Diary 1963 - Murshid Sam's Living Stream

Diaries 1963-3Sri Aurobindo, in seeking to use English terms instead of Sanskrit, has made a mess of things.He translate “prana” as life and in this shows an ignorance which is almost as stupendous as hisprofundity in other directions. In the first place, especially from Indian philosophy, there is theJacob’s Ladder movement of life above-below and below-above. This is common, in some respects,to Chinese wisdom, to Hebraic wisdom, and most of all, to the science of breath. Prana-Yama meansthe stopping of breath, not the stopping of life. Adepts can live without ordinary breathing and withouteating much, and yet they are fully alive. And this Anglicizing of Sanskrit terms leads to foolishness.We have used the Greek language in our external sciences—Anglo-Saxon will not do; we haveto use the Asian words in our internal sciences, just as we use Cotton, Muslim, Damask, etc. etc.At the Yoga Center, therefore, perhaps more attention is paid to the breath than at most places,and then to diet. When these two are properly employed it is possible not only to preserve health butto restore, even youth and vitality.The Tibetans, therefore, speak of “The Science”; they do not analyze the person back into thefive facets taught by the Indians, or the three bodies taught by all faiths. They treat everything asOne.The essential difference between Esoteric Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism is the environment.The Tibetan forms were evolved to meet conditions totally different from those found in India.In Tibet you have to keep warm and in treating the science of the body, therefore, you have to havea “yoga” that will keep the body warm. The so-called “Agni Yoga” of the Roerichs is humbug. (Itis neither Agni nor Yoga and nobody has gone far in it. It is just compendium of more dualisticalpseudo-moral trivia which passes for divine wisdom.)The other side of the Esoteric Buddhism which is common to Japan, China and Tibet has to dowith rituals, sounds, the elements as above, the cosmic hierarchy, etc. This cosmic hierarchy is fairlyclear in the Japanese version which minimizes the change of language forms and very unclear in thetheosophical “esoteric Buddhism” which, by anglicizing the principles, has adopted words from thecommon languages which do not fit. Indeed better works has been done by Christians on the Bodhisattva.As soon as the Bodhisattva passes from symbology to reality trouble arises. Buddhism teaches“One Mind” but as soon as one contacts and draws from that “One Mind” he will receive nothingbut challenges. Those who have drunk from this universal font, the “One Mind” will always agree.They are not silence but it is difficult to express in the common language. You cannot effectivelytranslate the mantras.Tonight I may appear at a forum on “Buddhism, Occultism and the [?]. A man who has beenactually trained by teachers, masters and Yogis and who in addition has read almost the entire sacredliterature of the Orient, is at a loss when he meets Western “authorities.”