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Page 1 of 31904 · PDF PAGE 24
ASCENSION DAY 17 Tending to final bliss—to stir Some life to better life, this pain Is needful : that I grant again. Did they at last in glory live, Satan and Judas69 might forgive The middle time of misery, Forgive the wrong creation first Or evolution’s iron key Did them—provided they are passed Beyond all change and pain at last Out of this universe accurst. But otherwise ! I lift my voice, Deliberately take my choice Promethean, eager to rejoice, In the grim protest’s joy to revel Betwixt Iscariot and the Devil, Throned in their midst ! No …
1904 · PDF PAGE 40
…it stops, But one note swells. Mightiest souls Of bard and music maker, rolls Over your loftiest crowns the wheel Of that abiding bliss. Life flees Down corridors of centuries Pillar by pillar, and is lost. Life after life in wild appeal Cries to the master ; he remains And thinks not. Th e polluting tides Of sense roll shoreward. Arid plains Of wave-swept sea confront me. Nay ! Looms yet the glory through the grey, And in the darkest hours of youth I yet perceive the essential truth, 430 435 440 445 450 455 460 465 470
1904 · PDF PAGE 21
…ys nothing of the kind ! Read the next verses !† Then—one third Of all humanity are steady In a belief in Buddha’s word, Possess eternal life already, And shun delights, laborious days Of labour living (Milton’s phrase) In strenuous purpose to—? to cease ! “A fig for God’s eternal peace ! True peace is to annihilate The chain of causes men call Fate, So that no Sattva66 may renew Once death has run life’s shuttle through.” (Their dages put it somewhat thus) What’s fun to them is death to us ! That’s clear at least. B ut never mind! Call them id…
1904 · PDF PAGE 84
THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS 77 the bulk of cases one should certainly abstain from destroying life, that is, wantonly and wilfully: but I cannot drink a glass of water without killing countless m yriads of living beings. If you knew as I do, the conditions of existence: struggle deadly and inevitable, every form of life the inherent and immiti- gable foe of every other form, with few, few exceptions, you would not only cease to talk of the wickedness of causing death, but y ou would perceive the First Noble Truth, that no existence can be free fr…
1904 · PDF PAGE 31
… my tea. He taught me Y, he taught me Z, He made strange noises in my head. He taught me that, he taught me this, He spoke of knowledge, life, and bliss. He taught me this, he taught me that, He grew me mangoes in his hat18 I brought him corn : he made good grist of it :— And here, my Christian friend, ’s the gist of it ! First, here’s philosophy’s despair The cynic scorn of self. I think At times the search is worth no worry, And hasten earthward in a hurry, Close spirit’s eyes, or bid them blink, Go back to Swinburne’s19 counsel rare, Kissing…
1904 · PDF PAGE 115
…egarded as frag- mentary and absurd, even as the remembrance of a dream is to the waking man. Can we not conceive then of a “ dreamless” life, of 1 Mahasatipatthana (Sec. VIII.) d oes ad mit this perhaps. Yet its very object is to correct consciousness on the lines indicated by reason. which our dreams are the vague and disturbed transition to normal consciousness? The physiological evidence goes literally for nothing. Even were it proved that the recipio-motor apparatus of a “dreamless” sleeper was relatively quiescent, would that supply any v…
1904 · PDF PAGE 18
…“I bring not peace ; I bring a sword.” In this the history of the West55 Bears him out well. How stands the test ? One-third a century’s life of pain— He lives, he dies, he lives again, And rises to eternal rest Of bliss with Saints—an endless reign ! Leaving the world to centuries torn By every agony and scorn, And every wickedness and shame Taking their refuge in his Name. No Yogi shot his Chandra56 so. Will Christ return ? What ho ? What ho ! What ? What ? “He meditates above Still with his Sire for mercy, love,—” And other trifles ! Far eno…
1904 · PDF PAGE 75
THE SWORD OF SONG 68 You write him, with a face of flint, An order for some soda-mint. So Yoga. Life’s a carcinoma, Its cause uncertain, not to check. In vain you cry to Isis : “O ma ! I’ve got it fairly in the neck.” The surgeon Crowley, with his trocar, Says you a poor but silly bloke are, Advises concentration’s knife Quick to the horny growth called life. “Yoga ? There’s danger in the biz ! But, it’s the only chance there is !” (For life, if left alone, is sorrow, And only fools hope God’s to-morrow.) Up, Guards, and at em! Second, your fa…
1904 · PDF PAGE 105
…Buddhist recluse is roughly as follows. He must plunge every particle of his being into one idea : right views, aspirations, word, deed, life, will-power, medi- tation, rapture, s uch are the s tages of his liberation, which resolves itself into a struggle against the laws of causality . He cannot prevent past causes taking effect, but he can prevent pres ent caus es from having any future results. The exoteric Christian and Hindu rather rely on another person to do this for them, and are further blinded by the thirst for life and individual ex…
1904 · PDF PAGE 9
…t in the crowd of gods,4 And soul went down5 in the turbid tide Of the metaphysical lotus-eyed,6 And I was—anyhow, what’s the odds ? The life to live ? The thought to think ? Shall I take refuge In a tower like once Childe Roland‡ found, blind, deaf, huge, Or in that forest of two hundred thousand Trees,8 fit alike to shelter man and mouse, and— Shall I say God? Be patient, your Reverence,9 I warrant you’ll journey a wiser man ever hence ! Let’s tap (like the negro who gets a good juice of it, Cares nought if that be, or be not, God’s right use…
1904 · PDF PAGE 122
…Eightfold Path. “The second stage is Right Aspiration— Sammasankappo. Having realised the woe and transitoriness and soullessness of all life, there rises in the m ind this Right Aspi- ration. W hen all things suffer, we at least will not increase their burden, so we aspire to become pitiful and loving, to cherish ill- will toward none, to retire from those pleasures of sense which are the fruitful cause of woe. The will, we all know, is ever readier than the mind, and so, though w e aspire to renounce the pleasures of s ense, to love and pity …
1904 · PDF PAGE 32
…’re young yet, scarce forty—we’ll hope at three score You’ll be more of a singer, and less of a whore. Each to his trade ! live out your life ! Fondle your child, and buss your wife ! Trust not, fear not, street straight and strong ! Don’t worry, but just get along. I used to envy all my Balti coolies21 In an inverse kind of religious hysteria, Though every one a perfect fool is, To judge by philosophic criteria, My Lord Archbishop. The name of Winchester, Harrow, or Eton22 makes them not two inches stir. 125 They know not Trinity, Merton, or C…
1904 · PDF PAGE 61
…they w ere lost, and how those fragments we possess were saved, is best told by relating the romantic and almost incredible story of his life. The known facts of this life are few, vague, and unsatisfactory ; the more definite state- ments lack corroboration, and almost the only source at the disposal of the biographer is the letters of Mathilde Doriac to Mdme. J. S., who has kindly placed her portfolio at my service. A letter dated O ctober 15, 1866, indicates that our author was born on the 23rd of that month. The father and mother of George,…
1904 · PDF PAGE 62
…k to have to write in cold blood the dread- ful truth about her death. She had the mis- fortune to contract, in the last few days of her life with him, the same terrible disease which he described in the last poem of his collection. This shock, coming so soon after, and, as it were, as an unholy perpetual reminder of the madness and sequestration of her lover, no less than his infidelity, unhinged her mind, and she shot herself on July 5, 1869. Her last letter to Madame J—— S—— is one of the tenderest and most pathetic ever written. She seems t…
1904 · PDF PAGE 28
…nd I are disagreed. There ! I have let my feelings go This once. Again ? I deem not so. Once for my fellow-creature’s need ! The rest of life, for self-control,81 For liberation of the soul !82 This once, the truth ! In future, best Dismissing Jesus with a jest. Ah ! Christ ascends ?83 Ascension day ? Old wonders bear the bell84 away ? Santos-Dumont, though ! Who can say ? 745 750 755 760 765 770 775 780 The reader may hope. Summary. Reader dis- missed to chapel. Future plans of poet. Jesus dismissed with a jest. The Jest.
1904 · PDF PAGE 34
… we erstwhile prized ; Should we perceive it disagree With the first-born necessity. I come to tell you why I shun The sight of men, the life and fun You know I can enjoy so well, The Nature that I love as none (I think) before me ever loved. You know I scorn the fear of Hell, By worship and all else unmoved 190 195 200 205 210 215 220 225 Our logical method. Clas- sical allusion, demonstrating erudition of poet. Whether or not spirit and matter are dis- tinct, let us in- vestigate the fundamental necessities of thought. Impermanence of the sou…
1904 · PDF PAGE 78
THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS 71 II “Jehjaour1 was a mighty magician; his soul was dark and evil; and his lust was of life and power and of the wreaking of h atred upon the innocent. And it came to pass that he gazed upon a ball of crystal wherein were shown him all the fears of the time unborn as yet on earth. And by his art he saw Perdu’ R Abu, who had been his friend : for do what he would, the crystal showed always that sensual and frivolous youth as a Fear to him : even to him the Mighty One ! But the selfish and evil are cowards; they fear sh…
1904 · PDF PAGE 36
…! Go on, do !” My wandering thoughts you well recall ! I focus logic’s perfect prism : Lo ! the informing syllogism ! The premiss major. Life at best Is but a sorry sort of jest ; At worst, a play of fiends uncouth, Mocking the soul foredoomed to pain. In any case, its run must range Through countless miseries of change. So far, no farther, gentle youth ! The mind can see. So much, no more. So runs the premiss major plain ; Identical, the Noble truth First of the Buddha’s Noble Four! The premiss minor. I deplore These limitations of the mind I …
1904 · PDF PAGE 44
…ormal mind. (As you are please to term it, though ! I gather that you do not know ; Merely infer it.) Here’s a test ! What in your whole life is the best Of all your memories ? They say You paint—I think you should one day Take me to seek your Studio— Tell me, when all your work goes right, Painted to match some inner light, What of the outer world you know ! Surely, your best work always finds Itself sole object of the mind’s. In vain you ply the brush, distracted By something you have heard or acted. Expect some tedious visitor— Your eye runs…
1904 · PDF PAGE 37
…he realm of pain, Time, space, to that eternal calm ? Blavatsky’s Himalayan Balm43 Aids us no whit—if to improve Thus the All-light, All-life, All-love, By evolution’s myrrh and gall, It would not then have been the All. Thus all conceptions fail and fall. But see the Cyclopædia-article On “Metaphysics”; miss no particle 310 315 320 325 330 335 340 345 Visible Image of the Soul of Nature, whose Name is Fat- ality. Futility of all investigations of the Mind into the First Cause. Faith our only alternative to Despair ? So says Mansel.