Zirkoff B. - Appendices (BCW vol.14): Difference between revisions
(Created page with "{{HPB-CW-header | item title = Appendices | item author = Zirkoff B. | volume = 14 | pages = 457-502 | publications = | scrapbook = | previous = Blavatsky H.P. - The “Doctrine of the Eye” and the “Doctrine of the Heart,” or the “Heart’s Seal” | next = Zirkoff B. - Bio-Bibliography (BCW vol.14) | alternatives = | translations = }} {{Page aside|457}}") |
mNo edit summary |
||
| Line 13: | Line 13: | ||
{{Page aside|457}} | {{Page aside|457}} | ||
{{Style P-Title|Appendix I}} | |||
{{Style P-Subtitle|SECTION ONE}} | |||
{{Vertical space|}} | |||
[One appended portion of the Wurzburg Ms. is printed here for the first time. When C. Jinarajadasa published the opening section of the so-called “Wurzburg MS.” entitled “To the Readers,” the final portion (here called section II) was not published. It follows directly after the final word “Humanities” at the close of C.J.’s rendering in The Theosophist, LII, August, 1931, pp.601-07. I have received the appended closing portion from the Adyar Archives, January 1978, by permission of John Coats, late International President of the T.S. Some of this additional material is in the 1888 S.D., but not all of it, and will perhaps be of interest to the reader. We begin below with The Theosophist’s portion for the benefit of those who would like to compare H. P. B.’s Introductory remarks to the Secret Doctrine with her original draft.— Compiler.] | |||
{{Vertical space|}} | |||
{{Style P-Subtitle|<center>THE SECRET DOCTRINE</center> | |||
<center>First Draft<ref>[These pages are the beginning of The Secret Doctrine as first written by H. P. B. The manuscript is at Adyar, and is in course of publication. Faulty punctuation and other defects in the manuscript have been corrected in these pages.—C.J.]</ref></center> | |||
<center>TO THE READERS</center>}} | |||
{{Style P-Align right|''“Strike but listen.”''}} | |||
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|Epictetus}} | |||
{{Vertical space|}} | |||
Error runs down on an inclined plane, Truth has to climb laboriously its way up hill. This is a reflection suggested by daily life experience. The old truism of guarding against such error would be to keep one’s mind entirely free from all prejudice; and never to form a decisive opinion upon any subject under disputation before a thorough examination of it and from all its aspects. | |||
{{Page aside|458}} | |||
This is said with regard to the largely prevailing mistake that by Esoteric Buddhism the tenets of the religious system preached by Gautama Buddha are meant. Nothing more erroneous than that could be ever imagined, but the error has now become so universal that many persons—even among the Fellows of the Theosophical Society—have fallen victims to it. This has to be laid directly at the door of those who, having been the first to bring the subject under public notice, have neglected to point out the difference between Buddhism—the religious system of ethics preached by Gautama and named after his title of Buddha—and Buddhi,<ref>Moreover the planet Mercury is also called Budha (one d) and it is the name—meaning “wise, intelligent”—of the son of Brihaspati’s wife, Budha who married Ila, the daughter of Manu Vaivasvata, the progenitor of our race.</ref> the Wisdom or the faculty of cognizing, from the Sanskrit root “Budh” to know. The real culprits are we, the theosophists of India ourselves. To avoid the deplorable error was easy: the spelling of the word had only to be altered, and by common consent both pronounced and written—either Budhism or Bodhism instead of “Buddhism”. | |||
The above remarks are more than necessary at the beginning of such a work as this one. “Wisdom-Religion” is the inheritance of all the nations the world over. ADI-BUDDHA the One (or First) primeval Wisdom, is a Sanskrit term, an appellation given by the earliest Aryans to Parabrahman—the word “Brahma” not being found in the Vedas and Brahmanas as rightly told in John Dowson’s Classical Dictionary (p. 57)—the absolute and secondless (Adwaita) Wisdom. Aeons of untold duration had, perhaps, elapsed, before the epithet of Buddha was so humanized, so to say, as to allow the term being applied to some mortals, and finally pronounced in connection with one whose unparalleled virtues caused him to receive the name of “Buddha of Wisdom unmoved”. Bodhi means the acquirement of divine knowledge; Buddha, one who has acquired “Bodhi”; and “Buddhi” is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which knowledge reaches the Ego. It is also that plane of existence in which spiritual individuality is evolved, and from which personality is {{Page aside|459}} | |||
{{Footnotes}} | |||
Revision as of 13:55, 15 January 2025
Publications:
Also at:
In other languages:
457
Appendix I
[One appended portion of the Wurzburg Ms. is printed here for the first time. When C. Jinarajadasa published the opening section of the so-called “Wurzburg MS.” entitled “To the Readers,” the final portion (here called section II) was not published. It follows directly after the final word “Humanities” at the close of C.J.’s rendering in The Theosophist, LII, August, 1931, pp.601-07. I have received the appended closing portion from the Adyar Archives, January 1978, by permission of John Coats, late International President of the T.S. Some of this additional material is in the 1888 S.D., but not all of it, and will perhaps be of interest to the reader. We begin below with The Theosophist’s portion for the benefit of those who would like to compare H. P. B.’s Introductory remarks to the Secret Doctrine with her original draft.— Compiler.]
“Strike but listen.”
Error runs down on an inclined plane, Truth has to climb laboriously its way up hill. This is a reflection suggested by daily life experience. The old truism of guarding against such error would be to keep one’s mind entirely free from all prejudice; and never to form a decisive opinion upon any subject under disputation before a thorough examination of it and from all its aspects.
458 This is said with regard to the largely prevailing mistake that by Esoteric Buddhism the tenets of the religious system preached by Gautama Buddha are meant. Nothing more erroneous than that could be ever imagined, but the error has now become so universal that many persons—even among the Fellows of the Theosophical Society—have fallen victims to it. This has to be laid directly at the door of those who, having been the first to bring the subject under public notice, have neglected to point out the difference between Buddhism—the religious system of ethics preached by Gautama and named after his title of Buddha—and Buddhi,[2] the Wisdom or the faculty of cognizing, from the Sanskrit root “Budh” to know. The real culprits are we, the theosophists of India ourselves. To avoid the deplorable error was easy: the spelling of the word had only to be altered, and by common consent both pronounced and written—either Budhism or Bodhism instead of “Buddhism”.
The above remarks are more than necessary at the beginning of such a work as this one. “Wisdom-Religion” is the inheritance of all the nations the world over. ADI-BUDDHA the One (or First) primeval Wisdom, is a Sanskrit term, an appellation given by the earliest Aryans to Parabrahman—the word “Brahma” not being found in the Vedas and Brahmanas as rightly told in John Dowson’s Classical Dictionary (p. 57)—the absolute and secondless (Adwaita) Wisdom. Aeons of untold duration had, perhaps, elapsed, before the epithet of Buddha was so humanized, so to say, as to allow the term being applied to some mortals, and finally pronounced in connection with one whose unparalleled virtues caused him to receive the name of “Buddha of Wisdom unmoved”. Bodhi means the acquirement of divine knowledge; Buddha, one who has acquired “Bodhi”; and “Buddhi” is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which knowledge reaches the Ego. It is also that plane of existence in which spiritual individuality is evolved, and from which personality is 459
Footnotes
- ↑ [These pages are the beginning of The Secret Doctrine as first written by H. P. B. The manuscript is at Adyar, and is in course of publication. Faulty punctuation and other defects in the manuscript have been corrected in these pages.—C.J.]
- ↑ Moreover the planet Mercury is also called Budha (one d) and it is the name—meaning “wise, intelligent”—of the son of Brihaspati’s wife, Budha who married Ila, the daughter of Manu Vaivasvata, the progenitor of our race.