The Theosophical Society,
The Writings of Alfred Percy Sinnett
Alfred
Percy Sinnett
1840
-1921
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Esoteric Buddhism
Chapter 1
Esoteric Teachers
THE information contained in the following pages is no collection
of inferences deduced from study. I am bringing to my readers knowledge which I
have obtained by favour rather than by effort. It
will not be found the less valuable on that account; I venture, on the
contrary, to declare that it will be found of incalculably greater value,
easily as I have obtained it, than any results in a similar direction which I
could possibly have procured by ordinary methods of research, even had I
possessed, in the highest degree, that which I make no claim to possess at all
- Oriental scholarship.
Every one who has been concerned with Indian literature, and still
more, any one who in India has taken interest in talking with cultivated
Natives on philosophical subjects will be aware of a general conviction
existing in the East that there are men living who know a great deal more about
philosophy in the highest acceptation of the word - the science, the true
knowledge of spiritual things, - than can be found recorded in any books. In
With quite as much antipathy at starting as any one could have
entertained to the old Oriental policy in regard to knowledge, I came, nevertheless,
to perceive that the old Oriental knowledge itself was a very real and
important possession. It may be excusable to regard the high grapes as sour so
long as they are quite out of reach, but it would be foolish to persist in that
opinion if a tall friend hands down a bunch and one finds them sweet.
For reasons that will appear as the present explanations proceed,
the very considerable block of hitherto secret teaching this volume contains,
has been conveyed to me, not only without conditions of the usual kind, but to
the express end that I might convey it in my turn to the world at large.
Without the light of hitherto secret Oriental knowledge, it is
impossible by any study of its published literature - English or Sanskrit - for
students of even the most scholarly qualifications, to reach a comprehension of
the inner doctrines and real meaning of any Oriental religion. This assertion
conveys no reproach to the sympathetic, learned, and industrious writers of
great ability who have studied Oriental religions generally, and Buddhism
especially, in their external aspects. Buddhism, above all, is a religion which
has enjoyed a dual existence from the very beginning of its introduction to the
world. The real inner meaning of its doctrines has been kept back from
uninitiated students, while the outer teachings have merely presented the
multitude with a code of moral lessons and a veiled, symbolical literature,
hinting at the existence of knowledge in the background.
This secret knowledge, in reality, long antedated the passage
through earth-life of Gautama Buddha. Brahmin
philosophy, in ages before Buddha, embodied the identical doctrine which may
now be described as Esoteric Buddhism. Its outlines had indeed been blurred;
its scientific form partially confused; but the general body of knowledge was
already in possession of a select few before Buddha came to deal with it.
Buddha, however, undertook the task of revising and refreshing the esoteric
science of the inner circle of initiates, as well as the morality of the outer
world. The circumstances under which this work was done, have
been wholly misunderstood, nor would a straightforward explanation
thereof be intelligible without explanations, which must first be furnished by
a survey of the esoteric science itself.
From Buddha’s time till now the esoteric science referred to has been jealously guarded as a precious heritage belonging
exclusively to regularly initiated members of mysteriously organized
associations. These, so far as Buddhism is concerned, are the Arahats, or more properly Arhats,
referred to in Buddhist literature. They are the initiates who tread the
“fourth path of holiness,” spoken of in esoteric Buddhist writings. Mr Rhys Davids, referring to a
multiplicity of original texts and Sanskrit authorities, says - “One might fill
pages with the awe-struck and ecstatic praise which is lavished in Buddhist
writings on this condition of mind, the fruit of the fourth path, the state of
an Arahat, of a man made perfect according to the
Buddhist faith.” And then making a series of running quotations from Sanskrit
authorities, he says - “To him who has finished the path and passed beyond
sorrow, who has freed himself on all sides, thrown away every fetter, there is
no more fever or grief....For such there are no more births....they are in the
enjoyment of Nirvana. Their old karma is exhausted, no new karma is being
produced; their hearts are free from the longing after future life, and no new
yearnings springing up within them, they, the wise are extinguished like a
lamp.” These passages, and all like them, convey to European readers, at all
events, an entirely false idea as to what sort of person an Arhat
really is, as to the life he leads while on earth, and what he anticipates
later on. But the elucidation of such points may be postponed for the moment.
Some further passages from exoteric treatises may first be selected to show
what an Arhat is generally supposed to be.
Mr Rhys Davids, speaking of Jhana and Samadhi - the belief that it was
possible by intense self-absorption to attain supernatural faculties and powers
- goes on to say - “So far as I am aware, no instance is recorded of any one,
not either a member of the order, or a Brahmin ascetic, acquiring these powers.
A Buddha always possessed them; whether Arahats as
such, could work the particular miracles in question,
and whether of mendicants, only Arahats or only Asekhas could do so, is at present not clear.” Very little
in the sources of information on the subject that have hitherto been explored
will be found clear. But I am now merely endeavouring
to show that Buddhist literature teems with allusions to the greatness and
powers of the Arhats. For more intimate knowledge
concerning them, special circumstances must furnish us with the required
explanations.
Mr Arthur Lillie, in “Buddha and Early Buddhism,” tells us -
“Six supernatural faculties were expected of the ascetic before he could claim
the grade of Arhat. They are constantly alluded to in
the Sutras as the six supernatural faculties, usually without further
specification . . . .Man has a body composed of the
four elements . . . . in this transitory body his
intelligence is enchained, the ascetic finding himself thus confused, directs
his mind to the creation of the Manas. He
represents to himself, in thought, another body created from this material body
- a body with a form, members, and organs. This body, in relation to the
material body, is like the sword and the scabbard; or a serpent issuing from a
basket in which it is confined. The ascetic then, purified and perfected,
begins to practise supernatural faculties. He finds
himself able to pass through material obstacles, walls, ramparts &c; he is
able to throw his phantasmal appearance into many places at once . . . . he can leave this world and even reach the heaven of Brahma
himself . . . . He acquires the power of hearing the sounds of the unseen world
as distinctly as those of the phenomenal world - more distinctly in point of
fact. Also by the power of Manas he is able to
read the most secret thoughts of others, and to tell their characters.” And so
on with illustrations. Mr Lillie has not quite
accurately divined the nature of the truth lying behind this popular version of
the facts; but it is hardly necessary to quote more to show that the powers of
the Arhats and their insight into spiritual things
are respected by the world of Buddhism most profoundly, even though the Arhats themselves have been singularly indisposed to favour the world with autobiographies or scientific
accounts of “the six supernatural powers.”
A few sentences from Mr. Hoey’s recent
translation of Dr Oldenberg’s “Budda:
his Life, his Doctrine, his Order,” may fall conveniently into this place, and
then we may pass on. We read: - “Buddhist proverbial philosophy attributes in
innumerable passages the possession of Nirvana to the saint who still
treads the earth: ‘The disciple who has put off lust and desire, rich in
wisdom, has here on earth attained deliverance from death, the rest, the
Nirvana, the eternal state. He who has escaped from the trackless hard mazes of
the Sansara, who has crossed over and reached the
shore, self-absorbed, without stumbling and without doubt, who has delivered
himself from the earthly and attained Nirvana, him I call a true Brahmin.’ If
the saint will even now put an end to his state of being he can do so, but the
majority stand fast until Nature has reached her goal; of such may those words
be said which are put in the mouth of the most prominent of Buddha’s disciples,
‘I long not for death; I long not for life; I wait till mine hour come, like a
servant who awaiteth his reward.’ “
A multiplication of such quotations would merely involve the
repetition in various forms of exoteric conceptions concerning the Arhats. Like every fact or thought in Buddhism, the Arhat has two aspects, that in which he is presented to the
world at large, and that in which he lives, moves, and has his being. In the
popular estimation he is a saint waiting for a spiritual reward of the kind the
populace can understand - a wonder-worker meanwhile by favour
of supernatural agencies. In reality he is the long-tried and proved-worthy
custodian of the deepest and innermost philosophy of the one fundamental
religion which Buddha refreshed and restored, and a student of natural science
standing in the very foremost front of human knowledge, in regard not merely to
the mysteries of spirit, but to the material constitution of the world as well.
Arhat is a Buddhist designation. That which is more familiar in
In reality, the Arhats and the Mahatmas
are the same men. At that level of spiritual exaltation, supreme knowledge of
the esoteric doctrine blends all original sectarian distinctions. By whatever
name such illuminati may be called, they are the adepts of occult
knowledge, sometimes spoken of in
We may search both ancient and modern literature in vain, however,
for any systematic explanation of their doctrine or science. A good deal of
this is dimly set forth in occult writing; but very little of this is of the
least use to readers who take up the subject without previous knowledge
acquired independently of books. It is under favour
of direct instruction from one of their number that I am now enabled to attempt
an outline of the Mahatmas’ teaching, and it is in the same way that I have
picked up what I know concerning the organization to which most of them, and
the greatest, in the present day belong.
All over the world there are occultists of various degrees of
eminence, and occult fraternities even, which have a great deal in common with
the leading fraternity now established in
Descending lower again in the scale, we find India dotted all over
with Yogis and Fakirs, in all stages of self-development, from that of dirty
savages, but little elevated above the gipsy fortune-tellers of an English
racecourse, to men whose seclusion a stranger will find it very difficult to
penetrate, and whose abnormal faculties and powers need only be seen or
experienced to shatter the incredulity of the most contented representative of
modern Western scepticism. Careless inquirers are
very apt to confound such persons with the great adepts of whom they may
vaguely hear.
Concerning the real adepts, meanwhile, I cannot at present venture
on any account of what the Tibetan organization is like, as regards its highest
ruling authorities. Those Mahatmas themselves, of whom some more or less
adequate conception may, perhaps, be formed by readers who will follow me
patiently to the end, are subordinate by several degrees to the chief of all.
Let us deal rather with the earlier conditions of occult training, which can
more easily be grasped.
The level of elevation which constitutes a man - what the outer world
calls a Mahatma or “Brother” - is only attained after prolonged and weary
probation, and anxious ordeals of really terrible severity. One may find people
who have spent twenty or thirty years or more, in blameless and arduous
devotion to the life-task on which they have entered, and are still in the
earlier degrees of chelaship, still looking up to the
heights of adeptship as far above their heads. And at
whatever age a boy or man dedicates himself to the occult career, he dedicates
himself to it, be it remembered, without any reservations and for life. The
task he undertakes is the development in himself of a
great many faculties and attributes which are so utterly dormant in ordinary
mankind, that their very existence is unsuspected - the possibility of their
development denied. And these faculties and attributes must be developed by the
chela himself, with very little, if any, help, beyond
guidance and direction from his master. “The adept.” says an occult aphorism,
“becomes: he is not made.” One may illustrate this point by reference to a very
common-place physical exercise. Every man living, having the ordinary use of
his limbs, is qualified to swim. But put those who, as
the common phrase goes, cannot swim, into deep water, and they will struggle and
be drowned. The mere way to move the limbs is no mystery; but unless the
swimmer in moving them has a full belief that such movement will produce the
required result, the required result is not produced. In this case, we are
dealing with mechanical forces merely, but the same principle runs up into
dealings with subtler forces. Very much further than people generally imagine
will mere “confidence” carry the occult neophyte. How many European readers,
who would be quite incredulous if told of some results which occult chelas in
the most incipient stages of their training have to accomplish by sheer force
of confidence, hear constantly in church nevertheless, the familiar Biblical
assurances of the power which resides in faith, and let the words pass by like
the wind, leaving no impression.
The great end and purpose of adeptship
is the achievement of spiritual development, the nature of which is only veiled
and disguised by the common phrases of exoteric language. That the adept seeks
to unite his soul with God, that he may thereby pass into Nirvana, is a
statement that conveys no definite meaning to the ordinary reader, and the more
he examines it with the help of ordinary books and methods, the less likely
will he be to realize the nature of the process contemplated, or of the
condition desired. It will be necessary to deal first with the esoteric
conception of Nature, and the origin and destinies of
Man, which differ widely from theological conceptions, before an explanation of
the aim which the adept pursues can become intelligible. Meanwhile, however, it
is desirable, at the very outset, to disabuse the reader of one misconception
in regard to the objects of adeptship that he may
very likely have framed.
The development of those spiritual faculties, whose culture has to
do with the highest objects of the occult life, gives rise, as it progresses,
to a great deal of incidental knowledge, having to do with the physical laws of
Nature not yet generally understood. This knowledge, and the practical art of manipulating
certain obscure forces of Nature, which it brings in its train, invest an
adept, and even an adept’s pupils, at a comparatively early stage of their
education, with very extraordinary powers, the application of which to matters
of daily life will sometimes produce results that seem altogether miraculous;
and, from the ordinary point of view, the acquisition of apparently miraculous
power is such a stupendous achievement, that people are sometimes apt to fancy
that the adept’s object in seeking the knowledge he attains has been to invest
himself with these coveted powers. It would be as reasonable to say of any
great patriot of military history that his object in becoming a soldier had
been to wear a gay uniform and impress the imagination of the nursemaids.
The Oriental method of cultivating knowledge has always differed
diametrically from that pursued in the West during the growth of modern
science. Whilst
In a former book, “The Occult World” I have given a full and
straightforward narrative of the circumstances under which I came in contact
with the gifted and deeply instructed men from whom I have since obtained the
teaching this volume contains. I need not repeat the story. I now come forward
prepared to deal with the subject in a new way. The existence of occult adepts,
and the importance of their acquirements, may be established along two
different lines of argument: firstly, by means of external evidence, - the
testimony of qualified witnesses, the manifestation by or through persons
connected with adepts, of abnormal faculties affording more than a presumption
of abnormally enlarged knowledge; secondly, by the presentation of such a
considerable portion of this knowledge as may convey intrinsic assurances of
its own value. My first book proceeded by the former method; I now approach the
more formidable task of working on the latter.
Annotations
The further we advance in occult study, the more exalted in many
ways become our conceptions of the Mahatmas. The complete comprehension of the
manner in which these persons become differentiated from human kind at large,
is not to be achieved by the help of mere intellectual effort. These are
aspects of the adept nature which have to do with the extraordinary development
of the higher principles in man, which cannot be realized by the application of
the lower. But while crude conceptions in the beginning thus fall very short of
reaching the real level of the facts, a curious complication of the problem
arises in this way. Our first idea of an adept who has
achieved the power of penetrating the tremendous secrets of spiritual nature,
is modelled on our conception of a very highly gifted
man of science on our own plane. We are apt to think of him as once an adept
always an adept, - as a very exalted human being, who must necessarily bring
into play in all the relations of his life the attributes that attach to him as
a Mahatma. In this way while - as above pointed out - we shall certainly fail,
do all we can, to do justice in our thoughts to his attributes as a Mahatma, we
may very easily run to the opposite extreme in our thinking about him in his
ordinary human aspect, and thus land ourselves in many perplexities, as we
acquire a partial familiarity with the characteristics of the occult world. It
is just because the highest attributes of adeptship
have to do with principles in human nature which quite transcend the limits of
physical existence, that the adept or Mahatma can only be such in the highest
acceptation of the word, when he is, as the phrase goes, “out of the body,” or
at all events thrown by special efforts of his will into an abnormal condition.
When he is not called upon to make such efforts or to pass entirely beyond the
limitations of this fleshly prison, he is much more like an ordinary man than experience
of him in some of his aspects would lead his disciples to believe.
A correct appreciation of this state of things explains the
apparent contradiction involved in the position of the occult pupil towards his
masters, as compared with some of the declarations that the master himself will
frequently put forward. For example, the Mahatmas are persistent in asserting
that they are not infallible, that they are men, like the rest of us, perhaps
with a somewhat more enlarged comprehension of nature than the generality of
mankind, but still liable to err both in the direction of practical business
with which they may be concerned, and in their estimate of the characters of
other men, or the capacity of candidates for occult development. But how are we
to reconcile statements of this nature with the fundamental principle at the
bottom of all occult research which enjoins the neophyte to put his trust in
the teaching and guidance of his master absolutely and without reserve? The
solution of the difficulty is found in the state of things above referred to.
While the adept may be a man quite surprisingly liable to err sometimes in the
manipulation of worldly business, just as with ourselves some of the greatest
men of genius are liable to make mistakes in their daily life that
matter-of-fact people would never commit, on the other hand, directly a Mahatma
comes to deal with the higher mysteries of spiritual science, he does so by
virtue of the exercise of his Mahatma-attributes, and in dealing with these can
hardly be recognized as liable to err.
This consideration enables us to feel that the trustworthiness of
the teachings derived from such a source as those which have inspired the
present volume, is altogether above the reach of small incidents which in the progress
of our experience may seem to claim a revision of that enthusiastic confidence
in the supreme wisdom of the adepts which the first approaches to occult study
will generally evoke.
Not that such enthusiasm or reverence will really be diminished
on the part of any occult chela as his comprehension
of the world he is entering expands. The man who in one of his aspects is a
Mahatma, may rather be brought within the limits of affectionate human regard,
than deprived of his claims to reverence, by the consideration that in his
ordinary life he is not so utterly lifted above the common-place run of human
feeling as some of his Nirvanic experiences might
lead us to believe that he would be.
If we keep constantly in mind that an adept is only truly an adept
when exercising adept functions but that when exercising adept functions, but
that when exercising these he may soar into spiritual rapport with that
which is, in regard at all events to the limitations of our solar system, all
that we practically mean by omniscience, we shall then be guarded from many of
the mistakes that the embarrassments of the subject might create.
Intricacies concerning the nature of the adept may be noticed
here, which will hardly be quite intelligible without reference to some later
chapters of this book, but which have so important a bearing on all attempts to
understand what adeptship is really like that it may
be convenient to deal with them at once. The dual nature of the Mahatma is so
complete that some of his influence or wisdom on the higher planes of nature
may actually be drawn upon by those in peculiar psychic relations with him,
without the Mahatma-man being at the moment even conscious that such an appeal
has been made to him. In this way it becomes open to us to speculate on the
possibility that the relation between the spiritual Mahatma and the Mahatma-man
may sometimes be rather in the nature of what is sometimes spoken of in
esoteric writing as an overshadowing than as an incarnation in the complete
sense of the word.
Furthermore as another independent complication of the matter we
reach this fact, that each Mahatma is not merely a human ego in a very exalted
state, but belongs, so to speak, to some specific department in the great
economy of nature. Every adept must belong to one or other of seven great types
of adeptship, but although we may almost certainly
infer that correspondences might be traced between these various types and the
seven principles of man, I should shrink myself from attempting a complete
elucidation of this hypothesis. It will be enough to apply the idea to what we
know vaguely of the occult organization in its higher regions. For some time
past it has been affirmed in esoteric writing that there are five great Chohans
or superior Mahatmas presiding over the whole body of the adept fraternity.
When the foregoing chapter of this book was written, I was under the impression
that one supreme chief on a different level again exercised authority over
these five Chohans, but it now appears to me that this personage may rather be
regarded as a sixth Chohan, himself the head of the
sixth type of Mahatmas, and this conjecture leads at once to the further
inference that there must be a seventh Chohan to
complete the correspondences which we thus discern. But just as the seventh
principle in nature or in man is a conception of the most intangible order
eluding the grasp of any intellectual thinking, and only describable in shadowy
phrases of metaphysical non-significance, so we may be quite sure that the seventh
Chohan is very unapproachable by untrained
imaginations. But even he no doubt plays a part in what may be called the
higher economy of spiritual nature, and that there is such a personage visible
occasionally to some of the other Mahatmas I take to be the case. But
speculation concerning him is valuable chiefly as helping to give consistency
to the idea above thrown out, according to which the Mahatmas may be
comprehended in their true aspect as necessary phenomena of nature without whom
the evolution of humanity could hardly be imagined as advancing, not as merely
the exceptional men who have attained great spiritual exaltation.
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