Wednesday, December 15th, 1982

CLASS at Wisdom's Goldenrod, Hector, NY

with Anthony Damiani (AD)

December 15, 1982

PB PARAS; PHILOSOPHY; SAGE

TOPIC: PB Paras

SUBJECT: Philosophy

SUBSUBJECT: Sage

CONTENTS:

YOU ARE THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF YOUR SUFFERING; PB PARAS ON THE SAGE; PB ANECDOTES

THE FUSION OF MASCULINE (ACTIVE) AND FEMININE (PASSIVE) WITHIN ONESELF

THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL WILL EVOLVE IN AND AS PART OF THE WORLD-IDEA FOREVER

MORE ON THE UNION OF MASCULINE (SOUL POWERS) AND FEMININE (IDEAS)

THE SAGE'S EYES RESEMBLE BABY'S EYES–NO THOUGHT; SYMBOLISM OF FISH'S EYES

MORE PB PARAS ON THE SAGE

BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Paul Brunton, Notebooks. 16 vols; Vol. 1 entitled Perspectives [Persp.], published 1984-1988. Some Paul Brunton Notebook paras are, as of 2018, unpublished, and are noted as such.

• Paul Brunton, The Wisdom of the Overself

• Bible, Matthew (16:24)

NOTES:

• The PB paras read are from RV (Red Vinyl), & Red library volumes 6v & 12v.

• Earlier transcript versions exist, including Scan File 1982 1215C2-05R03.PDF.

TRANSCRIBED from Audio Cassette Tapes by HP, JF, et al. in 1992 as part of the set for Living Wisdom. V11 version 2018. Reformatted from V11 version by JRM & JF 2019-2020, with Subheads and Table of Contents added by JRM. In 2024, IT updates prefatory matter and footer, replaces tape markers with audio file markers, alters Subheads to make more accurate, completes Book List, corrects typos/errors, adds new notes within transcript, reformats to accord with new conventions. Readable edited transcript – V14.1r.

AUDIO FILES: 1982 1215a, 1982 1215b. [Note: "Tape" and "Side" refer to original audio cassette tapes that were later digitized into .MP3 Audio Files.]

1982 12/15 at Wisdom's Goldenrod

PB Paras; Philosophy; Sage

Readable Edited Transcript

YOU ARE THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF YOUR SUFFERING; PB PARAS ON THE SAGE; PB ANECDOTES

[Audio File 1982 1215a Begins]

AD: Alright? This is on the ego. Since I'm one of the oldest around here, I can confirm it's the way it is (inaudible). It just says, "It is a man's"-- Again, Randy picked this one out, it's really good.

(Anthony reading)

PB: "It is a man's own internal defects which often conspire against him and which show their faces in many of the external troubles that beset him. Yet it is hard for him to accept this truth because his whole life-habit is to look outwards, to construct defensive alibis rather than to engage in censorious self-inquisition. Sheikh al Khuttali, a Sufi adept, addressing a disciple who complained at his circumstances, said:"O my son, be assured that there is a cause for every decree of Providence. Whatever good or evil God creates, do not in any place or circumstance quarrel with his action or be aggrieved in thy heart." Therefore, the aspirant who is really earnest about the quest should develop the attitude that his personal misfortunes, troubles, and disappointments must be traced back to his own weaknesses, defects, faults, deficiencies, and indisciplines. Let him not blame them on other persons or on fate. In this way he will make the quickest progress whereas by self-defending or self-justifying or self-pitying apportionment of blame to causes outside himself, he will delay or prevent it. For the one means clinging to the ego, the other means giving it up. Nothing is to be gained by such flattering self-deception while much may be lost by it. He must bring himself to admit frankly that he himself is the primary cause of most of his ills,* as well as the secondary cause of some of the ills of others. He must recognize that the emotions of resentment, anger, self-pity, or despondency are often engendered by a wounded ego. Instead of reviling fate at each unfortunate event, he should analyse his moral and mental make-up and look for the weaknesses which led to it. He will gain more in the end by mercilessly accusing his own stubbornness in pursuing wrong courses than by taking shelter in alibis that censure other people. Like a stone in a shoe which he stubbornly refuses to remove, the fault still remains in his character when he stubbornly insists on blaming things or condemning persons for its consequences. In this event the chance to eliminate it is lost, and the same dire consequences may repeat themselves in his life again.

"The faith of the lower ego in itself and the strength with which it clings to its own standpoint are almost terrifying to contemplate. The aspirant is often unconscious of its selfishness. But if he can desert its standpoint, he shall then be in a position to perceive how large an element it has contributed in the making of his own troubles, how heavy is its responsibility for unpleasant events which he has hitherto ascribed to outside sources. He shall see that his miserable fate derives largely from his own miserable faults. He is naturally unwilling to open his eyes to his own deficiencies and faults, his little weaknesses and large maladjustments. So suffering comes to open his eyes for him, to shock and shame him into belated awareness and eventual amendment. But quite apart from its unfortunate results in personal fortunes, whenever the aspirant persists in taking the lower ego's side and justifying its action, he merely displays a stupid resolve to hinder his own spiritual advancement. Behind a self-deceiving facade of pretexts, excuses, alibis, and rationalizations, the ego is forever seeking to gratify its unworthy feelings or to defend them. On the same principle as the pseudo-patriotism which prompted the Italians to follow Mussolini blindly throughout his Ethiopian adventure to its final disaster, the principle of"My country! right or wrong," he follows the ego through all its operations just as blindly and as perversely, justifying its standpoints merely because they happen to be his own. But the higher Self accepts no rivals. The aspirant must choose between denying his ego's aggressiveness or asserting it. The distance to be mentally travelled between these two steps is so long and so painful that it is understandable why few will ever finish it. It is only the exceptional student who will frankly admit his faults and earnestly work to correct them. It is only he whose self-criticizing detachment can gain the upper hand, who can also gain philosophy's highest prize." (11.2.19 & Persp. pp. 137-138)

*AD/insert above: He shouldn't have said that. Right away, I already excuse myself.

AD: Thank you, Randy. A letter to myself. I just wanted to start the class off on the right key. Let's go.

RC: Should we continue with what we were doing before?

PB: "Some sages do not wish to enter into any precise relationship with others. They do not give personal initiation or accept disciples formally. But the sensitive will feel that some sort of inner benefit was got by the contact, non-visible and impersonal though it was." (25.4.215)

PB: "We must remember that the sages were living human beings and not ghostly ones." (rv/74/2, unpublished)

RC: I remember when we were xeroxing this page, Amy looked at this one and said, "Oh, does one?"

PB: "One remembers Socrates standing rapt and motionless for hours, deep in a mysterious concentration of consciousness." (rv/74/3, unpublished)

PB: "The mind emptied of all the activity of ordinary thoughts and filled with the beauty of this presence is a divinely sustained mind." (25.2.312)

PB: "When I first met the Indian woman saint, Ananda Mayee, in 1936, she spent much time in withdrawn states of samadhi. When I last saw her, nearly twenty years later, she did not any longer pass into such states except for days of special public celebrations--at the most, a few times a year. She had become famous, and visited centres scattered around India and bearing her name. This means that she had by then developed to the grade where temporary samadhis were no longer either necessary or to be regarded as the goal as they are with developing yogis." (25.3.77)

PB: "The Buddhists call lasting enlightenment by the name of Nirvana." (25.2.162)

PB: "When the masculine and feminine temperaments within us are united, completed, and balanced, when masculine power and feminine passivity are brought together inside the person and knowledge and reverence encircle them both, then wisdom begins to dawn in the soul. The ineffable reality and the mentalist universe are then understood to be non-different from one another." (Para reread twice more) (25.2.120)

PB: "If he does not accept disciples individually it is because he serves men otherwise. Those who try to get such acceptance and find themselves rebuffed may consider him selfish, cold, remote. But they will be greatly mistaken. He can serve mankind--not each person separately but in groups or masses--and he may do this by lecturing, by writing, or simply by directing his meditation in the appropriate way. For a writer's books spread not only his ideas but also something of himself." (25.4.120)

(Note: In the original volume (rv) sequence of paras, the para beginning "By bringing into a fusion . . ." is here. It is not read now, although it is read and discussed later.)

PB: "In a painting of the Chinese master Chou Tun-Yi, the great philosopher is shown holding a sceptre. This is called"The Sceptre of Power." It stands for the masculine elements within the person. The sceptre being held within his hands shows that the masculine energy is held within his control, that he is indeed a master in this sense, a ruler of himself--for the sceptre is adorned with a diamond, the hardest of stones." (14.4.275)

PB: "Whether in the sage or the simpleton the thought of the world, as well as of all that the man has to do in the world, is inescapable if he is to remain in it. The difference between them is that the ignorant one is held captive by what appears to him whereas the enlightened one knows also its inner reality. Whoever believes that he is the body alone cannot escape the name materialist. The other man reverses this belief, regards himself as distinct from and possessor of the body. His is not just a belief, however, but a piece of knowledge. It has the certitude which follows being freed from all doubt. Why then should he be afraid of acknowledging his personal-impersonal existence in, and awareness of, the world? (25.2.231)

PB: "When the life and teachings of men like Muhammed and Buddha are compared, the most extraordinary differences become apparent. What in effect Buddha placed before his followers as the highest ideal was,"You may live a good life as a layman, but if you want to live a superior life you must become a monk." Muhammed, on the other hand, said literally, "No faithful follower of mine shall ever become a monk." He even told his followers that under certain conditions they could practise polygamy and have four wives. Both these men are revered as wise, and yet such divergences exist in their teaching. The divergence arose because in their wisdom they had consideration for the degree of evolution of the people to whom they spoke, of their physical, mental, and ethical needs, and of the circumstances of their lives. They gave to the people what they most needed, and the highest wisdom within their comprehension. They did not give them the hidden philosophy, the highest teaching open to man.

"Even today it is useless to preach ethics to a gangster. He is not ready. Through the power of the Mind, a Sage can place himself in perfect sympathy with every man. He can see the next step ahead which can be taken without undue difficulty. It was temperamentally and climatically easy for the Indians of that period to renounce marriage, and it was therefore easy for Buddha to bring them a step further along the path by teaching complete monasticism. But the wild tribes amongst whom Muhammed lived could only grasp something much grosser, and so Muhammed in his wisdom gave them what would make them a little less savage; he gave them a practical ethical code for daily living, and at the time stimulated their faith in after-death rewards. Instead of telling them to retire in monasteries, which they were incapable of doing, and instead of telling them to practise meditation, which they would not have understood, he said in effect"No, go on with your daily life but five times a day let go of all personal affairs for a few minutes. Kneel down, remember God, and pray." The Arab people of that time could do that, and it acted as a check on their more barbarous instincts.

"Such was the wisdom of Muhammed and Buddha. But for us in the twentieth century to take the path of either would be foolishness, because it was not given to us but to a people of other times. The Sages do not give a doctrine which is once and for all delivered to all mankind. They give a teaching suited to a particular section of mankind and for a particular period." (6.1.316)

PB: "He who has conquered his own sorrows and abolished his own ignorance will find in time that others will come of their own accord to him. He will sit there imperturbable yet sympathetic, inscrutably poised yet gently understanding, while the sorrowful and the aspiring, the world-worn and the seeking, pour out their sorrows and aspirations, their sins and ideals as at a priestly confessional--yet without any assumption of priestly superiority, without any pretense of moral height, and without any quackery of pontifical infallibility. When he speaks, his detached, impersonal standpoint will help to reorient their own, will show the truth of a situation and the lesson of an experience as their desire-tossed ego could never show it. And all the while, the impact of his aura will gradually strengthen, calm, and uplift them if they are at all sensitive." (25.4.222)

PB: "He is a man without any affiliations, a man without a religion and without a tradition, a man of utter independence." (12v/79/52, unpublished)

PB: "The sage possesses his own mysterious code of values. The world cannot always understand him." (12v/79/54, unpublished)

PB: "There will be an air of settled conviction, of inward assurance about his speech and writing." (25.3.238)

PB: "His unruffled calmness and dispassionate outlook will show itself not only in the day-by-day events of ordinary life but also when tested in the rigorous crises of fate. He will be as detached towards them as if they had happened a half-century before and he was viewing them from afar." (24.3.112)

PB: "The simple knowledge of his own status has no personal pride in it; therefore, no need exists to hide it behind a false modesty." (25.3.318)

PB: "It is a fact that in such a man these three passions--anger, lust, and hatred--are stilled forever. There is no temptation which can now have any power over him, no fear which can overcome him, no frustration which can depress him." (25.3.237)

PB: "The owl, which sees clearly at midnight, is an old and good symbol of the sage whose mind is ever at rest in, and lighted by, the Infinite Mind." (25.2.307)

PB: "He possesses the ability to produce peace within himself and to radiate it outside himself." (25.3.235)

PB: "He seeks to exercises no influence over others yet the time will come when, being what he is, he will effectually do so." (12v/77/23, unpublished)

PB: "His innermost nature is in actual contact with the Universal Mind." (12v/77/25, unpublished)

PB: "According to the point of view, some will regard him as a mere curiosity or freak but others as a dangerous menace. Few will regard him as a benefactor of society." (12v/75/4, unpublished)

PB: "He who has reached this degree will be always poised in the Overself, always aware of his identity with its inimitable nature yet also conscious of his limitations as an ego. This may seem queer and contradictory yet the man will never feel himself pulled in different directions but, on the contrary, will feel a perfect harmony between the human and the divine." (25.2.156)

PB: "It is written in some ancient Oriental text that among the signs whereby we may detect a person to be an Illumined One, the condition of the eyes is most important and that in such a person they will resemble a baby's." (25.3.398)

RC: Tim and I were talking about how many times when we went out with PB, it'd be like going out with a three-year-old. (laughter) Because he'd just get really playful.

EM: What do you mean? Probably not a three-year-old. (laughter and comments by mothers on three-year-olds)

RC: You know, you go out with somebody and it seems they're always looking at everything for the first time?

EM: Oh, yes.

DB: He said the sage in his innermost nature is always in contact with the Universal Mind?

RC: Yes.

DB: Now that's strong as a distinction between the ordinary man, I would assume, and I was wondering if that could be elucidated a little bit more. Insofar as he's discussing the sage's innermost nature is in contact with the Universal Mind, one would say something like the Overself of the sage is in contact with the World-Mind. Or possibly that the Overself of the sage is in contact with Mind itself . . . Apparently for the ordinary man this situation does not occur.

(RC/DB discussion = 2 min.)

PB: "His innermost nature is in actual contact with the Universal Mind." (12v/77/25, unpublished--repeat)

(More student discussion = 7 min.)

LDm: Even Shankara says that the Quest can be said to end in a certain way, but not really, because in experiencing the Higher Self, since it's infinite, there's no ending to it.

RC: He looked at me straight in the eyes one day when I was trying to finish something before I went home, and said, "The next thing you have to understand is there's no finality. We'll continue tomorrow because we have to, because like everything else it's onward, into the Absolute." I didn't think he was joking. . . .

(Side 1 of original cassette tape digitized as 1982 1215a Ends; Side 2 Begins)

(Discussion continues = 1 min.)

LDm: A lot of people seem to state their view of omniscience--one's realized one's omniscient and all-knowing and (inaudible)

RC: He told me--we were talking about how the sage works sometimes and we . . . it was a simple little thing--it was an issue of salt, he wouldn't use salt, he avoided salt very much--he told me it was ok if I wanted to use salt. I was trying to get what's the story on salt, is it a personal thing that you don't like salt or is salt bad. He wouldn't say--he'd say, "Well, it's not merely a personal thing," and so anyway it led into a discussion once again about knowledge, and facts and so on. He asked me if I thought he knew. I said I didn't think that anyone was omniscient, but I was under the impression that what he DID know was knowledge. And I've been told that if the sage really wanted to know something or needed to know something that he would have ACCESS to the knowledge that he needed, not that he would possess all knowledge at all times, but that he would have an avenue to the knowledge that was required. He said actually, well that's not even true. He said sometimes the intuitions come and sometimes they just don't come and he said that's one of the ways that they talk in terms of a hierarchy of sages, is in terms of the frequency of the intuition--the constancy of the flow of the intuition as opposed to, at a lower level, a more intermittent type of intuition. That was interesting.

LDm: So what IS the story on salt? (laughter)

RC: It arouses the animal body. If you don't mind that, then you can eat it.

LrD: That's a general statement?

RC: That was a general statement. It arouses the animal nature and if you don't mind having your animal aroused then there's no problem. (silence)

PB: "When a man has reached this stage, where his will and life are surrendered and his mind and heart are aware of divine presences, he learns that it is practical wisdom not to decide his future in advance but rather to let it grow out of itself like corn out of seed." (18.4.188)

PB: "If he seems outwardly distant and indifferent, we should understand that his distance and his indifference are not egoistic, and consequently are worthy of close examination and deep study. They contain a mystery as well as a paradox. For in his heart there flows, side by side, both a pure love for humanity and an utter detachment from humanity. It is in the very nature of his attainment of a true philosopher's status that he should be able to fulfil himself only by going beyond all selves--ours as well as his own." (25.3.522)

PB: "The free soul has brought his thought and actions into perfect harmony with Nature's morality. He lives not merely for himself alone, but for himself as a part of the whole scheme. Consequently, he does not injure others but only benefits them. He does not neglect his own benefit, however, but makes the two work together. His activities are devoted to fulfilling the duties and responsibilities set for him by his best wisdom, by his higher self.

"The world is necessarily affected by his presence and activities, and affected beneficially. First, the mere knowledge that such a man exists helps others to continue with their efforts at self-improvement, for they know then that the spiritual quest is not a vain dream but a practicable affair. Second, he influences those he meets to live better lives--whether they be few or many, influential or obscure. Third, he leaves behind a concentration of spiritual forces which works on for a long time, through other persons, after he leaves this world. Fourth, if he is a sage and balanced, he will always do something of a practical nature for the uplift of humanity instead of merely squatting in an ashram." (reread) (20.5.180 & Persp. p. 275)

PB: "The ordinary man is ignorant of that which his heart enshrines. Hence, the Chinese say that the sage is the"Complete Man."" (12v/73/55, unpublished; similar to 25.3.14)

RC: He told me that "what the Chinese call the"Complete Man" is what I would call a "gentleman"."

PB: "The sage tries to make all his acts tend toward harmony but he does not mistake uniformity for unity. Differences there will be." (25.3.234)

PB: "A single meeting with such a man brings forth our involuntary respect. A long association with him brings forth our loving devotion also." (25.3.537)

PB: "There is profound power, there is ample security in this presence. The sage alone may dare to be himself, may live unrelated to the fads and fashions around him." (25.3.233)

PB: "Most men make their appeal to authority and are constantly at pains to quote letter and script for their words; others will gaze into their own glasses of vision and report upon the reflections of Truth that they descry within: but the illuminated ones live the life and so declare only that which they have experienced themselves; indeed what they say comes as from on high for us." (25.3.539)

AD: What do you think he means by "live the life"?

RC: Live awake? Aware of the identity with the Overself and the limitations of the ego? Not planning the future? Taking as real only that which is presented right now?

AD: Could you read that one again, Randy?

PB: "Most men make . . ." (reread)

AH: I don't understand any difference between two and three--the way he described the living of the life sounds like a man of vision . . .

AD: Read it once more.

PB: "Most men make . . ." (reread)

(JC/RC/JC/= 1 min.)

RC: I remember--the thing he said to Ed, when he said, "I don't want you to think such and such," and he said, "I don't think."

(AH/RC/TS/RC/AH/RC/AH/= 3 min.)

RC: I was thinking about that baby's eyes quote, looking at something for a first time, all the time. (silence)

(DB requests quote/DB/RC/TS = 2 min.)

AD: Would you speak up please?

THE FUSION OF MASCULINE (ACTIVE) AND FEMININE (PASSIVE) WITHIN ONESELF

TS: PB spoke of the World-Idea in terms of polarities, dualities, Yin and Yang, and when he speaks of the Idea of Man as a special part of the World-Idea, that also within the Idea of Man there's a polarity, what he spoke of as Yin and Yang, or masculine and feminine. The nature of that--any aspect of the World-Idea would have that polarity within it which has to be held in some kind of harmony to be fulfilled.

(AH/DB/EMD/DB/=3 min.)

AH: . . . Femininity--passivity and masculine--power? Those are the two terms? I think they are to be seen in this quote as cosmic principles.

RC: There's one that I didn't read that I probably should. I thought the other quote sort of covered it, but--

PB: "By bringing into a fusion the masculine and feminine temperaments within himself, he also fuses knowledge and feeling, wisdom and reverence." (rv/77/1) (20.3.414)

AH: So that says that accomplishment at the level of personal psychological integration results in an accomplishment which is no longer within the context of that psychological entity.

(RC/AH & other student comments = 1 min.)

PB: "By bringing into a fusion the masculine and feminine temperaments within herself, she also fuses knowledge and feeling, wisdom and reverence." (reread with 'herself, she' substituted for masculine pronouns)

(student discussion for about 7 minutes)

HE: In reference to what David called insight I have a quote that seemed to combine the knowledge and the feeling in insight very directly.

PB: "Insight is not a work of the logical reason. Yet the keenest reasoning is present in it. It is not merely a movement of the emotions. Yet the heart element is equally present in it." (20.4.166)

AH: That idea could be extended to the quote where wisdom is spoken of in feminine terms--Sophia (inaudible).

(Student discussion = 5 min.)

RG: Got any more quotes?

THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL WILL EVOLVE IN AND AS PART OF THE WORLD-IDEA FOREVER

PB: "Bergson was right. His acute French intelligence penetrated like an eagle's sight beneath the world-illusion and saw it for what it is--a cosmic process of continual change which never comes to an end, a universal movement whose first impetus and final exhaustion will never be known, a flux of absolute duration and therefore unimaginable. And for the sage who attains to the knowledge of THAT which forever seems to be changing but forever paradoxically retains its own pure reality, for him as for the ignorant, the flux must go on. But it will go on here on this earth, not in the same mythical heaven or mirage-like hell. He will repeatedly have to take flesh, as all others will have to, as long as duration lasts, that is, forever. For he cannot sit apart like the yogi while his compassion is too profound to waste itself in mere sentiment. It demands the profound expression of sacrificial service in motion. His attitude is that so clearly described by a nineteenth-century agnostic whom religionists once held in horror, Thomas Huxley:"We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before he entered it." The escape into Nirvana for him is only the escape into the inner realization of the truth whilst alive: it is not to escape from the external cycle of rebirths and deaths. It is a change of attitude. But that bait had to be held out to him at an earlier stage until his will and nerve were strong enough to endure this revelation. There is no escape except inwards. For the sage is too compassionate to withdraw into proud indifferentism and too understanding to rest completely satisfied with his own wonderful attainment. The sounds of sufferings of men, the ignorance that is the root of these sufferings, beat ceaselessly on the tympanum of his ears. What can he do but answer, and answer with his very life--which he gives in perpetual reincarnation upon the cross of flesh as a vicarious sacrifice for others. It is thus alone that he achieves immortality, not by fleeing forever--as he could if he willed--into the Great Unconsciousness, but by suffering forever the pains and pangs of perpetual rebirth that he may help or guide his own." (25.4.17 & Persp. p. 359)

[Audio File 1982 1215a Ends]

[Audio File 1982 1215b Begins]

RC: I think that's another application of that quote he's talking about "the cosmic process of . . . the flux must go on."

SC: He says in other quotes that the sage has a choice available when he's become realized. And one of those choices would be what's described here, the continuation in life to serve other beings. But there were other choices, and one of them was to go on to higher worlds, and the other one would be to leave the individuality behind altogether. This seems to imply in ALL cases the first path is necessarily followed, that there IS continuation in all cases.

RC: Yes. I was questioning him about jivanmukti, if a person is not making any more karma, how can they come back? And I told him that the way that I had heard the Hindus' version, I could never understand it in principle. . . . It seemed to me that as long as there was a soul it had to have some kind of relation with some kind of body. And he said, "Yes, but it doesn't have to be THIS kind of body, but there will be a relationship with SOME kind of body."

SC: That second one, of going on to higher worlds or to a higher level of being, would be the Soul associating with a different level of body. And then the third?

RC: I don't know about the third. Can you remember specific quotes about annihilation?

(Student discussion/portions of quotes reread = 4 min.)

AH: Would you speak then about the individual soul of a sage reincarnating endlessly?

AD: Could you read the first sentence again, please, about the "knowledge of THAT"?

PB: ". . . And for the sage who attains to the knowledge of THAT which forever seems to be changing but forever paradoxically retains its own pure reality, for him as for the ignorant, the flux must go on. . . ."

AD: What do you expect? The World-Idea is what it is.

St: Excuse me?

AD: What do you expect? The World-Idea is what it is.

TS: One of the last questions I asked him was this question: what are these three choices. And I said I had difficulty in understanding them. He said that was reasonable considering the distance that question was from being relevant. (laughter)

AH: Anthony, could you explain what you said?

AD: You've acquired a little understanding on ontology? Haven't you?

AH: A little.

AD: A little-- Then what do you expect?

AH: I shouldn't expect otherwise that the World-Idea should be what it is.

AD: No. You shouldn't expect otherwise than YOU and the World-Idea are going to go on forever.

AH: I don't understand what's referred to with the 'you' or the 'he'--

AD: The soul will always be incarnating with the World-Idea, and be included as part of the World-Idea, and will evolve alongside with the World-Idea. So why look for exits?

AH: Individual soul?

AD: Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Individual soul will evolve in and as part of the World-Idea. And if this Idea goes on evolving endlessly, again, why look for exits?

AH: What did Eckhart mean when he talked about killing the soul?

AD: I didn't know that Eckhart used such language. I don't know what you're referring to.

AH: You used to read it before meditation, the passage of Eckhart about having to get rid of the Soul.

AD: I can't recall.

DB: It's a quote from the Bible, I think, "Except those that deny their Soul." [Note: See Bible, Matthew, 16:24.]

AD: To slay the soul would generally be the lower, what we call the animal soul. In the medieval tradition they speak about the animal soul, the spiritual soul, the intellectual soul. The reference there would be to the animal soul.

But if you're understanding a little bit about the World-Idea and the way the soul is evolving the appropriate and necessary vehicles alongside with the World-Idea, why should you expect anything different? Why should you expect a finis or a side-issue, like absorption here, absorption there? Why not accept what IS? If you say that the World-Idea is going to go on forever, and you're part of the World-Idea, then you go on forever, too. So you haven't drawn the proper consequences from what you understand of metaphysics.

(pause) Alright, let's go on. You've vacated the World-Idea(?).

MORE ON THE UNION OF MASCULINE (SOUL POWERS) AND FEMININE (IDEAS)

Terry Leidenfrost(?): When we were talking about the masculine and the feminine, if I thought in terms of my own masculine and feminine, or the Sun and the Moon as the masculine and feminine, I'd have one particular and one universal. (Q: Paraphrase in orig. transcript = masculine and feminine being inwardly united in the realized man.)

AD: No. That's not exactly the way to look at it. Look at the passive aspects as all the Ideas or all the reason-principles, and look at the active aspect as the planetary function or the soul powers which are either embodying those Ideas or manifesting them forth. These are two aspects of our nature, all the time. One is an active power, and we call it masculine, the other is passive and we can call it feminine, but in other traditions they reverse it and they say the active is the feminine and the passive is the masculine. It depends on what tradition you belong to. You can call it Yin-Yang, One and Two, or anything else you want.

TL: Is a man's masculine and feminine different from a female's masculine and feminine? Or if there was a marriage in the woman of the masculine and feminine or a marriage in the man of the masculine and feminine, then would they be universal, are they both the same thing?

AD: I'm sorry?

TL: If I were to experience my own masculinity--

AD: Tell me what you mean by that.

TL: My Sun nature.

AD: I just refuse to accept that.

The Sun is only one of the many powers which we can refer to as masculinity. Masculinity would refer to the activity, the functioning of the powers of the soul, if you don't want to use the astrological terminology, that would be the ACTIVE POWER in a person.

TL: Could I use feeling and knowing?

AD: Well, yes. The feeling part would be when you do get an idea, they're primarily FELT substances, so if you think of the powers of the soul as ACTIVE powers, when they manifest Ideas or a world for an individual, it is a feltness that is going to be experienced.

TL: The same for a man or a woman?

AD: Don't you see that the discussion becomes irrelevant if you bring in a man and woman? Because there are many women that are more masculine than feminine, and there are many men that are more feminine than masculine. The point here is to try to understand that it is the power that you are actively employing and working with which you can call the active, or the masculine part.

TL: Let me ask you this question. If I brought to union my feeling and my knowing within myself, would that be the same thing as the feeling and knowing in relation to the Sun and Moon?

AD: No. It would be the relationship between the planets and the degrees, or the Ideas.

TL: But we speak of the Sun and the Moon as feeling and knowing.

AD: I'm not interested in what you're speaking of, I'm telling it the way I understand it. It is ALL the planets and ALL the degrees. These two together represent the active and the passive aspect of our existence. Now, your planets could all be functioning, and they're active, and you call that the masculine principle. And the Ideas can be referred to as the feminine aspect. The remark that Andrew made--he evidently remembered that, in the medieval tradition, Sophia, or Divine Wisdom, was always referred to as feminine, and that was the passive aspect, and that the masculine aspect seeks that and wishes to conjoin with that, and in the union of these two, wisdom is born. Now, the activity that the active powers engage in, and the passivity that the ideas just lay there waiting to be grasped and manifested, these two can be done in a proper way and in a balanced way, and then we speak about the union of the masculine and the feminine WITHIN the one. To refer it to physiological states, for instance, in the experience of--well, certain spiritual powers, when they reach the head and one feels like there is a conjunction of his positive and negative aspects--that's the LAST EFFECT of this function. It is a symptom of what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is very primary. These Ideas, or this wisdom is WITHIN you, and there's a tremendous variety in that wisdom. This power to grasp these Ideas is also part of your nature. The combination of these two is what they call the Hermetic marriage. I'm ignoring all the fanciful fanfare that the--what they call them--Rosicrucians of today are talking about, because that's all fantasy. That's all a matter of conjecture. But when the person combines these powers with these ideas, he has achieved the Hermetic union. But as soon as you bring in man or woman, you're bringing in a 20th century idea.

TL: When you ask us to do that, we have come from our own psychology whether we're male or female--

AD: You're not coming from your psychology, you're coming from reality. Psychology has got nothing to do with these things. If you're in the realm of psychology you're going to go on misunderstanding what I'm talking about. Isn't it true that despite the fact of all this psychological parlance and talk, when all is said and done, isn't it true that Jung had to say what he meant, he had to speak the Idea and throw out the symbol? Isn't that true? The symbol is quite meaningless. Ultimately, what you want is the Idea that is hidden in the symbol. Once you've got the Idea, the symbol you throw away. Well, what need is there for it anymore? So what you're dealing with is this reality which is within you, to understand the nature of the Divine Wisdom which is within you. That's all he's talking about here. Active and passive, Yin and Yang, all these are fancy names for--I mean, the variety goes on and on and on. If you have the kernel or the idea that they're talking about, then it doesn't matter the words that you use. The Sun and Moon as symbolism of passive and active aspect of our nature is again some of the misunderstanding which comes from the alchemists--not the true alchemists, the Masters--but the alchemists who don't know what they're talking about. They never even understood these things that have now become very elementary in our grasp of what a chart means. And the chart means that, just like at the highest level you have the willing, feeling and knowing OF the Ideas in the Nous, at the lowest level you also have it, too. So this is the active and passive aspect, the Yin and the Yang, which after awhile you learn to combine properly.

RC: In the process of refining that particular quote, he really wanted to stress the insideness of it, the underlying inside, the things are brought together inside the person. And originally we were talking about the wisdom and compassion, but then he took compassion out and put REVERENCE in, again to stress the fact that it was INSIDE the person. (Q: see original rv/76/1 and rv/77/1 to see how PB himself had edited these paras.)

TL: I'm delighted to know that.

AD: Well, we've been talking about it for a long time.

TL: I'm glad--

THE SAGE'S EYES RESEMBLE BABY'S EYES--NO THOUGHT; SYMBOLISM OF FISH'S EYES

AD: Excuse us. Well, look, I don't want to come back as a fox. Let's continue.

But Randy, I'd like to ask you one question, or maybe I should ask the mothers here. When you look at a baby, what do you see in the baby's eyes? Could you see the soul?

St: Yes.

AD: You see an angel.

St's: Beautiful, purity, sweet.

AD: Why sweet and pure?

EM: No ego!

AD: More, more. Tell me more.

LDm: No thought.

AD: There isn't one blank, stinking thought behind them.

CdA: How does that (inaudible)?

AD: I was talking about how the Chinese refer to the sage's eyes like fish eye's--I'm sorry, baby's eyes. (laugher) Did you ever hear of the symbolism of fish's eyes? You know, the fish has an eye here and an eye here; evidently he can't see the way we do.

LG: That wasn't the point.

AD: What, that wasn't the point? What was the point?

LG: Well, the point was their eyes are open all the time, they don't close their eyes.

AD: The fishes.

LG: That's the point of the fish story. (laughter)

AD: Well, if you had one eye here and one eye here, what kind of vision would you have? It would be double vision, wouldn't it?

LG: I know but--

AD: Wouldn't it be double vision?

LG: I don't understand that to be the point of the fish story. (laughter)

AD: Well, we'd get off on fishes' eyes, but let's go back to baby's eyes. If you look at a baby, and we're talking about a baby, newborn or a few days old, and he looks at you, there isn't one cotton-pickin' thought in his mind.

LG: So what's there?

AD: That's for you to figure out for us. That's why they compare them to a sage's eyes. What's there when you look behind a sage's eyes? There's nothing there. He hasn't got one thought in his mind.

LG?: Something's there.

AD: Yes, but it's not a thought. Never mind. Randy? (pause)

The symbolism of the fish's eyes and the baby's eyes is very common in most all traditional literature concerning the sage. They don't see like you and I see. And they don't have any thoughts because their eyes are seeing. And the rest follows. Alright, let's have a few more.

EM: Is the double vision the seeing of the higher and the lower at the same time? Something like that?

AD: What do you mean?

EM: That there's always that seeing of the Overself--or whatever, maybe higher than that--as well as the seeing at the worldly level?

AD: Yes, but for us, when we say, "I see a chair," there's all sorts of associations with it. Even the concept necessarily follows the precept (Q: sic) for us. This would not be so for them. There would be a seeing, but there would be no conceptual reconstruction of the seeing. The same like a child, there's no conceptual construction of what's there. Let's have some more.

MORE PB PARAS ON THE SAGE

PB: "The sage may invite co-operation in this work . . ." (Q: para not finished) (20.4.245)

AD: The one you were talking about before. I'd like to go over that, the one about the external world--oh, never mind, keep reading.

TS: On the--

AD: I'm sure it'll come up again. The point will come up again. Go ahead.

PB: "The sage is quite competent to dwell alone in his tower of solitude." (12v/68/22, unpublished)

PB: "Do such men of realization live among us today? Once I thought so, but now I must honestly confess that I have no proof of the existence of even a single one. Perfect men must have existed in antique times, if the accounts which have descended to us are correct; they may even exist today, but in the course of my world wanderings I could not find them. I found remarkable men, who were perfect enough in their own line, but the broad mantle of realization did not seem to fit their shoulders. I have resigned myself, however, to the acceptance of the probability that the race of realized sages is extinct today." (25.3.376)

PB: "The world play is but an illusion of the mind, but the integral vision of the sage enables him to act his part perfectly in the very heart of the world's tumult. The knowledge that all action is ultimately illusory does not prevent him being dynamically active. Supreme calm and silence reigns in his centre, but his harmony with Nature is such that he joins the world-movement spontaneously." (25.4.50)

PB: "Professor Radhakumud Mookerji of the University of Lucknow, who has achieved a distinguished reputation for his laborious researches into ancient Indian history, once told me that his investigations of old Pali records proved that Gautama the Buddha was the most widely travelled man of his time, his wanderings being solely devoted to spreading truth and doing good to others." (15.2.292)

PB: "The practical difference between a fool and a philosopher is that the first is always impatient with the second, whereas the second is always patient with the first." (20.5.90)

(laughter)

PB: "Those who penetrate into the holy of holies bless the world when they bring forth the treasures they find therein. What they achieve and accomplish mentally in the period of meditation, they will later express automatically in action during the days that follow. Theirs is the balanced life which is true sanity, so lacking in modern existence." (25.4.69)

PB: "The adept who is an adept in truth and not merely in yoga can and will prove to be a thoroughly practical man of the world. I have some friends who, while not being so far advanced as such adeptship, have nevertheless progressed to some degree on its path, and in every case they occupy positions requiring expert administrative capacity in business or professional worlds, and they possess adequate knowledge and ability to deal with concrete problems of life and affairs." (20.1.266)

PB: "If the sage has to reincarnate perpetually because of his sympathy for the suffering world, if he cannot get freedom from this suffering cycle of rebirth, what is the use of the Quest and its labours? Reply: True, he can't get outer freedom, but he does get inner freedom, of mind and heart." (25.4.47)

AD: You see there again he points out how we're all indissolubly bound up with the World-Idea and will evolve with that World-Idea.

RC: Well, he does have a line in the Wisdom where he says that the Overself is not free of collective karma and in accepting this fact you will find peace.

PB: "He finds that, by the strange magic of telepathy, he can pass on to certain other minds something of the lustrous beatitude which pervades his own heart." (25.5.270)

PB: "Such is the power of his noble presence that he does not need to tell us what is his spiritual stature." (12v/66/4, unpublished)

PB: "He is not working for this generation, nor for this country, nor for any millenium, but for an infinite duration of time. Therefore he is, he must be, infinitely patient." (25.3.256)

PB: "Our ideal is not the yogi who has secured his own nirvanic satisfaction; it is not the man who is so wrapped up in his own peace as to be indifferent to the woes of others. It is the sage who is ready to sacrifice his own leisure in order to assist others, enlighten others, assuage the sorrows of others." (20.4.208)

PB: "Why are they so few, these sages, these serene and urbane self-realized ones? Nature works very hard and only attains her aim once in a multitude of throws. In mankind she may well be contented if she creates one sage in a hundred million people." (25.3.39)

RC: There are a few more in this section and then that's the end of them. Should we finish tonight?

PB: "There are certain signs whereby the nature of insight characterizes itself in its possessor's relations with his fellows. Foremost among these are understanding and sympathy, a reverent regard for the sanctity and needs of another's personal life. A man of insight will never utter recriminatory words; he will be slow in judgement and swift to bless." (20.4.200)

PB: "Not only will he find his own truest welfare but he will become the kindly agent of a beneficent power." (12v/126/444, unpublished)

(St/BS/RC/BS/RC/BS/RC = 3 min.)

PB: "If they cannot make any inner contact with one another, the fault is not the philosopher's but the crowd's. He is ever ready to give every man he meets a mental handshake, ever ready to accept all people for what they are. Moreover, he is inwardly laid by his higher self under obligation to benefit mankind by what he knows and is." (20.5.92)

PB: "Because the philosopher has freed himself from the intense attachment to personality which is so common, he feels no desire to impose his beliefs, ways, views, or practices on other people. And this remains just as true in political matters as in religious ones." (20.2.288)

(NH/RC/NH/= 2 min.)

RC: . . . In looking through most of these today that I had originally put under "the fulfillment of philosophy in man," I realized that he's talking about SAGES.

PB: "He takes people just as he finds them and events just as they happen. He does not outwardly express any desire for them to be different from what they are. There are at least two reasons for this attitude. First, he knows that the divine thought of the universe contains the idea of evolution. So he believes that however bad people may be, one day they will be better; however untoward circumstances may be, divine wisdom has brought them about. Second, he knows that if he is to keep an unruffled peace inside him, he must allow nothing outside him to disturb it. Because he regards the outer life as being as ephemeral as a dream, he is reconciled to everything, rebellious against nothing." (20.5.115)

PB: "It would be a great misconception to believe that this peace which he has found in his inner life is bought at the cost of a selfish indifference towards everyone and everything in his outer life. The contrary is the very truth. He attains the wisdom and obtains the power to do more real good for humanity than those who are still walking in darkness and weakness. If he is a philosopher, he will assuredly point out the way for others to light and strength, and may even sacrifice his rebirth on a higher planet to this purpose. He becomes a link between suffering humanity and serene divinity." (reread) (20.4.221)

PB: "He who has found his genuine self does not need to pose for the benefit of gushing disciples. He obtains the deepest satisfaction merely from being himself. What others may say about him in praise cannot bring him anything like the pleasure which his own higher consciousness brings him." (25.3.163)

(Side 1 of original cassette tape digitized as 1982 1215b Ends; Side 2 Begins)

PB: "The philosopher accepts his predestined isolation not only because that is the way his position has to be, but also because his physical presence arouses negative feelings in the hearts of ordinary people as it arouses positive ones in the hearts of certain seekers. The negatives may range all the way from puzzlement, bewilderment, and suspicion to fear, opposition, and downright enmity. The positives may range from instinctive attraction to a readiness to lay down life in his defense or service. All these feelings arise instantly, irrationally, and instinctively. And they are unconnected with whether or not he reveals his true personal identity. This is because they are the consequence of a psychical impingement of his aura upon theirs. The contact is unseen and unapparent in the physical world, but it is very real in the mental-emotional world. It is truly a psychical experience for both: clear and precise and correctly understood by him, vague and disturbing and utterly misunderstood by ordinary people as well as pseudo-questers. It is both a psychical and a mystical experience for those genuine questers with whom he has some inward affinity, a glad recognition of a long-lost, much revered Elder Brother. Unfortunately, despite the generous compassion and enormous goodwill which he bears in his heart for all alike, it is the unpleasant contacts which make up the larger number whenever the philosopher descends into the world. Let him not be blamed if he prefers solitude to society. For there is nothing he can do about it. People are what they are. Most times when he tries to make himself agreeable to them, as though they both belonged to the same spiritual level, he fails. He learns somewhat wearily to accept his isolation and their limitation as inevitable and, at the present stage of human evolution, unalterable. He learns, too, that it is futile to desire these things to be otherwise." (20.5.151 & Persp. p. 280) (reread)

(silence)

(Student discussion on PB and people's negativity = 4 min.)

AD: What's the next category you'd like to do, Randy?

RC: What would I like to do? . . . I'd like to do some of the stuff on emotions and ethics--the quote you read (Q: at the beginning of the class) came out of that section. [Note: Now in Category 11, "The Negatives".] When I worked on that it was the most brutal stuff I've run into.

AD: Well, then let's work on it! (laughter)

RC: The reason I'd like to work on it when we've gotten a certain sense about the ego, and we've gotten a certain sense about the sages, to go on now and read about the Overself and glimpses at this point would be to get sugared out--

AD: I agree with you, Randy, let's go back to the Buddhist stuff. Sixth category? What was that?

RC: Yes it's six. It's probably 85% of "Emotions and Ethics," and, tippin' a hat to anybody that can read it all the way through.

AD: The sixth.

RC: We could switch . . .

AD: Oh, no. Finish it. Do the sixth category and go all the way through. Go right through it.

[Audio File 1982 1215b Ends]