Introduction to the Voice of the Silence H. P. Blavatsky 1/4

Blavatsky's The Voice of the Silence has established itself a classic of spiritual guidance, providing inspiration to many since it's publication in 1889. It contains many Hinduistic and Buddhistic elements, see Bhagavad Gita - Theosophical Bibliography, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras,  Buddhism of H. P. Blavatsky, Henk J. Spierenbur. For a full commentary, see https://universaltheosophy.com/mca/exploring-the-voice-of-the-silence/

In 1927 the staff of the 9th Panchen Lama Tub-ten Cho-gyi Nyima helped Theosophists put out the "Peking Edition" of The Voice of the Silence and he wrote a short dedication. (Blavatsky H.P. The Voice of the Silence, ed. Alice Cleather and Basil Crump. Peking: Chinese Buddhist Research Society, 1927. – P. 113).  Zen Buddhism scholar D. T. Suzuki wrote: “The Voice of the Silence is true Mahayanistic doctrine. Undoubtedly, Madame Blavatsky had in some way been initiated into the deeper side of Mahayana teachings and then gave out what she deemed wise to the Western world as theosophy." (“The Eastern Buddhist” vol. V no.4 July 1931). The 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso wrote:"I believe that this book has strongly influenced many sincere seekers and aspirants to the wisdom and compassion of the Bodhisattva Path." (Blavatsky Helena The Voice of the Silence. Centenary edition. Santa Barbara: Concord Grove Press, 1989. // Foreword by the 14th Dalai Lama).

Preface

1- The following pages are derived from “The Book of the Golden Precepts,” one of the works put into the hands of mystic students in the East. The knowledge of them is obligatory in that school, the teachings of which are accepted by many Theosophists. Therefore, as I know many of these Precepts by heart, the work of translating has been relatively an easy task for me.

When she later left the Theosophical Society, Mabel Collins began to maintain that she had written the book entirely of her own inspiration and volition, to which HPB replied in a circulated letter of 1889:

“If she is the sole author of Light on the Path, how comes it that she, ignorant of Sanskrit and having never seen the Golden Precepts, could use so many sentences bodily enshrined in that purely Occult work? . . . “Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters it must have lost its power to wound.” . . . “Seek in the heart the source of evil and expunge it.” These are aphorisms as old as the Book of the Golden Precepts, from which they radiated – “on the walls” – and thence into Light on the Path.” (Blavatsky, CollectedWritings (Extracts from “Lucifer,”“Light,”and Elsewhere) vol. XI, pp. 313-30.)

2- It is well known that, in India, the methods of psychic development differ with the Gurus (teachers or masters), not only because of their belonging to different schools of philosophy, of which there are six, but because every Guru has his own system, which he generally keeps very secret. But beyond the Himalayas the method in the Esoteric Schools does not differ, unless the Guru is simply a Lama, but little more learned than those he teaches.

In the former countries these three Universes were allegorized, in exoteric teachings, by the three trinities emanating from the Central eternal germ and forming with it a Supreme Unity: the initial, the manifested, and the Creative Triad, or the three in One. The last is but the symbol, in its concrete expression, of the first ideal two. Hence Esoteric philosophy passes over the necessarianism of this purely metaphysical conception, and calls the first one, only, the Ever Existing. This is the view of every one of the six great schools of Indian philosophy — the six principles of that unit body of Wisdom of which the “gnosis,” the hidden knowledge, is the seventh. (Blavatsky, Helena, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 278)

3- The work from which I here translate forms part of the same series as that from which the “Stanzas” of the Book of Dzyan were taken, on which the Secret Doctrine is based. Together with the great mystic work called Paramârtha, which, the legend of Nâgârjuna tells us, was delivered to the great Arhat by the Nâgas or “Serpents” (in truth a name given to the ancient Initiates), the “Book of the Golden Precepts” claims the same origin.

“The allegory that regarded Nâgârjuna’s “Paramârtha” as a gift from the Nâgas (Serpents) shows that he received his teachings from the secret school of adepts, and that the real tenets are therefore kept secret.” — (Blavatsy, Helena. Theosophical Glossary, Mâdhyamikas)

Blavatsky, Collected Writings, 14, 285:

Nāgārjuna [a “mythological” personage “without any real existence,” the learned German scholar thinks] received the book Paramārtha, or according to others, the book Avatamsaka, from the Nāgas, fabulous creatures of the nature of serpents, who occupy a place among the beings superior to man, and are regarded as protectors of the law of the Buddha. To these spiritual beings Śākyamumi is said to have taught a more philosophical religious system than to men, who were not sufficiently advanced to understand it at the time of his appearance.*

* Buddhism in Tibet, p. 31. [London, Trübner, 1863; also London, Susil Gupta,

1968. Paramārtha means the Prajnā-Pāramitā Sūtras.]

4- Yet its maxims and ideas, however noble and original, are often found under different forms in Sanskrit works, such as the Jñâneśvari, that superb mystic treatise in which Krishna describes to Arjuna in glowing colours the condition of a fully illumined Yogi; and again in certain Upanishads. This is but natural, since most, if not all, of the greatest Arhats, the first followers of Gautama Buddha were Hindus and Âryans, not Mongolians, especially those who emigrated into Tibet. The works left by Âryâsanga alone are very numerous.

The Dnyaneshwari, also referred to as Jnaneshwari or Bhavartha Deepika is a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita written by the Marathi saint and poet Dnyaneshwar in 1290 CE. Dnyaneshwar (born 1275) lived a short life of 21 years, and this commentary is notable to have been composed in his teens. The text is the oldest surviving literary work in the Marathi language, one that inspired major Bhakti movement saint-poets such as Eknath and Tukaram of the Varkari (Vithoba) tradition.The Dnyaneshwari interprets the Bhagavad Gita in the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Hinduism.The philosophical depth of the text has been praised for its aesthetic as well as scholarly value. (Dnyandev; Pradhan, Vitthal Ganesh (1987), Lambert, Hester Marjorie (ed.), Dnyaneshwari : Bhāvārthadipikā, State University of New York Press, p. x-xi)

Asaṅga (fl. 4th century C.E.) was “one of the most important spiritual figures” of Mahayana Buddhism and the “founder of the Yogachara school”. Traditionally, he and his half-brother Vasubandhu are regarded as the major classical Indian Sanskrit exponents of Mahayana Abhidharma, Vijñanavada (awareness only) thought and Mahayana teachings on the bodhisattva path. (Asanga, The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed Enlightenment: A Complete Translation of the Bodhisattvabhumi, Shambhala Publications, 2016, Translator’s introduction.)

5- The original Precepts are engraved on thin oblong squares; copies very often on discs. These discs, or plates, are generally preserved on the altars of the temples attached to centres where the so-called “contemplative” or Mahâyâna (Yogâchâra) schools are established. They are written variously, sometimes in Tibetan but mostly in ideographs. The sacerdotal language (Senzar), besides an alphabet of its own, may be rendered in several modes of writing in cypher characters, which partake more of the nature of ideographs than of syllables. Another method (lug, in Tibetan) is to use the numerals and colours, each of which corresponds to a letter of the Tibetan alphabet (thirty simple and seventy-four compound letters) thus forming a complete cryptographic alphabet.

When the ideographs are used there is a definite mode of reading the text; as in this case the symbols and signs used in astrology, namely the twelve zodiacal animals and the seven primary colours, each a triplet in shade, i.e. the light, the primary, and the dark — stand for the thirty-three letters of the simple alphabet, for words and sentences. For in this method, the twelve “animals” five times repeated and coupled with the five elements and the seven colours, furnish a whole alphabet composed of sixty sacred letters and twelve signs.

6- The Book of the Golden Precepts — some of which are pre-Buddhistic while others belong to a later date — contains about ninety distinct little treatises. Of these I learnt thirty-nine by heart, years ago. To translate the rest, I should have to resort to notes scattered among a too large number of papers and memoranda collected for the last twenty years and never put in order, to make of it by any means an easy task. Nor could they be all translated and given to a world too selfish and too much attached to objects of sense to be in any way prepared to receive such exalted ethics in the right spirit. For, unless a man perseveres seriously in the pursuit of self-knowledge, he will never lend a willing ear to advice of this nature.

Memorization is a significant part of a monk’s daily schedule, and mainly serves three purposes: memorizing philosophical texts for debate, memorizing prayers and rituals, and memorizing practical, advice-oriented texts. Each monk is free to choose how much he emphasizes any of these three. (Ven. Tenzin Gache (Brian Roiter) Memorization: Beneficial Exercise for the Mind)

7- And yet such ethics fill volumes upon volumes in Eastern literature, especially in the Upanishads. “Kill out all desire of life,” says Krishna to Arjuna. That desire lingers only in the body, the vehicle of the embodied Self, not in the SELF which is “eternal, indestructible, which kills not nor is it killed” (Katha Upanishad). “Kill out sensation,” teaches Sutta Nipâta; “look alike on pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat.” Again, “Seek shelter in the eternal alone” (ibid). “Destroy the sense of separateness,” repeats Krishna under every form. “The Mind (Manas) which follows the rambling senses, makes the Soul (Buddhi) as helpless as the boat which the wind leads astray upon the waters” (Bhagavadgîtâ II. 70).

Below are some passages that are similar to the passages Blavatsky quotes :

So knowing the supreme,
And sustaining the self with Self,
Slay the foe whose form is desire,
So hard to conquer, Arjuna. (B.G., 3.43)

The seer (Atman, Self) is not born, nor does he die,
He does not originate from anybody, nor does he become anybody,
Eternal, ancient one, he remains eternal,
he is not killed, even though the body is killed.

If the killer thinks that he kills,
if the killed thinks that he is killed,
they do not understand;
for this one does not kill, nor is that one killed.

The Self (Atman), smaller than small, greater than great,
is hidden in the heart of each creature,
Free from avarice, free from grief, peaceful and content,
he sees the supreme glory of Atman.

(Katha Upanishad, 1.2.18-1.2.20)

Detached from thoughts of sense-desire, all fetters overpassed, delight-in-being quite destroyed—who in the deep sinks not. (SN 1.9 177)

Though one is touched by Worldly Dharmas (honour and dishonour, blame and praise, happiness, dissatisfaction) yet one’s mind does never waver, griefless, spotless and secure: this is a supreme good omen. (SN 2.4, 271)

Victory brings hate, because the defeated man is unhappy. He who surrenders victory and defeat, this man finds joy. (Dhammapada 15, 201)

8- Therefore it has been thought better to make a judicious selection only from those treatises which will best suit the few real mystics in the Theosophical Society, and which are sure to answer their needs. It is only these who will appreciate these words of Krishna-Christos, the “Higher Self”: —

“Sages do not grieve for the living nor the dead. Never did I not exist, nor you, nor these rulers of men; nor will any one of us ever hereafter cease to be.” (Bhagavadgîtâ II. 27).

9-In this translation, I have done my best to preserve the poetical beauty of language and imagery which characterise the original. How far this effort has been successful, is for the reader to judge. — “H.P.B.”

The language does make liberal use of traditional metaphors from eastern poetics, and has many similarities in style to the Stanzas of Dzyan from the Secret Doctrine (see for example, Stanza 7 in book I). It’s safe to say that some of the classic Theosophical suggested texts have similar ideas to the Voice of the Silence: Baghavad Gita, Yoga Sutras, Light on the Path, Dhammapada, and I think that they can be considered complementary for the study of this text. For a Mahayana text close in spirit, Santideva’s Bodhisattvacharyavarta can be mentioned. Of course Blavatsky contributed to an extensive study of eastern spiritual texts through The Theosophist and elsewhere, in parallel with Max Muller and others. For example, in her Gems from the East, she cites the following :

Cūla Kamma Vibhaṅga Sutta (The Discourse on the Lesser Analysis of Karma) (MN 135)

Dhammapada (KN 2)

Mahāmangala Sutta (KN 1,5)

Sutta Nipata (KN 5)

Vasala Sutta (The Discourse on Outcastes) (Sn 1.7)

Vāsettha Sutta (MN 98)

Udānavarga: A Collection of Verses from the Buddhist Canon

Sutra Of The 42 Chapters (or Sutra Of The 42 Sections)

Saddharma-Pundarîka (The Lotus of the True Law)

Rigveda

Upanishads: Kaṭha (marked by index K), Maitrâyana Brâhmana (MB), Brihadâranyaka (B), Mundaka (M), Svetâsvatara (S), Khândogya (Kh).

The Vishnu Purana

The Ordinances of Manu (Laws of Manu)

Mahabharata ( Book 5, section Sanatsugâtîya; Book 12, section Mokshadharma; Book 14, section Anugîtâ)

The Javidan Khirad

A Practical Grammar of the Turkish Language, by Dr. Charles Wells, London (1880)

 

Part 2

Introductiont to The Voice of the Silence - H. P. Blavatsky 2/4

The Voice of the Silence is divided in three sections, called 'fragments', and since the first section is the most complex, with notions of Nada Yoga, it has been thought preferable to present the second section to begin with,  and the second fragment begins with a chela, having went through the experiences in the first fragment, delivering more introductory teachings. This section, entitled The Two Paths, can broadly be considered similar to the Pratyeka and Bodhisattva paths as explained in Mahayana Buddhism. Further elaborated, one can also draw parallels with the three vehicles of Mahayana Buddhism, Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana, which could be said to roughly be related to sections 2, 3 and 1 respectively. Indeed, the three sections could be said to have correspondences with the three stages of Christian Mysticism, Purgative, Illuminative, Unitive, or the three stages in Sufism, Takhliya, Tahliya, Tajliya or Purification, Beautification, Magnification, (although the Four Doors are more common).

Section 1 (Stanzas 101-108) presents the notions of the Doctrine of the Eye and the Doctrine of the Heart, the exoteric and esoteric paths. It also presents the notion of Alaya, the World Soul, (see https://blavatskytheosophy.com/alaya-the-universal-soul/ ) a fundamental theosophical concept.

Section 2 (109-122) continues to explain the exoteric and esoteric concepts, while contrasting ignorance and wisdom, as well as humility and pride.

Section 3 (123-136) deals with the problems of selfishness, inaction, quietism, and isolationism on the spiritual path. It gives the following advice: Love all beings. Do not neglect your parents. Non-action does not mean inaction. The lamp burns bright when wick and old are clean. One can face physical agitation and still have a tranquil mind. Solitary forest asceticism is not the way to final liberation. Physical punishment and conquering physical vices are not the final steps. After reaching enlightenment, one has a duty to reach out to others. Kind actions give merit while failing to do acts of charity is a fault. Self-Knowledge comes through good deeds and actions.

Section 4 (137-146) teaches to have patience, as one who fears no failure, courts no success; fix your Soul's gaze upon the star whose ray you are. Have perseverance as one who for evermore endures; sow with the seeds of merit the fields of future harvests; accept the woes of birth; step out from sunlight into shade, to make more room for others.

Through the pain of karmic retribution, we can weave the three vestures (Buddhist Trikaya): Nirmânakâya, Sambhogakâya, and Dharmakâya. The way of the Bodhisattvas of the "Secret Heart is explained:To live to benefit mankind is the first step; to practise the six virtues (Paramitas) is the second. To don the Nirmânakâya robe is to forego eternal bliss for Self, to help on man's salvation. To reach Nirvâna's bliss, but to renounce it, is the supreme, the final step — the highest on Renunciation's Path.

Section 5  (147- 163) teaches that if one does not feel ready for the esoteric path, then one can pursue the exoteric path, accumulate merit and wait for the chance to pursue the secret path in future lives. One is also advised to accept the law of Karma and be patient with your fate. One is advised to be kind and helpful to one’s colleagues because we are linked to them through many incarnations.

‘’'Tis from the bud of Renunciation of the Self, that springeth the sweet fruit of final Liberation’’. It is said to be a mistake to avoid helping others out of fear of succumbing to temptations, while living in seclusion. One has to actively pursues one’s duties in life, following the wheel of life, enduring pleasure and pain, purifying your karma and gaining merit and spiritual development for future incarnations.

If one cannot pursue the path with tireless heroic energy, one can pursue a humbler course by doing one’s best to live and promote the spiritual path. ‘’Be, O Lanoo, like them. Give light and comfort to the toiling pilgrim, and seek out him who knows still less than thou; who in his wretched desolation sits starving for the bread of Wisdom and the bread which feeds the shadow, without a Teacher, hope or consolation, and — let him hear the Law.’’

The Srotâpatti stage is the first stage on the path and one enters it with humility. Through devotion, one may gain Siddhis that one had in previous births. One needs to be humble to acquire wisdom, and even humbler when one acquires whatever level of wisdom one can attain, and this comes with a great deal of equanimity.

Section 6 (164-178) deals with the combat between the lower self and the higher Self, the quest for Nirvana and more on the Nirmanakaya vesture. Restrain the lower Self by the Divine self. Restrain the Divine by the Eternal. Great is the slayer of desire. Greater is one who has slain the very knowledge of desire. Guard the Lower self lest it soil the Higher self. The way to final freedom is within yourself. That way begins and ends outside of the lower self.

He who has Wisdom is honoured by all men. Arhans and Sages of the boundless Vision are exceedingly rare. No Arhan, becomes one in that birth when one begins to long for final liberation. Not one recruit can ever be refused the right to enter on the Path that leads toward the field of Battle. ‘’For, either he shall win, or he shall fall.  Yea, if he conquers, Nirvâna shall be his’’; and in him will men honour a Buddha.

‘’And if he falls, e'en then he does not fall in vain; the enemies he slew in the last battle will not return to life in the next birth that will be his.’’ If one would reach Nirvâna, or the Nirmanakaya state, let not the fruit of action and inaction be your motive. A Bodhisattva who chooses the Nirmanakaya vesture is called, "thrice Honoured."

Section 7 (179-195) is a general summary of the Pratyeka path and the Bodhisattva path. The Pratyeka path is the path of liberation where one enters the Dharmakaya state and Nirvana. The concern is mainly with personal salvation only.

The Bodhisattva path is the path of renunciation, the path of woe, the secret path where or of pity and boundless compassion for suffering humanity, one delays entering the Nirvana state to continue working for the salvation of the world. One enters Nirvana after countless kalpas, (at the Maha-Pralaya at the end of the seventh round). "Sweet are the fruits of Rest and Liberation for the sake of Self; but sweeter still the fruits of long and bitter duty. Aye, Renunciation for the sake of others, of suffering fellow men." 

 

 Part 1

Through the Gates of Gold 3 Mabel Collins Chapter 4

Chapter 4  The Meaning of Pain

 

Through the Gatesof Gold : A Fragment of Thought is a wonderful, profound, eloquent work, the study of which offers many insights and valuable seeds of inspiration… Intimately linked with that well-regarded spiritual classic, Light on the Path, and they are often packaged together; indeed, studying this text in relation to corresponding passages in Light on the Path is recommended, and in general, can be viewed as a good introduction to that more demanding text. We are also indebted to Mabel Collins for a third theosophical classic, The Idyll of the White Lotus, of which T. Subba Row has written a remarkable commentary, nigh indispensable for unlocking the profundities of that fascinating work.

Information on Mabel Collins and the possible original author of this work:
http://blavatskyarchives.com/sisson1.htm

The Golden Gate, is a semi-legendary Jerusalem gate with mystical symbolic import. Taken up by Christian culture, appearing in 19th c. hymns, adopted with full mystical meaning in Theosophy, Mabel Collins,Through the Gates of Gold, and continues to seen in popular culture, for example with a 2015 Los Lobos album. For the world history of this symbol see, Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, by W.R. Lethaby, [1892] Chapter 8, The Golden Gate of the Sun. 

 

Part 1 The answer may at first sight seem to be that he primarily desires pleasure, and so is willing to continue on that battlefield where it wages war with pain for the possession of him, hoping always that pleasure will win the victory and take him home to herself. This is but the external aspect of the man's state. In himself he knows well that pain is co-ruler with pleasure, and that though the war wages always it never will be won. The superficial observer concludes that man submits to the inevitable. But that is a fallacy not worthy of discussion. A little serious thought shows us that man does not exist at all except by exercise of his positive qualities; it is but logical to suppose that he chooses the state he will live in by the exercise of those same qualities.

Part 2 That place is the central point of existence, where there is a permanent spot of life as there is in the midst of the heart of man. It is by the equal development of that, — first by the recognition of it, and then by its equal development upon the many radiating lines of experience, — that man is at last enabled to reach the Golden Gate and lift the latch. The process is the gradual recognition of the god in himself; the goal is reached when that godhood is consciously restored to its right glory. 

Part 3 To remain still amid life and its changes, and stand firmly on the chosen spot, is a feat which can only be accomplished by the man who has confidence in himself and in his destiny.

Otherwise the hurrying forms of life, the rushing tide of men, the great floods of thought, must inevitably carry him with them, and then he will lose that place of consciousness whence it was possible to start on the great enterprise. For it must be done knowingly, and without pressure from without, — this act of the new-born man. All the great ones of the earth have possessed this confidence, and have stood firmly on that place which was to them the one solid spot in the universe. To each man this place is of necessity different. Each man must find his own earth and his own heaven.

Pain and pleasure stand apart and separate, as do the two sexes; and it is in the merging, the making the two into one, that joy and deep sensation and profound peace are obtained.

Where there is neither male nor female, neither pain nor pleasure, there is the god in man dominant, and then is life real.

Part 4 For the noble soul of the man, that potential king which is within us all, knows full well that this household idol may be cast down and destroyed at any moment, — that it is without finality in itself, without any real and absolute life. And he has been content in his possession, forgetting that anything possessed can only by the immutable laws of life be held temporarily. He has forgotten that the infinite is his only friend; he has forgotten that in its glory is his only home, — that it alone can be his god. There he feels as if he is homeless; but that amid the sacrifices he offers to his own especial idol there is for him a brief resting-place; and for this he clings passionately to it.

For that man does indeed hold within him the infinite, and that the ocean is really in the cup, is an incontestable truth; but it is only so because the cup is absolutely non-existent. It is merely an experience of the infinite, having no permanence, liable to be shattered at any instant.”

It is in the claiming of reality and permanence for the four walls of his personality, that man makes the vast blunder which plunges him into a prolonged series of unfortunate incidents, and intensifies continually the existence of his favorite forms of sensation. Pleasure and pain become to him more real than the great ocean of which he is a part and where his home is; he perpetually knocks himself painfully against these walls where he feels, and his tiny self oscillates within his chosen prison.