利涉大川

The More not the Merrier

vs

the More the Merrier

first recorded in the 14th-century poem Pearl, line 850

Thursday, March 10, 2022

"The mind governs the body more or less;

consequently, the mind should dwell on beautiful things

if we would have a healthy body." 



— Edgar Cayce reading 87-1

The Dreamer stands on the other side of the stream from the Pearl-maiden.

Gawain Poet (fl. c.1375–1400), manuscript painting

[as the father in Pearl]

Miniature from Cotton Nero A.x.

利涉大川

The subconscious mind is aware of its own immortality.

— Aleister Crowley, Diary (1919)

The people of this world are assuredly insane … If these people are sane, as they believe themselves to be, let us all hasten into what they would call insanity.

— أجنبي Ajnabi, medieval Sufi teacher, quoted by Idries Shah, The Dermis Probe

Now if a man worships a deity, thinking the deity is one and he is another, he does not know.

— उपनिषद्  the upaniṣads, taken from The Upanishads, Part 2 (SBE15) by Max Müller [1879] p. 85

पहला अध्याय First Adhyāya

चौथा ब्राह्मण: Fourth brā́hmaṇa 1.

10. Verily in the beginning this was Brahman, that Brahman knew (its) Self only, saying, 'I am Brahman.' From it all this sprang. Thus, whatever Deva was awakened (so as to know Brahman), he indeed became that (Brahman); and the same with Rishis and men. The Rishi Vâmadeva saw and understood it, singing, 'I was Manu (moon), I was the sun.' Therefore now also he who thus knows that he is Brahman, becomes all this, and even the Devas cannot prevent it, for he himself is their Self.

Now if a man worships another deity, thinking the deity is one and he another, he does not know. He is like a beast for the Devas. For verily, as many beasts nourish a man, thus does every man nourish the Devas. If only one beast is taken away, it is not pleasant; how much more when many are taken! Therefore it is not pleasant to the Devas that men should know this.

ब्राह्मण, Brahman, ब्राह्मण, Kshatra, विस Vis, and शूद्र Sûdra

15. There are then this Brahman, Kshatra, Vis, and Sûdra. Among the Devas that Brahman existed as Agni (fire) only, among men as Brâhmana, as Kshatriya through the (divine) Kshatriya, as Vaisya through the (divine) Vaisya, as Sûdra through the (divine) Sûdra. Therefore people wish for their future state among the Devas through Agni (the sacrificial fire) only; and among men through the Brâhmana, for in these two forms did Brahman exist.

Now if a man departs this life without having seen his true future life (in the Self), then that Self, not being known, does not receive and bless him, as if the Veda had not been read, or as if a good work had not been done. Nay, even if one who does not know that (Self), should perform here on earth some great holy work, it will Perish for him in the end. Let a man worship the Self only as his true state. If a man worships the Self only as his true state, his work does not Perish, for whatever he desires that he gets from that Self.