Cold Metaphysics Versus Divine Wisdom

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Theosophy and Theosophists Series · 19 pages

Nineteen pages opened by an abstract and train of thoughts, each position carrying its page number. *The distinction in the title is one of the most useful in the whole library*, and it is set out plainly enough to be taken away in a sentence.

The Eye Doctrine means dogma and dead-letter form, church ritualism intended for those content with exoteric formulae; the Heart Doctrine, or the Heart's Seal, is called the only real one. Truth is said to linger even now among the masses, but only in the trans-Himalayan fastnesses does the esoteric Good Law live in all its pristine purity. From that follows a claim about scholarship: neither the Indian nor the Buddhist system can be understood without a key, and the study of comparative religion cannot become a science until the symbols of every religion yield their final secrets. The polemical half is aimed at the Western Orientalists, and it is sharper than most of her writing on the subject. The difference between the eye and the heart — between outward form and hidden meaning — is, she says, clearly demonstrated in several volumes on Chinese Buddhism written by sundry missionaries; and it is useless to enumerate the endless string of the finest Oriental scholars credited with having exposed to view the ancient Hindu world by revealing the sacred and secret books of Buddhism, because the world they revealed had never been veiled. The rebuke that follows is the line the file is remembered for: is it those who belong to the most anthropomorphic religion in the world who have a right to take ancient philosophers to task for an exaggerated religious awe? A named section unmasks what she calls the pseudo-Buddhism of Joseph Edkins, holding that he is on a false track as to Nirvana and Amita-Buddha, and explaining that when the misuse of dogmatic Buddhist scriptures reached its climax and the true spirit of the Buddha's philosophy was nearly lost, several reformers came from India and established an oral teaching.

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