[Three articles combined as a single document.]^{[1] [2]}

Translation from the German with comments by Robert Hutwohl^[3]

I.^[4]

There are many people, whose highest conceivable ideal in matters of the mind is the gratification of scientific curiosity, while others, are either incapable of thinking for themselves or are too lazy, but rather seek their ideal in sentimental enthusiasm. However, Theosophy or knowledge of God is attained neither through theoretical knowledge nor through fantasies roaming about in the invisible, but only through one’s own spiritual development. Anyone who wants to get to know divine wisdom must attain it, and he only attains it by becoming wise himself. But in order to become wise, use of the will is part of it, and the use of the will only leads to the goal if it is intelligently applied. Therefore, wanting involves knowing, and neither has real value without the other. Wanting and knowledge form the basis of the triangle, the apex of which is becoming, and the whole represents the knowledge of true being, Theosophy in the true sense of the word.

Wisdom is based on kindness, kindness on love, love on unselfishness. One can be a very learned person without being good and unselfish; indeed, one often finds the greatest cunning, erudition, subtlety and refinement among bad people, criminals, fools and people whose highest ideal is one’s own self with self-knowledge, self-imagination, self-will and self-possession. On the other hand, there are many who are filled with the best will and the best intentions; but as they are not clear as to the end they are pursuing and the means necessary to attain it, their aspirations are like those of a child groping in the dark. It is not for nothing that a proverb says that the floor of hell is paved with good intentions, because wanting without knowledge leads to passion, superstition and fanaticism and all the well-known evils which arise from them.

The world today does not need an increase in the moral teachings already in existence, but needs an understanding of them and what they are intended to accomplish. It is no longer a question of exploring the “how?,” but rather of recognizing the “why?” The teachings of Christianity, when properly understood, give us sufficient information about how we should be, but only to the spiritually enlightened can we understand why we should be like this. The human mind, in its development, has come to the point where whatever man is asked to undertake it wants to know what it will accomplish and how it will be accomplished before undertaking it. If, for example, it means: “Love God above all and your neighbor as yourself,” so in these words the highest wisdom is expressed for those who recognize God in themselves and in their neighbors, but those who distinguish themselves under “God” and “himself” imagine something other than what it really is, these words have no meaning for him and he cannot be expected to follow them. But if he has the wrong notions in relation to the meaning of this teaching, then his understanding and also the observance of it will be wrong.

The basis for attaining all true knowledge is freedom from error, and this freedom from erroneous theories is attained by being taught the right doctrine. Such instruction in itself is by no means own knowledge of the truth, which can only be attained through one’s own observation, through one’s own experience, one’s own becoming and being, but it serves to remove the obstacles which stand in the way of this personal process of observation, experience, and attaining the way of becoming and being. No man can reveal God or divine wisdom to another, only God in his wisdom can do that himself, but God is everywhere and his wisdom is a light that illuminates the soul of every man as soon as it has become a living force in him which overcomes the darkness. In other words, truth is a seed from which, growing strong in the heart, grows self-knowledge that overcomes the opposition of truth, error and falsehood. Where this self-knowledge occurs, all scientific and unscientific opinions, conclusions, hypotheses and theories, all delusions and conceits stop; where knowledge of truth comes, there it is; That says it all, for the existence of opinions rests on one or the other reason that lies outside of themselves; but the self-knowledge of truth and reality rests on nothing other than the existence of truth itself.

The following explanations were neither invented by H. P. Blavatsky nor by the author of the same, they were not thought up, devised or devised by any human being, nor are they based on inspiration from unknown spiritual influences, spiritistic communications from the “beyond” and the like, but they are the communications from those sages of the East who have attained divine self-knowledge, and contain mysteries which were formerly discussed only under the veil of allegories and parables, to stimulate the reflection of those who were capable of conceiving them. They are intended to show beginners on the path of light the path that everyone has to travel. But the word “beginner” has a great meaning here, because only where the thinking and brooding mortal man has reached his perfection and has reached the limit of his existence as a man, there God (the immortal God-man in man) begins. If the master of earthly natural science wants to know the divine mysteries in nature, he must learn again like a child in this higher sphere, become a beginner in spiritual knowledge, grow up and develop in it.

Just as the earthly material human being receives the nourishment necessary for existence and the development of his body from the material world around him and has certain bodily organs for its absorption and assimilation, man takes the nourishment he needs for his spiritual growth and strength from the spiritual world around him, and he has certain organs for this purpose, though the same or their functions are unknown to our modern physiologists.^[5] Spiritual growth or the possession of spiritual and magical powers does not consist in knowledge alone, nor in dreams and raptures. This is only attained through spiritual growth and spiritual development. But this requires nourishment, and just as a physically fat person can be poor in thought, or a person rich in ideas and fantasies can be physically lean, so too can a person well versed in all sciences, learned and sharp-witted and yet be poor in spirit or “soul.” But in order to explain this in a scientific way, it is necessary to take a look at the composition of the constitution of the universe, as well as man, as taught by the Tibetan sages and as they are also taught in the Indian Vedas, although veiled:

According to this explanation, both the organism of the greater world and that of man (the macrocosm and the microcosm) are made up of seven principles or forces, each of which is intimately related to itself, so that the spirit in the great whole depends on the spirit in humanity, what is material in humans affects what is material as a whole, etc. This teaching is also contained in the Zohar, where it says:

“Everything that exists on earth has its etheric model in the supernatural, and there is nothing so small or insignificant in the world that it would not depend on something superior to it, so that when what is below stirs, what is superior to it is affected also.”^[6]

The exoteric classification of these seven principles has already been mentioned repeatedly in the Lotusblüten.^[7] It is as follows, beginning at the densest or bottom and working upward.

I. Sthūla-śarīra^[8]

— In the microcosm of man, this is the human body, the material form that man inhabits on earth, the material organism through which he is in communication with the material world. Since this body does not belong to the actual nature of man, but is only, so to speak, the house he lives in or the dress he wears, this principle is not counted at all in the esoteric teachings and in the secret writings of the Indians in general it is not mentioned when the “housekeeper” is spoken of.

In the macrocosm it is the outer material range of appearance, which in itself is nothing essential, but just an abundance of forms or appearances, of astral images clothed with matter, so to speak. But the “matter” of which this material world consists is also nothing more than vibrations of a substance which, for lack of a better term, we will call ether (Akāsha) [ākāśa].

That the human body is generated and born by the forces contained in human nature, and receives the elements for its sustenance and growth from the material world around it, needs no proof. He is most intimately connected with it, his existence depends on its existence and he could not exist without it, but it could exist without him.

If nature were to do as our theoreticians and fanatics do, and content itself with merely imagining what it would be like if a human being came about, or, like the pious, would content it with good will, but not have the ability to bring a man to fruition and to feed him, no one would succeed. But as it is, the animal body serves as an instrument by which the natural forces embodied in it produce, nourish, and develop a human being, not merely theoretically but practically, and it is the same with the other principles in the constitution of man. In one’s own spiritual growth, and not in the study of wondrous historical events, nor in the search for authenticated “occult” phenomena, nor in the upholding of scientific or ecclesiastical dogmas, is the essence of Theosophy.

 

II. Linga-Sharira.

— The astral body, also called the fluidic or etheric body, double etc., is too subtle to be perceived with our physical material senses.^[9] This astral body fills and permeates the physical body in all its parts, and in fact it is not so much a product of the latter, but the physical body is constructed after the nature of the astral body and, so to speak, its material clothing. Whether the theory of the existence of an astral body is certified by official science or not is of no concern to us; the best means of convincing oneself of its existence is to acquire the ability to transfer one’s consciousness to this plane and, while the material body lies asleep, to free oneself from the physical body and act independently in the astral body. That this is possible, there is ample evidence in books on “Occult Sciences,” but all this “evidence” cannot replace one’s own experience. Knowledge of the truth is not attained through “evidence” of its existence, but only through experience itself.

In the macrocosm, the astral body in the microcosm corresponds to the astral light, namely the lower region of the same in everyday people; For just as we distinguish two regions in the human soul, the one in which animal instincts and passions rule, and the other in which high and pure feelings and thoughts live, so also is there an arrangement which exists in the astral body of our planet between the lower parts of the astral light, in which the lower elementals dwell,^[10] and the higher region inhabited by pure spirits.

Just as the physical body has its organs in order to take in material nourishment, and how by means of those organs, it takes in the elements which it can assimilate and works them up according to its alchemical laws, transforming bread into blood and flesh (which chemistry cannot do without the aid of the vital force), etc., The astral body also has its organs, by means of which it seizes the influences coming to it from the astral light of our planet, absorbs those which it can assimilate and eliminates those which cannot be used. Of course, the official material science knows nothing about these organs, since they do not know the astral body itself, but these organs and their functions are described in the books of the Orientals.^[11]

Since the physical body is the bodily expression or image of the astral body,^[12] the organs of the astral body are also to be found in it, but their functions are either unknown to our physiologists (such as those of the spleen) or such organs (especially those of the brain, which changes rapidly after death) are no longer perceptible in corpses as a result of the relaxation of the tissues that has occurred, and again others, such as, for example, the pineal gland, the organ of clairvoyance, is partly atrophied in most people in the present state of our civilization, partly its function is paralyzed by the consumption of alcohol, beer and wine. Modern medicine is increasingly coming to the realization that all internal diseases have their origin in the nervous system. However, it is also obvious that the nervous system does not produce these diseases under its own power. Behind the nervous system are the nadi [nāḍi] and chakrams [cakram] of the astral body, which the anatomist cannot locate, but which absorb the various kinds of life force (life ether) and transmit them to the nerves for propagation.^[13]

 

III. Prana. The Life Force.

— In this way, pseudo-knowledge differs from true knowledge in that it considers the illusion to be the essence. For this reason also, the manifestations of the one and indivisible principle of life, which manifests itself in the various forms of matter, are taken by many to be life itself, and vital activity to be a product of forms. But this is not the case. The sun is the source of all life in our planetary system, and this one force, which comes from the sun and flows back to it, manifests its activity in matter by developing forms and animating them.

According to this doctrine, everything in the world has only one life, but every being participates more or less in this one life, according as the activity of this life manifests itself in it. Even the individual human being basically has no life of his own, he can only call that vital activity his own which reveals itself in him during a certain period as a partial effect of the whole; he receives his vitality from nature and returns it to nature, just as he receives his spirit from God, his substance from the earth, and both finally return to where they came from.

Life in the microcosm and that in the macrocosm are one and the same, and as in man the blood is the vehicle of vitality, through which it penetrates to the outermost periphery of the human body, so there are currents of prana in the universe, the source of which is the sun and which nourish all the planets in our solar system without the sun (as many believe) getting cold or losing anything, just as nothing is lost from a musical instrument because it emits a sound that penetrates into the distance.^[14]

While material science knows nothing and can know nothing (because it is imperceptible to the senses) of life itself, which fills everything, but only knows the phenomena produced by it, occult science teaches us not only life (prana) itself, but also to know the various modifications of its movement, which Sankaracharya calls Udana [udāna], Samana [samāna], Vyana [vyāna], Prana [prāṇa] and Apāna [apāna].^[15]

In the end, however, material vital activity is nothing but the lowest form of expression of spiritual life, to which man must awaken his consciousness to, before he can recognize spiritual forces and thus also spiritual life. Here, too, the theory does not apply, but it is about the awareness of possession. Self-knowledge or “theosophy” is based on this spiritual self-awareness.

IV. Kama-rupa [kāma-rūpa], the form which arises from desire.

Where life manifests itself in an individual form, it appears as desire or “the will to exist,”^[16] and through the action of this will combined with the idea of ​​a “spirit,” the individual form arises. But these individual forms will differ in kind, according to the variety of “stuff” in which prana is active. By the action of prana [R.H.—prāṇa] in sensible matter sensible forms are produced; by the same action of prana on the astral plane, astral beings (elementals) are called into existence, and on the intellectual plane the world of thoughts comes into being, which is also, but in its way, a world of forms; for thought-images are things whose nature anyone can examine if he enters his own world of thoughts; if they were not substantial, they would be nothing and non-existent. By the power of imagination man forms in his mind the images which his imagination creates, introduces them into his mind, animates them with his will, and preserves them in his memory-chamber (his astral light).

And how the astral light of the microcosm is filled with the fantasies of its own creation, which, like the terrestrial human being, are only products of imagination, but nonetheless exist for them in reality and, through the magical power of memory, are always before the judgment seat of reason, the memory of the macrocosm, the astral light of the great world, is also filled with living forms, even if they cannot be perceived externally by the senses, which man, regarded as a universal being, has created through his spirit and born in his soul. Heaven and hell are present in the microcosm as well as in the macrocosm, gods, angels and devils, and each of these beings affects the being corresponding to him, as described in the Zohar. Every creature, no matter how “material,” is a personified force and equal forces mix. Thus it is that the “spirits” by which men are possessed receive their sustenance from the spiritual forces in the ether of space corresponding to their nature.

One speaks of contagious and non-contagious diseases. In fact, no disease at all is contagious if the body of the person who is to be infected does not already contain the germ of the disease in question. The same is also the case with mental infections. A man in whom there is no germ of evil cannot be led to evil either by “hypnotism” or by “suggestion,” but in every man in whom the germs of evil are not eradicated they are present, for if he had none in him from the beginning, he would not be a true reflection of his mother, of nature, not a complete human being, but a supernatural freak capable of only one-sided development.

Passions are sustained and nourished by passion; the desire stimulated by the fulfillment of its wishes, insatiably calls for more and ever new stimuli. The memory of the pleasure afforded by the gratification of a pleasure calls into existence the desire to repeat it; the vibrations produced in the soul spread like the circles which a stone thrown into the water makes on the water surface; same-sounding vibrations and chords mingle, and a small desire can grow into a great passion if wisdom does not prevail.

“The flame grows from the draft of the air and increases the draft; This is how passion keeps flying through passion.”—Rückert.)

Thus man populates the soul of the world with the emanations of his imagination, and these emanations act upon the mind of the individual, and nourish the creatures which exist in his own world, and of which he is the creator, though he knows nothing of it.^[17] A constant wanting and becoming also takes place in him, but as long as the necessary knowledge is lacking, his creatures will not be according to the will of the creator, but only imperfect. What are instincts, desires, and passions but forms of will in which thought has not yet come to self-consciousness, and how could thoughts be perfect until permeated with the light of knowledge of truth?

V. Manas. The “human intellect” or mind.”

When we climb up in the human soul from the region of blind animal instincts and thoughtless desires, we reach a higher region where higher spiritual activities and conscious soul forces are at work, the region of thinking and human feeling, whereby man separates himself from the animal intended to distinguish. But even in this region there is no sudden transition from the lower to the higher. The more deeply we imagine it, the more do we find the thoughts and feelings governed and guided by lower instincts; the higher we climb, the more we find them permeated by the light of truth knowledge coming from above, and therefore one distinguishes two poles in Manas, namely that part of the soul which is attracted by the earthly, thinks and feels earthly, earthly desires, desires and passions, and the higher part, which strives for the divine and eternal and is accessible to the light of spiritual knowledge of truth.

For this, too, there is no scientific proof which so-called exact science would find admissible; but it is taught by one’s own experience and observation of oneself. Every reasonable person has already experienced this dichotomy of nature in himself, the greatest poets have sung about this duality of the soul and Joh. Scheffler (Angelus Silesius) teaches us (if we do not already know) that every human being can judge his position in the universe by observing whether he finds his spirit directed more towards the transitory or towards the eternal.^[18]

The lower region of thought in the microcosm corresponds to the lower region of the astral light in the macrocosm, and as the mind of man has its inhabitants, so the soul of the world has its inhabitants. Thoughts and sensations come and go, and where they find their liking and feel at home, there they remain and the upper nourishes and raises the lower, while the lower draws the upper to itself by being receptive to the same. Ideas are things that once formed, be they true or false, continue to exist like fixed stars in the thought-sky and whose rays are received by receptive minds and processed into new forms. For this reason, new ideas only find general acceptance when humanity has become mature enough to absorb them. But if several minds are ripe for the conception of the same idea, then it finds its way into them. For example, it often happens that someone gets an idea for an invention that someone else, of whom they know nothing about, has just invented and then mistake themselves as the first inventor.

The lower region of Manas is the treasury-place of its perishable treasures, its opinions, theories, conclusions, hypotheses and accepted articles of faith. All his thoughts and fantasies, all his personal likes and dislikes, his personal loves and hates, his titles, honors and distinctions, everything that belongs to his apparent self and therefore cannot be immortal belong in this junk room. The human being has this nature in common with the animal, because the animal also thinks and feels, and apart from the divine nature struggling to become conscious in the human being, the human being is nothing other than a highly developed animal and the animal is still an incomplete human being.^[19]

With the lower part of manas ends the series of those principles which belong to the mortal man. Anything beyond that belongs to the divine, the immortal God-man. When the earthly human being dies, his consciousness, his memory, his perception, his knowledge, will and ability and all his glory come to an end. In the end, nothing remains but what has made him conscious of his immortality; but this is the immortal in himself, namely that part of his soul (manas) penetrated by the light (buddhi) of the divine spirit (Ātma).

When we speak of human immortality, we must first be clear about what is meant by this. The essence underlying every thing is immortal. Only the form in which it manifests itself comes and changes and disappears.^[20] Matter is immortal^[21]; however many forms arise and pass away in the universe, there is no conceivable reason to assume that the matter contained in the universe is decreasing. The force that moves matter is immortal; the law of conservation of energy teaches us that in nature one force is indeed transformed into another, it can be latent or active, but that energy itself is not lost and cannot be eliminated from the world. A tree, a stone, etc. is also immortal by its nature; its matter never becomes nothing, but it knows nothing of this, it is not aware of its immortality. Therefore, immortality for man only begins when he awakens to the consciousness of his immortality. A “belief” in immortality based on pseudo-scientific grounds, such as one would like to derive from spiritualistic phenomena, has at most the value of demonstrating the probability of the possibility of conscious immortality, but the only real proof of immortality consists in becoming aware of one’s immortality. Self-consciousness is not based on probabilities or conclusions, it has no other reason for its existence than its existence itself, it is based on itself alone and is therefore immortal and eternal.

“Eternity embraces eternity alone,

Whatever eternity thinks in you must be immortal.”

(Rückert)

There can be no more important question for man than how to become immortal. The science which teaches us this art is the highest of all sciences, for it gives us the possession of something that is imperishable and can never disappear, even when all earthly learning has sunk into the sea of ​​error. But this knowledge of immortality is not attained by any adherence to scientific theories, nor by accepting ecclesiastical dogmas as true; it is a sublime art that can be attained only by practice. The thirst for knowledge calls for theories and hypotheses; the needy spirit clings to this opinion today, to that tomorrow,^[22] but the soul destined for conscious immortality has need of divine nourishment, and it obtains this nourishment by the divine spark (Atma-Buddhi) [ātma-buddhi] in man through the influence of divine spirit (Ātma-Buddhi) [ātma-buddhi], strengthened and made to grow in the macrocosm, whereby the earthly part of his mind (Kama-Manas) [kāma-manas] is more and more permeated by this divine light, illumined and transformed into the divine soul (Atma-Buddhi-Manas) [ātma-buddhi-manas].

Through this penetration of the divine light of Self-knowledge (Theosophy) into the higher regions of the soul and from there into the deeper regions, this transformation takes place and man attains those virtues which enable him to realize the divine and immortal form of his existence and which are described by Sankaracharya.^[23] Ceasing to be bound by consciousness to a limited and transitory form, he attains freedom, spiritual omnipresence, and spiritual omniscience; his soul, illuminated by the divine light, expands through its love of the whole and embraces the whole in itself through the power of divine love, which is divine self-knowledge, the knowledge of God in the All.

Manas is the “bridge” leading from the earthly to the eternal, from the ephemeral to the imperishable, from the isolation of form to the divine unity of the whole.^[24] Once this bridge has been crossed, the adept can confidently break it, but mystical enthusiasts, who imagine that they are gods in their selfhood, break this bridge before they have crossed it and thereby close the path to immortality.

 

VI. Buddhi. The Divine Soul.

VII. Atma. The Divine Spirit.

Ātma-buddhi-manas is thus the divine trinity representing the divine and true man, while the earthly perishable man is composed of the four lower fundamental parts, linga-sharira [liṅga-śarīra], prana [prāṇa], kama-rupa [kāma-rūpa]^[25] and the lower part of manas, which, united into one, is his sthula-sharira [sthūla-śarīra], his physical body.

This divine Trinity is not enclosed in and limited by the human body, but the existence of the spiritual man extends as far as the sphere of his spiritual self-consciousness extends. In this spiritual self-awareness he is also not tied to his physical body, but when the physical body awakens in him and he has thereby come into the knowing possession of his divine (mystical) powers, he is free to leave this body at will, similar to taking off a skirt, and to be active unhindered by it on another level of existence. Those who have reached this level of human perfection are called “Adepts,” “Mahātmas,” or “Masters.”

The sum of such intelligences, for we can hardly call them “human beings” after such low concepts are generally associated with this word, represents in the microcosm the principle corresponding to and identical with Buddhi-Manas in the macrocosm. These intelligences can teach through that influence those people who are susceptible to their influence; similar to how an ordinary person can transfer his thoughts to another person who is in harmony with him. Thus it is that a master living in one continent can teach and communicate with a student living in another continent without the need for physical nearness, personal acquaintance, or correspondence. It is also not necessary for the student to have already reached the level of a saint or adept; he may have many personal faults and yet be suitable for spiritual association with an Adept due to his psychic organization.^[26]

But whoever wants to enter into contact with these higher intelligences must open his heart to these higher spiritual influences and through them win victory over his soul forces directed towards the lower. Even if he sometimes succumbs, he is not compelled to stand still, but has the power to rise again. The more he overcomes himself by the power of his own divine spirit, the more he attains mastery over himself, and his own spiritual knowledge becomes one with the knowledge of all great souls, whether still in possession of visible bodies or Nirmanakayas [nirmāṇakāya-s], which, inaccessible to our physical senses, inhabit the sphere of our planet.

The force that connects the student to the master is love. Those who do not appreciate their master, distrust their influences, reject them or only half-listen to the inner voice, these higher intelligences cannot communicate with them because they are not capable of receiving them and absorbing them. Doubt is the weapon with which one defends oneself against blind faith, but also the tool with which one commits spiritual suicide. The love between the Master and disciple is not sentimental enthusiasm, but like true love for God, i.e. the Master sees in the student his image, which is becoming more and more like him, and the student recognizes in the Master the ideal that is being realized in himself. Thus the Master is not a “foreign person” or an “unknown superior” to the student, whom he would have to obey blindly, but his own higher Self, which is closer to the deity, a ray of light from that source in which all come together in One.

II.^[27]

[Note from the translator, Robert Hutwohl. The following appears to be, in part, by H. P. Blavatsky and her article: “ Tibetan Teaching. A long-delayed promise Fulfilled” by H. P. Blavatsky” and which is paraphrased by Dr. Franz Hartmann. The reader can read the original article in Lucifer journal (September, October 1894), which appeared about a year before Dr. Hartmann’s series in German. His reason for doing so was so that his German subscribers could read Blavatsky’s article, in their own language. The reader should be aware, an English writing translated to German and then retranslated by me (Robert Hutwohl) back to English will have some variance.

But this is what Dr. Hartmann wrote along with H.P.B.’s text and that of the Chohan-Lama and H. Sumangala Unnanse comments. Their comments appear in the quote-size text. Because Dr. Hartmann wrote intervening comments but this should not be difficult to recognize. He also wrote endnotes, as well as myself.]

        The following begins the extractions from H. P. B.’s Lucifer articles:

“Whoever stands on the top of a mountain, overlooks all people; similarly, the wise and carefree can rise above the paradise of the gods, and when they have received insight from there that man is subject to birth and death and all kinds of cares, then they cross the threshold of immortality.”

[From Ched du brjod paʼi tshoms of the Bkah-hgyur.^[28]] [H.P.B.:]

For a long time I have intended to share the views of the Venerable Chohan Lama — the head of the document collections of those libraries which contain the esoteric teachings of the Ta-loi^[29] and Ta-shühlumpo^[30] Lama Rim-boche^[31] in Tibet related manuscripts are preserved — regarding some claims made by the author of Buddha and early Buddhism. I owe it to the fraternal courtesy and kindness of a disciple of the learned Chohan, whose deep knowledge and understanding of esoteric as well as exoteric Buddhism in Tibet is unmatched by any other, that I am now able to share particulars of the teachings which directly relate to said claims to have. It is my firm belief that the letters of the learned Chohan, with the explanations that accompany them, could not have arrived at a more opportune time. Quite apart from the fact that there are many and varied misunderstandings about our teaching, we have been repeatedly reproached by very discerning spiritualists for misrepresenting them as to the position which Hindus and Buddhists really hold towards the “spirits of the deceased” and regarding their belief about the same incorrectly instructed. For according to some spiritualists, “There is a definite emphasis throughout Buddhist beliefs, and in keeping with modern spiritualism, on the presence and protective role of departed spirits,” and they accuse Theosophists of perverting that belief. Yes, they had, for example, even the audacity to claim that “this belief in the manipulation of departed human spirits” is anathema maranatha in the East, when in fact it is found to be “a principle prominent throughout Buddhism.”

What every Indian, of whatever caste or level of education, feels “about the influence of the spirits of the deceased” is so well known throughout India that it would be a waste of time to repeat the story so often repeated. There are individuals who have converted to modern spiritism, such as Babu Peary Chand Mittra,^[32] for whom such an association would bring no personal disadvantage owing to the extraordinary purity of his life, even if he were not completely indifferent to physical phenomena and only concerned himself with the purely spiritual and subjective side would hold such traffic. If, however, one expects to know my opinion lately, I remain firmly in my conviction, which has always been expressed, that there is not a single Indian who would not have the mere idea of the reappearance of a departed “spirit” which he would always regard as impure, abhorred, and that, with the few exceptions noted above, no Indian believes that, excepting suicides or those killed by sudden misfortune, other than evil spirits can return to earth. We will therefore leave the Indians entirely outside the game, and I will state how the Buddhists of the North feel on this question, in the hope of being able in due course to give the views of the Buddhists of the South as well. But when we speak of “Buddhists,” it does not include all the countless heretical sects scattered throughout China and Japan that have lost all right to the name. We have nothing to do with these. We are dealing only with the Buddhist churches of the North and South—Catholic and Protestant Buddhists, so to speak.

The subject of the communications of my scholar (correspondent) is based on individual questions I put directly to him with a humble request for answers and on the following passage from the book “Buddha and early Buddhism”:

“I’ve rambled on about supernaturalism at some length because it’s of the utmost importance to our subject. It is clear that Buddhism is a carefully worked out system for nullifying the influence of evil spirits with the help of good spirits, who fight with all their might against those aided by the body or part of the body of their supreme guardian spirit. The Buddhist temples, the Buddhist customs, the Buddhist liturgy all seem to be built on this one idea that a dead body or at least parts of one are required for this. What are these guardian spirits? Any Buddhist, old school or modern, will readily admit that a mind which has not attained bodhiship or spiritual awakening cannot be a good mind. He can do no good, nay, more than that, he must do evil.”

“The answer of the Buddhists of the North is that the good spirits, the Buddhas, are the deceased prophets. They come from certain “realms of the enlightened” to connect with the earth.”

My learned Tibetan friend writes:

“Allow me to say that certain monks and lay people spread the most ridiculous and nonsensical accounts of Tibetan folk beliefs. The Capuchin della Penna’s statements about the Byang-tsiub^[33] Brotherhood are simply silly. By citing passages from the Bkah-hgyur^[34] and other Tibetan law books literally, he embellishes them with his own explanations. He speaks of the fabulous “spirit world in which the godlike Lha^[35] dwells,” adding that Tibetans believe “this place is in the air above a great mountain, some one hundred and sixty thousand miles high and thirty-two thousand miles in circumference, whose four sides consist of crystal on the east, red ruby on the west, gold on the north, and the precious green stone—lapis lazuli—on the south. In this place of bliss they—the Lha—remain as long as they please, only to move to the paradise of other worlds.^[36]

“If my memory of my apprenticeship in the missionary school at Lahuola^[37] does not deceive me, this description fits much better the “new Jerusalem sent down by God from heaven” in the vision of St. John, that city of twelve thousand leagues, whose walls were of jasper, the houses of pure gold, the foundations of the enclosure decorated with every kind of precious stone, and whose twelve gates were made of twelve pearls, than the city of Jang-chhub^[38] as it is found both in the Bkah-hgyur and in the idea of ​​the Tibetans. I will say in advance that the sacred canon of the Tibetans, the Bkah-hgyur and the Bstan-hgyur,^[39] comprises one thousand seven hundred and seven different works  of which one thousand eighty-three are intended for the people and six hundred and twenty-four are secret volumes — of which the former number three hundred — and fifty, the latter seventy-seven folio volumes.

“Every description of a place in our religious system is to be understood symbolically; every name and every word is deliberately obscured, and before a student is further initiated he must have become familiar with the method of interpretation, as well as with the understanding and learning of the secret expression or synonymous meaning of almost every single word of our religious language. The enchorial or hieratic system is child’s play compared with the deciphering of our sacred enigmatic language. Even in volumes accessible to the common people, every sentence has a double meaning, one for the understanding of the uninitiated, and another for those who have received the key to the scriptures (inner illumination).

“If the efforts of such well-meaning, learned and conscientious investigators as those of the authors of Buddhist Records of the Western World and of Buddha and Early Buddhism—whose poetical hypotheses can all be overturned and refuted with the greatest facility—prove to be worthless, then verily the attempts of the predecessors and successors of an Abbe Hue, Gäbet and others must prove to be sad failures, for the former had no reason, and the latter a very good one, for deliberately distorting the incomparable and glorious teachings of our highly revered Master Shākya Thub-pa^[40].

“In the Theosophist of October, 1881, a correspondent reports that Gautama, the Buddha, the Sage, “insisted that all qualified persons should be initiated.” This is quite true; such was the original decree of the sublime Song-gyas,^[41] which was actually maintained for a time before he became the All-Sage. But three or four centuries after his departure from the tumult of the earth, when Asoka,^[42] the great renewer of our religion, had left the world, the initiated Arhats were compelled, one by one, to leave the country, and seek safety beyond the Himalayas, owing to the secret but ever-continuing opposition of the Brahmins to our religious system.

“Thus it came about that, although popular Buddhism did not spread in Tibet until the seventh century, the Buddhists initiated into the mysteries and esoteric system of the Aryan reincarnation left their native India and sought refuge with the pre-Buddhist monks,^[43] those ascetics who possessed the good teaching even before the time of Shākya-Muni [Shākya Tathāgata Buddha]. These monks had inhabited the region beyond the Himalayan chain from time immemorial. They are the direct descendants of those Aryan sages who, in the prehistoric emigration from “Lake Manasasarovara^[44]” over the snow mountains to the hot plains of the seven rivers, did not accompany their Brahmin brothers, but preferred to remain in their inaccessible and unknown safe places. It is therefore no wonder that the esoteric teaching of the Aryans and the teaching of our Arhats turn out to be almost identical. As there is but one sun over our heads, so there is but one Truth; but it seems as if this eternal Truth must be proclaimed again and again, to be brought afresh to the minds of both dark-colored and white peoples.^[45] The only reason why Truth must be kept from the eyes of profane humanity is so that it may be kept pure and unsullied by human exaggerations—for even its own professors sometimes endeavor to adapt it to their own selfish ends, and so distort and mar its pure face. From the days of the earliest universal Mysteries, down to the time of our famous Shākya Tathāgata Buddha, who summarized the teaching more briefly and interpreted it for the benefit of all, the divine Voice of the Self—called Kwan-yin—has only ever been heard in the sacred solitude of the preparatory Mysteries. As there is but one sun over our heads, so there is but one Truth; but it seems as if this eternal Truth must be proclaimed again and again, to be brought afresh to the minds of both dark-colored and white peoples. The only reason why Truth must be kept from the eyes of profane humanity is that it may be kept pure and unsullied by human exaggerations—for even its own professors sometimes endeavor to adapt it to their own selfish ends, and so distort and mar its pure face. From the days of the earliest universal Mysteries, down to the time of our famous Shākya Tathāgata Buddha, who summarized the teaching more briefly and interpreted it for the benefit of all, the divine Voice of the Self—called Kwan-yin—has only ever been heard in the sacred solitude of the preparatory Mysteries.

“Our world-famous and revered Tsong-kha-pa, at the end of his fifth Dam-ngag,^[46] draws our attention to the fact that every sacred truth which the ignorant cannot grasp and understand in its true light must be concealed in a threefold covering by which it is secured, just as the tortoise covers its head with its shell; and that it must be shown only to those who strive with all zeal for the state of Anuttaru Samyak Sambodhi^[47] — or a gratefully receptive, enlightened heart.

“In the same way, the holy scriptures accessible to the people and, more recently, even to European researchers, have a double meaning. I would now like to correct the errors in the writings of the Jesuits which, I am sorry to say, were only deliberately inserted. There is no doubt that the Chinese and Tibetan writings, the so-called text books of China and Japan, several of which were written by our most important scholars, among whom were some very pious and saintly, but nevertheless uninitiated men who wrote interpretations of things which they themselves never really understood, contain a great many mythological and legendary things which belong more to the realm of folk tales and old wives’ tales than can be considered an explanation of the religion of wisdom proclaimed by the world’s redeemer. But nothing of this is to be found in the canonical books proper; and although these are available for use in the libraries of most lamaserias, they are only fully believed by those pious and faithful whose limitations do not permit them ever to cross the threshold of reality. To this class of books belong the Buddhist Cosmos, written by the bonze Jin-ch’an of Peking^[48]; “the Shing-Gas-ki,” [The Shing-Tao-ki] or “the records of the Enlightenment of Tathāgata,” written by Wang-Tuh [Wang-Puh] in the seventh century; “the Hi-shai Sūtra, or the ‘Book of Creation,’ various books on heaven and hell, and so on—nothing but a compilation of poetical fancies such as have evolved as superstitions from symbolism.

But the works which our scholastic author, the monk Della Penna,^[49] mentions—or, as I should more correctly express it, misquotes—contain no fantasies, but simply instructions for future generations, who will then perhaps have found the key to reading them in the right sense. The “Lah,” [Lha] of whom Della Penna speaks only to make the whole thing ridiculous, or “those who have worked their way up to the degree of the saints of this world,” are simply the Arhats, the various grades of adepts, commonly known by the name of Bhanté^[50] or Brothers. In the book known as the Avatamsaka Sutra [Avataṃsaka Sūtra], in the section on the “supreme Atma—the Self—which manifests itself in the character of the Arhats and the Pratyeka Buddhas,” we find the assertion made that, as a result, “since from the beginning all sentient beings have confused and distorted the truth and turned to falsehood, an occult science called Aaya Vijñāna [Dr. Hartmann gives “Aaya Vijñāna”; HPB gives “Alaya Vijñāna. Proper sanskrit,  ālaya vijñāna] has arisen.” “But who is in possession of the true occult knowledge?” “The exalted teachers on the snow-capped mountains,” is the answer in the Book of the Law. The snow-capped mountain is “the mountain 160,000 miles high.” Now let us see what this means. If we simply omit the last three digits, we have 160 miles; a Tibetan mile is nearly five English miles; we have thus 780 miles from a certain holy place in the direction of a certain path to the west. This is perfectly clear even from Della Penna’s further description to anyone who has even a semblance of the truth. “According to their teaching,” says the monk, “there is an eternal world, a paradise, to the west of this world, and in this lives a saint called Ho-pahme,^[51] which means a saint radiant with the halo of infinite light. This saint is in possession of a great number of special “powers,” which are collectively called “chang-chub”^[52]; and in a footnote he notes that by this word are meant the spirits of those who, because of their perfection, have no desire to become saints, and who educate and prepare the earthly bodies of the reincarnated lamas in such a way that they can become helpers of humanity.”

“This proves that these ‘chang-chubs’, quite unjustly assumed to be dead, are living Bodhisattwas or Bhanté, known among the Tibetan people by various names such as Lha or ‘ghosts’, because they are believed to lead a more spiritual than physical life. After their death they sometimes renounce Nirvāna — or eternal blissful rest or oblivion of the personality — in order to live on in their spiritualized astral bodies for the benefit of their followers and of humanity in general.

“I hope that my views will be clear to some Theosophists at least, although I am sure that many will object to this explanation. Nevertheless, I maintain that it is not possible for a perfectly pure “I” to continue to dwell in the earthly atmosphere after its release from the physical body in its own personality in which it walked on earth. Only three classes are exempt from this general rule:

“The holy resolution which prompts a Bodhisatva [bodhisattva], a Sravaka [śrāvaka] or Rahat [arhat] to help those who have fallen behind him, the one who has come to life, to attain the same happiness, in which case he will stop his upward flight in order to encourage them either by inner or outer instruction; or secondly, those who, although they have led a pure, harmless and comparatively sinless life, have become so fixated on an idea related to the human Mayas [māyā-s] that they leave life completely caught up in this thought which completely dominates them; and thirdly, those people in whom an intense, holy love, such as the love of a mother for her orphaned children, creates or gives birth to an indomitable desire, always nourished by this boundless love, to communicate with those who are still alive.

“The duration of these exceptional states varies from case to case. In the first case, the Bodhisatva [bodhisattva] is not bound to any particular limit, as a result of the knowledge acquired in the state of Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi^[53] [Pāli] — the state of supreme holiness and enlightenment of the heart. Having already become accustomed in life to remaining in his astral body for days and hours, he is able after death to create his own environmental conditions, all of which are directed towards retarding the natural tendency of the other principles to reunite with their corresponding elements, and he can descend to earth to remain there for centuries or even millions of years. In the second case, earth-boundness will last only until the tremendous force of the magnetic attraction to the object of thought — on which the dying person was completely concentrated at the moment of death — weakens and gradually disappears altogether. In the third case, however, the attraction will come to an end either through the death or through the moral unworthiness of the beloved survivor. In no case can it last longer than a lifetime.

“In all other kinds of appearances or communications the ‘spirit’ will always turn out to be an evil ‘bhūta’ or ‘ro-lang,’^[54] or at best the soulless shell of an  ‘elemental.’ The ‘good teaching’ was rejected on the unproven charge that only ‘adepts’ could claim the privilege of immortality. But no such claim was ever made by any Oriental adept or initiate. It is true, indeed, that our Master teaches that ‘immortality is dependent upon conditions,’ and that the probability of attaining it is ten times greater for an adept who has successfully strove to acquire ‘Alaya-Vijnana’ [ālaya-vijñāna], the crown of wisdom, than for a man who is ignorant of the powers of his own ego lying dormant within him, and allows them to remain undisturbed in their slumber until it is too late to awaken them in this life. But the Adept knows no more on earth, nor has he any higher powers here below, than any ordinary good man will know and be able to know when he has entered upon his fifth, or even his sixth, cyclical cycle. Our present race of men is yet in the fourth of the seven great cyclical rounds. Mankind is yet a child scarcely out of swaddling clothes, and the most exalted Adept of our age knows less than a child in the seventh round. And as mankind as a whole is still a child, so also is the individual man in his present state of development. Just as it cannot reasonably be expected that a small child, however gifted, should remember his whole life up to the hour of his birth, day by day, with all the varied impressions of each individual, and the different garments with which he was daily dressed; so also no “I” except that of an adept who has attained Samma-Sambuddha [sammā-sambuddha] — during which state the enlightened one surveys the whole sequence of his previous lives and all his births in other worlds — has been able to recall his many and varied individual lives. But this time must come one day! For every person who has not become so completely absorbed in sensual pleasure that he condemns himself to total destruction after a series of such sinful lives, this day will dawn as soon as he has attained the state of absolute freedom from all sin and desire, and then it will cost him no greater effort to remember all his past lives than it does for a person of our age to recall the individual days of his life!”

I would like to add a few words of explanation to an earlier passage about Kwan-yin. This divine power was later anthropomorphized by the Chinese Buddhist church leaders into a certain bisexual deity with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes, and called Kwan-shai-yin Bodhisattva, the deity of the voice; but in reality it was understood to be the voice of the divine consciousness hidden in man, ever present, the voice of his true self, which can only be awakened to full power and fully understood by extraordinary moral purity. Hence it is that Kwan-yin is called the son of Amitābhā-Buddha, who begot the Savior, the all-merciful Bodhisattva, the “voice” or “word” which is poured out everywhere, the “sound” which never dies away for eternity. While the Brahmins conclude from the eternity of the “sound” that the Vedas are eternity, the Buddhists conclude through synthesis that Amitabhā [Amitābha] is eternity, for he was the first to prove the eternity of the self-born Kwan-yin. Kwan-yin is synonymous with Vāchīshwara,^[55] or the voice of God of the Brahmins. Both come from the same original source, like the Logos of the Neo-Platonists of Greece; for the “deity that has appeared” and its “voice” are found in the true self of man, in his conscience, so that the true self is the invisible father, but the “voice of the self” is the son, and each of the two forms the relative and correlative to the other. Both Vāchīshwara and Kwan-yin played and still play an outstanding role in the initiation customs and the mysteries of the Brahmanic and Buddhist religions.

“I would like to specifically mention here that not only adepts, and even less only Brahmins, Buddhists or other “Asians” can become Bodhisattwas or Rabats [arhats], but in general all people of every nationality and every religion who lead a pure, holy life, provided that they zealously strive during their lives to work for the good of humanity.

(Sequel follows.)

III.

The teachings of the holy “Lha”.^[56]

“The forms under which any living being can attain reincarnation are of six kinds. The highest class is formed by the Lha, ‘spirits, most exalted beings, gods’; They are next in rank to the Buddhas, and inhabit the six heavenly regions. Two of these regions belong to the earth; the other four, however, which are considered to be higher dwellings, lie in the air, far above the earth.”

“[. . .] As a result of premature death, ‘Bardo’^[57] is prolonged. This is the intermediate state between death and a new reincarnation, which do not follow one another immediately; rather, there is a gap between the two, which is shorter for good people than for bad people. [. . .]” [p. 109.]

(Emil Schlagintweit. Buddhism in Tibet.)

The following information is compiled from Tibetan letters and manuscripts, or rather translated as word for word as the difficulties connected with the idiom permitted, which were sent to me [H.P.B.] in reply to certain questions about the erroneous ideas about Northern Buddhism or Lamaism which are widespread in the West. The information comes from a Gelung^[58] of the inner temple, a follower of the Bas-pa^[59] Dharma [doctrine], the secret doctrine.

“Our brothers living at Gya-Pheling [R.H.—See below note 62] in British India having drawn the attention of my Master to certain false and misleading statements allegedly circulating in Bod-Yul [region of Tibet] and Tibet with regard to the good teaching (secret doctrine) of our blessed Phag-pa^[60] Sang-gyas^[61] — the most holy Buddha — I have been instructed by the venerable Ngag-pa^[62] to give them an answer. I will comply with this order as far as our rules permit me to speak publicly on so sacred a subject. I cannot do more, for until the day has dawned on which our Pban-chhen-rin-po-chhe^[63] will be reborn in the land of the P-helings^[64] (or strangers) and will appear as the all-powerful Chom-dën-da,^[65] the overwhelmer, and will destroy with his mighty hand all the errors and ignorance of the ages, it would in any case be of little success if anyone were to attempt to eradicate these erroneous views.”

In Tibet there is a well-known prophecy of Tsong-ka-pa, to the effect that the true doctrine will be preserved in all its purity only so long as Tibet remains free from the intrusion of the Western nations, whose crude views on fundamental truth are sure to confuse and blind the followers of the good law. But when the Western world has become more mature in philosophy, then the incarnation of Pban-chhen-rin-pochhe [paṇchen rinpoche]—the great jewel of wisdom—will take place one of the Tesh Laumas [Tashi Lama], and the rays of truth will then illumine the whole world. Here we have the true key to the seclusion of Tibet.

Our correspondent continues:

“Of the many erroneous views which are propagated in regard to our Master, he permitted me to correct the following two: First, the error, common among the Ro-lang-pa spiritualists, that the followers of the good doctrine converse with and pay veneration to Ro-lang-pa spirits, or apparitions of dead men; and second, that the Bhanté brothers, or ‘Lha,’ as they are popularly called, are either spirits divested of their bodies, or gods.

“The first error is to be found in Buddha and Early Buddhism, for that book has propagated the erroneous view that Spiritualism has its roots in Buddhism. The second is to be found in the work, Succinct Extract of the Great Chaos of Tibetan Laws by the Capuchin friar Della Penna, and in the narratives of his companions, whose simple-minded calumnies on the religion and laws of Tibet were written in the last century, and recently republished in Mr. Markham’s “Tibet.”^[66]

“I will first of all address the first error,” writes our correspondent. “Neither the Buddhists of the North nor of the South, neither those in Ceylon, nor those in China, Japan or Tibet, profess the view prevailing in the West about the abilities and qualities of the ‘naked souls’ (those bound to the earth).” We reject without exception and unconditionally all senseless intercourse with the Ro-lang.^[67] For what are those beings who return? And what kind of creatures are those who can communicate with us at will either objectively or through physical manifestations? They are impure souls burdened with grave sins, ‘a-tasa-cas’; suicides, and those people who had to leave life too early through an accident and are compelled to remain in the earth’s atmosphere until the period of life established by their natural [intended or planned on] constitution has completely expired.

“No sane person, neither a Lama nor a Chhippa [philanthropist] — or a non-Buddhist — will defend the practice of necromancy, which, by natural instinct, is forbidden by all major Dharmas — religions or laws; and the intercourse [interaction] with and use of the powers of earthbound souls is nothing other than necromancy.

“Now the beings belonging to the second and third classes — suicides and victims of accidents — have not completed their natural [intended] lifespan and are consequently, although not necessarily of a malicious nature, earthbound. The soul that has been prematurely expelled from its dwelling is in an unnatural state; the original impulse by which the being had developed and entered earthly life has not been fulfilled — the necessary cycle has not been fully completed, but must nevertheless still be fully completed [by Law].

“These unfortunate beings, these voluntary or involuntary victims, are indeed earthbound, but are, so to speak, caught in the magnetic attraction of the earth. They do not feel themselves drawn to the living by an indomitable thirst for nourishment for their vital force, as the first class does. Since they are usually in a state of blindness and stupor, they usually have only the blind urge to be drawn back into the vortex of reincarnation as soon as possible. We call their state a false Bar-do^[68] — that is, the state between two incarnations. Depending on the karma of the individual — which is determined by his age and his merits in the last life — this period will be of longer or shorter duration.

“Only an overwhelmingly powerful attraction, such as a holy love for a bereaved person in great danger, can draw them back to the living of their own accord; but the magnetic power of a Ba-po^[69] or necromancer — I use this word intentionally, for the necromantic spell is Dzu-tul,^[70] or, as you say, a magnetic attraction — can compel them to appear in our circle. Such an incantation, however, is declared by all adherents of the good doctrine to be absolutely reprehensible; for a soul summoned in this way suffers terribly, although it does not appear itself, but only its image, which has been drawn or dragged out of itself. As a result of the premature, violent separation from its body, jang-khog,^[71] the animal soul, is still heavily laden with material parts — there has been no natural dissolution and separation of the coarser from the finer molecules — and the necromancer, by artificially forcing this separation, causes it to endure similar sufferings as if, to put it this way, our skin were flayed while we were still alive.

“If, therefore, the summoning of souls of the first class—those caught in grave sins—is very dangerous for the living, it is an indescribable cruelty towards the dead if the souls of the second and third classes are forced to appear.

“If someone has died a natural death, the situation is quite different. In this case the soul is almost entirely, and if it is very pure, even completely, outside the sphere accessible to the necromancer, and thus also outside the sphere of a circle of conjurers or spiritualists who are not even aware that they are really dealing with necromantic Sang-nyag [Sang-ngag]^[72] or magnetic conjurations. Depending on the karma acquired in the last life, the time of darkness — which mostly passes in a state of rigidity and insensitivity — will extend from a few minutes to an average of several weeks or even months. During this time the jang-khog [‘jang-khog’^[73]] — the animal soul — prepares itself in solemn rest either to pass into a higher sphere — if it has reached its seventh evolution as a human being — or for reincarnation in a higher form, if it has not yet completed the last hour.

“By no means is it willing or able at this time to communicate any thoughts to the living. But when, after this period of darkness, the new self enters the blissful realms of Devachan with full consciousness, when all earthly filth has fallen from it, and its spiritual eye clearly and uncloudedly surveys all the events and circumstances of its past life, then, beholding all those whom it had once loved on earth and by whom it had been loved in return, it can, as sometimes happens, draw up the spirits of the living to itself by the mere attraction of love, to commune with them, so that when they return to their normal state, they imagine that it has descended to them.

“There is, then, a very essential difference between our views and those of the Western Ro-lang-pa or Spiritualists as to what they believe they see and deal with in their meetings or in their unconscious necromancy. We say that these are only the physical remains and soulless remnants of the last personality, that which has been cast off, thrown away and left behind after the finer parts have passed into the great beyond.

“These remains retain a fraction of reason and memory, and as they undoubtedly once formed a part of the essence, they also possess a small part of its interests; but they are not the real essence. They consist of a refined matter, but are nevertheless of a material nature, and therefore sooner or later they must sink into abysses where they find the necessary conditions for their dissolution into atoms.

“All the other basic parts are detached from the dead body. After just a few hours the second principle — the life force — has completely died out and is freed from both the earthly and the etheric shell. The third basic part — the viable double — only dissolves completely when the last parts of the body decay. Now only the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh principles remain: the desire for the body, the human soul, the spirit soul and the pure spirit, which is a ray of light from the eternal. The last two, whether separated from the personal ego or in union with it, form the eternally continuing individuality and cannot perish. The rest — namely the astral ego and whatever will is still present in it — passes into a state of pregnancy before the physical body has completely decayed.

“To perform any conscious action during this state, the deceased must therefore possess the faculties of an adept, or be imbued with an intense, undying and holy love for some personality remaining on earth; otherwise the astral ego either becomes a bhūta — or ro-lang in Tibetan — or continues on its journey to higher spheres.

“In the former case, the Lha or “human spirit” can remain among the living for an indefinite period of time at will, but in the latter case the so-called “spirit” will only be able to delay and postpone its final passing for a short time; depending on whether its desire for the body lasts for a shorter or longer period due to the intensity of the longing for love that dominates the soul and its unwillingness to separate from the beloved.

“As soon as this will subsides and weakens, it will dissolve, and the spiritual self will lose its personality and all memory of it for a time, and will rise to higher regions. This is our teaching. No one can act as a guardian spirit of mortals except the chosen ones, the perfect ones, the Byang-tsiub^[74] or the Bodhisattvas alone — they who have understood the great secret of life and death — because they alone are able to extend their stay on earth after death as long as they want. Translated into common vernacular, this protection (“overshadowing”) is nothing other than being born again and again for the good of humanity!”

If the spiritualists did not attribute to every spiritual apparition that introduces itself under some name such as “Peter or John” the power to serve as a “guide and guardian spirit” to living persons, but restricted the power to use selected men or women as instruments of inspiration only to such Bodhisattvas or holy initiates — regardless of whether they were Buddhists or Christians, Brahmins or Muslims in earthly life — and in individual exceptional cases also to really outstandingly holy characters who still have a specific purpose to fulfill after their death, a really beneficial task to solve, then they would be nearer to the truth than from their present standpoint.

It is a sacrilege, and a sad sight to any one who has the slightest intuitive feeling for the awe-inspiring sacredness of the mystery of physical death, quite apart from the teachings of the Adepts, that the Spiritualists, according to their present method, should grant this sacred privilege to every “elemental” and “elemental” who appears, dressed in other people’s feathers, for no higher or better purpose than to say, “How are you, Mr. So-and-So?” or to drink tea and eat cake.

Della Penna further writes: “These chang-chub — the disciples of the chief of the saints — have not yet attained sainthood themselves, but they possess five virtues in the highest degree — love, both temporal and spiritual; perfect obedience to the law; extraordinary patience; unsurpassable zeal in the pursuit of perfection and the most sublime rapture.” [pp. 55-56]

I [We] just want to know how they can possess all these qualities, especially the last one — trance state — when they are supposed to be physically dead!

“These chang-chub have completed their course of life and are freed from further transformations (transmigrations); they only pass from the body of one lama to that of another; but the lama (by which is meant the Dalai Lama) is always and forever endowed with the soul of the same chang-chub, even if he lives in other bodies for the benefit of mankind and to teach them the law — which is the purpose why they do not yet want to become saints — since otherwise these bodies would have no possibility of teaching. Out of compassion and mercy they want to remain chang-chub in order to teach the living the law, in order to enable them to quickly complete the arduous path of their transmigrations. What is more, these chang-chub can, if they want, transport themselves to both this and other worlds, and at the same time reside in other places for the same purpose.

“This rather obscure description admits, in its inner sense, two facts: first, that the Tibetan Buddhists — we are speaking of the educated classes — do not believe in the return of departed spirits, for unless a soul is so purified during its earthly life that it rises to the state of Bodhisattvaship — the highest degree of perfection next to Buddha — then even saints in the ordinary sense of the word would not be able to teach and guide men after their death; — second, that while they actually reject the doctrines of creation, of God, of the soul — (in the Christian and spiritualistic sense) — and of a future life of the personality of the deceased, they nevertheless believe that man is endowed with such a powerful will that it depends on him alone to become a Bodhisattva and to acquire the power to direct his future existences into the paths of a physical or only a semi-material form.

“The followers of Lamaism believe in the indestructibility of matter, as an element. They reject the immortality and even the survival of the personal ego, because their doctrine holds out the survival of the individual ego alone—that is, of the total result of the sum of all those different personal egos which have been represented by this one ego during the long succession of different existences. The latter may also attain eternal survival—it should be noted that the word eternal is used by them only in the sense of the duration of a great cycle—eternal in relation to its total individuality, which, however, can only be achieved by attaining the state of a Dhyan-Chohan, a “celestial Buddha,” or, as the Christian Kabbalists express it, a planetary spirit or an Elohim, which are parts of the “conscious whole,” formed by the fusion of the intelligences in their universal totality; whereas Nirvana is the “unconscious whole.” He who becomes a Tong-pa-nyi^[75]—who has attained the state of absolute liberation from all desire and striving for personal life, and thus the highest state of a saint—lives in a state of non-existence, and can no longer help mortals. He is in ‘Nipang’^[76]; for he has reached the end of ‘Thar-lam’,^[77] the path of salvation or liberation from further wanderings. He is no longer able to take upon himself a Tul-pa^[78] [H.P.B. has Trul-pa]—i.e. a voluntary incarnation, either temporary or for a whole lifetime—in the body of a living human being, for he is a ‘Dang-ma’^[79] or an absolutely purified soul. From now on he is free from any danger of ‘Dal-jor’^[80] or reincarnation as a human being, for he has successfully navigated the seven forms of existence—only six are given to the uninitiated—which are subject to wandering. The book Khiu-ti says of him: “With complete equanimity he surveys the upward migrations through all spheres as a total period which includes all the individual, shorter periods of personal existence.”

“However, since it requires more courage to turn to being than to non-being, to choose life rather than death, even among the Bodhisattvas and Lhas there are few — indeed they are as rare to find as the flower Udambara^[81] — who voluntarily renounce the attainment of the happiness of perfect freedom and remain in their personal selves — either in forms visible or invisible to the human eye — in order to teach their weakened brothers and help them onwards.

“Some of these prolong their earthly life, though not to quite supernatural limits; others become Dhyan-Chohans, a class of planetary spirits or Devas, who are, as it were, the guardian angels of men, and the only one of the seven classes of the hierarchy of spirits of our system who retain their personality. Instead of reaping the fruits of their deeds, these holy Lhas sacrifice themselves in the invisible world, as the Sang-Gyas [R.H.—See above note 59], our Lord—(Buddha)—did on this earth, and remain in Devachan—that world of bliss which is nearest to the earth.”

Lucifer.

H.P. Blavatsky

Endnotes

^[1] [R.H.—This material is from three articles which appeared consecutively in Dr. Hartmann’s journal, Lotusblüten:

“Tibetan Teachings. From communications through H. P. Blavatsky.” [Tibetanische Lehren. Frei nach Mitteilungen durch H. P. Blavatsky. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 5, no. 31 (April 1895), 266-301 346-368.

“Tibetan Teachings. From communications through H. P. Blavatsky.” [Tibetanische Lehren. Frei nach Mitteilungen durch H. P. Blavatsky. II. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 5, no. 32 (May 1895), 346-368.

Tibetan Teachings. From communications through H. P. Blavatsky. [Tibetanische Lehren. Frei nach Mitteilungen durch H. P. Blavatsky. III. Die Lehren vom heiligen “Lha.” Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 5, no. 33 (June 1895), 424-443.

Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025. My comments may appear preceded by [R.H.—]

^[2] [Dr. Hartmann’s first note:] These teachings are largely written down from oral communications by H. P. Blavatsky, and contain many occult secrets formerly prohibited from publication and only recently authorized.

[As noted in H.P.B.’s original article in Lucifer, Vol. XV, Nos. 85-86, September and October, 1894, pp. 9-17 and 97-104, these teachings were:

“reviewed and corrected by two authorities . . . these two are: (1) H. Sumangala Unnanse, Buddhist High Priest of Adam’s Peak, Ceylong . . . the most learned expounder of Southern Buddhism; and (2) the Chohan-Lama of Rinch-cha-tze (Tibet) the Chief of the Archive-registrars of the secret Libraries of the Dalai and Ta-Shü-hlunpo Lamas-Rimboche . . . the latter, moreover, is a ‘Pan-chhen,’ or great teacher, one of the most learned theologians of Northern Buddhism and esoteric Lamaism . . .” The Chohan-Lama promised to write a reply in due course of time.

As is apparent from the very first paragraph of the present essay, the latter unquestionably contains the reply of the Chohan-Lama, or at least a portion of it. It is impossible to say why this reply was not published in The Theosophist at the time, even if it was not received until a number of months later. As appears from the Editorial Note appended at the end of this essay, “this study of ‘Tibetan Teachings’ is taken from a series of articles originally prepared for The Theosophist, but, for some reason or other, set aside, and never published,” until the two installments appeared in Lucifer of 1894. The Editors of Lucifer, moreover, express the hope “to be able to continue the series for some months.”
No one seems to know what became of the material which formed the continuation of these two installments of “Tibetan Teachings.” Their whereabouts have never yet been traced.
This essay is published in the present volume merely as a provisional place for it, seeing that no definite date can be ascribed to it, beyond its unquestionable connection with the article of H. P. B. spoken of above, and the fact that she speaks of it as being “a long-delayed promise fulfilled.” This might well indicate that the reply of the Chohan-Lama was not made available immediately after the request.—Compiler” [Boris de Zirkoff].

^[3] [R.H.—Comments from the translator. These teachings, for the most part contain a wealth of comments primarily by the Mahā Chohan, which appeared in H. P. Blavatsky’s magazine, Lucifer, as two articles, with more to be published, but never appeared. Blavatsky first hints about this material in “Esoteric Axioms and Spiritual Speculations.” (H. P. Blavatsky. The Theosophist 3, No. 4 (January 1882), 92-93.) Evidently Dr. Hartmann was among a few who were privileged to read them before they appeared in print: Lucifer XV, nos. 85-86, (September, October 1894), 9-17, 97-104. Republished in Blavatsky Collected Writings VI, 1883 — 1884 — 1885, edited by Boris de Zirkoff. The reader should be careful because at the end of the Boris’s insertions into the Blavatsky: Collected Writings, he added a “Notes on Tibetan Terms” in the form of transliteration and pronunciation of Tibetan terms, which may help the reader. However, there are errors, probably not due to his action, since I believe he did not know the Tibetan language. My insertions are preceded by “R.H.”

Dr. Hartmann published his translation into German (this series of three articles) one year later after the Lucifer printing, in 1895, of these teachings and other material, some by Annie Besant. Dr. Hartmann made valuable comments and that is the main reason for my German to English translation. German-speaking readers can of course refer to Dr. Hartmann’s German articles in his Lotusblüten. I have also made some notes mainly of the Tibetan words used in the Lucifer article.]

^[4] Source: “Tibetan Teachings. From communications through H. P. Blavatsky.” [Tibetanische Lehren. Frei nach Mitteilungen durch H. P. Blavatsky. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 5, no. 31 (April 1895), 266-301.

^[5] It is precisely those bodily organs which people most often abuse today to satisfy their sensual desires that are also the ones on which spiritual development depends. If our physiologists, physicians and theologians knew their mental functions, morality would have a sound basis. At the same time, however, this would open the way to practicing black magic; for anything that one knows how to use can be used for both good and evil purposes.

^[6] Compare F. Hartmann, “Magic, or the Law of Spirit in Nature.” Leipzig, 1894.

^[7] Lotusblüten, vol. I, page 249. [Die sieben Prinzipien oder Grundteile des Menschen. Von Annie Besant F. T. S.] [The seven principles or basic parts of man. By Annie Besant F.T.S.]

^[8] We prefer to substitute the well-known Sanskrit names for the Tibetan ones.

^[9] See: “Lotusblüten,” vol. I: “Die sieben Prinzipien.” [R.H.—“The Seven Principles.”] [R.H.—“etheric body” is the liṅga-śarīra or double, which is that portion of the physical plane consisting of the upper four sub-planes. This astral body was the earliest designation, but later changed to the description of the astral body during the Leadbeater-Besant period, came to be known as the desire body or kāma-rūpa.]

^[10] Lotusblüten, vol. IV: “Elementargeister.” [“Elemental Spirits.”]

^[11] Lotusblüten, vol. II: “Die Physiologie des Astralkörpers.” [R.H.—“The Physiology of the Astral Body.” I have translated Dr. Hartmann’s article, “Hatha Yoga. The Physiology of the Astral-body.” By, K. Narayanaswamy Aiyer. Lotusblüten 2, no 14 (August 1893), 797-823. It is available on https://franzhartmann.eu/ and https://spiritofthesunpublications.com]

^[12] [R.H.—During prenatal human birth, the etheric-double is the model or template for the building of the human physical fetus.]

^[13] There is talk in various books of an Indian “science of the breath” by which it is said that one can achieve quite astonishing things, and some have tried, but without success, to follow the instructions given there, by soon using the one, soon breathing through the other nostril. The reason for the failure is that this teaching does not speak of physical breathing through the lungs, but of a “spiritual” breathing of the soul through the astral body. This spiritual breathing cannot be forced by external things; but once the human being has reached the necessary level of spiritual development, it will happen of its own accord. This breath of spirit, which carries the creative power within itself, is what Rückert says:

“I see clearly enough what I need to see;

All creation lives by God’s breath of life;

How she received the breath is enveloped in night; But we praise God that they receive the breath.”

(“Die Weisheit des Brahmanen.” [“The Wisdom of the Brahman.”])

^[14] That sound and light are not two essentially different things, but only different manifestations of one and the same unitary power; in other words, there are two kinds of vibrations in ether, as explained by the oldest philosophers. “In the beginning was the word (the sound).” — “God spoke, and there was light.” The One whose manifestations we call “light” or “sound” is the source of existence on the spiritual plane. Perhaps the understanding of this teaching also explains the passage in Goethe’s “Faust”:

“The sun sounds in the old way

In brother spheres song contest,

And her prescribed journey

Complete them with Thunder Walk.” etc.

The “sound” that sounded at the creation of the world (at the beginning of our Manvantara) is still sounding today. This is what Meister Eckhart is referring to when he says: “If God were to refrain from expressing his eternal self even for a moment, heaven and earth would have to pass away.” (F. Hartmann, “The Secret Doctrine in the Christian Religion.” Leipzig, 1895.)

^[15] [R.H.—Sankaracharya, “Tattwa Bodha oder Daseinserkenntnis.” Translated from Sanskrit by F. Hartmann. Leipzig 1895.]

^[16] Schopenhauer, as he says himself, took this teaching from the Persian Oupnekhat, which is an excerpt from the Indian Vedas.

^[17] F. Hartmann, Magic, page 119.

^[18] “A man looks at God, an animal looks at the dust; From this what he is, everyone can see.”

^[19] [R.H.—Dr. Hartmann means the lower quaternary part of the human being is like the animal kingdom and has animal-like qualities.]

^[20] [R.H.—This is a basic premise of Buddhism, being that of impermanency.]

^[21] [R.H.—This is one of the essential but sometimes inherent teachings in The Secret Doctrine, Proem, page 18: “In its absoluteness, the Once Principle under its two aspects (of Parabrahman and Mūlaprakṛiti) is sexless, unconditioned and eternal.” Thus, matter is eternal but its various forms or manifestations are not.]

^[22] In the Catholic Church, therefore, the ceremony of “Holy Communion” (derived from the Buddhism of the North) is higher than all dogmatics and sermons. It is a symbol of the union of the human soul with God through the transformation of Kāma-Manas into Ātma-Buddhi-Manas. In the cold, ignorant and all-doubting Protestant sects, this symbol has lost its high meaning, and instead of a union of the soul with God, it now only means a fraternization of the personalities present in the church, which is only simulated within the church, and no longer exists when you come out the door.

^[23] Sankaracharya [Śaṅkarācārya], “Tattva Bodha.” Leipzig.

^[24] Hence the name “Pontifex maximus.” The Pope is to represent in the church the builder of the bridge through which man reaches to his God.

^[25] [R.H.—This is called in theosophical literature, the lower quaternary. Teachings on this topic can be found but must be occultly read throughout the Hindu, such as the purāṇas and other works such as the gṛhastha texts dealing with home and family or householder, and Zoroastrian dealing with maintaining the fire and Buddhist literature, if one reads carefully. Occultly read, the Greek and Hermetic texts elaborated upon the same. Likewise, the teachings on the Higher Triad (ātma-buddhi-manas) or eternal parts in man, can be found there. Thus, this is the significance that man is a seven-fold being or composed of three flames (ātma-buddhi-manas) (and four wicks (the lower quaternary).]

^[26] Anyone who understands this will also see how foolish it was to attack H. P. Blavatsky because of her personal peculiarities and to want to make the value of the teachings she has given us dependent on their infallibility. This would mean judging a work of art by the form of the tool with which it was made. The teachings that have come to us through H. P. Blavatsky are not invented by H. P. Blavatsky, and are not intended to be blindly believed, but to show us the way to truth once it is grasped. They are the teachings of the Asiatic Masters, and what binds the Master to his student is not the student’s learning, nor the elegance of manners, but the mutual trust, the student’s devotion, and the organization necessary for the effect.

^[27] Source: “Tibetan teachings. From communications through H. P. Blavatsky.” [Tibetanische Lehren. Frei nach Mitteilungen durch H. P. Blavatsky. II. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 5, no. 32 (May 1895), 346-368.

^[28] [R.H.—In English: Detailed commentary on Udānavarga [Avadānavarga], a collection of verses from the Buddhist canon or Word of the Buddha, the Kangyur (bka’ ’gyur).]

^[29] [R.H.—Dalai Lama, Tib. and Mongolian, ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་]

^[30] [R.H.—Tashi-lhun-po, Tib. བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་; transliterated, bKra-śis-lhun-po;  pronounced, tashi-lhun-bo. Boris’ “Notes on Tibetan Terms’ pronunciation is incorrect.]

^[31] [R.H.—Rinpoche, Tib. རིན་པོ་ཆེ་; pronounced: rin-bo-chhe. Boris’ “Notes on Tibetan Terms’ pronunciation is incorrect.]

^[32] [R.H.—Peary Chand Mitra (22 July 1814–23 November 1883). Born and died in Calcutta (Kolkatta), India]

^[33] [R.H.—Byang-chub = the purified-realized (Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་, pronounced: chang-chup. Equivalent to the Sanskrit, Bodhisattva. Boris’ “Notes on Tibetan Terms’ pronunciation is incorrect. He used the pronunciation rule as if there was a prefix, or surmount or previous syllable preceding the “byang.” but there is not one.]

^[34] [R.H.— the Kangyur (bka’ ’gyur, བཀའ་འགྱུར་), pronounced “ḡa gyur” (bka’ = speech, words of a respected person; ’gyur = to be translated). Boris’ “Notes on Tibetan Terms’ pronunciation is incorrect for the Tibetan.]

^[35] [R.H.—Tibetan, ལྷ་ = Lha for the Sanskrit, deva. Means a god, deity, or divine. (Note ལྷ་ས་ lha sa = Lhasa; capital of Tibet]

^[36] [R.H.—Boris de Zirkoff inserted a footnote at page 97, the Collected Writings printing:

 

“This excerpt is a translation from pages 54-55 of an account by Fra Francesco Orazio della Penna di Billi, entitled: Breve notizia del regno del Thibet, 1730, republished in Paris, in 1835, with notes by Klaproth, in the Nouveau Journal Asiatique.—Comp.”]

^[37] [R.H.—The word is possibly Lhasa.]

^[38] [R.H.—Byang-chub, Tib., spelled: བྱང་ཆུབ་, pronounced: chang-chup. See my note 33.]

^[39] [R.H.—Tibetan commentaries, on usually, the Kangyur. Written in Tibetan as བསྟན་འགྱུར་. Transliteration: Bstan-’gyur; pronounced den-gyur.]

^[40] [R.H.—More correctly, Sanskrit, Śākya Thubpa; Tibetan, transliterated: shā kya thub pa, ཤཱ་ཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་, pronounced śākya thup ba = Sage of the Śākyas, Gautama Buddha. Boris’ “Notes on Tibetan Terms’ pronunciation is incorrect.]

^[41] [R.H.—Tib., written, Sans-rgyas; pronounced sang-gyë. (The ë is pronounced like the “e” in the word ledge.]

^[42] [R.H.—Sanskrit, Aśoka]

^[43] [R.H.—There is the sect of pre-Buddhist (pre-Gautama Buddha appearance), located in Sikkim and Bhutan, known as Bon-po, pronounced pon-bo. See note about them below. It is possible they were very pure during the time of their formation, very very anciently with a previous Buddha, such as the Atlantean root-race, but over time became corrupted, having dabbled with black magic, hypnosis, etc.. This is the reason a new Buddha makes an appearance every sub-root race, to freshen the Flower of Wisdom.]

^[44] [R.H.—Mānasasarovara, Tibet]

^[45] [R.H.—The later Atlantean and early Aryan root race peoples’ skin color were of a wide color range. If one looks at the populace in India today, you can still see evidence of this.]

^[46] [R.H.—gdams ngag, or gdams ṅag གདམས་ངག་, pronounced tam-ngak. Meaning guidance or instruction. From the Sanskrit, upadeśa. Boris’ “Notes on Tibetan Terms’ pronunciation is incorrect due to his transliteration of the text is not correct, but it is based on Blavatsky’s written transliteration or phonetics. Therefore, Boris’ definition is also not correct. This of course, threw Dr. Hartmann off the mark.]

^[47] [R.H.—Sanskrit, anuttarā samyak-saṃbodhi = supreme perfect enlightenment (of a Buddha).]

^[48] [R.H.—The bonze, or Chinese anchorite, an oriental epic novel. Jin Cheng (Chinese, 1878–1926)]

^[49] [R.H.—The Capuchin monk, Francesco della Penna (1680-1747 in Patan, Nepal). Arrived in Lhasa, June 12, 1707. Composed a Tibetan-Italian dictionary, Tibetan-Italian-Tibetan Dictionary of Fr. Orazio della Penna. (See a work about his dictionary, The Tibetan-Italian-Tibetan Dictionary of Fr. Orazio della Penna (1680–1745). An Untapped Resource for the History of Tibetan Language, Society and Early Buddhist-Christian Interreligious Contacts. Federica Venturi. Revue d’Études Tibétaines, 2023. He wrote the Succint Extract of the Great Chaos of Tibetan Laws, of which are mentioned further on.]

^[50] [R.H.—Pāli, an honorific title to superiors of Buddhist monks and nuns among the sangha (saṅha). The Buddha was addressed as Bhagavān but his disciples also addressed him as Bhante. Thus, the word exists in some form within the northern and southern schools of Buddhism. The spelling of the word can either be Pāli, Hindī or Sanskrit since there is the vowel “e” at the end. There is no vowel “e” in the Tibetan language. The word is equivalent to the Sanskrit, bhavantaḥ.]

^[51] [R.H.—Amitābha Buddha, meaning boundless, infinite light, འོད་དཔག་མེད་, ’od dpag med, pronounced od-bag-me. Hartmann and H.P.B. spell it, Ho-pahme]

^[52] [R.H.—See note 33.]

^[53] [R.H—Pāli, Sanskrit, anuttara samyak-saṃbodhi.]

^[54] [R.H.—From, “Ro-Langs: The Tibetan Zombie” by Turrell Wylie, History of Religions, vol. 4, no. 1 (Summer, 1964),  The University of Chicago Press, 69-80:

“In the voodoo cult of the West Indies, a zombie is a corpse which has been brought into a state of animation through supernatural power by a necromancer. Zombies are not, however, unique to Caribbean cultures. Tibet has its own zombie, known as ro-langs. Ro is the general word for “corpse” and langs is the perfect tense for the verb “to rise up”; thus ro-langs literally means “a risen corpse.”

Two types of ro-langs are found in Tibetan cultural tradition. The first, which I shall call the tantric type, is a corpse activated through a necromantic ritual for personal reasons. An illustration of this type is found in the religious history written by Kun-dga’-snying-po.[2]

 

[2] Two types of ro-langs are found in Tibetan cultural tradition. The first, which I shall call the tantric type, is a corpse activated through a necromantic ritual for personal reasons. An illustration of this type is found in the religious history written by Kun-dga’-snying-po (1575-?), better known as Tāranātha, composed (ca. 1608) an account of the rise of Buddhism in India titled: Dam-pa’i chos rin-po-che phags-pa’i yul-du ji-ltar dar-ba’i tshul-gsal-bar ston-pa dgos-‘dod ‘byung, which was translated by A. Schiefner as Tāranātha’s Geschichte des Buddhismus in Indien (St. Petersburg, 1869). On Tāranātha, see Giuseppe Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls (Rome, 1949), I, 128 ff., 163-64, and 197 etc.]

^[55] [R.H.—Sanskrit, vāg īśvara, वागीश्वर ]

^[56] Source: Tibetan teachings. From communications through H. P. Blavatsky. [Tibetanische Lehren. Frei nach Mitteilungen durch H. P. Blavatsky. III. Die Lehren vom heiligen “Lha.” Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 5, no. 33 (June 1895), 424-443

^[57] [R.H.—The Tibetan word, written as bar do, བར་དོ་ representing the Sanskrit word, antarābhava, meaning “being in the middle, or intermediate state of existence, after physical death. Most people pronounce it incorrectly as bardo. This Tibetan compound is pronounced, par-to. Boris’ entry is not correct.]

^[58] [R.H.—Tibetan, dGe-sloṅ, a compound, is pronounced, ge long (The “e” as the ay in way, the s in the second word of the compound is silent. A Tibetan Buddhist monk.]

^[59] [R.H.—Bas-pa, Tib., written, sBas-ba. From the Tibetan, སྦ་བ་, “to conceal, in possession of protection.” Pronounced, pa-pa (the two “s” are silent.]

^[60] [R.H.—Tib., written ’Phags-pa, འཕགས་པ་ = Sanskrit, ārya, udgata, meaning “noble.” Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary. The Uma Institute for Tibetan Studies), p. 499, meaning: superior; noble; one who has risen above the ordinary; ‘phags-pa, in Tibetan script, འཕགས་པ་ = Sanskrit, ārya (Chandra, Lokesh, Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary, Kyoto, Rinsen Book Co.) (compact edition), 1982, p. 1581)]

^[61] [R.H.—Tibetan meaning, superior, equivalent to the Sanskrit, ārya Tibetan written, Sang-rgye. It is pronounced Sang-gye (the r is silent. It may H.P.B. is referring to the Buddha, here, as it referring to the Good Doctrine and the Holy Buddha.]

^[62] [R.H.—A reference to a practitioner of mantra. Spelled, sngags pa སྔགས་པ་, pronounced ngak-ba (the surmounted s is silent; Skt. mantrī.]

^[63] [R.H.—Tibetan, “paṇ-chen rin-po-che,”, པཎ་ཆེན་ – རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ = Anglicized, paṇ chen – rin bo che. Pronounced, “benchen rin-bo-chhe”. The first n is pronounced as in “ben”. Also has the form of Tashi Lama.]

^[64] [R.H.—Pheling = Philing, means foreigner. Tib. I found ཕེ་རིང་, phe ring = foreign, European. See Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary. The Uma Institute for Tibetan Studies, p. 485.

^[65] [R.H.—Tibetan, this is the beginning of a Tibetan mantra, part of the shorter heart sūtra or Buddha’s Name Mantra: Chom Dan Da De Zhin Sheg Pa Dra Chom Pa Yang Dag Par Dzog Pai Sang Gya Rin Chhen Tsug Tor Chan La Chhag Tshal Lo. Conversion of Sanskrit to Tibetan in mantras can be difficult to distinguish or pronounce in Tibetan, which can be apparent when you hear a Tibetan enunciated the mantra. The first three syllabled word of concern is, “To Bhagavan,” written in Tibetan as, བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་. It is pronounced “chom den da.”]

^[66] [R.H.—I insert Boris de Zirkoff’s footnote on page 106 from the Blavatsky: Collected Writings, vol. VI:

 

“The title of Della Penna’s work, as given here, does not seem to correspond to the Italian original, although there is very little doubt that it is the same work that is meant, as another quoted passage further on clearly shows. As to the second work referred to, it is most likely the one entitled, Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa. Edited by Clements Robert Markham, London, 1876. 8vo. There seems to be no other work on Tibet written by Sir C. R. Markham (1830-1916), the famous geographer and traveller.—Compiler.”]

^[67] [R.H.—See the earlier endnote 53.]

^[68] [R.H.—The Tibetan word, written as bar do, བར་དོ་ representing the Sanskrit word, antarābhava, meaning “being in the middle, or intermediate state of existence, after physical death. Most people pronounce it incorrectly as bardo. This Tibetan compound is pronounced, par-to. Boris’ entry is not correct.]

^[69] [R.H.—Tibetan, for Bon, བོན་. The addition of po པོ་ means “follower of”, thus, བོན་པོ་, the people of the aboriginal part of Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet. They practice necromancy. They oppose the reforms of Tsong-kha-pa. The Ri-mé movement within Tibetan Buddhism holds a more tolerant view towards Bon, however there is no evidence that the Bon, even though they say they do, revere the Buddha. It was the Tibetan scholar, David Snellgrove, who pushed for such tolerance. Boris’ pronunciation is incorrect. It is pronounced, pon-bo. Boris’ is not correct.]

^[70] [R.H.—Tibetan, written, anglicized rDzu-’phrul. Written, རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་. Pronounced, Tzu-phrul (uses the special rule when a subscribed “r” appears in a word). Defined as magical emanation or psychic power.]

^[71] [R.H.—Tibetan, byaṅ-khog, བྱང་ཁོག, pronounced jang-khok, the animal soul. Used by the necromancer (Ba-po) to prematurely, artificially cause separation. Literally means, inside the body.]

^[72] [R.H.—Tibetan, written: gSaṅ-sṅags, གསང་སྔགས་. Pronounced as sang ngak (the initial g is silent in the “gSaṅ” and the two  “s” are silent.) Defined as: secret mantra, magnetic incantation.]

^[73] [R.H.—Tibetan. See previous note 69: byaṅ-khog.]

^[74] [R.H.—Byang-chub = purified-realized. Tibetan, written བྱང་ཆུབ་, pronounced: chang-chup.]

^[75] [R.H.—Tong-pa-nyi is Tibetan. Anglicized as: sToṅ-pa-ñid. Written as, སྡོང་པ་ཉིད. The s is a secondary superscript and is silent preceding the T, which is the base letter. It is pronounced as Tong-ba-nyi. The final d is silent. Meanings: a stage of enlightenment; also, Plēroma, Space.]

^[76] [R.H.—Chinese: Nipang, (Pinyin: nièpán. Boris’ “Notes on Tibetan Terms” has “Chinese: (equivalent of Nirvâṇa).

^[77] [R.H.—Thar-lam, Tibetan, written and pronounced as ཐར་ལམ་. Equivalent to the Sanskrit compound, mokṣa-mārga. Meaning, the path of liberation or release.]

^[78] [R.H.—Tibetan, Trul-pa. Written sPrul-pa, སྤྲུལ་པ. Pronounced with unaspirated, high prūl-ba. Meaning deliberate incarnation. Equivalent to the Sanskrit, nirmita. David-Néel described tulpas, in her Magic and Mystery in Tibet (1993) as “magic formations generated by a powerful concentration of thought.”

^[79] [R.H.—Tibetan, Dwangs-ma, དྭངས་མ་. Pronounced, Dang-ma or Daṅg-ma. In the Tibetan-Sanskrit-Dictionary, p. 338. The Uma Institute for Tibetan Studies, is དྭངས་མ་, dwangs ma, meaning main or clear.

The Bon founder of the termas, was Dangma Lhungyel. Dangma Lhungyel was to have discovered the seventeen Dzogchen tantras buried by Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo, the latter of whom worked on the Mahāvyutpatti Great Dictionary project. There is also the spelling, ལྡང་མ་, ldang ma, rise up; or  ལྡངས་མ་ ldangs ma.

^[80] [R.H.—Tibetan, spelled Dal-‘byor, written དལ་འབྱོར་, pronounced Daljor (special Tibetan grammatical rule of pronunciation). Means “leisure and fortune.” Tibetan-Sanskrit-Dictionary. The Uma Institute for Tibetan Studies, p. 342.

^[81] [R.H.—There is the uḍumbara fig, Ficus racemosa. After pollination, the flower is hidden inside the fruit, hence the Buddhist tradition. There is also the Uḍumbara which refers to the rare flower of the blue lotus, the Nymphaea caerulea. Vedic sacrifices use uḍumbara wood for the sacrifices, such as for the ladle. In the Pāli Buddhist tradition, in their earliest texts, the the Koṇāgamana Buddha is said to have sat under the uḍumbara tree where he attained enlightenment. Likewise, Gautama Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment under a Ficus religiosa.