The Voice of the Silence on Compassion (H.P. Blavatsky) Altruism, Selflessness, Bodhisattvic Path

H.P. Blavatsky's The Voice of the Silence, an inspirational text, gives many teachings on the spiritual path, with certain specific Hindu and Buddhist inflections, but applicable to wider perspectives as well. There is reference to the Bodhisattvic Path, and the related passages on altruism, selflessness, and compassion are possibly some of the most eloquent, original, and distinctive.

Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself (32). (1,58)

Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun. (1,59)

Let not the fierce Sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it from the sufferer’s eye. (1,60)

But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain, nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is removed. (1,61)

These tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal. ‘Tis on such soil that grows the midnight blossom of Buddha (33) more difficult to find, more rare to view than is the flower of the Vogay tree. It is the seed of freedom from rebirth. It isolates the Arhat both from strife and lust, it leads him through the fields of Being unto the peace and bliss known only in the land of Silence and Non-Being. (1,62)

Alas, alas, that all men should possess Alaya, be one with the great Soul, and that possessing it, Alaya should so little avail them!(2,107)

Behold how like the moon, reflected in the tranquil waves, Alaya is reflected by the small and by the great, is mirrored in the tiniest atoms, yet fails to reach the heart of all. Alas, that so few men should profit by the gift, the priceless boon of learning truth, the right perception of existing things, the Knowledge of the non-existent! (2,108)

 

But Path the Second is — renunciation, and therefore called the “Path of Woe.” (2,183)

That Secret Path leads the Arhan to mental woe unspeakable; woe for the living Dead (36), and helpless pity for the men of Karmic sorrow, the fruit of Karma Sages dare not still. (2,184)

 

“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.” (2,190)

He, who becomes Pratyeka-Buddha (38), makes his obeisance but to his Self. The Bodhisattva who has won the battle, who holds the prize within his palm, yet says in his divine compassion: (2,191)

“For others’ sake this great reward I yield” — accomplishes the greater Renunciation. (2,192)

 

“Hast thou attuned thy heart and mind to the great mind and heart of all mankind? For as the sacred River’s roaring voice whereby all Nature-sounds are echoed back (10), so must the heart of him ‘who in the stream would enter,’ thrill in response to every sigh and thought of all that lives and breathes.” (3,225)

Disciples may be likened to the strings of the soul-echoing Vînâ; mankind, unto its sounding board; the hand that sweeps it to the tuneful breath of the great world-soul. The string that fails to answer ‘neath the Master’s touch in dulcet harmony with all the others, breaks — and is cast away. So the collective minds of Lanoo-Śrâvakas. They have to be attuned to the Upâdhyâya’s mind — one with the Over-Soul — or, break away. (3,226)

Hast thou attuned thy being to Humanity’s great pain, O candidate for light? (3,228)

 

Ere thou canst settle in Jñâna Mârga (18) and call it thine, thy Soul has to become as the ripe mango fruit: as soft and sweet as its bright golden pulp for others’ woes, as hard as that fruit’s stone for thine own throes and sorrows, O Conqueror of Weal and Woe. (3,261)

 

Shall he not use the gifts which it confers for his own rest and bliss, his well-earn’d weal and glory — he, the subduer of the great Delusion? (3,284)

 Nay, O thou candidate for Nature’s hidden lore! If one would follow in the steps of holy Tathâgata, those gifts and powers are not for Self. (3,285) 

Know, if of Amitâbha, the “Boundless Age,” thou would’st become co-worker, then must thou shed the light acquired, like to the Bodhisattvas twain (26), upon the span of all three worlds (27). (3,288)

Know that the stream of superhuman knowledge and the Deva-Wisdom thou hast won, must, from thyself, the channel of Alaya, be poured forth into another bed. (3,289)

Know, O Naljor, thou of the Secret Path, its pure fresh waters must be used to sweeter make the Ocean’s bitter waves — that mighty sea of sorrow formed of the tears of men. (3,290)

Alas! when once thou hast become like the fix’d star in highest heaven, that bright celestial orb must shine from out the spatial depths for all — save for itself; give light to all, but take from none. (3,291)

Alas! when once thou hast become like the pure snow in mountain vales, cold and unfeeling to the touch, warm and protective to the seed that sleepeth deep beneath its bosom — ’tis now that snow which must receive the biting frost, the northern blasts, thus shielding from their sharp and cruel tooth the earth that holds the promised harvest, the harvest that will feed the hungry. (3,292)

Self-doomed to live through future Kalpas,* unthanked and unperceived by man; wedged as a stone with countless other stones which form the “Guardian Wall” (28), such is thy future if the seventh gate thou passest. Built by the hands of many Masters of Compassion, raised by their tortures, by their blood cemented, it shields mankind, since man is man, protecting it from further and far greater misery and sorrow. (3,293)

 

There Kleśa (29) is destroyed for ever, Tanhâ’s (30) roots torn out. But stay, Disciple . . . Yet, one word. Canst thou destroy divine compassion? Compassion is no attribute. It is the LAW of laws — eternal Harmony, Alaya’s SELF; a shoreless universal essence, the light of everlasting Right, and fitness of all things, the law of love eternal.(3,300)

 The more thou dost become at one with it, thy being melted in its BEING, the more thy Soul unites with that which IS, the more thou wilt become Compassion Absolute (31). (3,301)

Now bend thy head and listen well, O Bodhisattva — Compassion speaks and saith: “Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou be saved and hear the whole world cry?” (3,307)