LIBER LXXI
THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE
THE TWO PATHS
THE SEVEN PORTALS
BY
HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY 8°=3°
WITH A COMMENTARY BY
FRATER O.M. 7°=4

Figure 14. The Way.
Lam is the Tibetan word for Way or Path, and Lama is He who Goeth,
the specific title of the Gods of Egipt, the Treader of the Path,
in Buddhistic phraseology. Its numerical value is 71, the number of
this book.

Prefatory Note

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

            I T is NOT VERY DIFFICULT to write a book, if one chance to possess the necessary degree of Initiation, and the power of expression. It is infernally difficult to comment on such a Book. The principal reason for this is that every statement is true and untrue, alternately, as one advances upon the Path of the Wise. The question always arises: For what grade is this Book meant? To give one simple concrete example, it is stated in the third part of this treatise that Change is the great enemy. This is all very well as meaning that one ought to stick to one’s job. But in another sense Change is the Great Friend. As it is marvelous well shewed forth by The Beast Himself in Liber Aleph, Love is the law, and Love is Change, by definition. Short of writing a separate interpretation suited for every grade, therefore, the commentator is in a bog of quandary which makes Flanders Mud seem like polished granite. He can only do his poor best, leaving it very much to the intelligence of each reader to get just what he needs. These remarks are peculiarly applicable to the present treatise; for the issues are presented in so confused a manner that one almost wonders whether Madame Blavatsky was not a reincarnation of the Woman with the Issue of Blood familiar to readers of the Gospels. It is astonishing and distressing to notice how the Lanoo, no matter what happens to him, soaring aloft like the phang, and sailing gloriously through innumerable Gates of High Initiation, nevertheless keeps his original Point of View, like a Bourbon. He is always getting rid of Illusions, but, like the entourage of the Cardinal Lord Arch­bishop of Rheims after he cursed the thief, nobody seems one penny the worse—or the better.

Probably the best way to take the whole treatise is to assume that it is written for the absolute tyro, with a good deal between the lines for the more advanced mystic. This will excuse, to the mahatma-snob, a good deal of apparent triviality and crudity of standpoint. It is of course necessary for the commentator to point out just those things which the novice is not expected to see. He will have to shew mysteries in many grades, and each reader must glean his own wheat.

At the same time, the commentator has done a good deal to uproot some of the tares in the mind of the tyro aforesaid, which Madame Blavatsky was apparently content to let grow until the day of judgment. But that day is come since she wrote this Book; the New Ćon is here, and its Word is Do what thou wilt. It is certainly time to give the order: Chautauqua est delenda.1

Love is the law, love under will.

FRAGMENT 1

The Voice of the Silence

1.      These instructions are for those ignorant of the dangers of the lower iddhi (magical powers).

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Nothing less can satisfy than this Motion in your orbit.

It is important to reject any iddhi of which you may become possessed. Firstly, because of the wasting of energy, which should rather be concentrated on further advance; and secondly, because iddhi are in many cases so seductive that they lead the unwary to forget altogether the real purpose of their endeavours.

The Student must be prepared for temptations of the most extraordinary subtlety; as the Scriptures of the Christians mysti­cally put it, in their queer but often illuminating jargon, the Devil can disguise himself as an Angel of Light.

A species of parenthesis is necessary thus early in this Comment. One must warn the reader that he is going to swim in very deep waters. To begin with, it is assumed throughout that the student is already familiar with at least the elements of Mysticism. True, you are supposed to be ignorant of the dangers of the lower iddhi; but there are really quite a lot of people, even

in Boston, who do not know that there are any iddhi at all, low or high. However, one who has been assiduous with Book 4, by Frater Perdurabo, should have no difficulty so far as a general comprehension of the subject-matter of the Book is concerned. Too ruddy a cheerfulness on the part of the assiduous one will however be premature, to say the least. For the fact is that this treatise does not contain an intelligible and coherent cosmogony. The unfortunate Lanoo is in the position of a sea-captain who is furnished with the most elaborate and detailed sailing-instruc­tions, but is not allowed to have the slightest idea of what port he is to make, still less given a chart of the Ocean. One finds oneself accordingly in a sort of “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came” atmosphere. That poem of Browning owes much of its haunting charm to this very circumstance, that the reader is never told who Childe Roland is, or why he wants to get to the Dark Tower, or what he expects to find when he does get there. There is a skilfully constructed atmosphere of Giants, and Ogres, and Hunchbacks, and the rest of the apparatus of fairy-tales; but there is no trace of the influence of Bćdeker in the style. Now this is really very irritating to anybody who happens to be seriously concerned to get to that tower. I remember, as a boy, what misery 1 suffered over this poem. Had Browning been alive, 1 think 1 would have sought him out, so seriously did 1 take the Quest. The student of Blavatsky is equally handicapped. Fortu­nately, Book 4, Part III, comes to the rescue once more with a rough sketch of the Universe as it is conceived by Those who know it; and a regular investigation of that book, and the companion volumes ordered in “The Curriculum of the A:. A:.,” fortified by steady persistence in practical personal exploration, will enable this Voice of the Silence to become a serious guide in some of the subtler obscurities which weigh upon the Eyelids of the Seeker.

2.    He who would hear the voice of năda, the “Soundless

Sound,” and comprehend it, he has to learn the nature

of dhărană.2

The voice of nada is very soon heard by the beginner, especially during the practice of pranayama (control of breath-force). At first it resembles distant surf, though in the adept it is more like the twittering of innumerable nightingales; but this sound is premonitory, as it were, the veil of more distinct and articulate sounds which come later. It corresponds in hearing to that dark veil which is seen when the eyes are closed, although in this case a certain degree of progress is necessary before anything at all is heard.

3.    Having become indifferent to objects of perception, the pupil must seek out the răja’ of the senses, the Thought-Producer, he who awakes illusion.

The word “indifferent” here implies “able to shut out.” The Rajah referred to is in that spot whence thoughts spring. He turns out ultimately to be Mayan, the great Magician described in the 3rd Ćthyr. 2 Let the Student notice that in his early medi­tations, all his thoughts will be under the tamas-guna, the prin­ciple of Inertia and Darkness. When he has destroyed all those, he will be under the dominion of an entirely new set of the type of rajas-guna, the principle of Activity, and so on. To the advanced Student a simple ordinary thought, which seems little or nothing to the beginner, becomes a great and terrible fountain of iniquity, and the higher he goes, up to a certain point, the point of definitive victory, the more that is the case. The beginner can think, “it is ten o’clock,” and dismiss the thought. To the mind of the adept this sentence will awaken all its possible corre­spondences, all the reflections he has ever made on time, as also accidental sympathetics like Mr. Whistler’s essay; and if he is sufficiently far advanced, all these thoughts in their hundreds and thousands diverging from the one thought, will again converge, and become the resultant of all those thoughts. He will get samadhi upon that original thought, and this will be a terrible enemy to his progress.

4.    The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real.

In the word “Mind” we should include all phenomena of Mind, including samadhi itself. Any phenomenon has causes and produces results, and al! these things are below the “REAL.” By the REAL is here meant the nibbanadhatu.

5.   Let the Disciple slay the Slayer. For— This is a corollary of Verse 4. These texts may be interpreted in a

quite elementary sense. It is of course the object of even the beginner to suppress mind and a!l its manifestations, but only as he advances will he discover what Mind means.

6.    When to himself his form appears unreal, as do on

waking all the forms he sees in dreams;

This is a somewhat elementary result. Concentration on any subject leads soon enough to a sudden and overwhelming convic­tion that the object is unreal. The reason of this may perhaps be—speaking philosophically—that the object, whatever it is, has only a relative existence.1

7.    When he has ceased to hear the many, he may discern the ONE —-the inner sound which kills the outer.

By the “many” are meant primarily noises which take place outside the Student, and secondly, those which take place inside hmm. For example, the pulsation of the blood in the ears, and later the mystic sounds which are described in Verse 40.

8.    Then only, not till then, shall he forsake the region of asat, the false, to come unto the realm of sat, the true.

By “sat, the true,” is meant a thing previous to the “REAL” referred to above. Sat itself is an illusion. Some schools of philos­ophy have a higher asat, Not-Being, which is beyond sat, and consequently is to šivadaršana as sat is to atmadaršana.2 Nirvana is beyond both these.

9.    Before the soul can see, the Harmony within must be

attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion.

By the “Harmony within” is meant that state in which neither objects of sense, nor physiological sensations, nor emotions, can disturb the concentration of thought.

10.  Before the Soul can hear, the image (man) has to

become as deaf to roarings as to whispers, to cries of

bellowing elephants as to the silvery buzzing of the golden fire-fly.

In the text the image is explained as “Man,” but it more prop­erly refers to the consciousness of man, which consciousness is considered as being a reflection of the Non-Ego, or a creation of the Ego, according to the school of philosophy to which the Student may belong.

11.  Before the soul can comprehend and may remember, she must unto the Silent Speaker be united just as the form to which the clay is modeled, is first united with the

potter’s mind.

Any actual object of the senses is considered as a precipitation of an ideal. Just as no existing triangle is a pure triangle, since it must be either equilateral, isosceles, or scalene, so every object is a miscarriage of an ideal. In the course of practice one concen­trates upon a given thing, rejecting this outer appearance and arriving at that ideal, which of course will not in any way resemble any of the objects which are its incarnations. It is with this in view that the verse tells us that the Soul must be united to the Silent Speaker. The words “Silent Speaker” may be consid­ered as a hieroglyph of the same character as Logos, Adonai or the Ineffable Name.

12.  For then the soul will hear and will remember.

The word “hear” alludes to the tradition that hearing is the organ of Spirit, just as seeing is that of Fire. The word “remember” might be explained as “will attain to memory.” Memory is the link between the atoms of consciousness, for each successive consciousness of Man is a single phenomenon, and has no connection with any other. A looking-glass knows nothing of the different people that look into it. It only reflects one at a time. The brain is however more like a sensitive plate, and memory is the faculty of bringing up into consciousness any picture required. As this occurs in the normal man with his own experiences, so it occurs in the Adept with al! experiences. (This is one more reason for His identifying Himself with others.)

13.  And then to the inner ear will speak— THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE

And say:— What follows must be regarded as the device of the poet, for of

course the “Voice of the Silence” cannot be interpreted in words. What follows is only its utterance in respect of the Path itself.

14.  If thy soul smiles while bathing in the Sunlight of thy Life; if thy soul sings within her chrysalis of flesh and matter; if thy soul weeps inside her castle of illusion; if thy soul struggles to break the silver thread that binds her to the MASTER; know, O Disciple, thy Soul is of the earth.

In this verse the Student is exhorted to indifference to everything but his own progress. It does not mean the indifference of the Man to the things around him, as it has often been so unwor­thily and wickedly interpreted. The indifference spoken of is a kind of inner indifference. Everything should be enjoyed to the fu!!, but always with the reservation that the absence of the thing enjoyed shall not cause regret. This is too hard for the beginner, and in many cases it is necessary for him to abandon pleasures in order to prove to himself that he is indifferent to them, and it may be occasionally advisable even for the Adept to do this now and again. Of course during periods of actual concentration there is no time whatever for anything but the work itself; but to make even the mildest asceticism a rule of life is the gravest of errors, except perhaps that of regarding Asceticism as a virtue. This latter always leads to spiritual pride, and spiritual pride is the principal quality of the brother of the Left-hand Path.

“Ascetic” comes from the Greek  “to work curiously, to adorn, to exercise, to train.”The Latin ars is derived from this same word. Artist, in its finest sense of creative craftsman, is therefore the best translation. The word has degenerated under Puntan foulness.

15.  When to the World’s turmoil thy budding soul lends ear; when to the roaring voice of the great illusion thy Soul responds; when frightened at the sight of the hot tears of pain, when deafened by the cries of distress, thy soul withdraws like the shy turtle within the carapace of

SELFHOOD, learn, O Disciple, of her Silent “God,” thy Soul is an unworthy shrine.

This verse deals with an obstacle at a more advanced stage. It is again a warning not to shut one’s self up in one’s own universe. It is not by the exclusion of the Non-Ego that saintship is attained, but by its inclusion. Love is the law, love under will.

16.  When waxing stronger, thy Soul glides forth from her secure retreat; and breaking bose from the protecting shrine, extends her silver thread and rushes onward; when beholding her image on the waves of Space she whispers, “This is I,” —declare, O Disciple, that thy Soul is caught in the webs of delusion.

An even more advanced instruction, but still connected with the question of the Ego and the non-Ego. The phenomenon described is perhaps ătmadaršana, which is still a delusion, in one sense still a delusion of personality; for although the Ego is destroyed in the Universe, and the Universe in it, there is a distinct though exceedingly subtle tendency to sum up its experi­ence as Ego.

These three verses might be interpreted also as quite elemen­tary; y. 14 as blindness to the First Noble Truth “Everything is Sorrow”; y. 15 as the coward’s attempt to escape Sorrow by Retreat; and y. 16 as the acceptance of the Astral as SAT.

17. This Earth, Disciple, is the Hall of Sorrow, wherein are set along the Path of dire probations, traps to ensnare

thy EGO by the delusion called “Great Heresy.” Develops still further these remarks.

18. This earth, O ignorant Disciple, is but the dismal

entrance leading to the twilight that precedes the valley of true light—that light which no wind can extinguish, that light which burns without a wick or fuel. “Twilight” here may again refer to ătmadaršana. The last phrase is borrowed from Eliphas Lévi,  who was not (I believe) a Tibetan of antiquity.2

19.  Saith the Great Law:—”In order to become the KNOWER of ALL-SELF, thou hast first of SELF to be the knower.” To reach the knowledge of that SELF, thou hast to give up Self to Non-Self, Being to Non-Being, and then thou canst repose between the wings of the GREAT BIRD. Aye, sweet is rest between the wings of that which is not born, nor dies, but is the AUM throughout eternal ages.

The words “give up” may be explained as “yield” in its subtler or quasi-masochistic erotic sense, but on a higher plane. In the following quotation from the “Great Law” it explains that the yielding is not the beginning but the end of the Path.

55.    Then let the End awake. Long hast thou

                        slept, O great God Terminus! Long ages hast

                        thou waited at the end of the city and the

                        roads thereof.

                          Awake Thou! wait no more!

                  56. Nay, Lord! but I am come to Thee. It is I

                        that wait at last.

                 57. The prophet cried against the mountain;

                        come thou hither, that I may speak with

                        thee!

                  58. The mountain stirred not. Therefore went

                        the prophet unto the mountain, and spake

                        unto it. But the feet of the prophet were

                        weary, and the mountain heard not his

                        voice.

                 59. But 1 have called unto Thee, and 1 have jour­

                        neyed unto Thee, and it availed me not.

                  60. b waited patiently, and Thou wast with me

                        from the beginning.

61.  This now I know, O my beloved, and we are stretched at our ease among the vines.

62.  But these thy prophets; they must cry aloud and scourge themselves; they must cross trackless wastes and unfathomed oceans; to await Thee is the end, not the beginning.’

Auth is here quoted as the hieroglyph of the Eternal. “A” the beginning of sound, “u” its middle, and “m” its end, together form a single word or Trinity, indicating that the Real must be regarded as of this three-fold nature, Birth, Life and Death, not successive, but one. Those who have reached trances in which “time” is no more will understand better than others how this rnay be.

20.  Bestride the Bird of Life, if thou would’st know.

The word “know” is specially used here in a technical sense. Avidya, ignorance, the first of the fetters, is moreover one which includes all the others.

With regard to this Swan Auth compare the following verses from the “Great Law,” “Liber LXV,” 11:17—25.

17.  Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan floating in the blue.

18.  Between its wings I sate, and the ćons fled away.

19.  Then the swan flew and dived and soared, yet no whither we went.

20.  A little crazy boy that rode with me spake unto the swan, and said:

21.  Who art thou that dost float and fly and dive and soar in the inane? Behold, these many ćons have passed; whence camest thou? Whither wilt thou go?

22.  And laughing ˇ child him, saying: No whence! No whither!

23.  The swan being silent, he answered: Then, if with no goal, why this eternal journey?

24.  And I laid my head against the Head of the Swan, and laughed, saying: ˇs there not joy ineffable in this aimless winging? Is there not weariness and impatience for who would attain to some goal?

25.  And the swan was ever silent. Ah! but we floated in the infinite Abyss. Joy! Joy!

White swan, bear thou ever me up

between thy wings!

21.  Give up thy life, if thou would’st live.

This verse may be compared with similar statements in the Gospels, in The Vision and the Voice, and in the Books of  It does not mean asceticism in the sense usually under­stood by the world. The l2th Ćthyr2 gives the clearest explana­tion of this phrase.

22.        Three Halls, O weary pilgrim, lead to the end of toils. Three Halls, O conqueror of Mara, will bring thee

through three states into the fourth and thence into the seven worlds, the worlds of Rest Eternal.

If this had been a genuine document I should have taken the three states to be sirotăpanna,3 etc., and the fourth arhat, for which the reader should consult “Science and Buddhism”4 and similar treatises. But as it is better than “genuine,” being, like The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz, the forgery of a great adept, one cannot too confidently refer it thus. For the “Seven Worlds” are not Buddhism.

23.        If thou would’st learn their names, then hearken, and remember.

The name of the first Hall is IGNORANCE —avidyă. It is the Hall in which thou saw’s the light, in which thou livest and shalt die.

These three Halls correspond to the gunas: Ignorance, tamas; Learning, rajas; Wisdom, sattva.

Again, ignorance corresponds to Malkuth and Nephesch (the animal soul), Learning to Tiphareth and Ruach (the mi), and Wisdom to Binah and Neschamah (the aspiration or Divine Mind).

24.  The name of Hall the second is the Hall of LEARNING. in it thy Soul will find the blossoms of life, but under every flower a serpent coiled.

This Hall is a very much larger region than that usually under­stood by the Astral World. It would certainly include alI states up to dhyăna. The Student will remember that his “rewards” immediately transmute themselves into temptations.

25.  The name of the third Hall is Wisdom, beyond which stretch the shoreless waters of aksara,1 the indestructible Fount of Omniscience.

Aksara is the same as the Great Sea of the Qabalah. The reader must consult The Equinox for a full study of this Great Sea.2

26.  If thou would’st cross the first Hall safely, let not thy mind mistake the fires of lust that burn therein for the Sunlight of life.

The metaphor is now somewhat changed. The Hall of ignorance represents the physical life. Note carefully the phraseology, “let not thy mind mistake the fires of lust.” It is legitimate to warm yourself by those fires so long as they do not deceive you.

27.  If thou would’st cross the second safely, stop not the fragrance of its stupefying blossoms to inhale. if freed thou would’st be from the karmic chains, seek not for thy guru in those măyăvic regions.

A similar lesson is taught in this verse. Do not imagine that your early psychic experiences are Ultimate Truth. Do not become a slave to your results.

28.  The WISE ONES tarry not in pleasure-grounds of senses.

This lesson is confirmed. The wise ones tarry not. That is to say, they do not allow pleasure to interfere with business.

29.  The WISE ONES heed not the sweet-tongued voices of illusion.

The wise ones heed not. They listen to them, but do not neces­sarily attach importance to what they say.

30.  Seek for him who is to give thee birth, in the Hall of Wisdom, the Hall which lies beyond, wherein all shadows are unknown, and where the light of truth shines with unfading glory.

This apparently means that the only reliable guru is one who has attained the grade of Magister Templi. For the attainments of this grade consult iber 418], etc.1

31.  That which is uncreate abides in thee, Disciple, as it abides in that Hall. If thou would’st reach it and blend the two, thou must divest thyself of thy dark garments of illusion. Stifle the voice of flesh, albow no image of the senses to get between its light and thine that thus the twain may blend in one. And having learnt thine own ajńăna2, flee from the Hall of Learning. This Hall is dangerous in its perfidious beauty, is needed but for thy probation. Beware, Lanoo, lest dazzled by illusive radiance thy Soul should linger and be caught in its deceptive light.

This is a résumé of the previous seven verses. It inculcates the necessity of unwavering aspiration, and in particular warns the advanced Student against accepting his rewards. There is ant method of meditation in which the Student kills thoughts as they arise by the reflection, “That’s not it.” Frater P. indicated the same by taking as his motto, in the Second Order which reaches from Yesod to Chesed,1 “OT MH,” “No, certainly not!”

32.  This light shines from the jewel of the Great Ensnarer, (Măra). The senses it bewitches, blinds the mind, and leaves the unwary an abandoned wreck.

1 am inclined to believe that most of Blavatsky’s notes are intended as blinds. “Light” such as is described has a technical meaning. It would be too petty to regard Mara as a Christian would regard a man who offered him a cigarette. The supreme and blinding light of this jewel is the great vision of Light. It is the light which streams from the threshold of nirvăna, and Măra is the “dweller on the threshold.” It is absurd to call this light “evil” in any commonplace sense. It is the two-edged sword, flaming every way, that keeps the gate of the Tree of Life. And there is a further Arcanum connected with this which it would be improper here to divulge.

33.  The moth attracted to the dazzling flame of thy night­lamp is doomed to perish in the viscid oil. The unwary Soul that fails to grapple with the mocking demon of illusion, will return to earth the slave of Mára.

The result of failing to reject rewards is the return to earth. The temptation is to regard oneself as having attained, and so do no more work.

34.  Behold the Hosts of Souls. Watch how they hover o’er the stormy sea of human life, and how exhausted, bleeding, broken-winged, they drop one after other on the swelling waves. Tossed by the fierce winds, chased by the gale, they drift into the eddies and disappear within the first great vortex.

In this metaphor is contained a warning against identifying the Soul with human life, from the failure of its aspirations.

35.  If through the Hall of Wisdom, thou would’st reach the Vale of Bliss, Disciple, close fast thy senses against the great dire heresy of separateness that weans thee from the rest.

This verse reads at first as if the heresy were still possible in the Hall of Wisdom, but this is not as it seems. The Disciple is urged to find out his Ego and slay it even in the beginning.

36.  Let not thy “Heaven-born,” merged in the sea of mäyă, break from the Universal Parent (SOUL), but let the

fiery power retire into the inmost chamber, the chamber of the Heart, and the abode of the World’s Mother.

This develops verse 35. The heaven-born is the human consciousness. The chamber of the Heart is the anahata lotus. The abode of the World’s Mother is the mulădhăra lotus. But there is a more technical meaning yet—and this whole verse describes a particular method of meditation, a final method, which is far too difflcult for the beginner.1

37.  Then from the heart that Power shall rise into the sixth, the middle region, the place between thin eyes, when it becomes the breath of the ONE-SOUL, the voice which filleth all, thy Master’s voice.

This verse teaches the concentration of the kundalini in the ajńă­cakra. “Breath” is that which goes to and fro, and refers to the uniting of Šiva with Šakti in the sahasrara.2

38.  ‘Tis only then thou canst become a “Walker of the Sky” who treads the winds above the waves, whose step

touches not the waters.

This partly refers to certain iddhi, concerning Understanding of devas (gods), etc.; here the word “wind” may be interpreted as “spirit.” It is comparatively easy to reach this state, and it has no great importance. The “walker of the sky” is much superior to the mere reader of the minds of ants.

39.  Before thou set’st thy foot upon the ladder’s upper rung, the ladder of the mystic sounds, thou hast to hear the voice of thy inner GOD in seven manners.

The word “seven” is here, as so frequently, rather poetic than mathematic; for there are many more. The verse also reads as if it were necessary to hear all the seven, and this is not the case— some will get one and some another. Some students may even miss ah of them.1

40.  The first is like the nightingale’s sweet voice chanting a song of parting to its mate.

The second comes as the sound of a silver cymbal of the dhyănis, awakening the twinkling stars.

The next is as the plaint melodious of the ocean-sprite imprisoned in its shell.

And this is followed by the chant of vina

The fifth like sound of bamboo-flute shrills in thine ear. It changes next into a trumpet-blast.

The last vibrates like the dull rumbling of a thunder­cloud.

The seventh swallows alt the other sounds. They die, and then are heard no more.

The first four are comparatively easy to obtain, and many people can hear them at will. The last three are much rarer, not neces­sarily because they are more difficult to get, and indicate greater advance, but because the protective envelope of the Adept is become so strong that they cannot pierce it. The last of the seven sometimes occurs, not as a sound, but as an earthquake, if the expression may be permitted. It is a mingling of terror and rapture impossible to describe, and as a general rule it completely discharges the energy of the Adept, leaving him weaker than an attack of Malaria would do; but if the practice has been right, this soon passes off, and the experience has this advantage, that one is far hess troubled with minor phenomena than before. It is just possible that this is referred to in the Apocalypse XVI, XVII, XVIII.

41.  When the six are slain and at the Master’s feet are laid, then is the pupil merged into the ONE, becomes that o N E and lives therein.

The note tells that this refers to the six principles, so that the subject is completely changed. By the slaying of the principles is meant the withdrawal of the consciousness from them, their rejection by the seeker of truth. Sabhapaty Swămi has an excel­lent method on these unes;1 it is given, in an improved form, in “Liber HHH.”2

42.  Before that path is entered, thou must destroy thy lunar body, cleanse thy mind-body and make clean thy heart.

The Lunar body is Nephesch, and the Mind body Ruach. The heart is Tiphareth, the centre of Ruach.

43.  Eternal life’s pure waters, clear and crystal, with the monsoon tempest’s muddy torrents cannot mingle.

We are now again on the subject of suppressing thought. The pure water is the stilled mind, the torrent the mind invaded by thoughts.

44.  Heaven’s dew-drop glittering in the morn’s