I say "a few truths," advisedly, because that which must remain unsaid could not be contained in a hundred such volumes, nor could it be imparted to the present generation of Sadducees.
But, even the little that is now given is better than complete silence upon those vital truths.
The world of to-day, in its mad career towards the unknown -- which it is too ready to confound with the unknowable, whenever the problem eludes the grasp of the physicist -- is rapidly progressing on the reverse, material plane of spirituality.
It has now become a vast arena -- a true valley of discord and of eternal strife -- a necropolis, wherein lie buried the highest and the most holy aspirations of our Spirit-Soul.
That soul becomes with every new generation more paralyzed and atrophied.
The "amiable infidels and accomplished profligates" of Society, spoken of by Greeley, care little for the revival of the dead sciences of the past; but there is a fair minority of earnest students who are entitled to learn the few truths that may be given to them now; and now much more than ten years ago, when "Isis Unveiled," or even the later attempts to explain the mysteries of esoteric science, were published.
One of the greatest, and, withal, the most serious objection to the correctness and reliability of the whole work will be the preliminary S TANZAS: "How can the statements contained in them be verified?" True, if a great portion of the Sanskrit, Chinese, and Mongolian works quoted in the present volumes are known to some Orientalists, the chief work -- that one from which the Stanzas are given -- is not in the possession of European Libraries.
The Book of Dzyan (or "Dzan") is utterly unknown to our Philologists, or at any rate was never heard of by them under its present name.
This is, of course, a great drawback [[Vol.
1, Page]] xxiii INTRODUCTORY.
to those who follow the methods of research prescribed by official Science; but to the students of Occultism, and to every genuine Occultist, this will be of little moment.
The main body of the Doctrines given is found scattered throughout hundreds and thousands of Sanskrit MSS ., some already translated -- disfigured in their interpretations, as usual, -- others still awaiting their turn.
Every scholar, therefore, has an opportunity of verifying the statements herein made, and of checking most of the quotations.
A few new facts ( new to the profane Orientalist, only) and passages quoted from the Commentaries will be found difficult to trace.
Several of the teachings, also, have hitherto been transmitted orally: yet even those are in every instance hinted at in the almost countless volumes of Brahminical, Chinese and Tibetan temple-literature.
However it may be, and whatsoever is in store for the writer through malevolent criticism, one fact is quite certain.
The members of several esoteric schools -- the seat of which is beyond the Himalayas, and whose ramifications may be found in China, Japan, India, Tibet, and even in Syria, besides South America -- claim to have in their possession the sum total of sacred and philosophical works in MSS .
and type: all the works, in fact, that have ever been written, in whatever language or characters, since the art of writing began; from the ideographic hieroglyphs down to the alphabet of Cadmus and the Devanagari.
It has been claimed in all ages that ever since the destruction of the Alexandrian Library (see Isis Unveiled, Vol.
II., p.
27), every work of a character that might have led the profane to the ultimate discovery and comprehension of some of the mysteries of the Secret Science, was, owing to the combined efforts of the members of the Brotherhoods, diligently searched for.
It is added, moreover, by those who know, that once found, save three copies left and stored safely away, such works were all destroyed.
In India, the last of the precious manuscripts were secured and hidden during the reign of the Emperor Akbar.* It is maintained, furthermore, that every sacred book of that kind, whose text was not sufficiently veiled in symbolism, or which had any [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Prof.
Max Muller shows that no bribes or threats of Akbar could extort from the Brahmans the original text of the Veda; and boasts that European Orientalists have it ( Lecture on the " Science of Religion, " p.
23).
Whether Europe has the complete text is very doubtful, and the future may have very disagreeable surprises in store for the Orientalists.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] xxiv INTRODUCTORY.
direct references to the ancient mysteries, after having been carefully copied in cryptographic characters, such as to defy the art of the best and cleverest palaeographer, was also destroyed to the last copy.
During Akbar's reign, some fanatical courtiers, displeased at the Emperor's sinful prying into the religions of the infidels, themselves helped the Brahmans to conceal their MSS.
Such was Badaoni, who had an undisguised horror for Akbar's mania for idolatrous religions.* Moreover in all the large and wealthy lamasaries, there are subterranean crypts and cave-libraries, cut in the rock, whenever the gonpa and the lhakhang are situated in the mountains.
Beyond the Western Tsay-dam, in the solitary passes of Kuen-lun** there are several such hiding places.
Along the ridge of Altyn-Toga, whose soil no European foot has ever trodden so far, there exists a certain hamlet, lost in a deep gorge.
It is a small cluster of houses, a hamlet rather than a monastery, with a poor-looking temple in it, with one old lama, a hermit, living near by to watch it.
Pilgrims say that the subterranean galleries and halls under it contain a collection of books, the number of which, according to the accounts given, is too large to find room even in the British Museum.*** All this is very likely to provoke a smile of doubt.
But then, before [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Badaoni wrote in his Muntakhab at Tawarikh: "His Majesty relished inquiries into the sects of these infidels (who cannot be counted, so numerous they are, and who have no end of revealed books ) .
.
.
As they (the Sramana and Brahmins) surpass other learned men in their treatises on morals, on physical and religious sciences, and reach a high degree in their knowledge of the future , in spiritual power, and human perfection, they brought proofs based on reason and testimony, and inculcated their doctrines so firmly that no man could now raise a doubt in his Majesty even if mountains were to crumble to dust, or the heavens were to tear asunder." This work "was kept secret, and was not published till the reign of Jahangir." (Ain i Akbari, translated by Dr.
Blochmann, p.
104, note.) ** Karakorum mountains, Western Tibet.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The passage describes 'esoteric schools' with ramifications across multiple cultures claiming possession of works since writing began.
Sacred knowledge transmitted as living speech rather than fixed writing — scripture carried in memory, song, and telling, renewed in each generation; the unwritten canon of a tradition.
The author notes that 'Several of the teachings, also, have hitherto been transmitted orally.'
The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. Distinct from apophatic_theology (a claim about how the divine may be described, by negation) and unity_of_being (a claim that being is ultimately one) in being a claim about two coexisting registers of truth-claim itself.
The author distinguishes between 'a few truths' that can be given and the vast amount that must remain unsaid.
Organized, persisting groups — fraternities, orders, lodges — that maintain esoteric knowledge or practices as an institution distinct from public religion or mainstream society, holding 'the keys' collectively rather than through any one master-disciple pair. Distinct from esoteric_lineage (a genealogical chain of individual transmission, not an institution) and hidden_sayings (the concealment of a teaching's meaning, independent of whether any organized body holds it).
The passage centrally discusses 'esoteric schools' and 'Brotherhoods' that possess sacred manuscripts and control access to them.