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Gems From The East: A Birthday Book

By H.P. Blavatsky

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July

"The mind, enlightened, casts its grief away!" —
"It is not to be known by knowledge! man
Wotteth it not by wisdom! learning vast
Halts short of it! Only by soul itself
Is soul perceived — when the soul wills it so!
There shines no light save its own light to show
Itself unto itself!"
— THE SECRET OF DEATH (fr. The Katha Upanishad).
1 One cannot fill a vacuum from within itself.

2 When a certain point is reached, pain becomes its own anodyne.

3 Many a man will follow a mis-leader. Few will recognize truth at a glance.

4 Esteem that to be eminently good, which, when communicated to another, will be increased to yourself.

5 Be persuaded that those things are not your riches which you do not possess in the penetralia of the reasoning power.

6 As many passions of the soul, so many fierce and savage despots.

7 No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.

8 It is the business of a musician to harmonize every instrument, but of a well-educated man to adapt himself harmoniously to every fortune.

9 It is excellent to impede an unjust man; but if this be not possible, it is excellent not to act in conjunction with him.

10 Sin should be abstained from, not through fear, but for the sake of the becoming.

11 Vehement desires about any one thing render the soul blind with respect to other things.

12 Many men who have not learnt to argue rationally, still live according to reason.

13 The equal is beautiful in everything, but excess and defect do not appear so.

14 It is the property of a divine intellect to be always intently thinking about the beautiful.

15 As two pieces of wood may come together in the ocean, and having met, may separate again; like this is the meeting of mortals.

16 Youth is like a mountain-torrent; wealth is like the dust on one's feet; manhood is fugitive as a water-drop; life is like foam.

17 Who fulfills not duty with steadfast mind, duty which opens the portals of bliss, surprised by old age and remorse, he is burned by the fire of grief.

18 Even in a forest hermitage, sin prevails over the unholy; the restraint of the senses in one's own house, this is asceticism.

19 Who performs a right action, free from impurity, the house of that man is a forest hermitage.

20 As the streams of a river flow on, and return not, so pass away the days and nights, taking away the lives of men.

21 Unenduring are youth, beauty, life, wealth, lordship, the society of the beloved; let not the wise be deluded by these.

22 In this world, fugitive as tempest-driven waves, death for another is a rich prize earned by virtue in a former birth.

23 The shadows of a cloud, the favor of the base, new corn, a flower, these last only a little time; so it is with youth and riches.

24 Let the wise think on wisdom as unfading and immortal; let him fulfill his duty as though Death grasped him by the hair.

25 If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.

26 Pagodas are measured by their shadows, and great men by their enviers.

27 The sage does not say what he does; but he does nothing that cannot be said.

28 The man who finds pleasure in vice, and pain in virtue, is still a novice in both.

29 The wise man does good as naturally as he breathes.

30 He is a man who does not turn away from what he has said.

31 The heart of the fool is in his tongue; the tongue of the wise is in his heart.