Sacred Texts Study Group

In this translation, I have done my best to preserve the poetical beauty of language and imagery which characterise the original. How far this effort has been successful, is for the reader to judge. — “H.P.B.”
The language does make liberal use of traditional metaphors from eastern poetics, and has many similarities in style to the stanzas of D…[Read more]

I find it difficult to discuss the Mahayana Buddhist aspect of the Voice of the Silence because she relies on the scholars of her time, who tended to focus on Chinese Buddhism (Edkins, Hardy, Eitel, Schlagintweit, etc.), whereas today, the focus is much more on Sanskrit and Tibetan texts. Presumably the reason for this is that since Tibet was not…[Read more]

For Theravada Buddhism, we have the Tripitaka, the three baskets:

Vinaya
Rules and regulations of monastic life that range from dress code and dietary rules to prohibitions of certain personal conducts.

Sutra – Sutta Pitaka – The Sutta Pitaka (suttapiṭaka; or Suttanta Pitaka; Basket of Discourse; cf Sanskrit सूत्र पिटक Sūtra Piṭaka) is the secon…[Read more]

I think it’s useful here to have a basic overview of the traditional Hindu and Buddhist scriptures:
The Vedas
The Vedas (/ˈveɪdəz, ˈviː-/;[1] Sanskrit: véda, “knowledge”) are a large body of texts originating in ancient Indian subcontinent. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldes…[Read more]

And yet such ethics fill volumes upon volumes in Eastern literature, especially in the Upanishads. “Kill out all desire of life,” says Krishna to Arjuna. That desire lingers only in the body, the vehicle of the embodied Self, not in the SELF which is “eternal, indestructible, which kills not nor is it killed” (Katha Upanishad). “Kill out…[Read more]

The Book of the Golden Precepts — some of which are pre-Buddhistic while others belong to a later date — contains about ninety distinct little treatises. Of these I learnt thirty-nine by heart, years ago. To translate the rest, I should have to resort to notes scattered among a too large number of papers and memoranda collected for the last twe…[Read more]

The original Precepts are engraved on thin oblong squares; copies very often on discs. These discs, or plates, are generally preserved on the altars of the temples attached to centres where the so-called “contemplative” or Mahâyâna (Yogâchâra) schools are established. They are written variously, sometimes in Tibetan but mostly in ideographs. The…[Read more]

Indian Siddham script to Chinese script transliteration code in Nilaṇṭhanāmahṛdaya dhāraṇī.

Initiation Card (Tsakalis): Hayagriva early 15th century
Tsakali cards were used by itinerant teachers moving from one monastery to another in order to evoke Vajrayana Buddhist deities. When laid on the ground in the form of a mandala, as seen here, they functioned to create a fixed sacred space like that of a temple. The deities shown on these…[Read more]

Tibetan initiation crown – round and round oblong emblems

Indian Siddham script to Chinese script transliteration code in Nilaṇṭhanāmahṛdaya dhāraṇī.

Tibetan Dragon Sutra – gold text on black

Detail from The Collected Writings of the Mergen Lama of Urad, 1783 (British Library MON. 76, f.1 v.)

Illustrated folio from the Sutra of the Great Liberation. Mongolia. 18th or 19th century manuscript. Gift of William W. Rockhill. Library of Congress Asian Division.

The original Precepts are engraved on thin oblong squares; copies very often on discs. These discs, or plates, are generally preserved on the altars of the temples attached to centres where the so-called “contemplative” or Mahâyâna (Yogâchâra) schools are established. They are written variously, sometimes in Tibetan but mostly in ideographs. The…[Read more]

Yet its maxims and ideas, however noble and original, are often found under different forms in Sanskrit works, such as the Jñâneśvari, that superb mystic treatise in which Krishna describes to Arjuna in glowing colours the condition of a fully illumined Yogi; and again in certain Upanishads. This is but natural, since most, if not all, of the gr…[Read more]

The work from which I here translate forms part of the same series as that from which the “Stanzas” of the Book of Dzyan were taken, on which the Secret Doctrine is based. Together with the great mystic work called Paramârtha, which, the legend of Nâgârjuna tells us, was delivered to the great Arhat by the Nâgas or “Serpents” (in truth a name giv…[Read more]

It is well known that, in India, the methods of psychic development differ with the Gurus (teachers or masters), not only because of their belonging to different schools of philosophy, of which there are six, but because every Guru has his own system, which he generally keeps very secret. But beyond the Himalayas the method in the Esoteric Schools…[Read more]

Preface
The following pages are derived from “The Book of the Golden Precepts,” one of the works put into the hands of mystic students in the East. The knowledge of them is obligatory in that school, the teachings of which are accepted by many Theosophists. Therefore, as I know many of these Precepts by heart, the work of translating has been…[Read more]