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 THE BUREAU OF
COSMOTHERAPY
(SCIENCE OF NATURAL HEALING)
Incorporating
British Section of the International Union of Cosmovitalists

PROMOTES EDUCATION IN THE LAWS OF

NATURAL HEALTH.

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 PAN PAMPHLETS

THE TEACHING
OF BUDDHA

BY

EDMOND SZÉKLEY

N O4 BUREAU OF COSMOTHERAPY
LAWRENCE WEAVER HOUSE
LEATHERHEAD, SURREY
THE C. W. DANIEL COMPANY LTD.
40 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, LONDON, W.C.1
MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
THE STANHOPE PRESS LTD., ROCHESTER

DESIGN ON COVER BY
LAURENCE WHEATLEY

First published: 1938

 THE TEACHING OF BUDDHA
THIS pamphlet will be concerned with the teaching of Buddha, with
particular reference to the doctrine of reincarnation. I am glad to
have an opportunity of speaking on this subject, as the teachings of
Buddha have exerted a very great influence on mankind during the
whole course of universal history, and one third of humanity are
followers of Buddha's precepts. I am also glad to speak of Buddha's
conceptions, as they have been most imperfectly understood and
most defectively interpreted, especially in the Western world.
Before I talk about the Buddha—the Illumined One—I must
first pay homage to the man who discovered the Thibetan language
and Thibetan literature and gave positive knowledge of Buddha to
the Western world. A little over a century ago there appeared the
only complete dictionary of the English-Thibetan languages, the
first and only grammar of the Thibetan language and a third work
called "Asiatic Researches." On these fundamental works are based
all the researches made about Buddha and about Thibetan literature.
The author of these works was Csoma de Körös, a Transylvanian
traveller and philologist who was the first man from Europe to be
initiated into Thibetan literature and into Buddhism. This
extraordinary man, who was a professor of philology in a little town
in Transylvania, one day took a copy of the Gospels in his pocket
and a staff in his hand and said to his friends: "I am going away to
Thibet." They asked him how he would get to Thibet, being
ignorant of the language and of the places on the way to Thibet, and
being without money to make this long journey.
To travel on foot from the centre of Europe to Thibet a
hundred years ago was not a simple thing and took some years. The
traveller's road led through Greece, Asia Minor, Caucasia, Persia,
Mesopotamia, the high Plateau of Pamir, India and across the
Himalayas, whence he descended into Thibet. Revolutions and wars
lay across his path; he was often attacked by bandits and laid low by
illness; many times he was arrested as a spy; but finally with the
staff in his hand, to support, as he said, his weary body, and the
Gospels in his pocket, as he said, to support his weary spirit, he
reached Thibet.
Then followed some years of profound study. The lamas of
Thibet, who at that time were the sole perfect possessors of the
Thibetan tongue and literature and of the masterpieces of Buddhism,
at first received the first visitor from Europe with suspicion, but
little by little this strange foreigner began to win their sympathy.
They saw that many days passed when he neither ate nor slept, but
pondered over old yellow leaves and ancient texts, studying them by
the light of the sun and of the moon. Long years passed in this way
and finally he was accepted by them, and little by little was given all
the information which he asked for. After four years of intensive
work by day and by night the complete Anglo-Thibetan Dictionary
and Thibetan Grammar were completed. He took these with him
back to India where previously he had been librarian to the Royal
Asiatic Society. He handed his masterpieces to the Society for
publication and afterwards set off immediately to Thibet, to
translate all the chief masterpieces of Buddhist literature. But fate
did not allow him to return to Thibet, for his vital force was
exhausted by his continued labour and his sufferings on the road,
and he died at the foot of the Himalayas. His grave is at Darjeeling
in India. All the knowledge which we have about the original texts
of Buddha is based upon his work. Without it we should not have
our present literature about Buddha, just as without Bach we should
not have the music of our present age. His philological works are
well known and all orientalists study them, but his correspondence
and letters which he wrote during his travels to his family in
Transylvania are not known. It is these latter writings which are of
the greatest value, for they reveal him not only as a philologist, but
also as a philosopher, deeply versed in Buddhism. What I know of
Buddha I know from his letters which I had the opportunity of
reading. I must explain to you how I came to read his letters. The
reason is simply that he wrote these letters to his family, which is
also my family, Csoma de Körös being my direct ancestor.
To-day's lecture is of great significance to me, since I can
interpret his original conception of the reincarnation of Buddha
given in his last but one letter to his family. I found some passages
in which he expressed his contentment at having finished his
mission and published the three fundamental works about the
Thibetan language and Thibetan literature, but in which he also
regrets that he cannot translate all that he intended to translate, for
he feels that he has only a few days of life still left. He says that he
hopes that others will follow and continue his work, but at the same
time says that he feels that the Western world cannot understand
Buddhism. He fears this because he finds a great difference between
Buddhism and the Western spirit.
His forecast seems to be justified, for our Western orientalists
and scientists have proceeded to catalogue Buddhism among the
various compartments in the history of Western philosophy. They
have put it in one compartment alongside pessimism, in another
compartment which we call pantheism, and in a third compartment
to which we give various other names, but which do not in the least
cover the ideas of Buddhism. Then more enlightened spirits came to
see that Buddhism is not only just pessimism, for there is absolute
tranquillity and certitude in the attitude of Buddha and his disciples.
The superior force with which they struggle for their aim cannot be
harmonised with pessimism. It is true that in the Sayings of Buddha
it is written : "Birth is suffering, sickness is suffering, old age is
suffering, death is suffering, to be far away from those whom we
love is suffering, to be with those whom we do not love is suffering,
not to be able to achieve our aim is suffering, to achieve our aims
and to lose them is suffering, the whole of life is suffering." It is
these words which have wrongly inspired the western interpretation
of Buddha. It is true that the whole gigantic architecture of
Buddhism rests upon four fundamental truths—on the truth of
suffering, on the truth of the origin of suffering, on the truth of the
cessation of suffering and on the truth of the path leading to the
cessation of suffering. But it is an entirely erroneous conception to
qualify Buddhism as pessimism on the basis of the two first truths.
The second least understood part of Buddhism is the doctrine
of Nirvana. In Europe Nirvana is interpreted as being nothing. This
is the second great error. The words which caused this error are the
following. When Buddha was asked : "What is Nirvana?" he
answered: "Nirvana is not existence, nor is Nirvana non-existence."
But that Nirvana is neither existence nor non-existence cannot
explain Nirvana, for there is also a return and reflex of all things
which is "Samsaro." Everything which is created appears,
disappears and dies, but there is something which never appeared
and was never created and which will never disappear and will
never die, and this is Nirvana. These seem to be very obscure truths
to western ears—and very naturally, for something which never
began and which will never end seems to be a very strange
metaphysical principle. On the other hand Nirvana is not only this,
but, according to Buddha, is a state of the spirit. Nirvana is used in a
double sense. This state of spirit is a conscious state in which the
individual has established contact with that which was never created
and will never disappear. This state of consciousness is not a
principle, a theory, but is intensive life. And it is for that reason that
it can never be understood if we approach it through philological or
philosophical formulas.
The third most fundamental western error with regard to
Buddhism is about reincarnation. Generally the words of Buddha
are interpreted to mean that there exists an individuality, which dies
and is reborn in the form of animals and men and various superior
forms of consciousness. Did Buddha say this? Yes and no. When
Buddha was asked whether our individuality survives after death,
whether we return sometimes again to life here and whether we are
the same in our future forms of life, Buddha answered with a picture
drawn from nature. "If you have ten torches of which the first is
lighted, and then you light the second from the first, the third from
the second, the fourth from the third and so on until the tenth, is the
flame of the tenth torch the same as the flame of the first ?" What
can one reply ? Yes and no.
Buddhism is a dynamic conception of life and existence and it
has no static, rigid, fixed definite forms. There is nothing definite
and rigid, there is eternal circulation of everything that exists, and
individuality is also subject to this constant dynamic change. The
fundamental conception of Buddha lies precisely in this, that
individuality, the separation of one part of life from universal life, is
only illusion. Individuality, the separation from universal life, is
only illusion. Individuality is illusion and a superficial deception of
our senses, for only a single dynamic unity of endless and limitless
existence exists. Everything which exists does not exist but appears
and disappears. There are eternal dynamic appearings and
disappearings. So it is individuality in the form in which it is
understood in Europe which is denied and declared by Buddha to be
illusion. He could not therefore teach that which he denies and
declares to be illusion to be a constant thing.
Let us look more closely at the conception of Nirvana. What,
according to our contemporary sciences, is there of which we can
affirm that it never began and will never disappear ? We know from
the most recent researches of Jeans, Millikan and Einstein that
matter has an origin. We know that in various parts of cosmic space
there are new cosmic nebulae and solar systems in formation. We
know likewise that in the various parts of boundless cosmic space
there are various world systems in process of disappearance,
irradiating various cosmic radiations, where matter is being
transformed into radiations. So we can see that we cannot look for
that which never appears and will never disappear in any solar
system or planet. There is only one thing which the contemporary
sciences admit to be constant and eternal, and that is the boundless
ocean of various radiations of cosmic space; not solar systems, not
nebulae and not planets, but eternal unlimited cosmic space into
which comes every form of energy from every solar system and
from every planet and which is the eternal and inexhaustible source
of different boundless forms of energy. We know that light comes to
our earth from remote stars and nebulas, taking millions and
millions of years to reach us. Possibly the earth did not yet exist
when this light began on its travels to us, or perhaps the sun or
planet from which the light comes has already ceased to exist by the
time that light reaches us. Not only does light come to our earth, but
endless forms of cosmic energies and radiations which are in
unlimited and boundless cosmic space, energies of various forms
from every planet and every solar system. Planets, solar systems and
nebulas appear and disappear; energy is transformed into matter,
and matter is transformed into energy, but there is something which
does not appear and does not disappear which is eternal, and that is
this great cosmic ocean of every form of radiation and energy which
constantly creates new solar systems and nebulas. But this great
ocean itself remains always eternal, for to it come all the
manifestations of all the forms of energy from every solar system
and every planet, and from it come every energy and radiation of
every solar system and every planet. So it is the eternal, boundless,
limitless source of cosmic life; there is not life there, but it
nourishes life upon every planet. So we see that there is something
which does not appear or disappear. The most recent results of
contemporary science affirm what was thought to be an absurdity,
Buddha's notion of Nirvana.
Now let us examine the double significance of Nirvana as a
state of spirit and as a state of consciousness. Those who have
studied the part played by various cosmic radiations and their
influence upon man have established that the human organism
represented by its nervous system is a perfect receiving apparatus of
all the forms of energy and radiations which come to our
atmosphere from the boundless cosmic ocean of the various
energies and radiations. We also know that there is the possibility
always of making this receiving apparatus more and more perfect,
so that more and more sources of energy will be open to us and able
to be absorbed, just as a wireless receiving set, the more perfectly it
is constructed, can capture a greater variety of waves and at a
greater distance. So we come into increasingly greater and more
perfect contact with the various forms of radiations and energies of
universal life and of cosmic space. These are not only a source of
energy but also a source of knowledge, though not knowledge in the
scholastic sense. Life and existence are something much more
complicated than anything capable of definition, and thought is only
one among the manifestations of life and existence. This new source
of knowledge does not come from books and definitions, but comes
from the inner intensive living of the truth, from the truth which is
none other than life itself, unity with everything which is around us,
unity with universal life, recognition that we are the same as the
plants, as the trees, as the animals and as other individuals, as the
sun which shines, as the rain which falls, that we are organic parts
of the universe, that we have in us the circulation of blood just as in
nature there is the circulation of water.
We have in us our bones just as the earth has its minerals; we
have in us the propagations and radiations of our neurons just as in
nature we have the propagation of solar and other radiations. We
consist of that which is around us, we are one and the same with
everything around us. If we destroy something around us we destroy
ourselves; if we destroy any life, be it that of animal or plant or
man, we destroy ourselves. If we deceive another, we deceive
ourselves; if we steal from another we steal from ourselves. For the
illusion that we are something apart and different from the rest of
the universe is a great error. So the practical moral of Buddhism is a
very superior truth. Neither Buddha nor his disciples ever killed any
animal. Their lives were completely natural and simple; they ate
once a day and ate very simple things. It was forbidden even to eat
at any other time of the day. It was even forbidden to sleep in a soft
bed. Why ?
According to Buddha, just as a flame takes hold of dry grass,
so does thirst for the pleasures of life take hold of us, enchain us and
enslave us in the constantly changing circulation of all things. Prana
and Apana, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, skin, and mind; these are the
body. This creates contact with the external world, with changing
influences, with colours, with tastes, with forms, with sounds; this
catches hold of what we call the pleasures of life; this creates the
origin; origin creates birth, and birth creates disease and old age,
death, suffering and misery. So it is necessary to free ourselves from
this constant circulation of things which begins with ignorance,
which continues with tendencies, which continues with thoughts,
which continues with name and body, with individual form and life,
which continues with the various senses, organs and influences,
which continues with the thirst for life, which leads us to origin,
which leads us to birth, which leads us to old age, to death, to
misery and to suffering. It is like a constant fire which constantly
receives new fuel and which continues constantly. And Buddha
shows to us the path which leads away from it, which leads away
out of this constant circulation. This is the path of the cessation of
suffering. We must deny the thirst for pleasures of life, and thus
there will be no individual origin and no new birth, and no new
death, suffering and misery.
The disciples of Buddha asked him: "What do you give instead
of the pleasures of life, when you ask that we should deny the thirst
?" And then Buddha answered with his description of Nirvana. His
disciples wished to hear that Nirvana was a form of paradise where
constant and eternal pleasures were in waiting, but Buddha
answered with a parable. He did not care for metaphysical thoughts
and he condemned metaphysical speculation. He always looked at
the single and chief reality—suffering. His whole conception was
nothing but a great crusade against suffering, to make suffering
cease. When he was asked of the purpose and end of existence and
the origin of existence, he answered with a parable. "A man," he
said, "was walking in the forest and was wounded by a poisoned
arrow. Instead of drawing out the arrow from his body so as to
prevent the poison reaching his heart and killing him, he began to
think who it could have been that shot the arrow, who was his
father, and who his grandfather. And while he pondered these
things, the poison reached his heart and he died." This is
metaphysical, sterile speculation. The most urgent thing is to get rid
of suffering. If we have already made suffering to cease then we
have time and can solve the metaphysical problems which remain.
In another parable, he said : "A house is in flames, a man is sleeping
in the house, and someone comes and awakes him saying, 'Wake up
and run, for the house is in flames and the roof will fall in at any
moment.' Then the man within, instead of running from the house,
answers him who called him, saying 'Please see if it is not raining
outside, tell me, is not the air cold,' instead of saving himself." This
is the man who constantly speculates upon metaphysical problems
instead of saving himself from the burning house.
Everything is in flames, in the flame of violence, in the flame
of egoism, in the flame of war and of hatred. We must save
ourselves from the fire. This is the most urgent. Everything else is
secondary. So does Buddha in his great way philosophise on the
reason for suffering. All his thoughts return to the source of
universal suffering, and he shows the path which leads us from this
suffering. I cannot give details of the path which he shows. I can
only characterise it in a few words. A simple, natural life. Inner
intensive peace, teaching the ignorant, and always an increasing
perfection of the human consciousness. We have meditations which
are capable of opening to us increasingly superior forms of
consciousness, a higher unity with the eternal boundless ocean of
cosmic life, leading to absorption from increasingly higher sources
of increasingly superior energies and to the progressive
disappearance of the illusion which we call "I," of individuality.
There are various stages in this path of self-perfection. He who has
already found contact with the eternal cosmic source of superior
energies of universal life is called "Arhat" or "Arahat." He who by
his own forces comes to this higher stage of consciousness is called
"Buddhi." He distinguishes between the "Buddhi" who finds truth
and follows the truth, treading upon the path to Nirvana, which is
unity with the eternal cosmic ocean of universal life, and the other
"Buddhi" who finds the truth but who, instead of immediately
following the path to Nirvana, returns among men, to hand the truth
to them and to lead others out of suffering.
There is a very beautiful Buddhist legend of later centuries.
Gautama Buddha, the Illumined One, was in meditation in the
Himalayas. Many months and years had already passed and he yet
remained in his state of meditation. Came winds, came rains, the
winds blew earth upon his body, little seeds fell there and the grass
began to grow. There came two swallows who built a nest upon his
shoulder. The swallows came back every year to their nest for many
years, but one spring they did not return. Then in the eyes of the
Buddha, the perfect one, who was at the door of Nirvana to which
he had been invited by the gods, appeared tears, for he missed the
swallows. And the Buddha discovered that he was not yet ready to
enter the door of Nirvana; there was yet suffering in his heart and he
returned among men to teach to them the path. This picturesque
legend teaches the final point of Buddhism. Buddhism is not
passivity, Buddhism is not pessimism; Buddhism established the
existence of suffering, but it also established the path which leads
from it. It showed how we can obtain ever higher forces of
consciousness, how we can free ourselves from the illusion of the
slavery in which we imagine that we are separate from the universal
life around us. Buddhism showed how we can extinguish the
constant fire of the inferior pleasures of life and how we can open
up before us inexhaustible new sources of constantly renewed and
created energies which lead us into ever more perfect contact with
the cosmic ocean of universal life. So we can see that there is a
purpose, a path in Buddhism; we possess the remedy for making
suffering to cease; we know how to effect unity with something
where suffering is not; with the universal ocean of eternal cosmic
life. Buddhism showed how to dissolve our illusory individual
consciousness in the universal consciousness of cosmic life. But
Buddha says that not every one is able immediately to achieve this
purpose, and it is at this point that the conception of reincarnation
appears.
In order to understand Buddha's conception of reincarnation, it
is necessary to know the notion which Buddha called "Vinyana,"
which we can express by the word "thought." Thought, however,
with Buddha is not a simply physiological function, but a form of
energy like light, electricity or ether; it is an element. Thought and
radiations of currents of thought are like the elements. So Buddha
puts the question: "What are we? Am I my hand? Am I my body?
Am I my head?" And the answer is, No! He speaks another parable.
"A cart, is it a wheel? Is it the shafts? Is it the roof ?" And he
answers, "No!" If we examine this saying in the light of
contemporary biology we see that every cell of our organism
changes every seven years and nothing exists in us to-day which
was there seven years ago. So we are not one of our organs. The
difference between one man and another does not lie in their having
different hands or feet, or different blood, but in their
consciousness, in their thoughts. Remember that in Buddhism
thought is not a physical function, but is an elementary force.
According to Buddha, then, we are essentially the forces of our
thoughts of consciousness.
According to Buddha everything of which our body consists
comes and goes and changes in us, but this force, this energy which
we create by our thoughts, not as a simple physiological function,
but as a creation of a form of energy, of radiations which are
projected in space, will never be lost, for every energy is conserved
and remains. Currents of thought are an elementary force;
constantly created by us, they are perceptible by other individuals
capable of perceiving them. But they are not perceptible to all, for
no one is able to perceive higher currents of thought than those
which he himself contains and is able to create. If these currents of
thought as elementary force are sufficiently strong to overcome the
gravitative forces of our planet then they go to boundless cosmic
space and unite with all the forces of strong and superior currents of
thought which exist in the eternal cosmic ocean of the different
energies derived from all the solar systems and planets, and not only
from our own. And just as superior currents of thought go from this
planet into cosmic space, so are there also life and living beings on
other planets, which send out currents into cosmic space, for life is
not only a privilege of our planet but exists in other planets. Indeed
there exist incomparably higher forms of life on other planets.
These superior forms of thought are constantly on the path to
cosmic space and all these universal superior currents of thought
meet in the eternal cosmic ocean of superior energies, forming
universal consciousness. There, beings no longer exist with
individual limits, but everything is one, which influences by its
universal and dynamic force all the forms of life upon every planet.
If we can establish contact with this universal eternal ocean of the
superior currents of thoughts of all living beings which were
capable by their degree of perfection of overcoming the gravitative
forces of their planets, if we are also capable of overcoming the
gravitative forces of our earth, then we can be united with this
universal cosmic ocean and our thoughts will be united and
dissolved in the eternal cosmic ocean of higher currents of thoughts.
Just as plants growing upwards overcome gravitation, just as a bird
overcomes gravitation flying in the air, so is man, who represents a
higher form of earthly evolution, capable of overcoming earthly
gravitation by his thoughts. If his currents of thought are sufficiently
strong to overcome earthly gravitation, then they will traverse
cosmic space, for the projection of the highest and finest energies of
thought is without limit and without time. Strong currents of
thought are capable of crossing the universe in a moment and this
eternal cosmic ocean of superior currents of thought, this universal
consciousness, is the Nirvana of Buddha. Not nothing and not
divinity.
What happens, then, to those currents of thought which are not
able to overcome the gravitative sphere of the earth ? They must
remain within the gravitative sphere of the earth, within the
circulation of all things. But they will be perceived and captured by
a new form of life, so a current of thought is not lost, for it will
continue its life in the consciousness of the individual who captures
it. Currents of thought as elementary forces constantly circulate in
the gravitative sphere of our earth and all new organisms that are
born, in the moment of their birth, even in their embryonic state, are
subject to the influences of the currents of thought around them. By
their receiving apparatus, by their nervous systems, they capture
these currents of thought and thus these currents of thought are
reincarnated in the new being and are continued in his individual
consciousness. If the new organism which captures these currents of
thought, and has absorbed and assimilated them into its
consciousness, is always making its nervous system more and more
perfect, by becoming more and more in harmony with all the natural
forces and laws, then, finally, when it is capable of perfecting these
currents of thoughts to the point where they are able to overcome
the sphere of gravitation of our planet, they unite with the universal
ocean of universal consciousness.
As we see, in Buddha's conception of reincarnation, it is not
the same individual who survives but simply currents of thought
which survive. Now in objection it may be asked how these currents
of thought can influence the human organism. We do not have to
look far for examples. Thought which is thought around us
influences us through the receptive capacity of our nervous systems.
If we stay but a short time among people who have inferior
unbalanced thoughts we shall soon feel the disequilibrium.
Conversely, if we are only a short time among individuals whose
nervous system creates harmonious currents of thought, we shall
feel quite different. Forces of thought constantly circulate around us
and constantly transform us, while we, in turn, constantly create
currents of thought. The individual as a creator of currents of
thought is an active thought in the universal irradiation of currents
of thought.
Now if we establish contact with higher currents of thought,
we open up to our consciousness superior sources of energy. If we
examine the creative function of genius, we shall find momentary
contact with superior forms of knowledge, energy and harmony. It
is the conception of Buddhism which gives to us the key to the
understanding of the enigma of genius.
Genius is the capacity of momentarily establishing a superior
contact with superior currents of thought from which source of
energy the possessor of genius derives profound thoughts and
inspiration, resulting in symphonies in music or colours in painting,
and so on, depending upon what superior forms of energy he
concentrates on and with which he establishes contact.
Conversely, individuals who create inferior thoughts establish
contact with inferior currents of thought. The individual who has
inferior currents of thoughts of fear, immediately establishes contact
with all individuals having those same thoughts of fear. The
individual who creates inferior currents of violent thoughts,
immediately establishes contact with all individuals of violent
thought. And he who creates currents of thought of hatred similarly
creates contact with the inferior currents of all individuals having
thoughts of hatred. So the ancient Sanscrit thesis is right, we are
what our thoughts are. Our thoughts can be for us superior sources
of energy, harmony and knowledge, but likewise they can be
inferior sources of hatred, egoism, violence and ignorance. Each
new thought which we have is always immediately rewarded or
punished in the moment of its creation according to the quality of
the thought. Superior thoughts release in our consciousness superior
forces of energy, while inferior thoughts open the door to inferior
forces of thought currents. So the centre of Buddha's conception is
on thoughts, just as Jesus forbids not only bad acts but also bad
thoughts. For thoughts subsequently create deeds according to the
various psychological processes of the consciousness. So Buddha,
like Jesus, forbad inharmonious, evil thoughts, for if we have
harmony in our thoughts, then consequently we have also harmony
in our actions. The fundamental psychological laws of Buddha and
of Jesus are profound psychological truths, for truly all inferior
thoughts create an inferior glandular secretion in our organisms
which little by little paralyses our vitality. While, on the contrary,
harmonious currents of thought create in us perfect glandular
activity and direct our whole organism. So the morality of Buddha
and of the Gospels is based on physiological forces, on natural laws.
There is, indeed, a universal higher tribunal which immediately
rewards or punishes our thoughts in the moment of their creation.
We can perhaps avoid the sanctions of social law, but we can never
avoid the punishment of this superior universal tribunal. Buddha's
conception of Nirvana and of reincarnation is not a pale official
definition, but is intensive life. There is interchange between the
limitless and varied forms of energy and the energies of life and of
individual existence. Man is a receiver of these various forms of
energy which constantly change at every moment of existence, and
the individual changes with them.
 So Buddha affirms that individuality is illusion, for truly it
does not exist. There are constantly changing forms of energy which
traverse the various appearing and disappearing individual
consciousnesses in the gravitative sphere of our planet. This
gravitative sphere plays the part of a great filter; all the inferior
currents of thought are kept circulating in the gravitative sphere of
our planet, while all the superior currents of thought are permitted to
enter the eternal cosmic ocean of universal life and universal
consciousness.
Such is the brief outline which I can give you of Buddha's
outlook, which is always badly interpreted in the west. In his last
letter Csoma de Körös wrote : "I am afraid that the true teachings of
Buddha will not be understood in Europe; those who understand
them will live them and not write about them. For the truth of
Buddha is life and not writing and is only intensive living which no
one can express in writing. On the other hand those who write about
Buddhism will not live Buddhism and will not understand it."
Judging by the products of the last century, his fear was well
grounded.
We have thousands of books about Buddhism, and scientists
and pseudo-scientists each interpret Buddhism in a different way.
But these interpretations are pale shadows of the original —mere
metaphysical speculations and classifications of ideas. For
Buddhism is not a philosophical system; Buddhism is life. Buddha
wrote nothing, just as Jesus wrote nothing. They both lived the
complete life; they both achieved harmony in themselves and
around them and did not write. Why not ? Because writing means
the negation of every truth, for truth cannot be put in the verses of
the Scriptures. There have been many commentaries on the thoughts
of Buddha, often made by those who have never really lived the
truths of Buddha, who have never practised the systems of
meditation which Buddha recommended, who have never attained
the degree of consciousness which can make the truths of Buddha
comprehensible to them, and who often have been devoid of
knowledge of Sanscrit and Pali. Many, in turn, have written
commentaries based on preceding commentaries, and this process is
repeated ad infinitum. Thus chaos is born. Both Europe and
America know Buddhism in this way, through pale and valueless
commentaries and through defective, pedantic translations which
reproduce carefully each grammatical nuance, while the essence
escapes them. The thoughts and the spirit behind the grammatical
rules are missed, for to make them felt it is not sufficient to possess
grammar and vocabulary, but also to have an intensive living of the
truths. The source of knowledge drawn upon by Buddha and his
disciples was not books or definitions, but was superior contact with
and reception and absorption of superior currents of various
energies of thought which come to us at every moment of our life
from the eternal cosmic ocean, the great accumulation of all the
superior currents of thought created by the innumerable variety of
the forms of life on every planet where life exists. For Buddha and
for his disciples it was the creation of this contact which was
essential. Not pedantic forms and definitions; not dry bones
deprived of blood and muscle. Buddhism is a rich, living truth, rich
in thoughts, rich in colours, rich in vitality; it is life itself.