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BOOK 4
by Aleister Crowley
PART I
MEDITATION
THE WAY OF ATTAINMENT OF GENIUS OR GODHEAD CONSIDERED
AS A DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BRAIN
Issued by order of
the GREAT WHITE
BROTHERHOOD
known as the A.'.A.'.
"Witness our Seal,"
N.'.'
"Praemonstrator-General"
{Diagram: A.'.A.'. seal}
PRELIMINARY REMARKS
EXISTENCE, as we know it, is full of sorrow. To mention only one minor point:
every man is a condemned criminal, only he does not know the date of his
execution. This is unpleasant for every man. Consequently every man does
everything possible to postpone the date, and would sacrifice anything that he
has if he could reverse the sentence.
Practically all religions and all philosophies have started thus crudely, by
promising their adherents some such reward as immortality.
No religion has failed hitherto by not promising enough; the present breaking
up of all religions is due to the fact that people have asked to see the
securities. Men have even renounced the important material advantages which a
well-organized religion may confer upon a State, rather than acquiesce in fraud
or falsehood, or even in any system which, if not proved guilty, is at least
unable to demonstrate its innocence.
Being more or less bankrupt, the best thing that we can do is to attack the
problem afresh without preconceived ideas. Let us begin by doubting every
statement. Let us find a way of subjecting every statement to the test of
experiment. Is there any truth at all in the claims of various religions? Let
us examine the question.
Our original difficulty will be due to the enormous wealth of our material.
To enter into a critical examination of all systems would be an unending task;
the cloud of witnesses is too great. Now each religion is equally positive; and
each demands faith. This we refuse in the absence of positive proof. But we
may usefully inquire whether there is not any one thing upon which all religions
have agreed: for, if so, it seems possible that it may be worthy of really
thorough consideration.
It is certainly not to be found in dogma. Even so simple an idea as that of
a supreme and eternal being is denied by a third of the human race. Legends of
miracle are perhaps universal, but these, in the absence of demonstrative proof,
are repugnant to common sense.
But what of the origin of religions? How is it that unproved assertion has
so frequently compelled the assent of all classes of mankind? Is not this a
miracle?
There is, however, one form of miracle which certainly happens, the influence
of the genius. There is no known analogy in Nature. One cannot even think of a
"super-dog" transforming the {7} world of dogs, whereas in the history of
mankind this happens with regularity and frequency. Now here are three "super-
men," all at loggerheads. What is there in common between Christ, Buddha, and
Mohammed? Is there any one point upon which all three are in accord?
No point of doctrine, no point of ethics, no theory of a "hereafter" do they
share, and yet in the history of their lives we find one identity amid many
diversities.
Buddha was born a Prince, and died a beggar.
Mohammed was born a beggar, and died a Prince.
Christ remained obscure until many years after his death.
Elaborate lives of each have been written by devotees, and there is one thing
common to all three -- an omission. We hear nothing of Christ between the ages
of twelve and thirty. Mohammed disappeared into a cave. Buddha left his
palace, and went for a long while into the desert.
Each of them, perfectly silent up to the time of the disappearance, came back
and immediately began to preach a new law.
This is so curious that it leaves us to inquire whether the histories of
other great teachers contradict or confirm.
Moses led a quiet life until his slaying of the Egyptian. He then flees into
the land of Midian, and we hear nothing of what he did there, yet immediately on
his return he turns the whole place upside down. Later on, too, he absents
himself on Mount Sinai for a few days, and comes back with the Tables of the Law
in his hand.
St. Paul (again), after his adventure on the road to Damascus, goes into the
desert of Arabia for many years, and on his return overturns the Roman Empire.
Even in the legends of savages we find the same thing universal; somebody who is
nobody in particular goes away for a longer or shorter period, and comes back as
the "great medicine man"; but nobody ever knows exactly what happened to him.
Making every possible deduction for fable and myth, we get this one
coincidence. A nobody goes away, and comes back a somebody. This is not to be
explained in any of the ordinary ways.
There is not the smallest ground for the contention that these were from the
start exceptional men. Mohammed would hardly have driven a camel until he was
thirty-five years old if he had possessed any talent or ambition. St. Paul had
much original talent; but he is the least of the five. Nor do they seem to have
possessed any of the usual materials of power, such as rank, fortune, or
influence.
Moses was rather a big man in Egypt when he left; he came back as a mere
stranger. {8}
Christ had not been to China and married the Emperor's daughter.
Mohammed had not been acquiring wealth and drilling soldiers.
Buddha had not been consolidating any religious organizations.
St. Paul had not been intriguing with an ambitious general.
Each came back poor; each came back alone.
What was the nature of their power? What happened to them in their absence?
History will not help us to solve the problem, for history is silent.
We have only the accounts given by the men themselves.
It would be very remarkable should we find that these accounts agree.
Of the great teachers we have mentioned Christ is silent; the other four tell
us something; some more, some less.
Buddha goes into details too elaborate to enter upon in this place; but the
gist of it is that in one way or another he got hold of the secret force of the
World and mastered it.
Of St. Paul's experiences, we have nothing but a casual illusion to his
having been "caught up into Heaven, and seen and heard things of which it was
not lawful to speak."
Mohammed speaks crudely of his having been "visited by the Angel Gabriel,"
who communicated things from "God."
Moses says that he "beheld God."
Diverse as these statements are at first sight, all agree in announcing an
experience of the class which fifty years ago would have been called
supernatural, to-day may be called spiritual, and fifty years hence will have a
proper name based on an understanding of the phenomenon which occurred.
Theorists have not been at a loss to explain; but they differ.
The Mohammedan insists that God is, and did really send Gabriel with messages
for Mohammed: but all others contradict him. And from the nature of the case
proof is impossible.
The lack of proof has been so severely felt by Christianity (and in a much
less degree by Islam) that fresh miracles have been manufactured almost daily to
support the tottering structure. Modern thought, rejecting these miracles, has
adopted theories involving epilepsy and madness. As if organization could
spring from disorganization! Even if epilepsy were the cause of these great
movements which have caused civilization after civilization to arise from
barbarism, it would merely form an argument for cultivating epilepsy.
Of course great men will never conform with the standards of little men, and
he whose mission it is to overturn the world can hardly escape the title of
revolutionary. The fads of a period always furnish terms of abuse. The fad of
Caiaphas was Judaism, and the Pharisees told him that Christ "blasphemed."
Pilate was a loyal Roman; to him {9} they accused Christ of "sedition." When
the Pope had all power it was necessary to prove an enemy a "heretic."
Advancing to-day towards a medical oligarchy, we try to prove that our opponents
are "insane," and (in a Puritan country) to attack their "morals." We should
then avoid all rhetoric, and try to investigate with perfect freedom from bias
the phenomena which occurred to these great leaders of mankind.
There is no difficulty in our assuming that these men themselves did not
understand clearly what happened to them. The only one who explains his system
thoroughly is Buddha, and Buddha is the only one that is not dogmatic. We may
also suppose that the others thought it inadvisable to explain too clearly to
their followers; St. Paul evidently took this line.
Our best document will therefore be the system of Buddha;<<footnote: We have
the documents of Hinduism, and of two Chinese systems. But Hinduism has no
single founder. Lao Tze is one of our best examples of a man who went away and
had a mysterious experience; perhaps the best of all examples, as his system is
the best of all systems. We have full details of his method of training in the
"Kh"ang "K"ang "K"ing, and elsewhere. But it is so little known that we shall
omit consideration of it in this popular account.>> but it is so complex that no
immediate summary will serve; and in the case of the others, if we have not the
accounts of the Masters, we have those of their immediate followers.
The methods advised by all these people have a startling resemblance to one
another. They recommend "virtue" (of various kinds), solitude, absence of
excitement, moderation in diet, and finally a practice which some call prayer
and some call meditation. (The former four may turn out on examination to be
merely conditions favourable to the last.)
On investigating what is meant by these two things, we find that they are
only one. For what is the state of either prayer or meditation? It is the
restraining of the mind to a single act, state, or thought. If we sit down
quietly and investigate the contents of our minds, we shall find that even at
the best of times the principal characteristics are wandering and distraction.
Any one who has had anything to do with children and untrained minds generally
knows that fixity of attention is never present, even when there is a large
amount of intelligence and good will.
If then we, with our well-trained minds, determine to control this wandering
thought, we shall find that we are fairly well able to keep the thoughts running
in a narrow channel, each thought linked to the last in a perfectly rational
manner; but if we attempt to stop this current we shall find that, so far from
succeeding, we shall merely bread down the banks of the channel. The mind will
overflow, and instead of a chain of thought we shall have a chaos of confused
images. {10}
This mental activity is so great, and seems so natural, that it is hard to
understand how any one first got the idea that it was a weakness and a nuisance.
Perhaps it was because in the more natural practice of "devotion," people found
that their thoughts interfered. In any case calm and self-control are to be
preferred to restlessness. Darwin in his study presents a marked contrast with
a monkey in a cage.
Generally speaking, the larger and stronger and more highly developed any
animal is, the less does it move about, and such movements as it does make are
slow and purposeful. Compare the ceaseless activity of bacteria with the
reasoned steadiness of the beaver; and except in the few animal communities
which are organized, such as bees, the greatest intelligence is shown by those
of solitary habits. This is so true of man that psychologists have been obliged
to treat of the mental state of crowds as if it were totally different in
quality from any state possible to an individual.
It is by freeing the mind from external influences, whether casual or
emotional, that it obtains power to see somewhat of the truth of things.
let us, however, continue our practice. Let us determine to be masters of
our minds. We shall then soon find what conditions are favourable.
There will be no need to persuade ourselves at great length that all external
influences are likely to be unfavourable. New faces, new scenes will disturb
us; even the new habits of life which we undertake for this very purpose of
controlling the mind will at first tend to upset it. Still, we must give up our
habit of eating too much, and follow the natural rule of only eating when we are
hungry, listening to the interior voice which tells us that we have had enough.
The same rule applies to sleep. We have determined to control our minds, and
so our time for meditation must take precedence of other hours.
We must fix times for practice, and make our feasts movable. In order to
test our progress, for we shall find that (as in all physiological matters)
meditation cannot be gauged by the feelings, we shall have a note-book and
pencil, and we shall also have a watch. We shall then endeavour to count how
often, during the first quarter of an hour, the mind breaks away from the idea
upon which it is determined to concentrate. We shall practice this twice daily;
and, as we go, experience will teach us which conditions are favourable and
which are not. Before we have been doing this for very long we are almost
certain to get impatient, and we shall find that we have to practice many other
things in order to assist us in our work. New problems will constantly arise
which must be faced, and solved.
For instance, we shall most assuredly find that we fidget. We shall {11}
discover that no position is comfortable, though we never noticed it before in
all our lives!
This difficulty has been solved by a practice called "Asana," which will be
described later on.
Memories of the events of the day will bother us; we must arrange our day so
that it is absolutely uneventful. Our minds will recall to us our hopes and
fears, our loves and hates, our ambitions, our envies, and many other emotions.
All these must be cut off. We must have absolutely no interest in life but that
of quieting our minds.
This is the object of the usual monastic vow of poverty, chastity, and
obedience. If you have no property, you have no care, nothing to be anxious
about; with chastity no other person to be anxious about, and to distract your
attention; while if you are vowed to obedience the question of what you are to
do no longer frets: you simply obey.
There are a great many other obstacles which you will discover as you go on,
and it is proposed to deal with these in turn. But let us pass by for the
moment to the point where you are nearing success.
In your early struggles you may have found it difficult to conquer sleep; and
you may have wandered so far from the object of your meditations without
noticing it, that the meditation has really been broken; but much later on, when
you feel that you are "getting quite good," you will be shocked to find a
complete oblivion of yourself and your surroundings. You will say: "Good
heavens! I must have been to sleep!" or else "What on earth was I meditating
upon?" or even "What was I doing?" "Where am I~" "Who am I?" or a mere wordless
bewilderment may daze you. This may alarm you, and your alarm will not be
lessened when you come to full consciousness, and reflect that you have actually
forgotten who you are and what your are doing!
This is only one of many adventures that may come to you; but it is one of
the most typical. By this time your hours of meditation will fill most of the
day, and you will probably be constantly having presentiments that something is
about to happen. You may also be terrified with the idea that your brain may be
giving way; but you will have learnt the real symptoms of mental fatigue, and
you will be careful to avoid them. They must be very carefully distinguished
from idleness!
At certain times you will feel as if there were a contest between the will
and the mind; at other times you may feel as if they were in harmony; but there
is a third state, to be distinguished from the latter feeling. It is the
certain sign of near success, the view-halloo. This is when the mind runs
naturally towards the object chosen, not as if in obedience to the will of the
owner of the mind, but as if directed by nothing at all, or by something
impersonal; as if it were falling by its own weight, and not being pushed down.
{12}
Almost always, the moment that one becomes conscious of this, it stops; and
the dreary old struggle between the cowboy will and the buckjumper mind begins
again.
Like every other physiological process, consciousness of it implies disorder
or disease.
In analysing the nature of this work of controlling the mind, the student
will appreciate without trouble the fact that two things are involved -- the
person seeing and the thing seen -- the person knowing and the thing known; and
he will come to regard this as the necessary condition of all consciousness. We
are too accustomed to assume to be facts things about which we have no real
right even to guess. We assume, for example, that the unconscious is the
torpid; and yet nothing is more certain than that bodily organs which are
functioning well do so in silence. The best sleep is dreamless. Even in the
case of games of skill our very best strokes are followed by the thought, "I
don't know how I did it;" and we cannot repeat those strokes at will. The
moment we begin to think consciously about a stroke we get "nervous," and are
lost.
In fact, there are three main classes of stroke; the bad stroke, which we
associate, and rightly, with wandering attention; the good stroke which we
associate, and rightly, with fixed attention; and the perfect stroke, which we
do not understand, but which is really caused by the habit of fixity of
attention having become independent of the will, and thus enabled to act freely
of its own accord.
This is the same phenomenon referred to above as being a good sign.
Finally something happens whose nature may form the subject of a further
discussion later on. For the moment let it suffice to say that this
consciousness of the Ego and the non-Ego, the seer and the thing seen, the
knower and the thing known, is blotted out.
There is usually an intense light, an intense sound, and a feeling of such
overwhelming bliss that the resources of language have been exhausted again and
again in the attempt to describe it.
It is an absolute knock-out blow to the mind. It is so vivid and tremendous
that those who experience it are in the gravest danger of losing all sense of
proportion.
By its light all other events of life are as darkness. Owing to this, people
have utterly failed to analyse it or to estimate it. They are accurate enough
in saying that, compared with this, all human life is absolutely dross; but they
go further, and go wrong. They argue that "since this is that which transcends
the terrestrial, it must be celestial." One of the tendencies in their minds
has been the hope of a heaven such as their parents and teachers have described,
or such as {13} they have themselves pictured; and, without the slightest
grounds for saying so, they make the assumption "This is That."
In the Bhagavadgita a vision of this class is naturally attributed to the
apparation of Vishnu, who was the local god of the period.
Anna Kingsford, who had dabbled in Hebrew mysticism, and was a feminist, got
an almost identical vision; but called the "divine" figure which she saw
alternately "Adonai" and "Maria."
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