Vajras Dorjes by Universal Octopus

OTHER PUBLICATIONS: Blindness-Kindness Worm’s Eye View Going Out there is No Other Coming Back there is No Trace Blondin and Other Poems Oxford Poems Bamboo Leaves Vienna Gnomonic Verses Basic Buddhism for a World in Trouble Dependent Origination What is Buddhism? The Living Waters of Buddhism Buddhism and Drugs Basic Buddhist Meditation The Five Buddhist Precepts Saŋyojana (The Ten Fetters)

For Alan Jones

This book is about a dorje which came into my possession. It also contains a discussion as to whether such objects as this (and places too) can be a link between “our” world and any “other” world(s) that might exist.

CONTENTS DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY .......................... 7 TRACKING THE ORIGINS .............................. 19 USING THE DORJE ....................................... 24 USING THE MENTAL IMAGE ALONE ............. 29 INDRA’S WORLD AND OURS ......................... 30 THOSE WHO LINK HEAVEN AND EARTH ...... 41 BRINGING MANGOES BACK HOME .............. 46

DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY My dorje is about six inches long and is made of bronze. A rod runs through it culminating in a small polished nipple at each end. The ends are like spherical cages made of eight curved prongs. The lightly incised decoration suggests that the ends might be intended to represent the buds of unopened lotuses. (See Front Cover). I now know that this dorje has had about nine owners. It would seem to be two to three hundred years old. Lama Throngpa was the original owner. He received it at a ceremony presided over by seven senior Lamas in white robes with white pointed hats. Five identical dorjes were laid on a table covered by a white cloth. Each was linked by a string to the senior Lama. From him the string passed from hand to hand to each of the other Lamas and ended up in a large ball of string. The five initiates knelt with their heads on the ground while the lamas chanted an invocation to Indra asking him to come in person or send his symbol. After the chanting had been going on for a long time, a blue light, like a cloud, formed above the dorjes and a zigzag of silent lightning entered each of them. The lamas did not appear to see the lightning. They felt it and carried on chanting. Finally the chanting stopped and the dorjes, which had now apparently been consecrated, were laid on the floor, one in front of each initiateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head. My dorje went to Lama Throngpa. 7

This is how Throngpa acquired his dorje. He never seems to have been aware that his dorje might have had any powers and used it solely for ceremonial purposes. When Throngpa died the dorje passed to his son and when he died to his son. None of these ever seemed to have realised the potential of the dorje or sought to use it. Grandson Throngpa died without any sons and the dorje passed to his daughter. An Englishman in a khaki uniform saw it. He was possibly part of Colonel Younghusband’s expedition to Tibet in 1903-4. His name was Stephen Brown. He thought it interesting and bought it from Grandson Throngpa’s son-in-law. Stephen Brown brought it back to England where it remained on his mantelpiece as an object of interest until he died. He never investigated it to see if it had any powers. It was then put into auction together with many of the other curios that Stephen had collected in his lifetime. A middle-aged woman bought it and owned it until she too died and it went back into auction to be bought by a collector of old things. When he died, it was auctioned again. Finally, it ended up in the hands of an antiques’ dealer who lived in Sparkwell. His name was Alan Jones. He offered it to me. I asked him what it was. He said it was Tibetan and placed one end of it touching his forehead where the “third eye” is supposed to be located. He asked for twenty pounds, which I gave him.

I kept it for twenty years without finding out very much about it. Though I did learn a little about such things in general. I learned that it was called a dorje in Tibetan and a vajra in Sanskrit. It seems that the form of the vajra as a sceptre or a weapon appears to have its origin in the single or double trident, which arose as a symbol of the thunderbolt or lightning in many ancient civilizations of the Near and Middle East including Marduk.

There are parallels with the stylised thunderbolt and sceptre of the Greek sky-god Zeus.

With the Greeks, it seems originally to have represented a thunderbolt which Zeus used to fire lightning. It also appears as the three thunderbolts of the Roman god Jupiter. Mythologically, as a weapon hurled by the god(s), the indestructible thunderbolt blazed like an arrow of fire across the heavens, in a maelstrom of fire, lightning and thunder. In ancient India, in Vedic mythology, the vajra (as a thunderbolt), was the chief weapon of Indra, the Vedic sky-god and king of the devas. With it he controlled the forces of thunder and lightning, breaking open the monsoon storm clouds and bringing the rain to the parched plains of an Indian summer. The significance of these early descriptions is that they identify the vajra as originally being a weapon with open prongs.

This differentiates it from the Buddhist version, which has closed prongs.

According to a Buddhist legend, it was Shakyamuni who took the vajra weapon from Indra and forced its wrathful open prongs together at each end, thus forming the peaceful Buddhist sceptre with closed prongs.

The symbolism is very clear. When the Buddha was born, the Brahmins said he would either be a great Conqueror or a great Sage. The Buddha understood that conquering oneself is a higher vocation than conquering the world and that is what he chose. The Buddhist vajra, therefore, symbolises the transmutation of the unbreakable and indestructible energy of the thunderbolt in the pursuit of power and conquest of the world to the unremitting investigation that leads to wisdom and the conquest of oneself. The first is pursued by war. The second while living at peace and harmlessly in the world. 11

As a ritual tool or spiritual implement, a vajra is also used in Jainism and Hinduism where it is said to have the symbolic nature of a diamond (it can cut any substance but not be cut itself) and a thunderbolt (an irresistible force and power). As the symbol of Indra, the dorje was brought to Tibet in the eighth century by Padma Sambhava, the Indian founder of Lamaism. Pictures of dorjes appear in Tibetan thangkas (Tibetan Buddhist scroll paintings) and as illustrations in Tibetan Buddhist books. Figures of Bodhisattvas and Tibetan gurus are seen clutching a dorje in their right hand. The dorje is the ceremonial sceptre of a Lama. Lama is the literal Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit guru, meaning ‘teacher’. Lamas are the religious teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, which forms part of the Mahayana school of Buddhism. As a lama’s ceremonial sceptre, the dorje and its structure have a symbolic significance. The number of prongs varies, as does the associated symbolism. With mine, the eight curved prongs at each end are said to represent the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path. The fact that there are two sets of these indicates that there are two paths, an exoteric and an esoteric one. These radiate from the spherical knob in the middle of the dorje symbolising that all dualities emanate from one original source. This is in accordance with Mahayana and especially Tantric teachings. This is all I could learn. 12

After twenty years, I began to wonder whether there was any more to this dorje than just a ceremonial and symbolic artefact.

I decided to investigate its physical structure. I had thought it was bronze with a central ferrous bar running from end to end. Its shape reminded me of what you see if you place a straight magnet under a sheet of paper and sprinkle iron filings on the paper. The filings form a pattern which reveals the magnetic field of the magnet. This pattern is not dissimilar to the shape of the dorje. I thought, therefore, that the bar might be a magnet. I experimented with two pendulums: one a cotton thread with a ferrous key hanging from it; the other a thread holding a brass Chinese coin. When the thread of the pendulums was wrapped around the finger and the bobs were each in turn allowed to hang freely above the dorje, both the brass and ferrous bobs produced similar results. There were, however, differences according to the operator. With some there was no noticeable response at all, though most experienced tingling in the hand and arm. With others there was a marked swing of the pendulums. They swung in a straight line as though through the eight points of the compass. Then both in turn moved in a circle above the object. One operator said he felt as though the bob was swinging him! If these movements had been traced on paper, the track recorded would have been similar to that followed by a Foucault pendulum. This is a 14

simple device conceived by LĂŠon Foucault as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. While it had long been known that the Earth rotated, the introduction of the Foucault pendulum in 1851 was the first simple proof of the rotation in an easy-to-see experiment. The experimental apparatus consists of a tall pendulum free to swing in any vertical plane. The actual plane of swing appears to rotate relative to the Earth; in fact the plane is fixed in space while the Earth rotates under the pendulum once a sidereal day. It seems to rotate while swinging through the eight points of the compass.

What is extraordinary is that, with Foucaultâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pendulum, relative to Earth, the plane of oscillation of a pendulum varies with latitude, but, where I am, it should perform a full clockwise rotation in not less than one day. I was getting a similar result in a few minutes.

Certainly the earth had not speeded up to that extent otherwise we would all have fallen off. Most individuals holding the pendulums produced roughly similar results. Those who were more sensitive produced more exaggerated movements and felt a tingling sensation in hands and arms. So there was clearly an inherent energy field in and around the dorje. The fact that this became apparent when using pendulums with both ferrous and brass bobs suggested that the field was not magnetic. As a test, a piece of iron was placed on the dorje. It became clear that the central bar was not a magnet. When the dorje was touched with a powerful magnet, there was no response. This showed that the bar was not iron. Bronze is cold and when the dorje was cold, the movements of the bob were minimal. When the dorje was warmed by the hand, the movements became more pronounced as it warmed up. Interestingly, when the person holding the pendulum increased his concentration, this seemed to overcome the sluggishness caused by cold. No other physical characteristics were discovered in the dorje by using pendulums. The dorje was then held in the hand, not as in the Mahayana statuettes in one hand (see page 14), but in both hands with the fingers interlaced, the tips of the thumbs touching and the nipples at each end pressing into the palms of the hands. 16

The dorje became very active. Energy seemed to flow from it into the hands, through the arms and up to the top of the head. After a while this flow ceased. It seemed as though the energy in the body and in the dorje had somehow equalised. What was the quality of this energy? A pervasive feeling of peace. It had a calming effect on the whole body which continued for as long as the dorje was held in this way and concentration sustained. At first it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t clear which way the energy flowed. Pioneers in electricity experienced the same problem and, as we now know, they guessed wrong. Did it flow from the body to the dorje or vice versa? In fact it can flow either way. The dorje can be activated by being held between the hands. Conversely, the energy from an activated dorje can flow into the body. By concentrating on the dorje while it was held in this way, it became possible to, as it were, turn up the volume of the energy. When the flow was directed to the seat of the third eye between the eyebrows, a clear image of the dorje was produced. This was the mental counterpart of the physical dorje and could be used for investigation into the nature of the physical object. This revealed that, in the knob in the middle, was a very bright sphere of light. Lines of energy flowed out from it along the bar and through the curved cage-like bars at each end to the nipples. 17

Then back to the centre. Continuously. Looking into the centre a tiny figure could be seen: Indra (see page 23). It was also possible, by directing an intention to the mental image, to trace its history back along its time track to its making and also the point at which the lightning entered the physical dorje (see page 7).

TRACKING THE ORIGINS A mental image of a physical object can be created which is identical to it. It is like a mental photograph. This facsimile can be used to investigate the history of the physical object. The process is similar to finding a footprint on the beach. Starting from it, one can follow the footprints back to where the first footprint was made. Or one can follow them forwards until either one meets with the maker of the prints or they disappear at the point where the maker left the sand. Another example is looking at a continuous reel of film. In this case one is not looking at footprints. One is looking at a series of photographic frames or stills which make up the film. Each one shows the maker of the footprints. If one can mentally grasp a particular frame, one can use it to scan through the film track and explore the complete history of the object, from its creation until the present moment. What one is looking at is its time track. This is the history of something. Or a place. Or a someone. The career of every individual physical thing or living being has its corresponding non-physical time track accompanying it. This contains not only the visual images one sees in the frames of a film track but may also include the sounds, smells and feelings which existed at the point in time to which the frame refers. These exist on the mental plane irrespective of whether or not anyone is able to contact them.

A record needs a record player before one can hear the music. The Internet needs a computer before one can access its vast resources. Similarly, one needs to develop, as it were, a machine in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind, in order to be able to access these innumerable time tracks. Some of them are very short, a single car journey, for example. But if the car made many journeys before being scrapped, the track would be much longer. If one were tracking the career, not of the car but of the driver, the track would be longer again because he might have had many cars and made many journeys before he died. The time track, not just of the physical driver, but of the being himself would be longer again. Much longer. As far as my dorje is concerned, the track is relatively short from the moment of its creation to the present moment. When it is destroyed, its time track will come to an end at that point because there will exist nothing that one could track. However, my dorje was not the first or only one that was created. The first dorje was a mental image from which someone made a corresponding physical object. Later, identical or similar physical objects were made as copies of the original. That was long before mine. But one can use the mental image of my dorje to access the time track of the original mental image itself of which it is a copy, and go back along that to the circumstances surrounding the making of the first physical dorje. That is a point in time. 20

The original Tibetan dorje is much bigger. The Tibetans wanted an active symbol of Indraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s power. Indra sent a deva to plant an idea in the mind of Mingpa, a smith. Mingpa made it in accordance with the image he had received from the deva and the Council of Lamas consecrated it. Indra appeared (green, with a moustache and elaborate head and neck ornaments). He pointed his index finger at the dorje, which was on a small table, and a zigzag of lightning entered it. The Lamas decided to give it to a lama named Naropa. The King was informed and there was a ceremony (similar to the one concerning my dorje) and Naropa received it. These are the uses he made of it: 1. Calling for rain. This took half a day. 2. Bringing Peace to the whole country. This took a month. 3. Healing animals by driving out the beings that caused the disease. The actual method used is the same in every case. The power is in the physical dorje. It was put there by Indra at the time of its consecration. Activating it, on the other hand, depends on the way in which the operator uses his mind. If his mind is strong and his concentration good, he develops a mental image of what he wants and, holding the dorje, he makes a firm resolution that the energy in it should make it happen. He visualises it happening.

Both factors need to be present: strength of mind and the potential power in the physical object. It is similar to using a torch. Your finger moves the switch but, if there is no battery, it will not provide light. Equally, if there is a battery but no-one operates the switch, there will be no light. So, not everyone can use a dorje which has been charged by Indra and no-one can use a dorje which has not been so charged. This original dorje still exists, somewhere, in a glass case in a room with a large thangka hanging on the wall behind it. It is not used, though there is a possibility that it could be activated from a distance, rather as one activates a television with a remote control. The last time it was used was by Naropa himself in a large hall with many lamas and devotees. It was used to promote peace. After Naropaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death it was put in a glass case and never used again. But the first mental image of a dorje is older again. Its origin is not really measurable in terms of our concept of time because it was not created in this physical world. The mental image was created in the Tavatimsa heaven world by the lord of the celestial beings there. In Pali his name is Sakka. In Sanskrit his name is Indra and the name of the heaven world is TrayastrimĹ&#x203A;a. This heaven is the highest heaven world of those that maintain a physical connection with the material world. Indra has the deva counterpart (the mental image) of the first physical dorje. It is very bright and sparkling and does not have a sphere of 22

light in the centre. The whole of it is uniformly shining. When he uses it to create thunder and lightning, he holds it in his closed fist with his thumb extended towards one of the cage-like ends and channels his power through it, waving it around. When he holds it between his hands on his lap, he meditates on Peace, which he radiates in all directions. He uses it like a wand and points it at sources of disease when he wants to drive out sickness. He says he has put his power into each consecrated dorje but it is the Lama (or possibly the owner) who activates it and decides how the power is to be used. The first conception of a dorje was thus a mental image in Indraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind.

USING THE DORJE I decided to investigate the third use that Naropa had made of his dorje: healing. This involved seeing in detail the effect the flow of energy had upon someone holding it and upon any ailments he might have.

C A

B D

I tried holding the dorje with the two nipples (E) in the centres of the palms of the hands. The fingers and thumbs cradle the dorje and touch the knob at (A). The hands are supported on oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lap and can relax. After a while, a movement of energy is felt which causes throbbing at the point where the nipples touch the palms. Tingling and prickling like electricity. This becomes stronger and energy flows into the hands. Here it divides. One flow spreads out from the palm, separates into the fingers and thumbs and flows back into the knob. The other flow concentrates at the palms and is felt as a powerful throbbing. The hands and fingers feel swollen and solid, but not uncomfortably. The nails are particularly 24

sensitive to the flow of current. There is a steady flow of energy building up in the palms of the hands. Even if the attention wanders, the expansion of the flow continues. This is similar to turning on a tap to fill a pail and then going to answer the door. When you return, the pail has continued to fill while you were away. Finally it â&#x20AC;&#x153;breaks throughâ&#x20AC;? at the centre of the palms and flows into the wrists, elbows and shoulders, filling the arms. The tingling on the skin is particularly noticeable. As it enters the arms, the throbbing disappears and it becomes a steady, warm, clearing energy which separates at the shoulder. One flow goes to the chest and lower body. The physical chest seems to expand and feels full of energy and light. The physical heart feels very healthy. Since the hands are resting on the lap, the energy field spreads into the abdomen. The other flow goes through the throat, causing the neck to fill, and enters the head. It fills the head with energy and builds up at the back of the head below the aperture where the two parietal bones meet (and join) the occipital bone. The feeling there is thick and heavy. When the energy spreads to the rest of the head, it is like fog dispersing and revealing a clear sky. The head clears and is stimulated. The third-eye becomes active and lights and colours are seen. The effects - stimulation and clarity - last for some time. Any discomforts, itches, headaches, 25

aches and pains and mucous disappear as soon as the flow of energy reaches them. The flow is like electricity. The energy flow is very strong. The parts of the body feel as though they are being bombarded by grains of hot sand. It is similar to the feeling induced by one of those Victorian Electric Shock machines. It feels as though electrons are bombarding skin, flesh, bones and marrow. Everything seems to be swelling up. It all seems to originate from the knob (A). Would negative and positive thoughts or feelings affect the flow? I tried having a negative thought about the government. This is quite easy in England and quite acceptable, as almost everybody does it on a daily basis. Since I was experimenting during a wet and cold summer, I also tried having negative thoughts about the weather. This worked very well. The flow stopped. Then I considered, with some difficulty, the positive effect the government was having on my life (water came out of the tap; electricity was keeping me warm). But I could not bring myself to think positively about the English weather. Every Englishman will understand this. I thought instead about a tropical island off the west coast of Thailand. The flow was restored. This is how it was perceived by feeling. One can also visualise what is happening. One can create a mental image of the dorje which one is holding between oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hands. In the centre of the knob a sphere of light is seen. 26

Light flows out of it in a spiral of purple and gold. This is bright and vibrating and has the feeling of energy and power. Looking deep into the sphere of light in the knob, an image of Indra can be seen. If one sinks oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s consciousness into the knob (A), one feels as though one is sitting in the narrow end of a horn, looking out towards the flare. The energy is flowing out from where one is. Light flows out from this centre (A) and spirals in a clockwise direction out of the knob. The light moves along the knob through the central rod (B) in two parallel lines of light; one purple, one gold. When these reach (D), they come together as a mixture of purple and gold which divides into two; one going straight on through the rod; the other separating along the eight bars (C). They join up again at the nipples and, in the centre of the palm of the hand, enter the chakra located there. Here they divide again. This palm chakra is in the form of a small blue sphere. It is connected by thin lines of light to the small lighted spheres which are the chakras in the fingers and thumbs; one in each joint and also one in the last segment (the one with the nail). The energy flows, as a mixture of purple and gold, along these lines in the fingers, back into the knob (A). The blue chakra is also connected to a channel of light which runs from the hand, through chakras in the wrist and elbow to a chakra in the shoulder. Here it divides into two. 27

One goes to the throat where it joins the throat chakra. The other goes to the heart chakra in the middle of the chest. The energy emanating from the knob (A) passes through all these chakras, activating them. The heart chakra can be felt and seen to be expanding and filling up with energy and a sense of power. While the dorje has been in my possession, it has never been polished. At first the colour was very coppery. However, the more it is used, the brighter it gets. It usually now looks like 9-carat gold.

USING THE MENTAL IMAGE ALONE Amazingly, after a while, it can be used without actually holding the physical object. You put your hands in the same position as when you are holding it. You visualise the dorje as being in your hands. The hands can “feel” the form of the dorje. Throbbing starts at the palms of the hands and tingling at the fingertips. You look at (the mental image of) the knob and then inside the knob. Everything becomes quiet. Indra is clearly seen within the knob, green and very like the illustration on page 24. You can see him and you can make him see you. Energy flows out of the knob into the palms of the hands and up through the wrists and arms to the shoulders. From the shoulders to the throat where it divides; one flow going up to the head, the other down to the chest and the lower body. The whole body feels full of vibrating energy. Using the mind one “turns up the volume” i.e. increases the intensity of the energy coming out of the dorje. Extraordinarily, the arm chakras which are normally blue, have turned yellow. Soon all the chakras in the physical body appear as yellow instead of the normal colours. The body is full of light the colour of bright sunshine and feels full of a fizzing energy. There are no symptoms of discomfort of any kind throughout the body. Aches and pains have completely disappeared. 29

INDRA’S WORLD AND OURS This energy, then, seems to enter our world from Indra’s via the dorje. Indra’s Heaven World is a mental world which contains mind-made forms and sounds and also the corresponding deva senses to perceive them. There are deva eyes and deva ears. There are also senses to perceive odours, tastes and touch. But these are heavenly senses, and therefore more refined than ours. Indra’s Heaven does not contain any of the physical elements which we perceive with our five physical senses. Indra says that his main duty is to the devas in his Trayastrimśa heaven world. But he has always shown an interest in the world of men. He himself has often come to this heaven world from a previous existence in the human world. I say “often” because Indra is more a position than an individual. He has achieved his position by the accumulation of merit. And he remains as long as his merit lasts which, by human standards, is very long indeed. As Indra’s merit runs out, he falls away from his position to be reborn again, somewhere else, according to his previous karma. His place is then taken by his successor. What constitutes the “merit” which enables a being to achieve such a position? It has three strands. Morality: which means not having harmed others. Generosity: having benefited others. And Concentration: having achieved

mental development to the point of being totally in control of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind and therefore able to create and sustain whatever mental form or environment one wishes. His heaven is the highest of those that maintain a physical connection with the material world. The heaven worlds above it normally do not. They concern themselves with their own affairs and the beings that transmigrate through them: up and down. The material and mental worlds exist parallel to each other. They touch at the five sense doors. In the deva worlds, the deva senses are purely mental. When the deva senses are directed towards the material plane of being, they provide the consciousness which activates a corresponding set of five physical senses. This makes possible their awareness of the material universe. Physical and mental senses interact all the time. The minds of humans and animals are filled with images of the material world, gathered at the five sense doors. In addition, human minds contain memories of these images, imaginary images, and thoughts and intentions related to this world. These are gathered at the mind sense door. When the attention is turned away from the material world, it allows consciousness to make sense contact with other fine material or nonmaterial planes of being. These include heaven worlds, hell worlds, astrals, ghosts and demons. 31

If the mind’s attention is completely withdrawn from the five senses, as in trance, it can take on a corresponding mental form in these other worlds and have experiences there. If it is withdrawn permanently, as at death, it may bring about temporary rebirth there. There is two-way traffic. Images taken from the material world here – scenes from nature, buildings, music – are taken to the mental worlds there and reconstructed there as mental objects. Of course, there, they can be modified and improved just by the power of thoughts – no seeds need germinating, no bricks need to be cast and cemented together. Creation, modification and destruction are mental and instantaneous. Conversely, ideas formed in the mind – landscape gardens, palaces – can be brought into being in the physical world. But their realisation on the material plane takes longer. On earth, the cultivation of gardens or the maturity of trees may take a hundred years or more to reach the desired result; a palace will need architects, a team of workmen and a vast amount of materials that may have to be transported from far away. Some things conceived as images in the mind take an even longer time before they even get started. Leonardo’s ideas for flying machines only got as far as paper in the 1480s. They did not take off on the material plane until 1903 when controlled flight was realised. 32

Although it is not generally realised in the modern world, all material manifestations have originated in the mind: plants, animals, insects, - everything that makes up the world. The obduracy of matter is the reason why so many things have taken so long to materialise; the proliferation of species, machines and the whole range of manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arts and inventions; even man (as homo sapiens) himself. This delay in time may not frustrate the evolutionary impulse of a butterfly from an insect that crawls to a marvellous possessor of magnificently coloured wings. But it did frustrate Sarah Churchill during the nineteen years when she was getting others to build the Blenheim Palace of her dreams for her; and Alexander when he had conceived the idea of conquering the world. Alexander even had to abandon his idea at the Ganges because of the obduracy of his generals who wanted to go home and refused to go any further. This delay and difficulty in incarnating and manipulating ideas into matter has puzzled (and frustrated) the human mind for a very long time. Stone-age man in his cave, throwing wood on the fire and roasting the mutilated bits of animals he had torn to pieces, knew very well the basics of what he wanted. But it was a long and winding road to an architect-designed cave with a door to keep the sabre-tooths out and the children in, a glazed window to enjoy the view without the draughts and a polythene-wrapped meal from Sainsburyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heating up in a microwave to feed his family. 33

Obviously, the whole material universe is entirely infused with some kind of living energy. But its push towards material evolution and change has been, and is, unimaginably slow. How have we attempted to speed it up? Consider the communicating of ideas by liberating them from sound waves (speech) and making them visible (writing). I pass over just what an enormously long time it took for an adequate language to evolve. But when it had evolved, we then needed a means for translating the sound of language into the silent representation of it as writing. Writing had to be invented and its evolution was slow and varied. But if you want to communicate further afield, either across space to more than a handful of people or across time to a succession of generations, you have to confront the problem of duplication and multiplication. Medieval monks copied manuscripts of the Holy Bible, by hand, one at a time. If their minds wandered, a mistake would slip in. Men have imagined into existence machines to replace the monks. The result is that the reproduction of books is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process. Across the world, over 45 trillion pages (2005 figures) are printed annually. In 1580, in a state-of-the-art boat, it took Sir Francis Drake three years to sail around the world. In 2005 Steve Fossett made the first solo, 34

nonstop and unrefueled circumnavigation of the world in 67 hours in a single-engine jet aircraft. But speeding up the time taken for an idea conceived in the mind to materialise in the physical universe will always be much slower than the time taken for the mind to make a mental facsimile of an external physical object. Even Art cannot compete with this. It took Leonardo da Vinci about six years to paint the Mona Lisa. A student of human nature could have made an in-depth study of her face and gone off with a living mental facsimile in five minutes. A visitor to the Louvre, with a Japanese camera, can obtain a perfect copy with a single click (if the attendants don’t stop him). Such is the extraordinary power of the mind that it can create a whole private world. It can ‘take’ moving pictures of the material world around it and copy them in the mind, as any day-dreamer knows. Wordsworth calls it “that inner eye which is the bliss of solitude”. But this mental world can also contain sounds, smells and feelings. The mind can also improve and idealise these mental facsimiles, using them as raw material. You can have the English landscape but dispense with the English rain. What is not generally so well known is that this private world can continue to exist mentally after the death of the physical body. Also, the fact that it is a mental world does not mean that sensations are not perceived as pain 35

and pleasure. They are felt just as they are in dreams. Mental sensations. These are the planes of the heavens. Also of the hells. We do not only make facsimiles of pleasant experiences. If we are not consciously controlling the input of data into our minds, it proceeds more or less automatically. We record the good. And the bad. This is the simple reason why those who live blameless lives tend to die and be reborn in happy realms. Those whose actions while alive have caused pain and suffering to others tend to be reborn surrounded by these images. They find themselves on the receiving end of their own former actions. Karma is perfect. John Milton says, “The mind is its own place, and, in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” Aristotle, however, said, no man can be happy on the rack. But this is only true so long as the physical senses maintain contact with the physical world. If the body is doped with opium, it will not feel the rack. Nor will it if it is dead. There have always been men and women who see how mental images can be captured immediately from the physical world. Seeing how long it takes to make an imperfect physical copy of an idea, they retain the images in their mental form and do not attempt to reproduce them as vulnerable imitations made of the physical elements. They can modify these “ideas” again and again instantaneously. They apply Jesus’ words: 36

“Lay not up for yourselves Treasures on Earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt nor do thieves break in and steal. For where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also.” If you commission an architect and builders to build you a three-storey house and, halfway through, decide that you would prefer a onestorey cottage, you have problems. You are dealing with bricks and mortar, labourers and the local Planning Department. With the mind and its extensions into the heaven worlds, this is no problem. Everything is done instantaneously though not without effort. So advanced thinkers turn away from building sandcastles on the beach where, even if the other children don’t jump on them, the sea will flow in and erase them completely: For, though they leave their footprints to commemorate their stay, when the cosmic tide comes in, it washes them away. The sand, the rocks, the buildings though private (and insured), the pictures, frames and gildings - nothing has endured. The cosmic tide has taken them and their owners too. But if they sit down quietly it’s all there in their mind! (Blondin) 37

Those who see that the material world is full of suffering are many. Some just put up with it. Others try to prevent the material world from causing them suffering by taking control of as much of this world as they can. They have mixed success. They find themselves competing with most of the other inhabitants of this world who are trying to do exactly the same. Not just other humans, but all forms of life. Not to mention the weather, natural disasters and the impermanence of the body. Even if, like Alexander, they carry all before them by the weight of their sword and the fear of their name. For, though they may succeed in calling themselves master of the world, where and when none dares disagree, at the moment of their triumph, the world is not taken away from them, they are suddenly taken away from the world. They die. Their conquests disappear from them. For others to fight over in their turn. Sic transit gloria mundi. Many also are those who, seeing this, attempt the not-so-easy task of relocating their treasures (and their consciousness) in heaven. Where they come unstuck is that, in cultivating their gardens of mind, they attempt to create them within the (subtle) landscape of matter. Here, the jungle is always reaching out its tendrils and casting its seeds into the soil of their brains in which they have sown the flowers of their treasures. 38

Thousands of magnolia flowers, by Danby’s gate and yellowstone walls, test vernal powers against the winds of March; and wait. Slowly, blossoms fall, like heavy snowflakes, one by one, lit by a dull and clouded sun. Tourists have gathered here to see the wonder of this snow-blossom tree and try to stop it slip away with inner eye or photography. Try as they may to seize the glories of this day, tree, branch and twig will rot, yellowstone wall be broken and decayed; Earl Danby’s name will be forgot, his gate demolished, scrapped and weighed. The photographs themselves will fade. And, as the months and years slide by, what of the harvest of that “inner eye”? Even those mind-made facsimiles are lost in old age imbecilities. (Oxford Poems) Where “moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break in and steal” the treasures of the material world, Alzeimer’s and Old Age stretch out their hands and meddle with the electrochemisty and 39

on/off switches of the brain. That is, the mental world while its images are embedded in (reflected in) the molecules of the brain. But if you are looking at your face in a mirror and someone breaks the glass, although your image disappears, your face (and you) do not. If vanity persists and outlasts this sobering experience, you can always search for another mirror. Alexander can search for another world to conquer (and lose). But he needs to find a womb to begin all over again in. If, however, you can content yourself with having a face, without the urge to admire it reflected in a mirror, you will not be vulnerable to the fragility of glass. If you can relocate your treasures (and your consciousness) in mind, without the urge to enshrine them in the mirror of the brain, you will not be vulnerable to the fragility of matter.

THOSE WHO LINK HEAVEN AND EARTH In addition, there are thinkers who succeed in the not so easy task of relocating their treasures (and their consciousness) in heaven and also of retaining contact with what we call “our world”. They may appear to some of us as angels; not to our physical eyes, but to the inner eye which most of us have, but few know how to use intelligently. These may also, deliberately, take the risk of reincarnating among us in order to assist us and point out the way to higher, happier realms. They “take a risk” because we do not always welcome them. The masters of our world have often crucified them or imprisoned their bodies or labelled them “crazy”. Others have attempted to leave mental symbols of their powers impregnated in physical objects to be accessed and used by those who are able to. They provide a fast-track alternative to the normal time-measured process of getting something done down here. Our world abounds in objects which have been so impregnated: sacred relics, works of art, mantras, the written word. These provide access points at which we can contact the heavens (or hells) and their beings. They also provide entry points through which the heavens can infiltrate their precious power into ours. Indra’s planting his latent seed into dorjes is but one example of the numerous similar objects and places by which we are unknowingly surrounded. 41

Often they are associated with a place. In our western culture, one of the most famous is at Lourdes. Lourdes is a place where the two worlds, the material and the mental, appeared to meet in 1858. Actually, they meet and intermingle all the time. Men are inspired to write poetry or deliver prophesies; benevolent (and malevolent) spirits whisper in their ears to warn or tempt them. But it has been argued that this occurs in the brain and therefore offers the philosophers of materialism the opportunity to interpret the otherworldly as the obviously thisworldly of electrochemistry and excitable cells called neurons. Of course, there have always been those who deny that there are two worlds. To them it is obvious that â&#x20AC;&#x153;lifeâ&#x20AC;? occurred more or less by accident (and a long, long time ago) and therefore everything can be explained as a manifestation of materialism. Opposing them are those to whom it is obvious that there is a spiritual (mental) world as well. On both sides, the dialogues are entirely circular. Like two circles, they merely revolve and touch each other, briefly, at point after point on the circumference. They do not interpenetrate. There is no communication, no mutual understanding. Wherever the mental world really does seem to impinge on the five senses, especially when men 42

“see” it or “hear” it, it is not so easy, though quite possible, to interpret what is experienced as a flowering of thought, the machinations of the brain. But if, in addition, it seems to make things happen physically, by direct intervention, on the material plane, as in what are called miracles, the protaganists are placed face to face. Those in favour of the spiritual world point to such happenings as proof of the spiritual world. The philosophers of materialism seek with evangelical zeal to prove that such incidents cannot be perceived with their material instruments. Of course, say their opponents, you cannot see the non-material with material instruments. QED. What happened at Lourdes was that, on 11 February, 1858, a 14-year-old peasant girl called Bernadette told her mother that she had seen a “lady” in the cave of Massabielle, while gathering firewood with her sister and a friend. She said she saw a light in the grotto and a girl, as small as she was, dressed all in white, apart from the blue belt fastened around her waist and the golden yellow roses, the colour of her rosary, one on each foot. Bernadette tried to keep this a secret, but Toinette, her sister, told their mother. Their parents cross-examined them about their story and then beat them. She was ordered by her parents and the police commissioner to stay away from the place, but 43

returned on many occasions. On 25 February, she said the apparition asked her to dig in the ground and drink from the spring she found there. She dug and revealed the stream that soon became a focal point for pilgrimages. Although it was muddy at first, the stream became increasingly clean. As word spread, this water was given to medical patients of all kinds, and many reports of miraculous cures followed. On analysis, the water was found to be quite pure and inert. In 1860, seven of these cures were confirmed as lacking any medical explanations by Professor Verges. The first person with a â&#x20AC;&#x153;certified miracleâ&#x20AC;? was a woman whose right hand had been deformed as a consequence of an accident. In the controversy which inevitably followed, the government closed the site. Napoleon III intervened and ordered it to be re-opened. Six popes visited the site at different times. Since that time many thousands of pilgrims to Lourdes have followed the instruction of Our Lady of Lourdes to "drink at the spring and wash in it". Nowadays, it is estimated that millions of pilgrims go there every year. Miracles are important events in the Christian Bible. They are considered to be part of divine revelation by the faithful Christians. Yet the growing counter-philosophy of rationalism continually seeks for natural explanations of miracles in general and the events in Lourdes in 44

particular. Psychological and other empirical explanations have all been suggested. As for Bernadette, she was canonized as a saint in 1933. The body she left behind is on display. It is said to be incorruptible, but the face and hands, which look so lifelike, are made of wax. “Those who link heaven and earth” do so (if they exist at all) in order to benefit those of us who are still stuck here. Either they give us good advice via their teaching. Or they leave footprints, objects, relics etc. through which a non-material energy can transmute into a physical energy and alleviate or even cure our suffering. Obviously if we don’t believe, we won’t let this energy in. So it doesn’t work. You cannot heal someone against his will. The circular arguments between the material rationalists and the spiritual believers spin their circumferences against each other like the wheels of a clock. They release energy but retain their positions. But where matters are not to be resolved by argument and debate, one turns to experience. A man who comes across something which cures his suffering is unlikely to be overly influenced by being told that the “something” couldn’t, in fact, have done so because it doesn’t exist. He will be more than content not to suffer. Miracles are a matter of experience and not debate. Healing is not arguing possibilities, but being healed. 45

BRINGING MANGOES BACK HOME Sometimes I have had vivid dreams of a place in the Far East where I used to live. I dream of the mangoes. I see them all around me. I taste them and they are delicious. I also know that I am dreaming. I know that, when I wake up, it will be in a different country. I spend the rest of the dream trying to work out how to take some of these mangoes back with me to my waking world. I have always failed. That is to say, I fail to bring back any physical mangoes. I do, however, bring back mental images of those mangoes. And, after all, that is all I experienced in my dream anyway. And when I check, I see that I have also brought back their taste. If I choose to, I can experience again, sitting in my chair, the feeling of satisfaction in my stomach and the feeling of pleasure which accompanied it in my dream. Of course, I do not bring back the molecules of which â&#x20AC;&#x153;realâ&#x20AC;? mangoes consist. So they will only nourish my physical structure to a degree. But with my mind, I can create a heavenly orchard full of them!

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. HAMLET: ACT 1 SCENE V