Quotations relevant to the Path

[Fomalhaut]

I just started to get more information about Milarepa - one of the Tibetian Saints who lived during the second half of 11th century. I find this quotation very important and relevant to the Path:


"All worldly pursuits have but the one unavoidable end, which is sorrow: acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births, in death. Knowing this, one should, from the very first, renounce acquisition and heaping up, and building, and meeting; and faithful to the commands of an eminent guru, set about realizing the Truth (which has no birth or death)."

Milarepa

[Nefastos]

Milarepa is of the great interest to our philosophy indeed. Not only is he of the Tibetan Buddhist school that shares many tenets similar to ours, but he started his career as a black magician, as many of the Satanists on the Left Hand Path of ascension do... I heartily recommend his biography, The Life of Milarepa. (Of which the following is taken.)

"On the evening of the fourteenth day, the lama returned and said, 'Tonight there will be a sign around the mandala that magic has taken place.' And that same evening the loyal deities, guardians of the Order, brought us what we had asked for: the heads and the bleeding hearts of thirty-five people. Theys said, 'For several days you have repeatedly been invoking us. Here is what you wanted.' And they piled the heads all around the mandala. The next morning the lama returned ands said, 'Of those to be destroyed, two people remain. Should they be destroyed or spared?' Full of joy, I said, 'I beg you to let them live so they may know my vengeance and my justice.'"

In the light of this, it may be a little bit easier to understand all the ordeals Milarepa had to go through to attain his enlightenment.

* * *

Speaking of Tibetan (Vajrayana) Buddhism, here is another quotation already made in the Finnish forum:

"The Ten Things Not To Be Avoided

1. Ideas, being the radiance of the mind, are not be avoided.
2. Thought-forms, being the revelry of Reality, are not to be avoided.
3. Obscuring passions, being the means of reminding one of Divine Wisdom, are not to be avoided.
4. Affluence, being the manure and water for spiritual growth, is not to be avoided.
5. Illness and tribulations, being teachers of piety, are not to be avoided.
6. Enemies and misfortune, being the means of inclining one to religious career, are not to be avoided.
7. That which cometh of itself, being a divine gift, is not to be avoided.
8. Reason, being in every action the best friend, is not to be avoided.
9. Such devotional exercises of body and mind as one is capable of performing are not be avoided.
10. The thought of helping others, howsoever limited one's ability to help others may be, is not to be avoided.

These are The Ten Things Not To Be Avoided."

- Precepts of the Gurus, V (Published in Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, ed. Evans-Wentz, 1935)

[Fomalhaut]

Milarepa is of the great interest to our philosophy indeed. Not only is he of the Tibetan Buddhist school that shares many tenets similar to ours, but he started his career as a black magician, as many of the Satanists on the Left Hand Path of ascension do... I heartily recommend his biography, The Life of Milarepa. (Of which the following is taken.)

"On the evening of the fourteenth day, the lama returned and said, 'Tonight there will be a sign around the mandala that magic has taken place.' And that same evening the loyal deities, guardians of the Order, brought us what we had asked for: the heads and the bleeding hearts of thirty-five people. Theys said, 'For several days you have repeatedly been invoking us. Here is what you wanted.' And they piled the heads all around the mandala. The next morning the lama returned ands said, 'Of those to be destroyed, two people remain. Should they be destroyed or spared?' Full of joy, I said, 'I beg you to let them live so they may know my vengeance and my justice.'"

In the light of this, it may be a little bit easier to understand all the ordeals Milarepa had to go through to attain his enlightenment.

I could not resist and wanted to read some more. I googled the quotation above and found the link below. I have to underline one thing: Patience is a great spiritual tool on the way of Enlightenment.

http://www.thranguhk.org/buddhism/en_milarepa.html

[Nefastos]

They seem to have the major part of the book in there, that's nice! Although I'm not sure if the chosen set of pictures does justice to the lofty atmosphere of the story...

And, for it seems that we have somewhat stuck to the tantric Left Hand Path for now, here are some quotations from Odier's Yoga Spandakarika commentary (Inner Traditions 2005):

"We work with the totality of what makes a human being; our yoga touches everything: beauty, violence, love, hate, giving, possession. Nothing seems out of context to us."
- Daniel Odier: Yoga Spandakarika, stanza III

"To establish a truth, an ego is necessary. Without an ego, the truth is all truths together."
- ibid., stanza IV

Next time something more occidental, I (almost) promise...!

[Nefastos]

As promised, next some non-oriental verses. This November has been a time of magical death & return - for me at least -, so this end of Propertius' elegy sounds proper indeed.

"Solus amans novit, quando periturus et a qua
morte, neque hic Boreae flabra neque arma timet.
Iam licet et Stygia sedeat sub harundine remex,
cernat et infernae tristia vela ratis:
si modo clamantis revocaverit aura puellae,
concessum nulla lege redibit iter."

- Propertius: Elegiarum II:XXVII

"The lover only know when and by what death he shall perish,
and fears no weapons nor blasts of the North Wind.
Yea, even though he sit at the oar among the reeds of Styx
and gaze on the dismal sails of the boat of hell,
if the faint whisper of his mistress' voice cry out
and call him back from the dead,
he will return over that road
that the eternal ordinance hath sealed."

- Translation by H.E.Butler

[Fomalhaut]

They seem to have the major part of the book in there, that's nice! Although I'm not sure if the chosen set of pictures does justice to the lofty atmosphere of the story...

I totally agree about the pictures.

And, for it seems that we have somewhat stuck to the tantric Left Hand Path for now, here are some quotations from Odier's Yoga Spandakarika commentary (Inner Traditions 2005):

"We work with the totality of what makes a human being; our yoga touches everything: beauty, violence, love, hate, giving, possession. Nothing seems out of context to us."
- Daniel Odier: Yoga Spandakarika, stanza III

What I understand from this quotation is that there is unity and oneness in all counterparts what makes us human beings.

[obnoxion]

Divinity dwells in speech as the power to protect,
in the in-breath and the out-breath as the power to take and give,
in the hands as the power to act,
in the feet as the power to move,
in the anus as the power of riddance.
In the world of the elements, it dwells in rain as the power to quench,
in thunder as strength, in cattle as wealth.
It dwells as light in the stars,
in sperm as the power of generation, and in sex as pleasure.
It dwells in ether as [the support of] all.
And where it dwells, there it must be worshiped.

-Taittirya Upanisad-

[Necrosophiacos]

Many times we experience the process of initiation or spiritual rebirth as we enter into different mysteries of occult wisdom in the course of our lives, Here are some words of advise given by Yeshua addressing his disciples prior to their threefold baptism, as recorded in the in the Second Book of Jeu:

" These mysteries which I shall give unto you, guard them I do not give them to any mansave he who is worthy of them. Give them not to your father, or mother or brother or sister, and not to your relation. Give them not for food or for drink, for a woman or for gold, for silver or for anything at all which is of these world...
...Neither give them to those who serve the eight powers of the great Archon, who are those that eat he menstrual blood of their impurity by saying:
"We Have the knowledge of the truth and we pray to the true god, however their god is wicked..."

From the Second book of Jew which represents a 47 leaf papyrus corpus,
named the Codex Brucianus.

[Necrosophiacos]

As promised, next some non-oriental verses. This November has been a time of magical death & return - for me at least -, so this end of Propertius' elegy sounds proper indeed.

"Solus amans novit, quando periturus et a qua
morte, neque hic Boreae flabra neque arma timet.
Iam licet et Stygia sedeat sub harundine remex,
cernat et infernae tristia vela ratis:
si modo clamantis revocaverit aura puellae,
concessum nulla lege redibit iter."

- Propertius: Elegiarum II:XXVII

"The lover only know when and by what death he shall perish,
and fears no weapons nor blasts of the North Wind.


Yea, even though he sit at the oar among the reeds of Styx
and gaze on the dismal sails of the boat of hell,
if the faint whisper of his mistress' voice cry out
and call him back from the dead,
he will return over that road
that the eternal ordinance hath sealed."

- Translation by H.E.Butler

[obnoxion]

Saturn is known as Shanishcharacharya, which means a teacher who moves slowly. Saturn has the slowest movement among the visible planets, but this is not the only reason for the appellation. Slowly occurring events are generally imperceptible. From the moment of our birth we are imperceptibly drawn towards our end, death. The movement toward death, the natural process of physical decay, is so slow that it passes almost unnoticed. Even the growth of the personality experienced as the blossoming into youth and adulthood is, in fact, a subtle movement towards annihilation. The trouble and the wisdom produced by Saturn are so hidden from direct perception that they are attributed to other causes. Saturn acts slowly because it operates on the soul nature of the person, on which alone such actions cam make an imprint. Sarturn’s interest in the outer or physical nature is superficial. Saturn is a deep acting planet concerned with the permanent nature of the soul and unveiling its original capabilities.

-Bepin Behari: “Myths & Symbols of Vedic Astrology”-