by the
1912 · PDF PAGE 74
… average number of breaks between ten and twenty. One would suppose that this implied that during the periods between the breaks one was really concentrated, but this is not the case. The mind is flickering, although imperceptibly. However, there may be sufficient real steadiness even at this early stage to cause some very striking phenomena, of which the most marked is one which will possibly make you think that you have gone to sleep. Or, it may seem quite inexplicable, and in any case with a flickering of the eyelid, and can be seen by him. Wit…
1912 · PDF PAGE 88
…st of no great importance may be forgotten; and if it be in some way recalled, one may find one’s self asking: “Did I dream it? or did it really happen?” What can never be forgotten is the 22%/?»!?ש”מקThe first death among the people that one loves (for example) would neverbe forgotten; for the first time one would realize what one had previously merely known. Such an ex- perience sometimes drives people insane. Men of science have been known to commit suicide when their pet theory has been shattered. This problem has been discussed freely in “ Sc…
1912 · PDF PAGE 84
…Our conception of the universe must be completely overturned if we are to admit this as valid; and it is time that we considered what is really happening. It will be conceded that we have given a very rational explanation of the greatness of great men. They had an experience so overwhelming, so out of proportion to the rest of things, that they were freed from all the petty hindrances which prevent the normal man from carrying out his projects. Worrying about clothes, food, money, what people may think, how and why, and above all the fear of co…
1912 · PDF PAGE 99
83 natural result of Dhyana, but he cannot call Dhyana in the same way the precursor of Samadhi. Perhaps he does not really know the con- ditions which induce Samadhi. He can produce Dhyana at will in the course of a few minutes’ work?,־and it often happens with apparent spontaneity: with Samadhi this is unfortunately not the case. He probably can get it at will, but could not say exactly how, or tell how long it might take him?,־and he could not be sure of getting it at all. One feels sure that one can walk a mile along a level road. One knows…
1912 · PDF PAGE 83
…to him that any one can do otherwise. In practical life one can walk past any guardian, such as a sentry or ticket-collector, if one can really act so that the man is somehow persuaded that you have a right to pass unchallenged. This power, by the way, is what has been described by magicians as the power of invisibility. Somebody or other has an excellent story of four quite reliable men who were on the look-out for a murderer, and had instructions to let no one pass, and who all swore subsequently in presence of the dead body that no one had p…
1912 · PDF PAGE 27
…cult to conquer sleep; and you may have wandered so far from the object of your meditations without noticing it, that the meditation has really been broken; but much later on, when you feel that you are “getting quite good,” you will be shocked to find a complete oblivion of yourself and
1912 · PDF PAGE 72
… he does, the obstinacy‘of the object will infuriate him; and it is only now that his real troubles will begin, only now that Will comes really into play, only now that his manhood is tested. If it were not for the Will- development which he got in the conquest of Asana, he would probably give up. As it is, the mere physical agony which he underwent is the veriest trifle compared with the horrible tedium of Dharana.
1912 · PDF PAGE 103
…ed believe this unless he wants to; and you are even advised to conquer that desire should it arise. It will be interesting when science really determines the variables and constants of these equations. 2 This is so complete that not only “Black is White,” but “The VVhiteness of Black is the essentia! of its Blackness.” “ Naught: One = Infinity”; but this is only true because of this threefold arrangement, a trinity or “ triangle of contradictories.”