Equinox I (04).pdf

138
THE EQUINOX
so the Karma, released from the body of the dead man, will
circle round until it finds the body of a new-born child tuned
or syntonized to its particular waves.
Now we are not concerned here with stray children who
like the receivers of a wireless telegraph pick up either good
or evil messages; but it is an interesting fact to learn that at
least certain orthodox Buddhists attribute so complex and considerable
power to the brain, that by the fact of leaving one
body that body perishes, and of entering another that body
revives. Can it be that we have got back to our old friend the
Prâna which in its individual form so closely resembled the
individual Karma, and in its entirety the totality of Nibbâna?
Let us turn to Brihadâranyaka Upanishad. There in 1, 6, 3.
we find a mystical formula which reads Amritam satyena
channam. This means “The immortal (Brahman) veiled by
the (empirical) reality;” and immediately afterwards this is
explained as follows: “The Prâna (i.e. the Âtman) to wit is the
immortal, name and form are the reality; by these the Prâna is
veiled.” Once again we are back at our starting-point. To
become one with the Prâna or Âtman is to enter Nibbâna, and
as the means which lead to the former consisted of concentration
exercises such as Prânâyâma, etc.; so now shall we find
almost identical exercises used to hasten the Aspirant into
Nibbâna.
Frater P. was by now well acquainted with the Yoga
Philosophy, further he was beginning to feel that the crude
Animism employed by many of its expounders scarely tallied
with his attainments. The nearer he approached the Âtman
the less did it appear to him to resemble what he had been