#collected writings

[blessthishouse]

[ID: poem reading,

Response (For Eileen) by Bob Kaufman

“Sleep little one, sleep for me

The deep sleep of love.

You are loved, awake or dreaming.

You are loved.

Dancing winds will sing for you,

Ancient gods will pray for you,

A poor lost poet will love you,

As stars appear

In the dark

Skies.”

/end ID]

[pathofregeneration]

Spiritual Progress — part III

“Many persons seem to think that adeptship is not so much the results of radical development as of additional construction; they seem to imagine that an Adept is a man, who, by going through a certain plainly defined course of training, consisting of minute attention to a set of arbitrary rules, acquires first one power and then another; and when he has attained a certain number of these powers is forthwith dubbed an adept. Acting on this mistaken idea they fancy that the first thing to be done towards attaining adeptship is to acquire ‘powers’—clairvoyance and the power of leaving the physical body and travelling to a distance, are among those which fascinate the most.

To those who wish to acquire such powers for their own private advantage, we have nothing to say; they fall under the condemnation of all who act for purely selfish ends. But there are others, who, mistaking effect for cause, honestly think that the acquirement of abnormal powers is the only road to spiritual advancement. These look upon our [Theosophical] Society as merely the readiest means to enable them to gain knowledge in this direction, considering it as a sort of occult academy, an institution established to afford facilities for the instruction of would-be miracle-workers. In spite of repeated protests and warnings, there are some minds in whom this notion seems ineradicably fixed, and they are loud in their expressions of disappointment when they find that what had been previously told them is perfectly true; that the Society was founded to teach no new and easy paths to the acquisition of ‘powers’; and that its only mission is to re-kindle the torch of truth, so long extinguished for all but the very few, and to keep that truth alive by the formation of a fraternal union of mankind, the only soil in which the good seed can grow. The Theosophical Society does indeed desire to promote the spiritual growth of every individual who comes within its influence, but its methods are those of the ancient Rishis, its tenets those of the oldest Esotericism; it is no dispenser of patent nostrums composed of violent remedies which no honest healer would dare to use.

In this connection we would warn all our members, and others who are seeking spiritual knowledge, to beware of persons offering to teach them easy methods of acquiring psychic gifts; such gifts (laukika) are indeed comparatively easy of acquirement by artificial means, but fade out as soon as the nerve-stimulus exhausts itself. The real seership and adeptship which is accompanied by true psychic development (lokothra), once reached, is never lost.

It appears that various societies have sprung into existence since the foundation of the Theosophical Society, profiting by the interest the latter has awakened in matters of psychic research, and endeavouring to gain members by promising them easy acquirement of psychic powers. In India we have long been familiar with the existence of hosts of sham ascetics of all descriptions, and we fear that there is fresh danger in this direction, here [in India], as well as in Europe and America. We only hope that none of our members, dazzled by brilliant promises, will allow themselves to be taken in by self-deluded dreamers, or, it may be, wilful deceivers.”

— H.P. Blavatsky, Collected Writings

* * *

Shiva Ascetic in Levitation (c. 1820) — from the series Ascetics Performing Tapas, Collection of the British Museum

[commetombeunarbre]

Death has a very black reputation but, actually, to die is a perfectly normal thing to do.

[universitybookstore]

I haven't written anything in so long, that I'm afraid that I will forget how to use the typewriter, if this keeps up.

Jane Bowles

[pathofregeneration]

Spiritual Progress — part II

“And this is how it is, in the course of our lives; the trouble that comes upon us is always just the one we feel to be the hardest that could possibly happen—it is always the one thing we feel we cannot possibly bear. If we look at it from a wider point of view, we shall see that we are trying to burst through our shell at its one vulnerable point; that our growth, to be real growth, and not the collective result of a series of excrescences, must progress evenly throughout, just as the body of a child grows, not first the head and then a hand, followed perhaps by a leg; but in all directions at once, regularly and imperceptibly. Man’s tendency is to cultivate each part separately, neglecting the others in the meantime—every crushing pain is caused by the expansion of some neglected part, which expansion is rendered more difficult by the effects of the cultivation bestowed elsewhere.

Evil is often the result of over-anxiety, and men are always trying to do too much, they are not content to leave well alone, to do always just what the occasion demands and no more, they exaggerate every action and so produce karma to be worked out in a future birth.

One of the subtlest forms of this evil is the hope and desire of reward. Many there are who, albeit often unconsciously, are yet spoiling all their efforts by entertaining this idea of reward, and allowing it to become an active factor in their lives and so leaving the door open to anxiety, doubt, fear, despondency—failure.

The goal of the aspirant for spiritual wisdom is entrance upon a higher plane of existence; he is to become a new man, more perfect in every way than he is at present, and if he succeeds, his capabilities and faculties will receive a corresponding increase of range and power, just as in the visible world we find that each stage in the evolutionary scale is marked by increase of capacity. This is how it is that the Adept becomes endowed with marvellous powers that have been so often described, but the main point to be remembered is, that these powers are the natural accompaniments of existence on a higher plane of evolution, just as the ordinary human faculties are the natural accompaniments of existence on the ordinary human plane.”

— H.P. Blavatsky, Collected Writings

* * *

Prince Siddhattha’s Great Renunciation in search of Truth and Peace Illustration from The Life of Buddha in Pictures by the Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple in Penang

[universitybookstore]

New in the Library of America, a neglected American classic: Collected Writings, by Jane Bowles.  Now included in one handsome volume: Two Serious Ladies, In the Summer House, Stories and Other Writings, and a selection of the writer’s letters.  Gorgeous.

[ravens-junk-journal]

An example of writings collected

His hands were moving more now, one of them traveling to your front, palm pressing against your lower stomach to push you firmer against his hips. The other moving up, circling your ribs just under your breasts, and holy shit, his touch was delicious.