Fragment III
The Seven Portals
This fragment portrays a chela passing through seven portals, which correspond to the six perfections (paramitas) of Mahayana Buddhism, with Viraga (equanimity) added. The Paramitas are described as golden keys that open each portal. They are structured according to the Theosophical sevenfold principles. The first four are connected to the last three by the Antahkarana. The Buddhist doctrine of the three bodies (Trikaya), termed the three vestures, is discussed.
Section 1 (Stanzas 196-214) Introduction to the Paramitas
200 – The Pâramitâ heights are crossed by a still steeper path. Thou
hast to fight thy way through portals seven, seven strongholds held by
cruel crafty Powers — passions incarnate.
Section 2 (Stanzas 215-229) Attuning to Alaya, the World-Soul.
221 – Of teachers there are many; the MASTER-SOUL is one (8), Alaya,
the Universal Soul. Live in that MASTER as Its ray in thee. Live in thy
fellows as they live in It.
228- Hast thou attuned thy being to Humanity’s great pain, O candidate for light?
Section 3 (Stanzas 230- 232) The Seven Gates – Key 1- Dana charity and love immortal
231- Behold, O happy Pilgrim! The portal that faceth thee is high and
wide, seems easy of access. The road that leads therethrough is
straight and smooth and green. ‘Tis like a sunny glade in the dark
forest depths, a spot on earth mirrored from Amitâbha’s paradise. There,
nightingales of hope and birds of radiant plumage sing perched in green
bowers, chanting success to fearless Pilgrims. They sing of
Bodhisattvas’ virtues five, the fivefold source of Bodhi power, and of
the seven steps in Knowledge.
(1) faith (saddhā),
(2) energy (viriya),
(3) mindfulness (sati),
(4) concentration (samādhi),
(5) wisdom (paññā).
Section 4 (Stanzas 233- 235) The Seven Gates – 2- Sila, Harmony in word and act
235- Fear, O disciple, kills the will and stays all action. If
lacking in the Śîla virtue, — the pilgrim trips, and Karmic pebbles
bruise his feet along the rocky path.
Section 5 (Stanzas 236- 241) The Seven Gates – 3- Kshanti, patience sweet, that nought can ruffle239- The more thou dost advance, the more thy feet pitfalls will
meet. The path that leadeth on, is lighted by one fire — the light of
daring, burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall
obtain. The more he fears, the more that light shall pale — and that
alone can guide. For as the lingering sunbeam, that on the top of some
tall mountain shines, is followed by black night when out it fades, so
is heart-light. When out it goes, a dark and threatening shade will fall
from thine own heart upon the path, and root thy feet in terror to the
spot.
Section 6 (Stanzas 242- 248) The Seven Gates – 4- Viraga, indifference to pleasure and to pain
242- Ere thou canst near that goal, before thine hand is lifted to
upraise the fourth gate’s latch, thou must have mustered all the mental
changes in thy Self and slain the army of the thought sensations that,
subtle and insidious, creep unasked within the Soul’s bright shrine.
Section 7 (Stanzas 249- 260) Crossing the moat and hedging in the Holy Isle250- All is impermanent in man except the pure bright essence of
Alaya. Man is its crystal ray; a beam of light immaculate within, a form
of clay material upon the lower surface. That beam is thy life-guide
and thy true Self, the Watcher and the silent Thinker, the victim of thy
lower Self. Thy Soul cannot be hurt but through thy erring body;
control and master both, and thou art safe when crossing to the nearing
“Gate of Balance.”
Section 8 (Stanzas 260- 272) Jnana Marga and the Unshakeable Fixity of Mind
258- Thou hast removed pollution from thine heart and bled it from
impure desire. But, O thou glorious combatant, thy task is not yet done.
Build high, Lanoo, the wall that shall hedge in the Holy Isle,* the dam
that will protect thy mind from pride and satisfaction at thoughts of
the great feat achieved.
Section 9 (Stanzas 273- 276) The Seven Gates – 5- Virya, dauntless energy
273- The fearless warrior, his precious life-blood oozing from his
wide and gaping wounds, will still attack the foe, drive him from out
his stronghold, vanquish him, ere he himself expires. Act then, all ye
who fail and suffer, act like him; and from the stronghold of your Soul,
chase all your foes away — ambition, anger, hatred, e’en to the shadow
of desire — when even you have failed. . .
Section 10 (Stanzas 277- 280) The Seven Gates – 6- Dhyana, door to ceaseless contemplation
279- Thou hast estranged thyself from objects of the senses,
travelled on the “Path of seeing,” on the “Path of hearing,” and
standest in the light of Knowledge. Thou hast now reached Titikshâ state
(22).
(22). Titikshâ is the fifth state of Râja Yoga
— one of supreme indifference; submission, if necessary, to what is
called “pleasures and pains for all,” but deriving neither pleasure nor
pain from such submission — in short, the becoming physically, mentally,
and morally indifferent and insensible to either pleasure or pain.
Section 11 (Stanzas 281- 295) Bodhisattvic Powers and Renunciation293- 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.
[*Cycles of ages.]
(28). The “Guardian Wall” or the “Wall of Protection.” It is
taught that the accumulated efforts of long generations of Yogis, Saints
and Adepts, especially of the Nirmânakâyas — have created, so to say, a wall of protection around mankind, which wall shields mankind invisibly from still worse evils.
Section 12 (Stanzas 296- 305) the Ârya Path, Path of the Buddhas of perfection
299- Not so when he hath crossed and won the Aryahata Path.*
300- 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.
(29). Kleśa is the love of pleasure or of worldly enjoyment, evil or good.
(30). Tanhâ, the will to live, that which causes rebirth.
Section 13 (Stanzas 306- 308) The Trikaya306- “Yea; on the Ârya Path thou art no more Srotâpatti, thou art a Bodhisattva (33).
The stream is cross’d. ‘Tis true thou hast a right to Dharmakâya
vesture; but Sambhogakâya is greater than a Nirvânî, and greater still
is a Nirmânakâya — the Buddha of Compassion (34).
(34). This same popular reverence calls “Buddhas of Compassion” those Bodhisattvas who, having reached the rank of an Arhat (i.e., having completed the fourth or seventh Path), refuse to pass into the Nirvânic state or “don the Dharmakâya
robe and cross to the other shore,” as it would then become beyond
their power to assist men even so little as Karma permits. They prefer
to remain invisibly (in Spirit, so to speak) in the world, and
contribute toward man’s salvation by influencing them to follow the Good
Law, i.e., lead them on the Path of Righteousness.
The three Buddhic bodies or forms are styled: —
1. Nirmânakâya.
2. Sambhogakâya.
3. Dharmakâya.
Section 14 (Stanzas 309- 316) The Seven Gates – 7- Wisdom, makes one a Bodhisattva, son of the Dhyânis
309- Thou shalt attain the seventh step and cross the gate of final
knowledge but only to wed woe — if thou would’st be Tathâgata, follow
upon thy predecessor’s steps, remain unselfish till the endless end.
