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Gems From The East: A Birthday Book

By H.P. Blavatsky

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April

"The untouched soul,
Greater than all the worlds (because the worlds
By it subsist); smaller than subtleties
Of things minutest; last of ultimates;
Sits in the hollow heart of all that lives!
Whoso hath laid aside desire and fear,
His senses mastered, and his spirit still,
Sees in the quiet light of verity
Eternal, safe, majestical — HIS SOUL!"
— THE SECRET OF DEATH (fr. The Katha Upanishad).
1 He who leaves the society of fools, cleaves unto the wise.

2 The self is hidden in all beings, and does not shine forth; but it is seen by subtle seers, through their sharp and subtle intellect.

3 Patience leads to power; but eagerness in greed leads to loss.

4 Three things make a poor man rich: courtesy, consideration for others, and the avoidance of suspicion.

5 When trust is gone, misfortune comes in; when confidence is dead, revenge is born; and when treachery appears, all blessings fly away.

6 The world exists by cause; all things exist by cause; and beings are bound by cause, even as the rolling cart-wheel by the pin of an axle-tree.

7 The living soul is not woman, nor man, nor neuter; whatever body it takes, with that it is joined only.

8 He ho wishes to reach Buddhahood, and aspires to the knowledge of the Self-born, must honor those who keep this doctrine.

9 As the spider moving upward by his thread gains free space, thus also he who undertakes moving upward by the known word OM, gains independence.

10 The wheel of sacrifice has Love for its nave, Action for its tire, and Brotherhood for its spokes.

11 Man consists of desires. And as is his desire, so is his will; and as is his ill, so is his deed; and whatever deed he does, that he will reap.

12 A stone becomes a plant; a plant a beast; the beast a man; a man a Spirit; and the Spirit — GOD.

13 There exists no spot on the earth, or in the sky, or in the sea, neither is there any in the mountain-clefts, where an evil deed does not bring trouble to the doer.

14 Whoever, not being a sanctified person, pretends to be a Saint, he is indeed the lowest of all men, the thief in all worlds, including that of Brahma.

15 If a man consorting with me (Buddha) does not conform his life to my commandments, what benefit will ten thousand precepts be to him?

16 He who smites will be smitten; he who shows rancor will find rancor; so, from reviling cometh reviling, and to him who is angered comes anger.

17 "He abused me, he reviled me, he beat me, he subdued me"; he who keeps this in mind, and who feels resentment, will find no peace.

18 Like a beautiful flower, full of color, but without scent, are the fine but fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly.

19 When your mind shall have crossed beyond the taint of delusion, then will you become indifferent to all that you have heard or will hear.

20 The wise guard the home of nature's order; they assume excellent forms in secret.

21 If thou losest all, and gettest wisdom by it, thy loss is thy gain.

22 Empty thy mind of evil, but fill it with good.

23 Great works need no great strength, but perseverance.

24 Sleep is but birth into the land of Memory; birth but a sleep in the oblivion of the Past.

25 To forgive without forgetting, is again to reproach the wrong-doer every time the act comes back to us.

26 Every man contains within himself the potentiality of immortality, equilibrated by the power of choice.

27 He who lives in one color of the rainbow is blind to the rest. Live in the light diffused through the entire arc, and you will know it all.

28 Every time the believer pronounces the word OM, he renews the allegiance to the divine potentiality enshrined within the Soul.

29 People talk of the Devil. Every man has seen him; he is in every sinful heart.

30 The Higher Self knows that highest home of Brahman, which contains all and shines so bright. The wise who without desiring happiness worship that SELF, are not born again.