The Book of Dzyan – Cosmic Evolution

Tweet

The Stanzas and its commentaries were originally written in the sacred language of Senzar, which is unknown to modern Anthropology:

This first installment of the esoteric doctrines is based upon Stanzas, which are the records of a people unknown to ethnology; it is claimed that they are written in a tongue absent from the nomenclature of languages and dialects with which philology is acquainted; they are said to emanate from a source (Occultism) repudiated by science; and, finally, they are offered through an agency, incessantly discredited before the world by all those who hate unwelcome truths, or have some special hobby of their own to defend. Therefore, the rejection of these teachings may be expected, and must be accepted beforehand. No one styling himself a “scholar,” in whatever department of exact science, will be permitted to regard these teachings seriously

Cosmic Evolution

Stanza I

1. The Eternal Parent (Space) wrapped in her ever-invisible robes, had slumbered once again for seven eternities. (See Commentary)

2. Time was not, for it lay asleep in the infinite bosom of duration. (Commentary)

3. … Universal mind was not, for there were no Ah-hi (celestial beings) to contain (hence to manifest) it. (Commentary)

4. The seven ways to bliss (Mokṣa or Nirvāṇa) were not. The great causes of misery (Nidāna and Māyā) were not, for there was no one to produce and get ensnared by them. (Commentary)

5. Darkness alone filled the boundless all, for father, mother and son were once more one, and the son had not awakened yet for the new wheel, and his pilgrimage thereon. (Commentary)

6. The seven sublime Lords and the seven Truths had ceased to be, and the Universe, the son of necessity, was immersed in Paranishpanna (absolute perfection, Paranirvāṇa, which is Yong-Grub), to be outbreathed by that which is and yet is not. Naught was. (Commentary)

7. The causes of existence had been done away with; the visible that was, and the invisible that is, rested in eternal non-being — the one being. (Commentary)

8. Alone the one form of existence stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, in dreamless sleep; and life pulsated unconscious in universal space, throughout that All-Presence which is sensed by the “Opened Eye” of the Dangma. (Commentary)

9. But where was the Dangma when the Ālaya of the Universe (Soul as the basis of all, Anima Mundi) was in Paramārtha (Absolute Being and Consciousness which are Absolute Non-Being and Unconsciousness) and the great wheel was Anupādaka? (Commentary)

Stanza II

1. … Where were the Builders, the luminous sons of manvantaric dawn? . . . In the unknown darkness in their Ah-hi (Chohanic, Dhyāni-Buddhic) Paranishpanna. The producers of form (rūpa) from no-form (arūpa)—the root of the world—the Devamātri and Svabhavat, rested in the bliss of non-being. (See Commentary)

2. … Where was silence? Where were the ears to sense it? No, there was neither silence, nor sound; naught save ceaseless eternal breath (Motion), which knows itself not. (Commentary)

3. The hour had not yet struck; the ray had not yet flashed into the germ; the Mātripadma (mother-lotus) had not yet swollen. (Commentary)

4. Her heart had not yet opened for the one ray to enter, thence to fall, as three into four, into the lap of Māyā. (Commentary)

5. The Seven (Sons) were not yet born from the Web of Light. Darkness alone was Father-Mother, Svabhavat; and Svabhavat was in darkness. (Commentary)

6. These two are the Germ, and the Germ is one. The Universe was still concealed in the Divine Thought and the Divine Bosom. (Commentary)

Stanza III

1. … The last vibration of the seventh eternity thrills through infinitude. The mother swells, expanding from within without, like the bud of the lotus. (See Commentary)

2. The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing (simultaneously) the whole universe and the germ that dwelleth in darkness: the darkness that breathes (moves) over the slumbering waters of life. (Commentary)

3. “Darkness” radiates light, and light drops one solitary ray into the waters, into the mother-deep. The ray shoots through the virgin egg; the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal (periodical) germ, which condenses into the world-egg. (Commentary)

4. Then the three (triangle) fall into the four (quaternary). The radiant essence becomes seven inside, seven outside. The luminous egg (Hiraṇyagarbha), which in itself is three (the triple hypostases of Brahmā, or Vishṇu, the three “Avasthās”), curdles and spreads in milk-white curds throughout the depths of mother, the root that grows in the depths of the ocean of life. (Commentary)

5. The root remains, the light remains, the curds remain, and still Oeaohoo is one. (Commentary)

6. The root of life was in every drop of the ocean of immortality (Amṛita) and the ocean was radiant light, which was fire, and heat, and motion. Darkness vanished and was no more; it disappeared in its own essence, the body of fire and water, or father and mother. (Commentary)

7. Behold, oh Lanoo! The radiant Child of the two, the unparalleled refulgent Glory: Bright Space Son of Dark Space, which emerges from the depths of the great Dark Waters. It is Oeaohoo the younger, the * * * (whom thou knowest now as Kuan-shih-yin.–Comment). He shines forth as the Sun; he is the blazing Divine Dragon of Wisdom; the Eka (one) is Chatur (four), and Chatur takes to itself three, and the union produces the Sapta (seven), in whom are the seven which become the Tridaśa (the thrice ten) or the hosts and the multitudes. Behold him lifting the Veil and unfurling it from East to West. He shuts out the above, and leaves the below to be seen as the great Illusion. He marks the places for the shining ones (stars), and turns the upper (space) into a shoreless Sea of Fire, and the One manifested (element) into the Great Waters.

8. Where was the germ and where was now darkness? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in thy lamp, O Lanoo? The germ is that, and that is light, the white brilliant son of the dark hidden father.

9. Light is cold flame, and flame is fire, and fire produces heat, which yields water: the water of life in the great mother Chaos.

10. Father-Mother spin a web whose upper end is fastened to Spirit (Puruṣa) — the light of the one Darkness — and the lower one to Matter (Prakṛti), its (the Spirit’s) shadowy end; and this web is the Universe spun out of the two substances made in one, which is Svabhavat.

11. It (the Web) expands when the breath of fire (the Father) is upon it; it contracts when the breath of the mother (the root of Matter) touches it. Then the sons (the Elements with their respective Powers, or Intelligences) dissociate and scatter, to return into their mother’s bosom at the end of the “great day”, and re-become one with her. When it (the Web) is cooling, it becomes radiant, and the sons expand and contract through their own selves and hearts; they embrace infinitude.

12. Then Svabhavat sends Fohat to harden the atoms. Each (of these) is a part of the web (Universe). Reflecting the “Self-Existent Lord” (Primeval Light) like a mirror, each becomes in turn a world.

Stanza IV

1. Listen, ye Sons of the Earth, to your instructors — the Sons of the Fire. Learn, there is neither first nor last, for All is one number, issued from no-number.

2. Learn what we, who descend from the Primordial Seven, we, who are born from the Primordial Flame, have learned from our Fathers.

3. From the effulgency of light — the ray of the ever-darkness — sprang in space the re-awakened energies (Dhyāni-Chohans): the one from the egg, the six, and the five. Then the three, the one, the four, the one, the five — the twice seven the sum total. And these are the essences, the flames, the elements, the builders, the numbers, the arūpa (formless), the rūpa (with bodies), and the force of divine man — the sum total. And from the divine man emanated the forms, the sparks, the sacred animals, and the messengers of the sacred fathers (the Pitṛs) within the holy four.

4. This was the army of the voice — the Divine Septenary. The sparks of the seven are subject to, and the servants of, the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh of the seven. These (“sparks”) are called spheres, triangles, cubes, lines, and modellers; for thus stands the Eternal Nidāna — the Oi-Ha-Hou (the permutation of Oeaohoo)

5. …which is:

“Darkness” the Boundless, or the No-Number, Ādi-Nidāna Svabhavat: The (circle) (for x, unknown quantity)

I. The Ādi-Sanat, the Number, for he is One.

II. The Voice of the Word, Svabhavat, the Numbers, for he is One and Nine.

III. The “Formless Square” (Arūpa)

And these three enclosed within the (boundless) circle, are the sacred four; and the ten are the Arūpa (subjective, formless) Universe. Then come the “Sons,” the seven Fighters, the One, the eighth left out, and his Breath which is the Light-Maker (Bhāskara).

6. … Then the Second Seven, who are the Lipikas, produced by the three (Word, Voice and Spirit). The rejected Son is One. The “Son-Suns” are countless.

Stanza V

1. The Primordial Seven, the first seven Breaths of the Dragon of Wisdom, produce in their turn from their holy circumgyrating Breaths the Fiery Whirlwind.

2. They make of him the messenger of their will. The Dgyu becomes Fohat, the Swift Son of the Divine Sons, whose sons are the Lipikas, runs circular errands. Fohat is the steed and the Thought is the rider (i.e., he is under the influence of their guiding thought). He passes like lightning through the fiery clouds (cosmic mists); takes three, and five, and seven strides through the seven regions above, and the seven below (the world to be). He lifts his voice, and calls the innumerable sparks (atoms), and joins them together.

3. He is their guiding spirit and leader. When he commences work, he separates the sparks of the lower kingdom (mineral atoms) that float and thrill with joy in their radiant dwellings (gaseous clouds), and forms therewith the germs of wheels. He places them in the six directions of space, and one in the middle — the central wheel.

4. Fohat traces spiral lines to unite the sixth to the seventh — the Crown; an Army of the Sons of Light stands at each angle, and the Lipikas — in the middle wheel. They (the Lipikas) say: “This is good”. The first Divine World is ready, the first is now the second (world). Then the “Divine Arūpa” (the formless Universe of Thought) reflects itself in Chāyāloka (the shadowy world of primal form, or the intellectual), the first garment of the Anupādaka.

5. Fohat takes five strides (having already taken the first three) and builds a winged wheel at each corner of the square, for the four holy ones and their armies (hosts).

6. The Lipikas circumscribe the triangle, the first one (the vertical line or the figure I), the cube, the second one, and the pentacle within the egg (circle). It is the ring called “Pass Not”, for those who descend and ascend (as also for those) who, during the Kalpa, are progressing towards the great day “Be with us”. . . . Thus were formed the Arūpa and the Rūpa (the Formless World and the World of Forms): from one light seven lights; from each of the seven, seven times seven lights. The “Wheels” watch the ring. . . .

Stanza VI

1. By the power of the Mother of Mercy and Knowledge — Kuan-Yin — the “triple” of Kuan-Shih-Yin, residing in Kuan-yin-T’ien, Fohat, the breath of their progeny, the Son of the Sons, having called forth, from the lower abyss (chaos), the illusive form of Hsien-chan (our Universe) and the seven elements:

2. The Swift and Radiant One produces the Seven Laya Centres, against which none will prevail to the great day “Be-with-Us,” and seats the Universe on these eternal foundations, surrounding Hsien-chan with the Elementary Germs.

3. Of the seven (elements) — first one manifested, six concealed, two manifested — five concealed; three manifested — four concealed; four produced — three hidden; four and one tsan (fraction) revealed, two and one half concealed; six to be manifested, one laid aside. Lastly, seven small wheels revolving; one giving birth to the other.

4. He builds them in the likeness of older Wheels (worlds), placing them on the imperishable centres.

How does Fohat build them? He collects the fiery dust. He makes balls of fire, runs through them, and round them, infusing life thereinto, then sets them into motion; some one way, some the other way. They are cold, he makes them hot. They are dry, he makes them moist. They shine, he fans and cools them.

Thus acts Fohat from one Twilight to the other, during Seven Eternities.

5. At the fourth (Round, or revolution of life and being around “the seven smaller wheels”), the sons are told to create their images. One third refuses — two (thirds) obey.

The curse is pronounced; they will be born on the fourth (Race), suffer and cause suffering; this is the first war.

6. The older wheels rotated downwards and upwards. . . . The Mother’s spawn filled the whole (Kosmos). There were battles fought between the Creators and the Destroyers, and battles fought for space; the seed appearing and re-appearing continuously.

7. Make thy calculations, O Lanoo, if thou wouldest learn the correct age of thy small wheel (chain). Its fourth spoke is our mother (Earth). Reach the fourth “fruit” of the fourth path of knowledge that leads to Nirvāṇa, and thou shalt comprehend, for thou shalt see.

Stanza VII

1. Behold the beginning of sentient formless life.

First the Divine (vehicle), the one from the Mother-Spirit (Ātman); then the Spiritual (Ātma-Buddhi, the Spirit-Soul); (again) the three from the one, the four from the one, and the five from which the three, the five, and the seven. These are the threefold, the fourfold downward; the “mind-born” sons of the first Lord (Avalokiteśvara); the Shining Seven (the “Builders”).

It is they who are thou, me, him, O Lanoo. They, who watch over thee and thy mother, Bhūmi (The Earth).

2. The one ray multiplies the smaller rays. Life precedes form, and life survives the last atom (of Form Stūla-Śharīra, external body). Through the countless rays proceeds the life-ray, the one, like a thread through beads (pearls).

3. When the one becomes two, the “threefold” appears. The three are (linked into) one; and it is our thread, O Lanoo, the heart of the man-plant, called Saptaparna.

4. It is the root that never dies; the three-tongued flame of the four wicks . . . The wicks are the sparks, that draw from the three-tongued flame (their upper triad) shot out by the seven — their flame; the beams and sparks of one moon reflected in the running waves of all the rivers of earth (“Bhūmi”, or “Pritivī”).

5. The spark hangs from the flame by the finest thread of Fohat. It journeys through the Seven Worlds of Māyā. It stops in the first (kingdom), and is a metal and a stone; it passes into the second (kingdom) and behold — a plant; the plant whirls through seven forms and becomes a sacred animal (the first shadow of the physical man).

From the combined attributes of these, Manu (man), the thinker, is formed.

Who forms him? The seven lives, and the one life. Who completes him? The five-fold Lha. And who perfects the last body? Fish, sin, and soma (the moon).

6. From the first-born (primitive, or the first man) the thread between the silent watcher and his shadow becomes more strong and radiant with every change (reincarnation). The morning sunlight has changed into noonday glory. . . . .

7. This is thy present wheel, said the Flame to the Spark. Thou art myself, my image, and my shadow. I have clothed myself in thee, and thou art my Vahan (vehicle) to the day, “Be-with-us,” when thou shalt re-become myself and others, thyself and me. Then the builders, having donned their first clothing, descend on radiant earth and reign over men — who are themselves.

Via

Tweet