The Crest-Wave of Evolution: A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19Morris, Kenneth
Philosophy
The Crest-Wave of Evolution: A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19
Morris, Kenneth
Theosophy
of the Soul there; but the man through whom It spoke;--it has
proved too much for him. The vibrations were too strong, and
shattered him. Think of Keats . . . and of thousands of others,
poets, musicians, artists. Where you get the grand creations,
the unfitful shining,--there you get evidence of a balance: with
genius--the daimonic force--no greater than, perhaps not so keen
as, that of those others, you find a strong moral will. Dante
and Milton suffered no less than others from those perils to
which all creative artists are subject: both complain bitterly
of inner assailments and torment; but they had, to balance their
genius, the strong moral urge to fight their weaknesses all
through life. It could not save their personalities from
suffering; but it gave the Soul in each of them a basis on which
to build the grand steadfast creations.--All of which Chinese
Liehtse tells you without comment, and with an air of being too
childish-foolish for this world, in the following story:--
Kung-hu and Chi-ying fell ill, and sought the services of the
renowned doctor, Pien-chiao. He cured them with his drugs; then
told them they were also suffering from diseases no drugs could
reach, born with them at their birth, and that had grown up with
them through life. "Would you have me grapple with these?" said
he.--"Yes," said they; but wished first to hear the diagnosis.--
"You," he said to kung-hu, "have strong mental powers, but are
weak in character; so, though fruitful in plans, you are weak in
decision." "You," he said to Chi-ying, "are stong of will,
though stupid; so there is a narrowness in your aims and a want
of foresight. Now if I can effect an exchange of hearts between
you, the good will be equally balanced in both."
They agreed at once: Kung-hu, with the weaker will, was to get
the smaller mental powers to match it; Chi-ying was to get a
mentality equal to his firm will. We should think Kung-hu got
very much the worst of the bargain; but he, and Dr. Pien-chiao,
and Liehtse, and perhaps Chinamen generally, thought and would
think nothing of the kind. To them, to have balanced faculties
was far better than to have an intellect too big for one's
will-power; because such balance would afford a firm basis from
which will and intellect might go forward in progress harmoniously.
So Pien-chiao put both under a strong anaesthetic, took out their
hearts, and made the exchange (the heart being, with the Chinese,
the seat of mentality); and after that the health of both was
perfect.--You may laugh; but after all there is a grandeur in
the recognition implied, that the intellect is not the man,
but only one of his possessions. The story is profoundly
characteristic: like Ah Sin's smile in the poem, "childlike and
bland"; but hiding wonderful depths of philosophy beneath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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