Section 8

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April, 1890, p. Ill, and June, 1890, pp. 321, 322), the three vestures of the Glorified Christos or perfected man — what we may all be in some future birth — are thus described :
" And the Disciples saw not Jesus because of the great Light with which he was surrounded, or which proceeded from him. For their eyes were darkened because of it. But they gazed upon the Light only, shooting forth great rays of light. Nor were the rays equal to one another, and the Light was of divers modes and various aspect, from the lower to the higher part thereof, each ray more admirable than its fellow in infinite manner, in the great radiance of the immeasurable Light. It stretched from the earth to the heaven. ... It was of three degrees, one surpassing the other in infinite manner. The second, which was in the midst, excelled the first which was below it, and the third, the most admirable of all, surpassed the other twain."
The Master explains this mystery to his Disciples as follows :
" Rejoice, therefore, in that the time is come that I should put on my Vesture.
" Lo ! I have put on my Vesture and all
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power has been given me by the First Mystery. Yet a Httle while and I will tell you every Mystery and every Completion ; henceforth from this hour I will conceal naught from you, but in Perfectness will I perfect you in all Completion, and all Perfectioning and every Mystery, which indeed are the End of all Ends, and the Completion of all Completions, and the Wisdom (Gnosis) of all Wisdoms. Hearken! I will tell you all things which have befallen me.
" It came to pass, when the sun had risen in the places of the East, a great Stream of Light descended, in which was my Vesture, which I placed in the Four-and-twentieth Mystery. And I found the Mystery on my Vesture written in Five \\^ords, which pertain to the Height. Zama Zama Ozza Rachama Ozai.^ And this is the inter-
1 Compare the Pancha-Kosha or Five Sheaths of the Vedantins previously referred to. For an explanation of the number five, and the pentagon, see Secret Doctrine, ii. pp. 575-580. In one of the books of the Perataj Gnostics mention is made of a dodecagonal pyramid (dudeKaytliviov wvpa/xlda) in a sphere of the colour of night (vvkt6xpovv). This pyramid— every side of which was a regular pentagon — had a door leading into it which was painted with varigated colours {woiKiXais x/"^a's)- (See Philosophumena, v. 14.) It
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pretation thereof : The Mj-stcry which is without ill the World, because of which the Universe was made, is all Evolution and all Progress ; it projected all emanations and all things therein. Because of it every Mystery exists and the Regions [Lokas] thereof. Come to us, for we are thy fellow members. We are all one with thee. We are one and the same, and thou art one and the same. That is the First Mystery, which was from the beginning in the Ineffable, before it came forth there- from ; and its name is all of us.
" Now, therefore, we all live together for thee at the last Limit ; which also is the last Mystery from the Interiors. That also is a part of us. Now, therefore, we have sent thee thy Vesture, which indeed is thine from the beginning, which thou didst place in the last
is through this fivefold door that the Soul passes from the Spiritual World, which is now darkness to us because of our ignorance, into the Solar Universe, which was sj?mbolized by the Platonic Solid called the Dodecahedron. This door is of many colours, Hke Joseph's coat, for what we call colours here below are the witnesses to very real powers or forces in spiritual nature. In the passage from the Pistis- Sophia these are referred to as the five " Words " written on the Vesture of the Christos. They are the five attributes of the Spiritual Body of the Yogacharya School of Buddhism, which will be referred to later on.
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Limit, which also is the last Mystery from the Interiors, until its time should be fulfilled ac- cording to the command of the First Mystery, Lo ! its time being now completed, / will give it thee. Come to us ! For we all stand by thee to clothe thee with the First Mystery, and all its Glory by command of the same, because that the First Mystery, coming into manifesta- tion, gave us two vestures to clothe thee besides the one, which we have sent thee, since thou art worthy of them and art prior to us, and came into being before ns. For this cause, therefore, the First Mystery sent for thee through us the Mystery of all its Glory, two Vestures."
The text then goes on to detail the Hier- archies and iEons, Powers and Gods, which compose these Heavenly Garments — corres- ponding detail for detail with the whole emana- tive potencies of the Universe wherebj' the Garment of Deity is woven, and then continues its magnificent exposition ; the living Powers which form the Vesture speaking as follows on the Great Day " Be with us " — the moment of the Supreme Initiation :
" Behold, therefore, we have sent thee this
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Vesture, which no one has known from the First Precept dow^nwards, because the radiance of its Light had been hidden therein, nor did the Spheres and all the Regions downward from the first Precept (know it). Make haste, there- fore, clothe thyself with this Vesture. Come to us ; for ever, until the time appointed by the Ineffable was fulfilled, we have been in need of thee, to clothe thee with the two Vestures by the Command of the First Mystery. Lo, then, that time is fulfilled. Come, therefore, to us quickly, that we may put them on thee, until thou fulfillest every Ministry of the Perfections of the First Mystery, appointed by the Ineffable. Come to us quickly, we will put them upon thee according to the command of the First Mystery ; for the time that yet remains is very short. Thou art coming to us and wilt leave the World. Come, therefore ; quickly shalt thou receive all thy Glory, the Glory of the First Mystery."
These three Vestures are the three Buddhic Robes described in the Voice of the Silence (pp. 96, 97). They may be described as the Body of Transformation (Nirmana-kaya), the Body of Bliss (Sambhoga-kaya), and the Body of the
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Law (Dharma-kaya). Very little is publicly known of these Transcendent Vestures, even by the Buddhists themselves, so that the accounts we have in the books of various Oriental scholars arc contradictory and mis- leading. The highest is the Vesture of the Law which H. P. Blavatsky tells us is void of all attributes, and describes it as an " ideal breath." If this Vesture is assumed every possible connection with the earth is at an end, and, therefore, the Buddhas of Compassion lay it aside that they may still remain and work on for humanity. Nevertheless, Eitel in his Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary {sub voc, " Pancha Dharma-kaya ") speaks of the five attributes of this Vesture — which he calls " the Spiritual Body in five portions" (!) — and describes them as follows :
" I. Precept .... exemption from all materiality (Rupa).
" 2. Tranquillity .... exemption from all sensations (Vedana).
" 3. Wisdom .... exemption from all consciousness (Sangna).
" 4. Emancipation (Moksha) . . . . exemption from all moral activity (Karma).
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"5. Intelligent views .... exemp- tion from all knowledge (Vigiiana)."
In other words, exemption from the five Skandhas or groups of qualities.
These " attributes," it will be seen, arc all negations, and the first is, strangely enough, called " Precept," the identical idea preserved in the term " First Precept " used by the Gnostic writer. More, there are five of them, the precise number of " Words " written on the lowest Vesture of the Gnostic narrative.
These three Bodies are the Trinity in every religion. In Buddhism the ineffable Ocean of Light and Compassion is called Bodhi. By bathing or being " baptized " in this, man becomes a Buddha or Enlightened. These three Vestures are thus said to consist of ** Essential Bodhi " (Dharmakaya), " Re- flected Bodhi " (Sambhogakaya), and " Prac- tical Bodhi " (Nirmanakaya). (See Eitel, op. cit., sub voc, " Trikaya.") And it is the last, the Vesture of Practical Bodhi, which is assumed by the Christs and Buddhas of Compassion who help on man's salvation.
Perhaps it may not be without interest, when remembering the important part pla}-ed by
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" sheep " in Christian symbology, to learn that the three S}'mbohcal vehicles of the saints across the river of life, or conditioned existence, are said by the Buddhists to be :
1. Sheep, i.e., Shravakas — Hearers or Disciples.
2. Deer, i.e., Praty-ekaBuddhas — Solitaries, they who obtain salvation for themselves but are unable to impart their wisdom to others.
3. Oxen, i.e., Bodhi-sattvas — they of the essence (Sattva) of Bodhi, or Compassion and Wisdom. (See Eitel, sub voc, " Triyana." Further information may be obtained from Schlagintweit's Buddhism in Tibet, p. 38.)
But the present theme is too lofty a one for a pen like my own, and the Doctrine of the Great Renunciation of the two higher Vestures — to don the comparatively lowly one of the Nirmanakaya — has been treated of, in some measure, in other theosophical writings. What has been said, however, as to these Robes woven of Nature Powers — which are really Human Powers, if we would only " help Nature and work on with her " — what little has been said may perhaps enable us to better understand the grand passage from the Book
VESTURES OF THE SOUL, iii
of the Golden Pvcccpis (Voice of the Silence, ist cd., p. 72), which tell us of the birth of a Master, as follows :
" Behold, the mellow light that floods the Eastern sky. In songs of praise both heaven and earth unite. And from the four-fold mani- fested Powers a chant of love ariseth, both from the flaming Fire and flowing Water, and from sweet-smelling Earth and rushing Wind.
" Hark ! . . . from the deep unfathom- able vortex of that golden light in which the Victor bathes. All Nature's wordless voice in thousand tones ariseth to proclaim :
" * Joy unto ye, O men of Earth. A Pilgrim hath returned back from the other shore. A new Arhan is born.' " —
Feeling himself, his own low self the whole ; When he by sacred sympathy might make The whole one self. Self, that no alien knows ! Self, far dififused as fancy's wing can travel ! Self, spreading still I oblivious of its own, Yet all of all possessing. — Coleridge.
Out of the furnace of man's life and its black smoke, winged flames arise, flames purified, that soaring onward, 'neath the karniic eye, weave in the end the fabric glorified of the three vestures of the Path.
Book of the Golden Precepts.
113
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How familiar to every child born of Christian parents is the phrase, " God created the world out of nothing" ! It is a matter of belief, the reason cannot grasp it ; it is absurd and there- fore pertains to the domain of faith. Credo quia ahsurdiun ! And yet I was told by a Jesuit father that it was a " postulate of pure reason " ; that as I was a rational being and had heard the truth, it was nothing but the obstinacy of my heart that prevented my acceptance of the dogma, and for that same obduracy I was rightly and property condemned to Hell. I thought that it was the obduracy and uncharit- ableness of someone else's heart that so con- demned me, and departed less of a " Christian " of that kind than ever.
Nevertheless there is good in the dogma, for good and evil are hidden in all things. The good in it is that the human soul shrinks from admitting anything else than God in the bound-
H
114 THE WORLD-MYSTERY.
less fields of being. Nothing but God. And the universe, what of that ? " Verily God created it." But how ? " Out of nothing — but himself," I think I hear the small voice whisper.
The dogma of " creation out of nothing " has its good side, for it is an attempt, when rightly understood, to bring home to the uninstructed mind the great truth that deity in its own nature does not perform the function of a fabricator, that its "creations" are those of will, transcendent and spiritual, and that the " creatures " of its divine creation in their turn carry out the behests of the divine will, and emanate and evolve, build and fashion, the w^ondrous fabric of the universe.
The evil side of the doctrine is the use made of it bv an ignorant priesthood to dwarf the human mind b}' ever imposing upon its natural questionings the dull weight of an unintelligible dogma, which crushes its sprouting life and terrifies the half-awakened intelligence with the nightmare of a vengeful deity that punishes every timid turning of the soul to higher light.
Fortunately, however, there has been, long before this curious priest-made dogma (for it is
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not to be found in the scriptures) was invented, and there still is, another view of the matter which avoids the Scylla and Charybdis of the extremes which I have pointed out above — a view which supplies a golden mean or passage- way along which the soul can sail in safety.
In the Vedic scriptures the Eternal is said to have thought the universe out of himself, by the self-emanative power of self-contemplation. In other words, the Supreme Being evolved or created the universe out of himself; that is to say, that Deity is both the efficient and material cause of the universe.
Many commentaries have been written upon the Vedas, and the habit of some of them is to argue out the great statements in the original scriptures, bringing forward objection after objection. In fact, in the commentaries, there is a familiar dramatic character who is always turning up, called the " objector." " How then can it be possible," interrupts the objector, " that God can be both the material and efficient cause? The potter makes his pots out of clay. The potter is not the same as the clay ; the efficient and material causes are not the same person. The potter does not make
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the pot out of himself." And then the writer of the commentary rephes, using a simile found in the sacred scripture itself, " Even as the spider spins its thread out of itself and with- draws it again, so this universe is spun out of the Supreme and is again withdrawn." It is, however, carefully stated that a simile must not be confounded with an identit}-. The Supreme does not weave the garment of the universe out of himself in precisely the same manner as the spider spins its web, but the simile of the spider is, at any rate, a nearer approach to the reality than the crude analogy of the potter.
So we read in the Shvetdsvatara Upanishad (vi. lo) : " May the One God, who, like the spider, through his own nature, encases himself with many threads, which are produced by the first [Nature] ; make us one with the Supreme."
And again in the Mundaka Upanishad (i. 7) : " As the spider casts out and draws in [its web] . . . . so is produced the universe from the Indestructible."
The ideas of a spider and of a web are found over and over again in the sacred books of the Hindus ; so much so that it is borne in upon the mind of the careful reader that such a
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frequent simile must correspond to a very im- portant fact in nature. But there is another simile that is even more graphic. It is the figure of the chrysalis and the butterfly, of the silkworm and the cocoon. And here let me quote one passage out of many which will give 3'ou a foretaste of what this essay designs to treat of.
The vast Indian epic, called the Mahabharata or Great War, is many times larger than the Ihad of the Greeks, and its epic dress is only the setting for long religious and philosophical discourses. One of its great divisions or books is called the Book of Peace, and one of the sub- divisions of this Book is entitled the Book of the Laws of Freedom. In it we read as fol- lows :
" As the silkworm spinning its cocoon shuts in itself on every side in every way by means of its self-made threads, even so the soul, though in reality it transcends all attributes, invests itself on every side with attributes [and thus deprives itself of freedom] ." (Sec. ccciv.)
This cannot but remind us of the graceful myth of Psyche among the Greeks. Psyche, the soul, painted and sculptured with butterfly
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wings — the soul that wings its joyful flight from the chrysalis of the body — is a figure so innate with life and beauty that the mind is at once held captive by the sweet graciousness of so fair a conceit.