The Theosophical Society,
The Writings of Alfred Percy Sinnett
Alfred
Percy Sinnett
1840
-1921
Return to
Esoteric Buddhism Index
Esoteric Buddhism
Preface to the Original Edition
THE teachings embodied in the present volume let in a flood of
light on questions connected with Buddhist doctrine which have deeply perplexed
previous writers on the religion, and offer the world for the first time a
practical clue to the meaning of almost all ancient religious symbolism. More
than this, the esoteric doctrine, when properly understood, will be found to
advance an overpowering claim on the attention of earnest thinkers. Its tenets
are not presented to us as the invention of any founder or prophet. Its
testimony is based on no written scriptures. Its views of Nature have been
evolved by the researches of an immense succession of investigators, qualified
for their task by the possession of spiritual faculties and perceptions of a
higher order than those belonging to ordinary humanity. In the course of ages
the block of knowledge thus accumulated, concerning the origin of the world and
of man and the ultimate destinies of our race - concerning also the nature of
other worlds and states of existence differing from those of our present life -
checked and examined at every point, verified in all directions, and constantly
under examination throughout, has come to be looked on by its custodians as
constituting the absolute truth concerning spiritual things, the actual state
of the facts regarding vast regions of vital activity lying beyond this earthly
existence.
European philosophy, whether concerned with religion or pure
metaphysics, has so long been used to a sense of insecurity in speculations
outrunning the limits of physical experiment, that absolute truth about
spiritual things is hardly recognized any longer by prudent thinkers as a
reasonable object of pursuit; but different habits of thought have been
acquired in Asia. The secret doctrine which, to a considerable extent, I am now
enabled to expound, is regarded not only by all its adherents, but by vast
numbers who have never expected to know more of it than that such a doctrine
exists, as a mine of entirely trustworthy knowledge from which all religions
and philosophies have derived whatever they possess of truth, and with which
every religion must coincide if it claims to be a mode of expression for truth.
This is a bold claim indeed, but I venture to announce the
following exposition as one of immense importance to the world, because I
believe that claim can be substantiated.
I do not say that within the compass of this volume the
authenticity of the esoteric doctrine can be proved. Such proof cannot be given
by any process of argument; only through the development in each inquirer for himself of the faculties required for the direct observation
of Nature along the lines indicated. But his prima facie conclusion may
be determined by the extent to which the views of Nature about to be unfolded,
may recommend themselves to his mind, and by the reasons which exist for
trusting the powers of observation of those by whom they are communicated.
Will it be supposed that the very magnitude of the claim now made
on behalf of the esoteric doctrine, lifts the present statement out of the region
of inquiry to which its title refers - inquiry as to the real inner meaning of
the definite and specific religion called Buddhism? The fact is, however, that
esoteric Buddhism, though by no means divorced from the associations of
exoteric Buddhism, must not be conceived to constitute a mere imperium in imperio
- a central school of culture in the vortex of the Buddhist world. In
proportion as Buddhism retreats into the inner penetralia
of its faith, these are found to merge into the inner penetralia
of other faiths. The cosmic conceptions, and the knowledge of Nature on which
Buddhism not merely rests, but which constitute esoteric Buddhism, equally
constitute esoteric Brahmanism. And the esoteric doctrine is thus regarded by
those of all creeds who are “enlightened” (in the Buddhist sense) as the
absolute truth concerning Nature, Man, the origin of the Universe, and the
destinies toward which its inhabitants are tending. At the same time, exoteric
Buddhism has remained in closer union with the esoteric doctrine than any other
popular religion. An exposition of the inner knowledge, addressed to English
readers in the present day, will thus associate itself irresistibly with
familiar outlines of Buddhist teaching. It will certainly impart to these a living
meaning they generally seem to be without, but all the more on this account may
the esoteric doctrine be most conveniently studied in its Buddhist aspect: one,
moreover, which has been so strongly impressed upon it since the time of Gautama Buddha that though the essence of the doctrine
dates back to a far more remote antiquity, the Buddhist colouring
has now permeated its whole substance. That which I am about to put before the
reader is esoteric Buddhism, and for European students approaching it for
the first time, any other designation would be a misnomer.
The statement I have to make must be considered in its entirety
before the reader will be able to comprehend why initiates in the esoteric
doctrine regard the concession involved in the present disclosures of the
general outlines of this doctrine as one of startling magnitude. One
explanation of this feeling, however, may be readily seen to spring from the
extreme sacredness that has always been attached by their ancient guardians to
the inner vital truths of Nature. Hitherto this sacredness has always
prescribed their absolute concealment from the profane herd. And so far as that
policy of concealment, - the tradition of countless ages, - is now being given
up, the new departure which the appearance of this volume signalizes will be
contemplated with surprise and regret by a great many initiated disciples. The
surrender to criticism which may sometimes perhaps be clumsy and irreverent, of
doctrines which have hitherto been regarded by such persons as too majestic in
their import to be talked of at all except under circumstances of befitting
solemnity, will seem to them a terrible profanation of the great mysteries.
From the European point of view it would be unreasonable to expect that such a
book as this can be exempt from the usual rough-and-tumble treatment of new
ideas. And special convictions or common-place bigotry may sometimes render
such treatment in the present case peculiarly inimical. But all that, though a
matter of course to European exponents of the doctrine like myself, will seem
very grievous and disgusting to its earlier and more regular representatives.
They will appeal sadly to the wisdom of the time-honoured
rule which, in the old symbolical way, forbade the initiates from casting
pearls before swine.
Happily, as I think, the rule has not been allowed to operate any
longer to the prejudice of those who, while still far from being initiated, in
the occult sense of the term, will probably have become, by sheer force of
modern culture, qualified to appreciate the concession.
Part of the information contained in the following pages was first
thrown out in a fragmentary form in the Theosophist, a monthly magazine,
published at Madras, by the leaders of the Theosophical Society. As almost all
the articles referred to have been my own writing, I have not hesitated to weld
parts of them, when this course has been convenient, into the present volume. A
certain advantage is gained by thus showing how the separate pieces of the
mosaic as first presented to public notice, drop
naturally into their places in the (comparatively) finished pavement.
The doctrine or system now disclosed in its broad outlines has
been so jealously guarded hitherto, that no mere literary researches, though
they might have curry-combed all
As for the circumstances under which these revelations were first
foreshadowed in the Theosophist, and are now rounded off and expanded as
my readers will perceive, it is enough for the moment to say, that the
Theosophical Society, through my connection with which the materials dealt with
in this volume have come into my hands, owes its establishment to certain
persons who are among the custodians of esoteric science. The information
poured out at last for the benefit of all who are ripe to receive it, has been
destined for communication to the world through the Theosophical Society since
the foundation of that body, and later circumstances only have indicated myself as the agent through whom the communication could be
conveniently made.
Let me add, that I do not regard myself as the sole exponent for
the outer world, at this crisis, of esoteric truth. These teachings are the
outcome, as regards philosophical knowledge, of the relations with the outer
world which have been established by the custodians of esoteric truth through
me. And it is only regarding the acts and intentions of those esoteric
teachers who have chosen to work through me, that I can have any certain
knowledge. But, in different ways, some other writers seem to be engaged in
expounding for the benefit of the world - and, as I believe, in accordance with
a great plan, of which this volume is a part - the same truths, in different
aspects, that I am commissioned to unfold. Probably the great activity at
present of literary speculation dealing with problems that overstep the range
of physical knowledge, may also be in some way provoked by that policy, on the
part of the great custodians of esoteric truth, of which my own book is
certainly one manifestation. Again, the ardour now
shown in “Psychical Research,” by the very distinguished, highly gifted, and
cultivated men, who lead the society in London devoted to that object, is, to
my inner convictions - knowing as I do something of the way the spiritual
aspirations of the world are silently influenced by those whose work lies in
that department of Nature - the obvious fruit of efforts, parallel to those
with which I am more immediately concerned.
It only remains for me to disclaim, on behalf of the treatise
which ensues, any pretension to high finish as regards the language in which it
is cast. Longer familiarity with the vast and complicated scheme of cosmogony
disclosed, will no doubt suggest improvements in the phraseology employed to
expound it. Two years ago, neither I, nor any other European living, knew the
alphabet of the science here for the first time put into a scientific shape -
or subject at all events to an attempt in that direction - the science of
Spiritual Causes and their Effects, of Super-physical Consciousness, of Cosmical Evolution. Though ideas had begun to offer
themselves to the world in more or less embarrassing disguise of mystic
symbology, no attempt had ever been made by any esoteric teacher, two years
back, to put the doctrine forward in its plain abstract purity. As my own
instruction progressed on those lines, I have had to coin phrases and suggest
English words as equivalents for the ideas which were presented to my mind. I
am by no means convinced that in all cases I have coined the best possible
phrases and hit on the most neatly expressive words. For example, at the
threshold of the subject we come upon the necessity of giving some name to the
various elements or attributes of which the complete human creature is made up.
“Element” would be an impossible word to use, on account of the confusion that
would arise from its use in other significations; and the least objectionable
on the whole seemed to me “principle,” though to an ear trained in the niceties
of metaphysical expression this word will have a very unsatisfactory sound in
some of its present applications. Quite possibly, therefore, in process of time
the Western nomenclature of the esoteric doctrine may be greatly developed in
advance of that I have provisionally constructed. The Oriental nomenclature is
far more elaborate, but metaphysical Sanskrit seems to be painfully
embarrassing to a translator - the fault, my Indian friends assure me, not of
Sanskrit, but of the language in which they are now required to express the
Sanskrit ideal. Eventually we may find that, with the help of a little
borrowing from familiar Greek quarries, English may prove more receptive of the
new doctrine - or rather, of the primeval doctrine as newly disclosed - than
has been supposed in the East.
Return to
Esoteric Buddhism Index
The Theosophical Society,