Theosophy

"Tara is a goddess, the feminine equivalent of the Arhat, or a Sister of the White Brotherhood. But please do not be too much interested in the names of various initiations; this will not lead you anywhere. In ancient times, each religio-philosophical school, or sacred brotherhood, had its own gradations or degrees, and had special names for them. But you may be sure that the true degrees were not designated by the names we now see in books. If you are interested in this, take the beautiful definitions of the degrees of spiritual advancement given in Agni Yoga. Indeed, among some who study occultism, there are those who are convinced that the Sun-initiation takes place on the physical sun! All degrees of initiation are in ourselves. When a disciple is ready, he receives a Ray of Illumination, which corresponds with the degree of purification he has achieved, as well as of the broadening of his consciousness and the fiery transmutation of his centers."

"After this (first) initiation...He passes, at this initiation, out of the Hall of Learning into the Hall of Wisdom... A long period of many incarnations may elapse before the control of the astral body is perfected, and the initiate is ready for the next step. p. 84"

"These are the great facts in Nature, existing, whether recognized or not, on which the possibility of treading the Path depends: Reincarnation, the law of Karma, the fact of the Path, the Existence of the Teachers. p. 15"

"Initiation might be defined in two ways. It is first of all the entering into a new and wider dimensional world, by the expansion of a man's consciousness, so that he can include and encompass that which he now excludes, and from which he normally separates himself in his thinking and acts. It is, secondly, the entering into man of those energies which are distinctive of the soul and of the soul alone - the forces of intelligent love, and of spiritual will. These are dynamic energies, and they actuate all who are liberated souls."

"Christ gives us a definite picture of the entire process in His own life story, built around those major initiations which are our universal heritage and the glorious (and for many) the immediate opportunity. These are: 1. The Birth at Bethlehem, to which Christ called Nicodemus, saying, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."... 2. The Baptism in Jordan. This is the baptism to which John the Baptist referred us, telling us that the baptism of the Holy Spirit and of fire must be administered to us by Christ... 3. The Transfiguration. There perfection is for the first time demonstrated, and there the divine possibility of such perfection is proven to the disciples. The command goes forth to us, "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."... 4. The Crucifixion. This is called the Great Renunciation, in the Orient, with its lesson of sacrifice and its call to the death of the lower nature. This was the lesson which St. Paul knew and the goal towards which he strove. "I die daily," he said, for only in the practice of death daily undergone can the final Death be met and endured."... 5. The Resurrection and Ascension, the final triumph which enables the initiate to sing and to know the meaning of the words: "Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?"... Such are the five great dramatic events of the mysteries..."

"The partial subjugation of glamour, and escape from the complete thralldom of illusion, are indications to the watching Hierarchy that a man is ready for the process of initiation."

"Initiation is in the nature of a great experiment which our planetary Logos is making during this round. In earlier and perhaps in later rounds the whole process will follow natural law. . . . The whole process is optional, and a man may - if he so choose - follow the normal process, and take aeons of time to effect what some are choosing to do in a briefer period, through a self-chosen forcing process."

"Pay attention to those who are committed to true advancement. They do not impose their beliefs. They avoid claiming degrees of initiation. They always know that it is better not to speak about even their most sacred encounters. They are always kind and ready to offer help. The first task for the true seeker of the sacred knowledge is to cultivate goodness. In doing this he will attract good, like a magnet."

"The mark of the initiate is his lack of interest in himself, in his own unfoldment, and his personal fate, and all aspirants who become accepted disciples have to master the technique of disinterestedness."

"The concept which has to supersede the one at present extant, is that of group initiation, and not that of the initiation of an individual aspirant. In the past, and in order to get the idea of initiation into the minds of the people, the Hierarchy chose the mode (now obsolete) of holding out the prospect of initiation before the earnest disciple; upon this they placed an early emphasis of its peculiarity, its rewarding nature, its ritual and ceremonies, and its place in the scale of evolution. Since the fact of initiation had been grasped by many, and achieved by some, it has become possible today to reveal what has always been implied, that initiation is a group event."

"How can one attain fiery initiation without actual struggle? How can one pass through life without a real battle? Only a low understanding can have a conception of higher attainment without tension. To pass through life and attain means to pass along the edge of the abyss, means to pass through sorrow and tension. Just as the Cosmic Laboratory transmutes these energies of the heart, so do human souls pass through purgatory on Earth. Without this fiery attachment to Cosmic Fire the heart cannot know initiation into the Higher World. On the path to the Fiery World one must remember about the purgatory of life."

"Why wonder that the development of vision demands moderate lighting? It is quite clear that sharp light does not permit the increase of inner light. Yet only striving for self-perfection provides a solid foundation. Therefore, in ancient times the initiations into the Mysteries were accompanied by prolonged stays in darkness, until the eye overcame the obstacles of darkness by its inner sight."

"When rocks begin to crumble people break them up and remove them for the security of the road; and so it is with certain human definitions. In the course of centuries a term may lose its original meaning and should be replaced by a word closer to the current period. This has happened with the word initiated. Together with anointment, its original meaning has been relegated to the past. Instead of initiated and uninitiated, let us say knowing and unknowing, or cognizant and ignorant. But it is better to express initiation itself by the word education. Thus it can be expressed without belittlement, in a word closer to contemporary times. In no way is it right to conceal something good in outmoded words when it is possible to express it more comprehensibly for broad masses of people. Surely, knowledge is not for the elect but for all! Therefore, we should not reiterate outworn morals, but rather, designate the best conditions for scientific cognizance. Only the ignorant will not understand that for the successful advancement of science the best conditions of life must be established. Science cannot go beyond the limits of the mechanistic circle so long as this wall remains unsurmounted by the understanding of the Subtle World."

"Since the heart is an accumulator and transmuter of various energies, there must be more favorable conditions for arousing and attracting these energies. The most fundamental condition is work, mental as well as physical. In the motion of work, energies are gathered from space; but one must understand work as a natural process that enriches life. Thus, every kind of work is a blessing, while the vagaries of inaction are extremely harmful in a cosmic sense. Love for the endlessness of labor is in itself an initiation of considerable degree; it prepares you for the conquest of time. Being in a condition where you have conquered time guarantees you a place in the Subtle World, where work is an unavoidable condition, just as it is in the body. A complaint about having to work can only come from a slave of the body."

"Treason is judged not by its causes but by its effects. Each one is free, but is judged by his deeds. Initiation is not found through heartless action. Happiness is gained through labor."

"Only the bond with the Hierarchy of Light can kindle inextinguishable fires. So the opposition of the heart to all the dark forces will be a sign of victory. I am confirming the power of the heart, and you know for yourself how near at hand and powerful this weapon of light is. One cannot approach the fiery domain without the flame of the heart. Initiation by fire is only for the pure of heart."

"Urusvati knows what initiation is. There is much confusion about this concept. Some think that initiation is the acquisition of knowledge, but it is only a path. Others think that the act of devotion in itself is initiation, but that, too, is only a path. Still others state that to be initiated is to guard a secret: even that is but a path. Initiation is daring to approach the Image of Light and not fearing to look at It. Uniting with Light requires courage and a high degree of self-denial; this fearlessness is in itself a beautiful initiation. The Teacher imparts many wise truths, but finally He will say, “Now walk alone, without fear.” A particular tension of consciousness is required toward the end of the path. Intellectual knowledge breaks up and vanishes, and the pilgrim remains alone on the cliffs of ascent. Only the flame of the heart can warm when the accumulated coverings have been rent by the storm. Voices are heard, but they do not resemble the Call of the Beloved. Be prepared beforehand to face the Light and to accept It without fear. It is impermissible to speak in the marketplace about the awareness of Light. An initiate will not disclose his precious experience. No one can compel him to utter the unutterable. This is the difference between an initiate, and a deceiver, who knows how to roll his eyes and sing sweetly about visions that only he can perceive. True messengers are not talkative."

"No one is admitted (through the process of initiation) into the Ashram of the Christ (the Hierarchy) until such time as he is beginning to think and live in terms of group relationships and group activities. Some well-meaning aspirants interpret the group idea as the instruction to them that they should make an effort to form groups - their own group or groups. This is not the idea as it is presented in the Aquarian Age, so close today; it was the mode of approach during the Piscean Age, now passed. Today, the entire approach is totally different. No man today is expected to stand at the centre of his little world, and work to become a focal point for a group. His task now is to discover the group of aspirants with which he should affiliate himself, and with whom he must travel upon the Path of Initiation - a very different matter, and a far more difficult one."

"Initiation – A practice of admission into the Mysteries of Life as practiced in Ancient times. Since most of the mysteries have long since been forgotten by mankind in general, the term has evolved a new meaning for the Occultist and student of Truth and now refers to gradations or degrees of attainment or advancement into the World of Higher Truths, each new entry or Initiation being marked by an actual Ray of Illumination sent by Hierarchy, and corresponding with the degree of purification that has been reached by the Initiate. Of course, initiations do not take place on the physical plane, but within the individual, on the ‘inner’ planes, and each successive one is accompanied by a broadening of consciousness and the fiery transmutation of the centers. (LHR I, p 384)"

"An Ashram has in it disciples and initiates at all points of evolutionary development, and of all grades and degrees; these all work together in perfect unison, and yet - within their differentiated ranks, for each degree stands alone, yet united with all the others - with their own established rapport, their coded telepathic interplay, and a shared occult secrecy and silence, which guard the secrets and knowledges of one grade from another and from the unready. Similarly, when an aspirant, seeking upon the physical plane to find those who will share with him the mystery of his next immediate step or demonstrated expansion, discovers his own group, he will find that it has in it those who have not reached his particular point of wisdom, and those also who have already left him far behind. He will be drawn into a vortex of force and a field of service simultaneously. Ponder on this statement. He will learn, therefore, the lessons required by one who is to work in an Ashram, and will know how to handle himself with those who may not yet share with him the secrets which he already knows, and with those who have penetrated deeper into the Mysteries than he has. (18 - 346)."

"Initiation has been so frequently presented as being a ceremony, that I have felt it necessary to offset strenuously that erroneous significance. If, however, you are to comprehend that which I have to say, you will have to call in what measures of enlightened understanding you may possess. Initiation is only a ceremony in so far that there comes a climaxing point in the initiatory process, in which the disciple's consciousness becomes dramatically aware of the personnel of the Hierarchy, and his own position in relation to it. This realisation he symbolises to himself - successively and on an increasingly large scale - as a great rhythmic ceremonial of progressive revelation in which he, as a candidate, is the centre of the hierarchical stage... I am not here saying that the teachings given in the past by various occult groups, or in my book Initiation, Human and Solar, are not correct, or do not recount accurately what the candidate believes has taken place. The point I seek to make is that the ceremonial aspect is due to the thought-form-making capacity of the disciple."

"The Theosophical ideas on race were fanciful and are best forgotten, but they did not imply any need for extermination, nor (unlike the ideas of contemporaneous biologists) for eugenic experiments, and in any case no one ever showed that they were invoked by the planners or commanders of Treblinka. It is defamatory nonsense to say that Theosophy "led to" Nazi racial policies."

"In the case of Theosophy, a movement suppressed by the Nazi regime, its mere use of the term "race", as in the "seven root races", is now held against it, but is actually sharply distinct from Nazi racism... the key concept of "root races", though sufficient proof of "racism" for mediocre calumniators, is not a division of mankind in races, unequal or otherwise... Theosofascism-monger René Zwaap [claims:] "That doesn't alter the fact that the Aryan doctrine was a key concept in Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine."... I don't think too highly of the Theosophical doctrine, both laborious and confused, but in such clashes my sympathies are with the rank-and-file Theosophists, who are hurt by Mr. Zwaap's calumny and make humble attempts to set the record straight."

"If we look around us even in ordinary life we see that men are everywhere unequally developed. There are always the leaders in every department of human activity. In the business world there are those who are sometimes called "captains of industry," leaders in the development of industrial and economic life. The same is true in the world of politics, art and religion, in education and the realm of science. It is a universal law that the organization of the lesser elements in any field under enlightened and active leadership is the basis of success. Even among poets and painters, whose work depends upon individual freedom of expression, we find that they have their associations to promote their common objects and authority. How much, too, we owe to the great geniuses of the human race, such characters as Galileo, Shakespeare, and Florence Nightingale, and many others whose vision and power stand out above the common level of humanity as dazzling examples of what one may accomplish by leadership in the pursuit of truth."

"The teaching about mahatmas is one the most important in the whole range of theosophical study. The reason for this lies in the fact that to attain the state of mahatmaship is the object of human evolution and its culmination. Understanding something of what a mahatma is will show what we are going to be in the future ourselves. For the aim of man's evolution is to transform the ordinary human being into a perfected spiritual man, a mahatma."

"These sages are sometimes called the Guardian Wall, for they form in fact a living, spiritual and intellectual wall of protection around mankind, guarding men against whatever evils men themselves are unable, because of ignorance, to ward off or to neutralize. Yet such guarding is always in strict accordance with the dominant karma of humanity, against which, even the great sages can no more work than against any one of the other laws of nature. They are in utter fidelity the servants of the universal mother in her spiritual, causative functions. They help men, they inspire and protect whenever they can, and in such fashion as their profound knowledge of the karmic chain of cause and effect in which humanity is entangled permits them to do. Thus it is that they serve the humanity over which they stand as elder brothers and guides."

"Probably there is no single doctrine of the Esoteric Tradition which makes so instant an appeal as does the idea of the present existence in the world of great sages or seers. In most minds there lies an intuition that there must be in the world human beings of far loftier spiritual capacity and of immensely more developed intellectual power than the ordinary run of men. Those who hear of this for the first time instantly turn to those luminous figures, such as Gautama the Buddha, Jesus the Syrian avatara, Apollonius of Tyana, Lao-tse, Krishna, Sankaracharya, etc. and, among many, the first reaction is: if such great figures have already existed in the world, why should they not exist again?"

"A God cruel and unjust, chastising with eternal anathema every heretic and justifying all the crimes committed in his Name for his glorification...is the God of ecclesiastical dogma, who, being propitiated by the sacrifice of his Son, allows into his Kingdom only those who believe in this sacrifice... Can it be possible that all these billions of souls are condemned to burn forever in hellfire only because they were deprived of seeing and hearing the Gospel of the Son? The Mahatmas know nothing of a God of this kind, nor could They esteem such."

"Not needed by Us are well-meaning Nicodemuses who come by night and keep silent by day in the Sanhedrin. Each one... must have ready a word about Us. Firm words can stun the adversaries. Say that it is curious to see one speaking about that which he knows not. If they speak against the hidden treasures, say that even the sea is full of sealed bottles. If they speak against the Community, say that he who reveres Christ, Buddha or Moses does not dare to speak against the Community of Good. The worst thing is to bring false accusation, for in it is falsehood, and slander, and betrayal, and ignorance. Say: “Since the Teacher exists, why not make use of His wise counsels? You do not make use of them for you know not how to receive them. Hasten to become aware of the Mahatmas not in history but in life, and in the meantime keep your ignorance to yourselves.”"

"A Mahatma endowed with power over space, time, mind, and matter, is a possibility just because he is a perfected man. Every human being has the germ of all the powers attributed to these great Initiates, the difference lying solely in the fact that we have in general not developed what we possess the germ of, while the Mahatma has gone through the training and experience which have caused all the unseen human powers to develop in him, and conferred gifts that look god-like to his struggling brother below. Telepathy, mind-reading, and hypnotism, all long ago known to theosophy, show the existence in the human subject of planes of consciousness, functions, and faculties hitherto undreamed of."

"All along the stream of Indian literature we can find the names by scores of great adepts who were well known to the people and who all taught the same story — the great epic of the human soul. Their names are unfamiliar to western ears, but the records of their thoughts, their work and powers remain. Still more, in the quiet unmovable East there are today by the hundred persons who know of their own knowledge that the Great Lodge still exists and has its Mahatmas, Adepts, Initiates, Brothers."

"As it is one of the tasks of the T.S. to draw together the East and the West, so that each may supply the qualities lacking in the other, and develop more fraternal feelings among Nations so various..."

"The Theosophical Societies at present existing in the world are parts of a spiritual and intellectual movement which, known or unknown, has been active in all ages. Indeed, this movement took its rise in the earliest origins of self-conscious humanity. At times this movement has disappeared from sight, during “periods of spiritual barrenness,” as Plato expressed it, yet its work continues, although not always recognized and known. The aims and purposes of the Society are religious, philosophical, and scientific, as well as distinctly humanitarian or philanthropic: it aims to restore to mankind its ancient heritage of wisdom — knowledge of the truths of being — and to inculcate in human hearts and minds the great worth and intrinsic beauty of its lofty ethical code. The Theosophical Society is nonpolitical and nonsectarian. It has members belonging to different races who may or may not be likewise members of other religious or philosophical bodies. It has no creed or dogmas in the modern sense, and its members are essentially searchers and lovers of truth."

"Founded in New York City on November 17, 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky, Colonel H. S. Olcott, William Q. Judge, and several others. The original “Preamble and By-laws” state its objectives as “to collect and diffuse a knowledge of the laws which govern the universe.” Over time its objects have been somewhat enlarged to: 1) to diffuse among men a knowledge of the laws inherent in the universe; 2) to promulgate the knowledge of the essential unity of all that is, and to demonstrate that this unity is fundamental in nature; 3) to form an active brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color; 4) to study ancient and modern religion, science, and philosophy; and 5) to investigate the innate human powers."

"Blavatsky announced from almost the very beginning of her public work that she had been commissioned by the Mahatmas M and KH to form a nucleus of a universal brotherhood of mankind, and the formation of the Theosophical Society was the first fruit of her labors to this end. The dissemination of the teachings of the wisdom-religion now called theosophy was the main purpose of the Society. Writing to A. P. Sinnett, KH said: “The chief object of the T. S. is not so much to gratify individual aspirations as to serve our fellow men” (ML 7-8); and M wrote: “The sun of Theosophy must shine for all, not for a part. There is more of this movement than you have yet had an inking of, and the work of the T. S. is linked in with similar work that is secretly going on in all parts of the world” (ML 271)."

"Likewise, ask those people who feel offended because the coming epoch is being called the epoch of Maitreya and not the epoch of Christ whether they really understand the significance of these Names. If they knew more, they would not feel offended."

"The New Epoch... will bring the renaissance of woman. The Epoch of Maitreya is the Epoch of the Mother of the World."

"Are there religions and communities in the East which accept the Teaching about Maitreya? The Bodhisattva Maitreya was promised to the world as the coming Buddha by Gautama himself. This is the reason why the Hinayana also accepts this one Bodhisattva. Maitreya corresponds to the Kalki Avatar in Hinduism (the "White Horse Avatar"—see the Revelation of St. John), and to the Messiahs of all nations. All the Messiahs are inevitably Avatars of Vishnu. Statues in honor of the Bodhisattva Maitreya were erected in India and Tibet at the very beginning of our Christian Era, and there is not a single Buddhist temple where there is not now an Image of this Bodhisattva."

"The Lord Buddha and His great Brother, the Lord Maitreya, long ago together made the great resolve swiftly to attain to Buddha-hood, and for the sake of humanity, to renounce that Nirvana. Standing on the threshold of bliss ineffable and peace eternal, these Great Ones turn back and say, ‘Not until all my brothers can follow me onwards will I accept this bliss’. We may presume from certain of his spoken words, that he who has now left us physically, has also made that irrevocable resolve and that supreme renunciation, promising to stay with us as our great teacher and leader to the end of this world period and on to the world to which humanity will go when it leaves this Earth for a time."

"When the time came at which it was expected that humanity would be able to provide for itself some one who was ready to fill this important office, no one could be found who was fully capable of doing so. But few of our earthly race had then reached the higher stages of adeptship, and the foremost of these were two friends and brothers whose development was equal. These two were the mighty Egos now known to us as the Lord Gautama and the Lord Maitreya, and in His great love for mankind the former at once volunteered to make the tremendous additional exertion necessary to qualify Him to do the work required, while His friend and brother decided to follow Him as the next holder of that office thousands of years later. p. 9"

"The problems confronting us should be faced with courage, with truth and understanding; as well as with the willingness to speak factually, with simplicity and with love in the effort to expose the truth and clarify the problems which must be solved. The opposing forces of entrenched evil must be routed before He for Whom all men wait, the Christ, can come. The knowledge that He is ready and anxious publicly to appear to His loved Humanity only adds to the sense of general frustration, and another very vital question arises: For what period of time must we endure, struggle and fight? The reply comes with clarity: He will come unfailingly when a measure of peace has been restored, when the principle of sharing is at least in process of controlling economic affairs, and when churches and political groups have begun to clean house. Then He can and will come; then the Kingdom of God will be publicly recognised and will no longer be a thing of dreams and of wishful thinking and orthodox hope."

"In those far-off times it was the Lord Gautama who ruled the world of religion and education; but now He has yielded that high office to the Lord Maitreya, whom western people call the Christ—who took the body of the disciple Jesus during the last three years of its life on the physical plane; and those who know tell us that it will not be long before He descends among us once again, to found another faith. Anyone whose mind is broad enough to grasp this magnificent conception of the splendid reality of things will see instantly how worse than futile it is to set up in one’s mind one religion as in opposition to another, to try to convert any person from one to another, or to compare depreciatingly the founder of one with the founder of another.... The Lord Maitreya had taken various births before He came into the office which He now holds, but even in these earlier days He seems always to have been a teacher or high-priest. p. 10"

"Maitreya is the secret name of the Fifth Buddha, and the Kalki Avatar of the Brahmins — the last Messiah who will come at the culmination of the Great Cycle."

"As this Bodhisatva is said “ to assume any form he pleases ” from the beginning of a Manvantara to its end... He will appear as Maitreya Buddha, the last of the Avatars and Buddhas, in the seventh Race."

"In the Vishnu Purâna—which is certainly the earliest of all the scriptures of that name—we find, as in all the others, Brahmâ assuming as the male God, for purposes of creation, “ four bodies invested by three qualities.”* It is said : “ In this manner, Maitreya, Jyotsnâ (dawn), Râtri (night), Ahan (day), and Sandhyâ (evening twilight) are the four bodies of Brahmâ ” . . (Vishnu Purâna, p. 81, Vol. I., Wilson’s translation)."

"The whole East believes in the Advent of the Lord Maitreya... The Teaching of the Lord Maitreya will be spread all over the world and it will proclaim the era of the awakening of the Spirit, which is also called the era of woman... We shall salute those who consider only Christ as their Teacher, in the same manner that we shall salute the followers of Lao Tze, Confucius, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, and Maitreya. But we shall ask them to truly study the Teaching of Jesus Christ and practice it in life. Then there will be no place for discord, for, verily, all great Covenants come from One Source. Remember what was said in the Teaching, "People will ask, 'Who is greater, Christ or Buddha?' Answer, 'It is impossible to measure the far-off worlds. We can only be enraptured by their radiance.'"

"It may well be that we have reached such a time of evolution that the popular mind of the day will be transcended by large numbers of the more spiritually minded, and that when He comes again He will be able to stay amongst us more than the three brief years that marked His last ministry. That, then, is the word, the thought I leave with you: to develop in yourselves the Spirit of the Christ, and then at His coming you shall recognise His beauty. Learn compassion, learn tenderness, learn good thoughts of others rather than evil, learn to be tender with the weak, learn to be reverent to the great; and if you can develop those qualities in you, then the coming Christ may be able to number you among His disciples, and the welcome that the earth shall give Him shall not again be a cross."

"He has been for two thousand years the supreme Head of the Church Invisible, the Spiritual Hierarchy, composed of the disciples of all faiths. He recognises and loves those who are not Christian but who retain their allegiance to their Founders – the Buddha, Mohammed and others. He cares not what the faith is, if the objective is love of God and of humanity. If men look for the Christ Who left His disciples centuries ago, they will fail to recognise the Christ Who is in the process of returning. The Christ has no religious barriers in His consciousness. It matters not to Him of what faith a man may call himself."

"Profoundly interesting is this world-tragedy of conflict to those who see in it a necessary preparation, a clearing of the ground, for the coming of the World-Teacher and for the new civilisation... The terrible lesson now being taught, the widespread suffering, the devastation by sword and fire, the poverty caused by the dislocation of trade, the tension, the bankruptcies... But through this Armageddon the world will pass into a realm of peace, of brotherhood, of co-operation, and will forget the darkness and the terrors of the night in the joy that cometh in the morning..."

"The Vishnu Purâna contains a reply, which has forced certain Orientalists to open their eyes very widely. “The Sun is stationed, for all time, in the middle of the day, and over against midnight, in all the Dwipas (continents), Maitreya! But the rising and the setting of the Sun being perpetually opposite to each other—and in the same way, all the cardinal points, and so the crosspoints, Maitreya ; people speak of the rising of the Sun where they see it ; and where the Sun disappears, there, to them, is his setting. Of the Sun, which is always in one and the same place, there is neither setting nor rising, for what is called rising and setting are only the seeing and the not seeing the Sun.” (Vishnu Purâna, Book II., ch. viii.)"