He had a way of ending a discussion as abruptly as he had begun it, his mind almost visibly closing, vaguely suggestive of the way a tortoise draws in its head. One realized it would not be the slightest use to speak another word to him on the subject. The chela got up and helped him to his feet, rolled up the mat and followed him out of the room almost mechanically, but turned in the doorway suddenly and looked back. It was dark there, for the door was set in a stone arch six feet deep and there was no window at the end of the draughty corridor. But Ommony could almost have sworn the chela laughed silently. There was a momentary glimpse of white teeth and a movement of the head that certainly suggested it.
“It beats the deuce!” he reflected. “That chela knows now that I know she’s a girl, although I can’t imagine how she knows it; and that means that the Lama knows I know it—for they haven’t a secret apart. And the strangest part is that they don’t seem to give a damn—either of ’em!”
[37] Om, of the heavenly world; Ma, of the world of spirits; Ni, of the human world; Pad, of the animal world; me, of the world of ghosts; hum, of the spaces of hell.
[38] This has been translated to mean: “The great liberation by hearing on the astral plane from the profound doctrine of the divine thoughts of the peaceful and wrathful deities emancipating the self.” Mr. Evans Wentz translates it “The book of the Dead,” but this is a very free and decidedly doubtful rendering of the manuscript’s shorter title: “Pardo Todol.”
If a vain man should value your virtue, beware! For he will steal it in the name of God, and he will sell your reputation in the market-place.
From the Book of the Sayings of Tsiang Samdup.