English
Most of the world’s great Mystics and Illuminati have such visions, — generally for a special purpose on the part of lofty and mas- terful spiritual intelligences, though evil ones of equal potency may also make themselves apparent under similar circumstances. In the case cited in the text, the manifesting spirit, though of a high order, seems to have belonged to the next category,—2. Apparitions visible to the natural bodily senses, and therefore to any number of persons alike. With some illustrious exceptions, which will occur to any one versed in the history of churches, this second class of apparitions is of a low order of: intelligences, — not necessarily, however, vicious or hurtful, though little reliance is to } 2 18 A BUDDHIST CATECHISM. 25. Q. Did he alone see these visions ? A. No; his attendant, Channa, also saw them. 26. Q. Why should these sights, so familiar to everybody, have caused him to go to the jungle? A. We often see such sights. Hehadnot; and they made a deep impression on his mind. 27. Q. Why had he not also seen them? A. The astrologers had foretold at his birth that he would one day resign his kingdom and become a Buddha. ‘The King, his father, not wishing to lose his son, had carefully prevented his seeing any sights that might suggest to him human misery and death. No one was allowed even to speak of such things be placed upon what they may appear or claim to be (for reasons which I shall not here specify). Such apparitions or manifestations are, for the most part, of two kinds, —(@) Either they proceed from non-human ele- mentary beings who are able to affect human organisms in various ways and produce a variety of sensible physical effects; or (4) they proceed from the souls of disembodied persons little removed from the material plane of existence. For the most part, the common phenomena of what is called “ Spiritualism,” of every-day occurrence, are due to the agencies noted under (a) and (4) of the second category. Purely subjective affec- tions of the mind, unwittingly externalized and so seeming to be objec- tive, as well as phantasms of the living, otherwise known as projections of one’s double or astral body, are not here taken into account, —the former, because they have no objectivity, and are therefore not real apparitions ; the latter, because they differ little from (4). —C.] A BUDDHIST CATECHISM. 19 to the Prince. He was almost like a prisoner in his lovely palaces and flower-gardens. ‘They were surrounded with high walls ; and inside everything was made as beautiful as possible, so that he might not want to go and see the sorrow and distress that are in the world. 28. QO. Was he so kind-hearted that his father feared he might really want to sacrifice himself for the world’s sake ? A. Yes; he seems to have felt for all beings so strong a pity and love as that. 29. Q. And how did he expect to learn the cause of sorrow in the jungle ? A. By removing far away from all that could prevent his deeply thinking of the causes of sorrow and the nature of man. 30. Q. How did he escape from the palace ? A. One night, when all were asleep, he arose, took a last look at his sleeping wife and infant son, summoned Channa, mounted his favorite white horse, Kantaka, and rode to the palace gates. _ The Devas had thrown a deep sleep upon his father’s guards who watched the gate, so they heard not the noise of his horse’s hoofs. 31. Q. But the gate was locked, was tt not ? A. Yes; but the Devas caused it to open without the slightest noise, and he rode away into the darkness. 20 A BUDDHIST CATECHISM. 32. Q. Whither did he go? A. To the River Anoma, a long way from Kapilavastu. 33. Q. What did he then do? A. He sprang from his horse, cut off his beautiful hair with his sword, and giving his ornaments and horse to Channa, ordered him to take them back to his father, the King. 34. Q. What then? A. He went afoot towards Rajagriha, the capital city of Magadha. 35. Q. Why there? A. In the jungle of Uruwela were hermits, very wise men, whose pupil he afterwards became, in the hope of finding the knowledge of which he was in search. 36. Q. Of what religion were they ? A, The Hindu religion ; they were Brahmans. 37. Q. What did they teach ? A, That by severe penances and torture of the body a man may acquire perfect wisdom. 38. Q. Did the Prince find this to be so? A. No. He learned their systems and practised all their pen- ances; but he could not thus discover the reason for human sorrow. 39. Q. What did he then do? A. He went away into the forest near a place called A BUDDHIST CATECHISM. 21 OE ea ee nee Buddha Gaya, and spent several years in deep meditation and fasting. 40. Q. Was he alone? A. No; five companions attended him. 41. Q. What were their names ? A. Kondanya, Bhaddaji, Wappa, Mahanama, and Assaji. 42. Q. What plan of discipline did he adopt to open his mind to know the whole truth? A. He sat and meditated, shutting out from his sight and hearing all that was likely to interrupt his inward reflections. 43. Q. Did he fast ? A. Yes; through the whole period. He took less and less food and water ; until, it is said,* he ate scarcely more than one grain of rice or sesamum seed a day. [! Exoterically, to impress a child or unthinking adult. The narration of Gautama’s fruitless endeavors to attain Buddhaship by the punishment of the body conveys a valuable lesson to those who expect to improve their psychic senses, and so strengthen the soul, by mere fasting or other penitential observances, in simple obedience to the authority of a church such as the Roman or Anglican. It is true that like observances are seldom more than a mild and decorous subserviency to existing eccle- siastical regulations, followed by no special psychic results. But sup- posing that a soul’s religious emotions and spiritual aspirations induce it to strain its relations with the flesh by denying and mortifying the carnal envelope to any considerable extent, the result is likely to be the reverse of salutary to the soul, unless the process is very gradually effected 22 A BUDDHIST CATECHISM. 44. Q. Did this give him the wisdom he longed for ? A. No. He grew thinner and thinner in body and fainter in strength; until, one day, as he was slowly walking here and there and meditating, his vital force suddenly left him, and he fell to the ground unconscious. and wisely directed, both by purity and fixity of purpose and strength of will. Otherwise, the soul (the spiritual body, the astral form of the spirit) is apt to share the resulting debility of the physical body, even to the extent of enfeebling or deranging the mind. Clarity of the psychic senses and potency of the psychic faculties — in other words, the utmost efficiency of the substance of the soul, operating as a psychic force for the manifesta- tion of the spirit—are best attained by overpowering a strong, healthy body and subjecting its desires, however imperious, to the domination of a still more imperious will-power. It is only the weak of will and the infirm or impure of purpose who need first to sap the strength of the body in order to overcome its affections; and as such incarnations cannot rea- sonably expect to attain much psychic clarity or potency in this world, it is scarcely wise for them to make the attempt at the expense of their physical vigor. Mere material existence, conducted with moderation in all things, is preferable for all embodiments of the lower grades of spiritual activity. Respecting the perils of real scientific psychic train- ing, —a discipline of which fasts and other penances of various Occi- dental ecclesiastical organizations are the feeble lingering remains in this crassly materialistic age, — I cannot do better than quote the following passage of the author’s: “ The student should very clearly notice that modern mesmeric science is the key to all understanding of ancient Yoga, however practised and by whatever school. Yoga is selfmesmerization. It differs from ordinary mesmeric operations in that the subject in this case is the mystic’s own body, instead of another person. In both examples a A BUDDHIST CATECHISM. 2 45. Q. What did his companions think of that ? A. They fancied he was dead ; but after a time he revived. 46. Q. What then ? A, The thought came to him that knowledge could never be reached by mere fasting or bodily suffering; that it must be there isa development of a current of psychic aura, — if the term is permis- sible, —and its direction by an operative will upon a selected receptive object. The Yogin develops the same potential aura, but turns it in upon himself. He first, by determined concentration, vanquishes the natural restlessness of the body and the supremacy of the physical appetites, re- ducing the physical self to the. condition of a passive subject. Then only when his wil! has fully asserted its force can he develop within himself those transcendent powers of intelligence which are fitted to observe the laws and phenomena of the spiritual world. The Siddhzs of Patanjali mark the successive stages of this self-unfolding, the last stage of all being a self-induced ecstasis, in which, unlike the ecstasis of the somnambule which has been developed under a mesmerizer’s passes, there is not only consciousness, but also self-control. The ecstatic Yogin can return from the highest flight into the supernal spheres, and by an effort of the will terminate ‘his samadhi whenevervhe likes. But the somnambulic seer is always in danger of being so transported by his radiant visions as to snap the thin cord which still links him to earthly life.