Sacred Texts Study Group

Faculties and powers The five faculties(pañc’indriya) are traditionally said to be “the qualities of a leader” (frominda,Sktindra,meaning “leader”). However, as spiritual faculties, they are the tools for personal development.When these spiritual faculties become “unshakable” by their opposites, they are then known as “spiritualpowe…[Read more]

231- Behold, O happy Pilgrim! The portal that faceth thee is high and wide, seems easy of access. The road that leads therethrough is straight and smooth and green. ‘Tis like a sunny glade in the dark forest depths, a spot on earth mirrored from Amitâbha’s paradise. There, nightingales of hope and birds of radiant plumage sing perched in green…[Read more]

230- Armed with the key of Charity, of love and tender mercy, thou art secure before the gate of Dâna, the gate that standeth at the entrance of the path.

From this compassion springs generosity; for none can be generous in a supernatural way, with faithfulness and goodwill towards all, save him who has a pitiful heart—though a man may often sh…[Read more]

Section 3 (Stanzas 230- 232) The Seven Gates – 1- Dana
Prior to entering the first portal, below is a brief selection of passages on generosity, which is how dana is generally translated nowadays, whereas the Voice uses charity, culled from some basic traditional sources.
Generosity has three classifications:
A. giving wealth,
B. giving f…[Read more]

We have finished the second section, an important one, Section 2 (Stanzas 215-229) Attuning to Alaya, the World-Soul. We are now ready to approach gates to the Paramitas. Before one made fit to meet one’s Teacher face to face, one has to :
1- learn to part your body from your mind,
2- dissipate the shadow,
3- live in the eternal
4- live and b…[Read more]

229- Thou hast? . . . Thou mayest enter. Yet, ere thou settest foot upon the dreary Path of sorrow, ’tis well thou should’st first learn the pitfalls on thy way.
Sorrow, pitfalls: See stanza 194
First in order, from without inwards, the Crucifixion of the Man of God implies that persistent attitude of scorn, distrust, and menace with which the…[Read more]

One more post to go for this section, which admittedly, has been rather lengthy; but we are bout one third through . The next third will be just as lengthy. What can I say? Fragment three is about the seven perfections and the Nirmanakaya path, but there is much more interspersed.

228- Hast thou attuned thy being to Humanity’s great pain, O…[Read more]

227- Thus do the “Brothers of the Shadow” — the murderers of their Souls, the dread Dad-Dugpa clan (11).
(11). The Bons or Dugpas, the sect of the “Red Caps,” are regarded as the most versed in sorcery. They inhabit Western and little Tibet and Bhutan. They are all Tântrikas. It is quite ridiculous to find Orientalists who have visited the bo…[Read more]

225 – “Hast thou attuned thy heart and mind to the great mind and heart of all mankind? For as the sacred River’s roaring voice whereby all Nature-sounds are echoed back (10), so must the heart of him ‘who in the stream would enter,’ thrill in response to every sigh and thought of all that lives and breathes.”
(10). The Northern Buddhists, and all…[Read more]

222- Before thou standest on the threshold of the Path; before thou crossest the foremost Gate, thou hast to merge the two into the One and sacrifice the personal to SELF impersonal, and thus destroy the “path” between the two — Antahkarana (9).
(9). Antahkarana is the lower Manas, the Path of communication or communion between the personality a…[Read more]

Happy White Lotus Day One and All-
Dwight Goddard’s rendering of the Lankavatara Sutra is very interpretative, condensed, and freely re-arranged, yet is probably more accessible and has quite a theosophical outlook. If one replaces the word Mind with Soul, the description of Alaya would fit quite well with the theosophical definition:
THEN SAID M…[Read more]

Similar notions to the concept of Alaya, short for Alaya Vijnana as the Universal Soul, can be found in the more mystical forms of Buddhism, notably with the main writings of the Tathagatagharba concept (I suggest this because stanza 116 mentions an equivalent term for Tathagatagharba, Wuwei zhenren). S. T. Suzuki’s introduction to his t…[Read more]

220- So shalt thou be in full accord with all that lives; bear love to men as though they were thy brother-pupils, disciples of one Teacher, the sons of one sweet mother.

In brief, directly or indirectly,
I will offer help and happiness to all my mothers,
And secretly take upon myself
All their hurt and suffering.
(Tangpa, Langri. Eight Verses of…[Read more]

217 – Before thou canst approach the foremost gate thou hast to learn to part thy body from thy mind, to dissipate the shadow, and to live in the eternal. For this, thou hast to live and breathe in all, as all that thou perceivest breathes in thee; to feel thyself abiding in all things, all things in SELF.

For a similar description of mystical…[Read more]

216 – For, O Disciple! Before thou wert made fit to meet thy Teacher face to face, thy MASTER light to light, what wert thou told?
[“Face to face,” means in this instance a study independent or apart from others, when the disciple gets his instruction face to face either with himself (his higher, Divine Self) or–his guru. It is then only that…[Read more]

Section 2 (Stanzas 215-229) Attuning to Alaya, the World-Soul.
215 – Before thou canst approach the last, O weaver of thy freedom, thou hast to master these Pâramitâs of perfection — the virtues transcendental six and ten in number — along the weary Path.

Paramitas of perfections: a somewhat odd term because paramita means perfection, so the t…[Read more]

Lanoo-Sravakas, we have completed the first section, Section 1 (Stanzas 196-214) Introduction to the Paramitas, a heady introduction wherein were presented the ten Paramitas, the Four-fold Dhyana, Four Stages of Enlightenment, to which we added the Sixteen Stages of Vipassana Knowledge, the Seven Stages of Purification, the Ten Fetters, the Eight…[Read more]

213 – 7. Prajñâ, the key to which makes of a man a god, creating him a Bodhisattva, son of the Dhyânis.

Without wisdom, the five perfections
Are not enough to attain full awakening.
Cultivate wisdom, endowed with skill
And free from the three domains — this is the practice of a bodhisattva (Zong-po, Tokmé, 30).

Pragna (Sk.) or Prajna. A synon…[Read more]

210 – 4. Virâg’, indifference to pleasure and to pain, illusion conquered, truth alone perceived.

Vyragya, one of the four qualifications in Advaita Vedanta, is a term rarely used in Buddhism (Spierenburg , Henk J. The Buddhism of H.P. Blavatsky. Pasadena. Point Loma Publications, 1991, p.165). There is however, a similar term, upekkha. To…[Read more]

Please note that the previous TG definition Jhana or Jnana is slightly askew. Jhana is Pali for the Sanskrit Dhyana, although the definition corresponds to Jnana, so it is correct if you disregard Jhana.

207 – 1. Dâna, the key of charity and love immortal.

If those who want to be awake have to give even their bodies,
What need is there to talk…[Read more]