Within the compass of mankind;
The one shall read the other’s mind.”
In this the seer shows even a want of theoretical knowledge of the period spoken of. He has madly rushed into the astral world without a knowledge of the philosophy of the mystics. Even though the twelfth sense were developed—let alone the physical sixth—it shall ever remain as difficult as it is now, for people to read one another’s mind. Such is the mystery of Manas.[21] He is evidently deluded by seeing the apparent triumphs during a transitional period of a race’s mental development, of those minds abnormally developed which are able to look into the minds of others; and yet they do that only partially. If one with a highly developed sixth principle were to indulge for only six times in reading other’s minds, he would surely drain that development down to fatten the mind and desires. Moreover, Mr. Hellon’s seer seems to be totally unaware of the fact that the object of developing higher faculties is not to peer into the minds of others, and that the economy of the occult world gives an important privilege to the mystic, in that the pages of his life and manas shall be carefully locked up against inquisitive prowlers, the key safely deposited with his guru, who never lends it to any one else. If with the occult world the laws of nature are so strict, how much more should they be with people in general. Otherwise, nothing would be safe. The sixth sense would then be as delusive and a curse to the ignorant as sight and learning are now. Nor shall this sixth sense man be “perfect.” Truth for him shall be as difficult to attain through his “sense,” as it is now. The horizon shall have only widened, and what we are now acquiring as truth will have passed into history, into literature, into axiom. “Sense” is always nothing else than a channel for desire to flow through and torment ourselves and others.
The whole poem is misleading, especially such expressions as: “His spirit views the world’s turmoil; behold his body feed the soil.—A sixth sense race borne ages since, to God’s own zone.” Our higher self—Atman—can never “view the world’s turmoil,” nor behold the body. For supposing that it did view the body or the world’s turmoil, it would be attracted to them, descending to the physical plane, where it would be converted more or less into physical nature. And the elevation of a sixth sense race unphilosophically supposes the raising up of that sense, which certainly has only to do with our physical nature, at most our astro-physical nature, to the sphere of God or Atman.
By merely training the psychical powers true progress is not gained, but only the enjoyment of those powers; a sort of alcohol on the astral plane, which results in unfavorable Karma. The true path to divine wisdom is in performing our duty unselfishly in the station in which we are placed, for thereby we convert lower nature into higher, following Dharma—our whole duty.
Murdhna Joti.
THE NATURE AND OFFICE OF BUDDHA’S RELIGION.
From a dissertation by the Rt. Rev. H. Sumangala, High Priest of Adam’s Peak, Ceylon.[22]
What must a religion chiefly reveal? A religion, as such, must for the most part propound what is not generally seen and felt in the nature of sentient beings. It must also proclaim “the ways and means” by which the good of the world is attained. These teachings are essential to a religion or it would, at best, become only a system of philosophy or a science of nature. We find these two essentials fully treated in the religion of Buddha.