347 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
347 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
(Part 1 of 8)
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THE EQUINOX VOLUME III, NUMBER FOUR
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EIGHT LECTURES ON YOGA
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BY
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MAHATMA GURU
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SRI PARAMAHANSA SHIVAJI
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BY ALEISTER CROWLEY
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PREFACE
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Aleister Crowley has achieved the reputation of being a master
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of the English language. This book which is as fresh and vibrant
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today as when it was penned over thirty years ago demonstrates this
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fact. It shows how impossible it is to categorize him as a particu-
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lar kind of stylist. At turns he can be satirical, poetical, sarcas-
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tic, rhetorical, philosophical or mystical, gliding so easily from
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one to the other that the average reader is hard put to determine
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whether or not to take him at face value.
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His description of mystical states of consciousness clarifies
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what tomes of more erudite writing fails to elucidate. It is in
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effect a continuation of Part I of Book 4 brought to maturity.
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Nearly three decades had elapsed between the writing of these two
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books, in which time his own inner development had soared ineffably.
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A great deal of what he has to say may seem prosaic at first sight,
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but do not be fooled by this. Other of his comments are profound
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beyond belief, requiring careful and long meditation if full value is
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to be derived from them.
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This is not a book to be read while standing or running. It is
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a high water mark of Crowley's literary career, incorporating all
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that we should expect from one who had experimented with and mastered
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most technical forms of spiritual growth. There is humor here, a
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great deal of sagacity, and much practical advice. This book cannot
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be dispensed with for the student for whom Yoga is 'the way.'
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Israel Regardie
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March 21, 1969
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Studio City, Calif.
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CONTENTS
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YOGA FOR YAHOOS
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First Lecture. First Principles. . . . . . . Part 1
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Second Lecture. Yama . . . . . . . . . . . . Part 2
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Third Lecture. Niyama. . . . . . . . . . . . Part 3
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Fourth Lecture. Asana and Pranayama. . . . . Part 4
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YOGA FOR YELLOWBELLIES
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First Lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part 5
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Second Lecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part 6
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Third Lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part 7
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Fourth Lecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part 8
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YOGA FOR YAHOOS.
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FIRST LECTURE. FIRST PRINCIPLES.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
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It is my will to explain the subject of Yoga in clear language,
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without resort to jargon or the enunciation of fantastic hypotheses,
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in order that this great science may be thoroughly understood as of
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universal importance.
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For, like all great things, it is simple; but, like all great
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things, it is masked by confused thinking; and, only too often,
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brought into contempt by the machinations of knavery.
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(1) There is more nonsense talked and written about Yoga than
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about anything else in the world. Most of this nonsense, which is
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fostered by charlatans, is based upon the idea that there is some-
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thing mysterious and Oriental about it. There isn't. Do not look to
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me for obelisks and odalisques, Rahat Loucoum, bul-buls, or any other
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tinsel imagery of the Yoga-mongers. I am neat but not gaudy. There
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is nothing mysterious or Oriental about anything, as everybody knows
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who has spent a little time intelligently in the continents of Asia
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and Africa. I propose to invoke the most remote and elusive of all
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Gods to throw clear light upon the subject -- the light of common
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sense.
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(2) All phenomena of which we are aware take place in our own
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minds, and therefore the only thing we have to look at is the mind;
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which is a more constant quantity over all the species of humanity
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than is generally supposed. What appear to be radical differences,
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irreconcilable by argument, are usually found to be due to the
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obstinacy of habit produced by generations of systematic sectarian
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training.
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(3) We must then begin the study of Yoga by looking at the
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meaning of the word. It means Union, from the same Sanskrit root as
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the Greek word Zeugma, the Latin word Jugum, and the English word
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yoke. (Yeug -- to join.)
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When a dancing girl is dedicated to the service of a temple
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there is a Yoga of her relations to celebrate. Yoga, in short, may
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be translated 'tea fight,' which doubtless accounts for the fact that
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all the students of Yoga in England do nothing but gossip over
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endless libations of Lyons' 1s. 2d.
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(4) Yoga means Union.
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In what sense are we to consider this? How is the word Yoga to
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imply a system of religious training or a description of religious
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experience?
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You may note incidentally that the word Religion is really
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identifiable with Yoga. It means a binding together.
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(5) Yoga means Union.
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What are the elements which are united or to be united when this
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word is used in its common sense of a practice widely spread in
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Hindustan whose object is the emancipation of the individual who
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studies and practises it from the less pleasing features of his life
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on this planet?
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I say Hindustan, but I really mean anywhere on the earth; for
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research has shown that similar methods producing similar results are
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to be found in every country. The details vary, but the general
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structure is the same. Because all bodies, and so all minds, have
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identical Forms.
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(6) Yoga means Union.
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In the mind of a pious person, the inferiority complex which
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accounts for his piety compels him to interpret this emancipation as
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union with the gaseous vertebrate whom he has invented and called
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God. On the cloudy vapour of his fears his imagination has thrown a
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vast distorted shadow of himself, and he is duly terrified; and the
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more he cringes before it, the more the spectre seems to stoop to
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crush him. People with these ideas will never get to anywhere but
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Lunatic Asylums and Churches.
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It is because of this overwhelming miasma of fear that the whole
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subject of Yoga has become obscure. A perfectly simple problem has
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been complicated by the most abject ethical and superstitious non-
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sense. Yet all the time the truth is patent in the word itself.
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(7) Yoga means Union.
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We may now consider what Yoga really is. Let us go for a moment
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into the nature of consciousness with the tail of an eye on such
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sciences as mathematics, biology, and chemistry.
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In mathematics the expression 'a' plus 'b' plus 'c' is a trivi-
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ality. Write 'a' plus 'b' plus 'c' equals 0, and you obtain an
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equation from which the most glorious truths may be developed.
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In biology the cell divides endlessly, but never becomes any-
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thing different; but if we unite cells of opposite qualities, male
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and female, we lay the foundations of a structure whose summit is
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unattainably fixed in the heavens of imagination.
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Similar facts occur in chemistry. The atom by itself has few
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constant qualities, none of them particulary significant; but as soon
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as an element combines with the object of its hunger we get not only
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the ecstatic production of light, heat, and so forth, but a more
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complex structure having few or none of the qualities of its ele-
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ments, but capable of further combination into complexities of
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astonishing sublimity. All these combinations, these unions, are
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Yoga.
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(8) Yoga means Union.
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How are we to apply this word to the phenomena of mind?
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What is the first characteristic of everything in thought? How
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did it come to be a thought at all? Only by making a distinction
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between it and the rest of the world.
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The first proposition, the type of all propositions, is: S is P.
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There must be two things -- different things -- whose relation forms
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knowledge.
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Yoga is first of all the union of the subject and the object of
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consciousness: of the seer with the thing seen.
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(9) Now, there is nothing strange of wonderful about all this.
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The study of the principles of Yoga is very useful to the average
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man, if only to make him think about the nature of the world as he
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supposes that he knows it.
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Let us consider a piece of cheese. We say that this has certain
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qualities, shape, structure, colour, solidity, weight, taste, smell,
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consistency and the rest; but investigation has shown that this is
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all illusory. Where are these qualities? Not in the cheese, for
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different observers give quite different accounts of it. Not in
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ourselves, for we do not perceive them in the absence of the cheese.
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All 'material things,' all impressions, are phantoms.
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In reality the cheese is nothing but a series of electric
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charges. Even the most fundamental quality of all, mass, has been
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found not to exist. The same is true of the matter in our brains
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which is partly responsible for these perceptions. What then are
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these qualities of which we are all so sure? They would not exist
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without our brains; they would not exist without the cheese. They
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are the results of the union, that is of the Yoga, of the seer and
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the seen, of subject and object in consciousness as the philosophical
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phrase goes. They have no material existence; they are only names
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given to the ecstatic results of this particular form of Yoga.
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(10) I think that nothing can be more helpful to the student of
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Yoga than to get the above proposition firmly established in his
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subconscious mind. About nine-tenths of the trouble in understanding
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the subject is all this ballyhoo about Yoga being mysterious and
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Oriental. The principles of Yoga, and the spiritual results of Yoga,
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are demonstrated in every conscious and unconscious happening. This
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is that which is written in 'The Book of the Law' -- Love is the law,
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love under will -- for Love is the instinct to unite, and the act of
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uniting. But this cannot be done indiscriminately, it must be done
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'under will,' that is, in accordance with the nature of the particu-
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lar units concerned. Hydrogen has no love for Hydrogen; it is not
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the nature, or the 'true Will' of Hydrogen to seek to unite with a
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molecule of its own kind. Add Hydrogen to Hydrogen: nothing happens
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to its quality: it is only its quantity that changes. It rather
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seeks to enlarge its experience of its possibilities by union with
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atoms of opposite character, such as Oxygen; with this it combines
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(with an explosion of light, heat, and sound) to form water. The
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result is entirely different from either of the component elements,
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and has another kind of 'true Will,' such as to unite (with similar
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disengagement of light and heat) with Potassium, while the resulting
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'caustic Potash' has in its turn a totally new series of qualities,
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with still another 'true Will' of its own; that is, to unite
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explosively with acids. And so on.
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(11) It may seem to some of you that these explanations have
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rather knocked the bottom out of Yoga; that I have reduced it to the
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category of common things. That was my object. There is no sense in
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being frightened of Yoga, awed by Yoga, muddled and mystified by
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Yoga, or enthusiastic over Yoga. If we are to make any progress in
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its study, we need clear heads and the impersonal scientific atti-
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tude. It is especially important not to bedevil ourselves with
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Oriental jargon. We may have to use a few Sanskrit words; but that
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is only because they have no English equivalents; and any attempt to
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translate them burdens us with the connotations of the existing
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English words which we employ. However, these words are very few;
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and, if the definitions which I propose to give you are carefully
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studied, they should present no difficulty.
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(12) Having now understood that Yoga is the essence of all
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phenomena whatsoever, we may ask what is the special meaning of the
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word in respect of our proposed investigation, since the process and
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the results are familiar to every one of us; so familiar indeed that
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there is actually nothing else at all of which we have any knowledge.
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It *is* knowledge.
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What is it we are going to study, and why should we study it?
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(13) The answer is very simple.
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All this Yoga that we know and practice, this Yoga that produced
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these ecstatic results that we call phenomena, includes among its
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spiritual emanations a good deal of unpleasantness. The more we
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study this universe produced by our Yoga, the more we collect and
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synthesize our experience, the nearer we get to a perception of what
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the Buddha declared to be characteristic of all component things:
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Sorrow, Change, and Absence of any permanent principle. We constant-
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ly approach his enunciation of the first two 'Noble Truths,' as he
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called them. 'Everything is Sorrow'; and 'The cause of Sorrow is
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Desire.' By the word 'Desire' he meant exactly what is meant by
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'Love' in 'The Book of the Law' which I quoted a few moments ago.
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'Desire' is the need of every unit to extend its experience by
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combining with its opposite.
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(14) It is easy enough to construct the whole series of argu-
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ments which lead up to the first 'Noble Truth.'
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Every operation of Love is the satisfaction of a bitter hunger,
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but the appetite only grows fiercer by satisfaction; so that we can
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say with the Preacher: 'He that increaseth knowledge increaseth
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Sorrow.' The root of all this sorrow is in the sense of insufficien-
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cy; the need to unite, to lose oneself in the beloved object, is the
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manifest proof of this fact, and it is clear also that the satisfac-
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tion produces only a temporary relief, because the process expands
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indefinitely. The thirst increases with drinking. The only complete
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satisfaction conceivable would be the Yoga of the atom with the
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entire universe. This fact is easily perceived, and has been con-
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stantly expressed in the mystical philosophies of the West; the only
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goal is 'Union with God.' Of course, we only use the word 'God'
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because we have been brought up in superstition, and the higher
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philosophers both in the East and in the West have preferred to speak
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of union with the All or with the Absolute. More superstitions!
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(15) Very well, then, there is no difficulty at all; since
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every thought in our being, every cell in our bodies, every electron
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and proton of our atoms, is nothing but Yoga and the result of Yoga.
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All we have to do to obtain emancipation, satisfaction, everything we
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want is to perform this universal and inevitable operation upon the
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Absolute itself. Some of the more sophisticated members of my
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audience may possibly be thinking that there is a catch in it
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somewhere. They are perfectly right.
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(16) The snag is simply this. Every element of which we are
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composed is indeed constantly occupied in the satisfaction of its
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particular needs by its own particular Yoga; but for that very reason
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it is completely obsessed by its own function, which it must natural-
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ly consider as the Be-All and End-All of its existence. For in-
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stance, if you take a glass tube open at both ends and put it over a
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bee on the windowpane it will continue beating against the window to
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the point of exhaustion and death, instead of escaping through the
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tube. We must not confuse the necessary automatic functioning of any
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of our elements with the true Will which is the proper orbit of any
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star. A human being only acts as a unit at all because of countless
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generations of training. Evolutionary processes have set up a higher
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order of Yogic action by which we have managed to subordinate what we
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consider particular interests to what we consider the general wel-
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fare. We are communities; and our well-being depends upon the wisdom
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of our Councils, and the discipline with which their decisions are
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enforced. The more complicated we are, the higher we are in the
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scale of evolution, the more complex and difficult is the task of
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legislation and of maintaining order.
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(17) In highly civilised communities like our own (*loud
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laughter*), the individual is constantly being attacked by conflict-
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ing interests and necessities; his individuality is constantly being
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assailed by the impact of other people; and in a very large number of
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cases he is unable to stand up to the strain. 'Schizophrenia,' which
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is a lovely word, and may or may not be found in your dictionary, is
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an exceedingly common complaint. It means the splitting up of the
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mind. In extreme cases we get the phenomena of multiple personality,
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Jekyll and Hyde, only more so. At the best, when a man says 'I' he
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refers only to a transitory phenomenon. His 'I' changes as he utters
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the word. But -- philosophy apart -- it is rarer and rarer to find a
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man with a mind of his own and a will of his own, even in this
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modified sense.
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(18) I want you therefore to see the nature of the obstacles to
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union with the Absolute. For one thing, the Yoga which we constantly
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practice has not invariable results; there is a question of atten-
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tion, of investigation, of reflexion. I propose to deal in a future
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instruction with the modifications of our perception thus caused, for
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they are of great importance to our science of Yoga. For example,
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the classical case of the two men lost in a thick wood at night. One
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says to the other: 'That dog barking is not a grasshopper; it is the
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creaking of a cart.' Or again, 'He thought he saw a banker's clerk
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descending from a bus. He looked again, and saw it was a
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hippopotamus.'
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Everyone who has done any scientific investigation knows pain-
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fully how every observation must be corrected again and again. The
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need of Yoga is so bitter that it blinds us. We are constantly
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tempted to see and hear what we want to see and hear.
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(19) It is therefore incumbent upon us, if we wish to make the
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universal and final Yoga with the Absolute, to master every element
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of our being, to protect it against all civil and external war, to
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intensify every faculty to the utmost, to train outselves in know-
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ledge and power to the utmost; so that at the proper moment we may be
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in perfect condition to fling ourselves up into the furnace of
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ecstasy which flames from the abyss of annihilation.
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Love is the law, love under will.
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Love is the satisfaction of a bitter hunger,
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but the appetite only grows fiercer by satisfaction; so that we can
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say with the Preacher: 'He that increaseth knowledge increaseth
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Sorrow.' The root of all this sorrow is in the sense of insufficien-
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cy; the need to unite, to lose oneself in the beloved object, is the
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manifest proof of this fact, and it is clear also that the satisfac-
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tion produces only a temporary relief, because the process expands
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indefinitely. The thirst increases with drinking. The only complete
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sati |