Mar 4, 2015

Precepts and Axioms from the East - 04

The Universal Wisdom Expressed In a Few Words

Helena P. Blavatsky

The Himalayas, in a painting by Nicholas Roerich


A 2015 Editorial Note:

In 1890, a compilation was published in
London of Eastern thoughts which had been
collected and written down by H. P. Blavatsky.
It presented one idea for each day of the year
and had the title “Gems From the East”. The little
book is now part of volume XII in the “Collected
Writings” of H.P.B. The following axioms are a selection
from the months of August, September and October.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)


* The man who neglects the truth he finds in his soul, in order to follow its dead-letter, is a time-server.

* He who does not recognize bread and salt is worse than a wild wolf. [1]

* Man who has not hesitated to project his image in space and call it the Creator, scrupled not to endow God with his own vices.

* He who has been once deceived, dreads evil, and suspects it even in truth.

* Not the tender pliant grass is uprooted by the storm, but the lofty trees. The mighty war only with the mighty.

* No creature, no thing is free from evil. The sandal tree has its roots sapped by snakes, its blossoms attacked by bees, its branches broken by monkeys, its top eaten by bears. No part of it is secure from pain.

* All good fortune belongs to him of contented mind. Is not the whole earth leather-covered for him who wears shoes?

* This world is a venomous tree, bearing two honey-sweet fruits: the divine essence of poetry and the friendship of the noble.

* Let one who would live in the memory of his fellow men, make every day fruitful by generosity, study, and noble arts.

* Like an earthen vessel, easy to break, hard to reunite, are the wicked; the good are like vessels of gold, hard to break and quickly united.

* Be not a friend to the wicked - charcoal when hot, burns; when cold, it blackens the fingers.

* Shun him who secretly slanders, and praises openly; he is like a cup of poison, with cream on the surface.

* A chariot cannot go on one wheel alone; so destiny fails unless men’s acts co-operate.

* Like moonbeams trembling on water, truly such is the life of mortals. Knowing this, let duty be performed.

* The pure soul is a river whose holy source is self-control, whose water is truth, whose bank is righteousness, whose waves are compassion.

* Without trouble one gets no honey. Without grief and sorrow no one passes his life.

* What good is the advice to a fool?

* To him who has subdued self by SELF, his self is a friend; but to him who has not subdued senses by mind, that self is an enemy.

* The eye is a window which looks into the heart. The brain is a door through which heart escapes.

* Devotion and clear vision are not his who eats too much, nor his who eats not at all; not his who sleeps too much, nor his who is too awake.

* At the end of a life of study, the man possessed of knowledge approaches Deity; and at the end of many lives, the wise man becomes one with the All.

* The dog howls at the moon, but the moon heeds it not; be like the moon.

* Let your soul work in harmony with the universal intelligence, as your breath does with the air.

* Do not make a wicked man thy companion, or act on the advice of a fool.

* Mock not the deformed; assume not a proud demeanour with thy inferiors; hurt not the feelings of the poor; be kind to those weaker than thyself, and charitable to all beings.

* Amuse not thyself at the expense of those who depend on thee. Mock not a venerable man, for he is thy superior.

* A little hill in a low place thinks itself a great mountain.

* The heart of a beggar [2] will not be content with half the universe; he is not born to a part, but to the whole.

* Our life is the ante-room of the palace where our true treasure lies - immortality.

* Useless to seek to seize the ocean-echo, by clasping the shell in which it lies hid; as useless to try to seize this essence, by grasping the form in which for a moment it shone.

* When the silence falls upon us, we can hear the voices of the gods, pointing out in the quiet light of divine law the true path for us to follow.

* All the air resounds with the presence of spirit and spiritual laws.

* The spirit it is, that, under the myriad illusions of life, works steadily towards its goal; silently, imperceptibly, irresistibly, moving on to divinity.

* Let not a man, even though pained, be sour-tempered, nor devise a deed of mischief to another.

* One is not aged because his head is grey: whoever, although a youth, has wisdom, him the gods consider an elder.

* A wise man should ever shrink from honour as from poison, and should always be desirous of disrespect as if of ambrosia.

* Though despised, one sleeps with comfort, with comfort awakes, with comfort lives in this world; but the scorner perisheth.

* As a man digging comes to water, so a zealous student attains unto knowledge.

* A good man may receive pure knowledge even from an inferior; the highest virtue from the lowest.

* As a sower gets not his harvest if he sow seed in salt soil, so the giver gets no fruit by bestowing on the unworthy.

* He who knows not his own worth, will never appreciate the worth of others.

* He who is not lowly in his own sight, will never be exalted in the sight of others.


[1] Meaning: “He who has no discernment is worse than a wild wolf”. (CCA)

[2] “Beggar”: the Pali word Bhikkhu, literally “beggar”, actually means “monk” or “disciple” in Buddhism.  (CCA)


