Since heaven and earth, Spirit and matter, are the two poles of the manifested world, that world itself is the Being between them; at first, before the beginning of Time, still and motionless; then, when the dawn comes, gradually stirred into manifestation.

But the divine Way, the Way of divine things, is so full of infinities, that he who seeks to tell it in words, is soon reduced to silence.

Better than words, to reveal the Way, is the following of the Way itself, by the path of disinterested obedience, the path of work without attachment.

Perhaps the best description of that path is to be found in the second book of the Bhagavad Gita, just quoted:

"Thy right is to the work, but never to its fruits of personal reward; let not the fruit of thy work be the motive, nor yet take refuge in abstinence from works.

"Standing in union with the Soul, carry out thy work, putting away attachment, O conqueror of wealth; equal in success and failure, for equalness is called union with the Soul."

But the principle of detachment, of high disinterestedness in work, is the main theme of the Bhagavad Gita, running through it all like a thread of gold. And in this principle of detachment, the Gita most closely approaches Lao Tse's teaching.

6. The spirit of the valley dies not. It is called the mysterious Mother.

The door of the mysterious Mother is called the source of heaven and earth.

It is eternal and seems to manifest itself.

He who enters into it, finds rest.

The spirit of the valley is Humility. For only through humility is it possible to find the Way. The whole personality must be dissolved. The nothingness of self must be realized through and through, in will as well as in thought, before the light from within can illumine the heart.

When through humility the Way is found, it is found that the Power of the Way is the Life and source of all things. The mysterious Mother is called in India the feminine Viraj, or Vach, the feminine aspect of the Logos; that which Saint Paul calls the Wisdom of God and the Power of God; namely, God's power to make things manifest. This mysterious Mother, this formative Power, is eternal, and seems to manifest itself; the manifestation is a seeming, in the sense that it is not eternal. For only the Eternal is, in the fullest sense, real. All that is put forth in manifestation, will, in the fulness of time, be withdrawn from manifestation. He who would find rest, must seek it, not in manifested things, but in the Life which is behind manifested things, in the Logos, which, in all spiritual scriptures, is called the everlasting Home.

If they endure, it is because they live not for themselves. It is because of this that they endure.

So the Master puts himself after others, yet remains the first.
He is detached from his body, yet conserves his body.

Is it not because he has no desires for himself, that all his desires are fulfilled?

Again, the teaching of high disinterestedness, of detachment from the desire of personal reward. Heaven and earth are impartial, sending sun and rain upon the just and the unjust. Heaven and earth are free from self-seeking, and therefore they endure for ever. The Master is, like the great Life which breathes through heaven and earth, impartial and free from self-seeking. Therefore let the disciple also be rid of all the wills of self.

8.

The spirit of goodness is like water.

Water excels in doing good to all, yet strives not.

It seeks the lowly places rejected by others.

Therefore he who is like this, draws near to the Way.
His chosen dwelling place is in humility.

His heart loves the depth of the abyss.

His gifts are given with impartial love.
He speaks words of faithfulness.
His government brings peace.
He is skilful in all he undertakes.

He acts in all things with timeliness.

He strives against none; therefore he is not opposed.

The most fitting commentary on Lao Tse's words concerning water, and, in general, what he says of the beneficence of heaven and earth, is the hymn of Saint Francis of Assisi, called the "Praises of the Creatures," more generally known as "The Canticle of the Sun." The quotation which follows is taken from the translation which Father Paschal Robinson has made from the earliest Italian manuscripts: "Praise be to Thee, my Lord, with all Thy creatures, Especially to my worshipful brother sun,

The which lights up the day, and through him dost Thou brightness give;

And beautiful is he and radiant with splendour great;

Of Thee, most High, signification gives.

"Praised be my Lord, for sister moon and for the stars,

In heaven Thou hast formed them clear and precious and fair.
Praised be my Lord for brother wind

And for the air and clouds and fair and every kind of weather,

By the which Thou givest to Thy creatures nourishment.

Praised be my Lord for sister water,

The which is greatly helpful and humble and precious and pure. "Praised be my Lord for brother fire,

By the which Thou lightest up the dark.

And fair is he and gay and mighty and strong.

"Praised be my Lord for our sister, mother earth,

The which sustains and keeps us

And brings forth diverse fruits with grass and flowers bright.

"Praised be my Lord for those who for Thy love forgive

And weakness bear and tribulation.

Here we have exactly the thought of the likeness between water, which is greatly helpful and humble and precious and pure, and those who, for love, forgive and bear weakness and tribulation, which Lao Tse had expressed seventeen or eighteen centuries before Saint Francis.

9. It is better not to fill the vessel than to try to carry it when quite full.

The blade that is over-sharpened loses its edge, even though it be tested with the hand.

The hall that is filled with gold and jade cannot be guarded.

He who has honours heaped upon him, and thereby grows proud, draws down misfortune upon himself.

He who has done great things and gained renown should withdraw himself.

Such is the Way of heaven.

These vivid parables instilling moderation and humility hardly need any comment. The last phrase but one is thus interpreted by one of the Oriental commentators:

"When a hero has accomplished great things and gained renown, let him realize that life is like the illusion of a dream, that riches and honours are like floating clouds. When his time comes, he must let slip the bonds of the heart, escaping from his earthly prison, and, rising above creatures, become one with the Way."

10.

The spiritual should rule the psychic nature.
When he is one-pointed, these act in consonance.

When he masters the bodily powers, rendering them obedient, he is as one new born.

When he frees himself from the illusions of the mind, he puts away all infirmities.

If he would guard the people and bring peace in the kingdom, let him work with detachment.

When he accepts the opening and closing of the gates of heaven, he rests like a brooding bird.

Though his light penetrates everywhere, he appears as if knowing nothing.

He brings forth beings and nourishes them.

Though bringing them forth, he is without the desire of possession.
He cherishes them, yet looks for no reward.

He rules them, yet without dominating them.

This is called perfect righteousness.

Here again very little comment is needed, though it may be of interest once more to quote an Oriental commentator:

"The nature of the holy man is serene and at rest, the spiritual part of his being is invariably set firm, and is not drawn awry nor perverted by material things. Although the spiritual soul has taken the animal soul for its abode, yet the animal soul obeys it in all that it undertakes. The spiritual principle commands and directs the animal principle. The men of the multitude subject their natures to external things, their hearts are troubled, and then the spiritual soul is dominated by the animal soul. Lao Tse teaches men to hold the spirit firm, to rule the sensible nature, so that these two act together." C. J.

(To be continued)

Simplicity of intention, setting our hearts on accomplishing God's will alone, and minding neither reputation, popularity, comfort nor success-this is the only way to gain peace.-DIGNAM.

I have made a compact with my tongue never to speak, and with myself never to act, so long as my heart is troubled.-FRANCIS OF SALES.

S

THE PINEAL EYE

TUDENTS of The Secret Doctrine will remember a fascinating section entitled "The Races with the 'Third Eye'", from which

a few lines may be quoted: "The 'deva-eye' exists no more for the majority of mankind. The third eye is dead, and acts no longer; but it has left behind a witness to its existence. This witness is now the Pineal Gland" (II, p. 295, 1888).

That this fact is completely recognized by biologists today, may be shown by a quotation from Mr. C. W. Beebe's delightfully written and excellent book, The Bird:

"Fishes, frogs, lizards, birds, and mammals, through all the ages, have depended on these two eyes and have found them all-sufficient; but there are hints that once, long ago, the ancestors of all the higher animals had a sense-organ, probably of sight, like that of the mythical Polyphemus, in the centre of the head. In lizards this vestigial organ is sometimes quite well developed, having a nerve which leads up from the centre of the brain to a kind of translucent, lens-like scale which lies among the other scales of the skin, upon the centre of the forehead. In the long-extinct Ichthyosaurus this median eye was probably functional. In an embryo chick of even the third day this organ is remarkably prominent; but although traces of it always remain, yet it fades away to a vestige. Look with a hand-lens at the head of a polywog, and see the whitish dot between the eyes; or when you touch the 'soft spot' on the head of a human baby, let it recall the strange third eye of which it is the cause" (p. 478).

Mr. Beebe has very illuminating pictures of the "pineal eye" in the lizard and the embryo chick, to which students are referred.

It may be interesting to quote, from the Guatemalan Popol Vuh a passage, cited in an earlier number, depicting one of the "races with the third eye":

"Intelligence dwelt in them. They looked, they raised their eyes, their vision embraced all things; they beheld the whole world, and, when they contemplated it, their vision turned in an instant from the vault of the heavens, to regard anew the surface of the earth. Things most deeply hidden they saw at will, without need of moving beforehand; and when they turned their vision upon the world, they beheld all that it contains. (THE THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, October, 1919,

p. 120.)

There are several references to the Popol Vuh in The Secret Doctrine.