The splendour of Asia: The story and teaching of the BuddhaBeck, L. Adams (Lily Adams)
Religion
The splendour of Asia: The story and teaching of the Buddha
Beck, L. Adams (Lily Adams)
Buddha (The concept)
And because this is so I who have seen many teachings of the old
writings and of the Brahmans pass away in later knowledge have never
seen one jot or one tittle of the Law pass rebuked into oblivion,
neither shall I, nor any other. Knowledge is a good thing and a great,
but all knowledge that comes through the brain and the five senses shall
be rebuked later or sooner by the majesty of the Truth and shall crumble
and pass. Only he who perceives beyond knowledge and sees beyond sight
can apprehend these matters and so sit above error, being one with the
One, and beyond that is the Nirvana, and even beyond the Nirvana it may
well be there are states inconceivable in glory.
As for the ignorant, nothing is as they think it and they move through a
world of distorted forms most alien to the Truth, just as in the lower
consciousness of insect, reptile, and beast the forms perceived by them
are still more alien from the Truth, for consciousness evolves from
lowly beginnings. And this must be so since the thing seen is shaped by
him who sees it through his own fettered consciousness, the limits of
which he can in no way escape until he reaches that perception to which
the perception of the ignorant is as the snail’s or worm’s to the man’s.
Yet let us not think that Reality is far from us. It lies about and in
us and we walk in it and see it not, and in the higher perception bright
things move about us and we of the lower perception see them no more
than the blind man the sunshine in which he sits, and they touch us with
strange instincts and visitings through the dark and we do not know, and
our heart calls them to come nearer and there is silence.
So, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the Blessed One
summed up all teachings of the wise men of old and those who are yet to
come, and no more can be added to it though it shall be more clearly
understood as time and knowledge join hands. Therefore walk in the Way.
And whereas there are wise men of the West who teach that there is but
one life in this world of form and illusion, one hope of development and
knowledge,—I say this: Very wise and near the Truth must be those men
of the West if one life of twenty, thirty, ninety years suffices to free
them from the fetters of ignorance and render them perfect as their
Father in Heaven (for so they phrase it) is perfect. With us this is not
so, nor yet do we hold that any of the Buddhas can pay the debt of
another nor lift his sins from his shoulders, holding that the debt
incurred must be paid by the debtor, and this for the sake of immortal
Justice and for his own sake also. For the Law is evolution in the
innermost as in the mortal body. First the lowly beginning, the seed in
black earth. Then the tender shoot, the waxing strength of trunk and
bough till they can bear the glory of expanding blossom, and last, the
perfect fruit. And in one life this cannot be. And so have all the
Buddhas taught.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account