TIBETAN “MAGIC”

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

TIBETAN “MAGIC”

UNCANNY OCCULTISM

(By

“N.O.V.”—Part I.)

The peculiar but undoubted occult powers possessed by the priests of that mysterious country Tibet have been once more brought before the public eye by statements made at Berlin by Dr. Dyberenfarth, leader of the recent German Himalayan expedition.

Everyone felt an inimical power watching over the Himalayan peaks and causing death to anyone believing he could conquer them, he said. Telepathy was employed in Tibet like the telephone in Europe—a messenger sent on a 12 days’ journey to Darjeeling to report the death of a bearer learned that the local natives reported the tragedy to headquarters the day it occurred.

The ordinary European, hearing of these things, probably finds his conception of them too difficult for his matter-of-fact mind and dismisses them comfortably with a shrug of his shoulders. Nevertheless many keen minds have studied the subject and there can be no doubt but that the Tibetans, possessed of a civilisation as old as any in the world and living in a country accepted as the birthplace of mankind, have developed the supernatural and the control of mind over matter to an extent the white races, the children of the earth’s civilisation, can but accept without proof. As one writer has put it, the penetration of British expeditions to the forbidden territories of Tibet, in spite of the sorcery of the most famous magicians of the country, has probably led the Tibetan to understand that foreign barbarians are masters in a material sense, by right of force; that they have the ability to enslave and to mould the material elements of nature. But his conviction that the white races are mentally inferior remains unshaken. In this he merely - shares the opinions of all Asiatics from Ceylon to the northern confines of Mongolia.

Probably the best descriptions of the mystic rites and occult powers of Tibet are those contained in the books of Madame Alexandra David-Neel, a Western woman who professed the philosophy of Buddhism, for 14 yeans became a complete Asiatic and with the confidence of the most important lamas, explored the country hitherto inaccessible by foreign travellers. She nevertheless remained' a Westerner and, practised “the philosophic scepticism which is the constant ally of the scientific observer, unencumbered by any preconceived theory and unbiassed by any doctrine or dogma.” Madame David-Neel delivers her conclusions on what she observed in Tibet in the following words: “There is nothing miraculous or supernatural in them, nothing that should engender or keep alive superstition. Psychic training, rationally and scientifically conducted, can lead to desirable results.”

The study of the doctrines and philosophy of the Tibetans cannot fail to instill into Western minds a profound respect for the influence of thousands of years upon the development of the brain and psychic powers that are undoubtedly possessed. The doctrines are taught in‘ the monastic colleges of philosophy and the student acquires “knowledge” by study, attentive examination, reflection and meditation. If this remains a mere intellectual acceptance of the words or experiences of the teachers it is regarded as being very far removed from the perfect understanding and realisation called “prajna paramita,” the . “going beyond knowledge.” Daily exercises, physical and mental, are required by the student to reach that state of meditation in equanimity without which nothing can be done, the practice of which will enable the disciple to reach down into the depths of himself, a region of perfect calm from which he will be able to consider dispassionately his actions, feelings and thoughts.

Training in the control of the breath has been practised in Asia for thousands of years. The object of such exercises is manifold, some being intended to lead to the development of the intellect and mental illumination and others to the production of a voluntary catalepsy, allowing the subject to be buried alive and to return to life a few weeks later.

An example is the “contemplation, of the body,” one of the “four fundamental attentivenesses,” described by Madame David-Neel as follows: “The pupil retires into the forest and there he seats himself. cross-legged, body erect, and attentive concentrated mind .... Whilst taking a long breath he is conscious of it. Similarly, when he takes a short inhalation, he knows it. He thinks: ‘I am about to breathe in,’ or, ‘I am about to breathe out,’ arid he acts accordingly, training himself to master this physical function. “The discipline through watching over in-and-out breathing attains the, four trances. The first is free from lust, anger, laxness and restless brooding, whilst it includes reasoning, reflection, rapture, happiness and mental concentration. After the suppression of reasoning and reflection, though retaining rapture and happiness, the disciple obtains the inward peace and Oneness of mind which is bom of concentration; this is the second trance. After the suppression of rapture the disciple dwells in equanimity, with senses alert, clearly conscious. This is the third trance, and further, when the disciple has rejected both pleasure and pain he enters into a state of serenity. “He considers in his mind that breathing presupposes the existence of a body. The body, however, is only a name for the four chief elements and of the properties dependent upon them, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, form, sound, smell, taste, etc. Dependent' upon the contact of the senses and their respective objects, consciousness arises, and through consciousness there arise all the five Aspects of Existence —the mental aspect consisting of perceptions, sensations, subjective formations, consciousness and the material aspect, form. “The four bases of attentiveness, the contemplation of the body, sensations, thoughts and suggestive phenomena, make perfect the elements of en-lightenment-attentiveness, investigation into truth, energy, interest, mental concentration and equanimity. In their turn these elements produce wisdom and deliverance.”

Thus is explained as briefly as possible what may be regarded as the basis of all ths psychic phenomena, mysticism and ( Yost incredible physical feats of which the Tibetans are capable, the telepathy which replaces the western wireless, or rather, existed long before wireless was thought of, the ability to stand naked in the snow and dry clothes soaked in icy water by the production of body heat, and the “lung-gom-pa,” the way in which adepts can undertake prodigious tramps across any kind of country, travelling at stupendous speed in a form of trance. These will be dealt with in. a further article next week.