The Voice of the Silence
Paramitas (virtues) of Perfection
Muriel Daw
being extracts of a talk given at the Theosophical Society Summer School - 1987 Blavatsky Lecture
Editors note:
In some respects this article is a logical continuation of the theme of attuning personality with Individuality as discussed in the last issue of Insight in Geoffrey Farthing's article 'Ascending the Heights', through meditation and in 'The Voice of the Silence'.
...O weaver of thy freedom, thou hast to master these Paramitas of perfection - the virtues transcendental six and ten in number - along the weary path
Most of us, as students of Theosophy, are already very familiar with this quotation from The Voice of the Silence. However although we may have meditated for years on the first six of the transcendental virtues so richly described in THE SEVEN PORTALS, for some of us there remains a burning question: Ten paramitas are mentioned; what about the other four?
It may be though that perhaps these other four are unimportant, otherwise H. P. Blavatsky (H.P.B.) would have given us more information about them; but this is not true. In fact Buddhists call them "The Four Great Perfections." They are so important that they are never given to beginners only to students who are well advanced along the Way. It should be noted that, in the Buddhist Scriptures, the Path of the Ten Paramitas is always linked with the ten Bhumis (Stations, or 'Earths') experienced along the way.
We may ask: Did H.P.B. know the Path of the Ten Paramitas and would she regard it as a proper practice for us? In other words, may we regard the Four Great Buddhist Perfections as orthodox Theosophy?
On November 29, 1889, she wrote in a letter:
"That the MASTERS do, in proportion to their respective temperaments at stages of Bodhisattvic development possess such Paramitas, constitutes their right to our reverence as our Teachers. It should be the aim of each and all of us to strive with all the intensity of our natures to follow and imitate them"
Then in E. S. Instruction No 3. H. P. B. quotes from a letter received from her Master.
'The six and ten transcendental virtues (the Paramitas) are not for full grown yogis and priests alone, but for all those who would enter the Path ...'
It would seem therefore that for spiritual training, even lay people like ourselves could profit by knowing more about this particular way towards Enlightenment.
Madame Blavatsky tells us in her preface that the Scripture from which The Voice of the Silence was translated contains about 90 distinct little treatises, 39 of which she had learnt by heart during her own apprenticeship. However, not all were suitable to be given to a too selfish world, and for the rest, she was too near the end of a life burnt our working for the sake of humanity. Therefore, for her last work, The Voice of the Silence, she chose only the three fragments best suited to the mystics of the Theosophical Society, and she dedicated them "To the Few"
The first fragment she chose, deals with training in Dhyana, which is the precursor of Prajna or Samadhi, the state of faultless vision. This first vision or glimpse of the True Self is the immediate aim of all sincere Theosophists and Buddhists.
Such a preliminary vision leads to the choice which will influence all the rest of this particular incarnation, and is fully explored in THE TWO PATHS ... is the student moved so deeply by this peep hole into truth that he will devote the rest of his life to the "Open Way" towards more wisdom, the direct journey out of Samsara to Nirvana? Or will he be even more moved by the suffering of the world and choose the "Secret Way" following the Path of Compassion?
As we all know, the Masters of our Lineage, when they reached this stage, chose the Path of Compassion
and took the Vow to help all beings towards Enlightenment. The Bodhissatva Vow is the motive and path of training for all Mahayana Buddhists: To attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.' The would be Bodhisattva is not interested merely in personal enlightenment but in the Cosmic Desire of Universal Enlightenment.
As Madame Blavatsky often referred to herself in humble terms as the very lowest of chelas, it is perhaps an unusual idea to think of her as a bodhisattva. However, only someone who has taken such a Vow could have been accepted by her particular teachers; and, considering her life, would any of us doubt for a moment that her total energies were spent in absorbing so much of the Ancient Wisdom as she could and then passing it on to us? From the moment anyone undertakes the Vow, he becomes a fledgling bodhisattva. Traditionally his entire career has been divided into several parts and stages. He or she works at the Ten Perfect Virtues, the Paramitas, rising and advancing from one stage to another until reaching Enlightenment. These stages are called bhumis. Bhumi means earth or ground. It also means a place of awareness or state of being.
Having being trained herself, Madame Blavatsky, in her turn, passed on to us as much of the teaching as possible. By translating the third fragment, The Seven Portals, she started all of us on the path of the Paramitas, the Transcendental Perfections.
full text of The Voice of the Silence
Extract from The Voice of the Silence - THE SEVEN PORTALS
196. "UPADYA (guru) [1] , the choice is made, I thirst for Wisdom. Now hast thou rent the veil before the secret Path and taught the greater Yana [2] . Thy servant here is ready for thy guidance."
197. 'Tis well, Sravaka [3] . Prepare thyself, for thou wilt have to travel on alone. The Teacher can but point the way. The Path is one for all, the means to reach the goal must vary with the Pilgrims.
198. Which wilt thou choose, O thou of dauntless heart? The Samtan [4] of "eye Doctrine," four-fold Dhyana, or thread thy way through Paramitas [5] , six in number, noble gates of virtue leading to Bodhi and to Prajna, seventh step of Wisdom?
199. The rugged Path of four-fold Dhyana winds on uphill. Thrice great is he who climbs the lofty top.
200. The Paramita 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.
201. Be of good cheer, Disciple; bear in mind the golden rule. Once thou hast passed the gate Srotapatti [6] , "he who the stream hath entered"; once thy foot hath pressed the bed of the Nirvanic stream in this or any future life, thou hast but seven other births before thee, O thou of adamantine Will.
202. Look on. What see'st thou before thine eye, O aspirant to god-like Wisdom?
203. "The cloak of darkness is upon the deep of matter; within its folds I struggle. Beneath my gaze it deepens, Lord; it is dispelled beneath the waving of thy hand. A shadow moveth, creeping like the stretching serpent coils. . . . It grows, swells out and disappears in darkness."
204. It is the shadow of thyself outside the Path, cast on the darkness of thy sins.
205. "Yea, Lord; I see the PATH; its foot in mire, its summits lost in glorious light Nirvanic. And now I see the ever narrowing Portals on the hard and thorny way to Jnana." [Knowledge, Wisdom.]
206. Thou seest well, Lanoo. These Portals lead the aspirant across the waters on "to the other shore" [7] . Each Portal hath a golden key that openeth its gate; and these keys are: --
207. 1. DANA, the key of charity and love immortal.
208. 2. SHILA, the key of Harmony in word and act, the key that counterbalances the cause and the effect, and leaves no further room for Karmic action.
209. 3. KSHANTI, patience sweet, that nought can ruffle.
210. 4. VIRAGA, indifference to pleasure and to pain, illusion conquered, truth alone perceived.
211. 5. VIRYA, the dauntless energy that fights its way to the supernal TRUTH, out of the mire of lies terrestrial.
212. 6. DHYANA, whose golden gate once opened leads the Narjol [A saint, an adept.] toward the realm of Sat eternal and its ceaseless contemplation.
213. 7. PRAJNA, the key to which makes of a man a god, creating him a Bodhisattva, son of the Dhyanis.
214. Such to the Portals are the golden keys.
215. Before thou canst approach the last, O weaver of thy freedom, thou hast to master these Paramitas (virtues) of perfection -- the virtues transcendental six and ten in number -- along the weary Path.
216. For, O Disciple! Before thou wert made fit to meet thy Teacher face to face, thy MASTER light to light, what wert thou told?
217. Before thou canst approach the foremost gate thou hast to learn to part thy body from thy mind, to dissipate the shadow, and to live in the eternal. For this, thou hast to live and breathe in all, as all that thou perceivest breathes in thee; to feel thyself abiding in all things, all things in SELF.
218. Thou shalt not let thy senses make a playground of thy mind.
219. Thou shalt not separate thy being from BEING, and the rest, but merge the Ocean in the drop, the drop within the Ocean.
220. So shalt thou be in full accord with all that lives; bear love to men as though they were thy brother-pupils, disciples of one Teacher, the sons of one sweet mother.
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 ITS.
222. Before thou standest on the threshold of the Path; before thou crossest the foremost Gate, thou hast to merge the two into the One and sacrifice the personal to SELF impersonal, and thus destroy the "path" between the two -- Antaskarana [9] .
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1 Upadya is a spiritual preceptor, a Guru. The Northern Buddhists choose these generally among the "Narjol," saintly men, learned in gotrabhu-gnyana and gnyana-dassana-suddhi teachers of the Secret Wisdom. (return to text)
2 Yana -- vehicle: thus Mahayana is the "Great Vehicle," and Hinayana, the "Lesser Vehicle," the names for two schools of religious and philosophical learning in Northern Buddhism. (return to text)
3 Sravaka -- a listener, or student who attends to the religious instructions. From the root "Sru." When from theory they go into practice or performance of asceticism, they become Sramanas, "exercisers," from Srama, action. As Hardy shows, the two appellations answer to the words akoustikoi and asketai of the Greeks. (return to text)
4 Samtan (Tibetan), the same as the Sanskrit Dhyana, or the state of meditation, of which there are four degrees. (return to text)
5 Paramitas, the six transcendental virtues; for the priests there are ten. (return to text)
6 Srotapatti -- (lit.) "he who has entered the stream" that leads to the Nirvanic ocean. This name indicates the first Path. The name of the second is the Path of Sakridagamin, "he who will receive birth (only) once more." The third is called Anagamin, "he who will be reincarnated no more," unless he so desires in order to help mankind. The fourth Path is known as that of Rahat or Arhat. This is the highest. An Arhat sees Nirvana during his life. For him it is no post-mortem state, but Samadhi, during which he experiences all Nirvanic bliss.*
[*How little one can rely upon the Orientalists for the exact words and meaning, is instanced in the case of three "alleged" authorities. Thus the four names just explained are given by R. Spence Hardy as: 1. Sowan; 2. Sakradagami; 3. Anagami, and 4. Arya. By the Rev. J. Edkins they are given as: 1. Srotapanna; 2. Sagardagam; 3. Anaganim, and 4. Arhan. Schlagintweit again spells them differently, each, moreover, giving another and a new variation in the meaning of the terms.] (return to text)
7 "Arrival at the shore" is with the Northern Buddhists synonymous with reaching Nirvana through the exercise of the six and the ten Paramitas (virtues). (return to text)
8 The "MASTER-SOUL" is Alaya, the Universal Soul or Atman, each man having a ray of it in him and being supposed to be able to identify himself with and to merge himself into it.
9 Antaskarana is the lower Manas, the Path of communication or communion between the personality and the higher Manas or human Soul. At death it is destroyed as a Path or medium of communication, and its remains survive in a form as the Kamarupa -- the "shell."
The preceding extract is taken from Muriel's 1987 Blavatsky Lecture. Copies of the full lecture are available from the Books Department at 50 Gloucester Place, London W1 U 8EA. £1.00 to personal callers. £1.50 inc p & p (within the UK). Orderline: 020 7563 9816
Muriel Daw is former Editor of The Middle Way, the journal of the Buddhist Society. She is particularly active as a teacher at Camberley Lodge where she has been a member for many years. She is continuing a study group looking into The Voice of the Silence and is currently arranging a series of Meditation Days Tekels Park, where she has lived for some years. For details, call 01276 23159
Meditation days in 2005 : spiritual retreat
The Theosophical Society 2004
reproduced from 'Insight' Winter 2004 (Vol 45 No.4), The Journal of The Theosophical Society in England
