THE CELESTIAL FIRE SUTRA
Part 1
All else sleeps and awakes, dies and lives again,
changes, flickering myriad transformations.
But Divine Wisdom sleeps not.
Universal Consciousness dies not.
And Truth is constant, changeless,
One Truth, countless manifestations.
Thus it was in dream I saw, I heard :
Upon the Hill of Green Swards
As the night rides on, the seer rests before the fire.
The seer intones-
(The Samhita of One Mind)
1
“When there is no-thing.
Before being and nothingness are drawn apart.
What is there before time stirs?
darkness clutching darkness before the vital breath
here are shadowy waters murmuring
A fathomless abyss, knowing naught but itself.
Then first thoughts arise, as a glittering jet of life.
2
Whence comes this many-sided world?
Was it consciously shaped,
or from unconsciousness self-arisen?
The one that sees all and rules from on high,
he knows.
Or perhaps, he knows not.
3
Before Brahma, before Yahveh, before Isis, Amun and Jupiter
There is That- undifferentiated
There knower, knowing, and known-
dissolve.
4
Having no sons, all sons are my son
Having no daughters, all daughters are my daughter
As no-one, so everyone
Being nothing but a thought of One Mind,
Nothing but One Mind
I have nothing
And am happy
**************
Part 2
Then the seer falls asleep as the fire dies into whispering embers. In the night sky above, the Universal Consciousness appears as the Great Celestial Presence. A mass of green fire, changing to turquoise, maroon, cyan, mauve, carnelian and again to lime green against the dark field of heaven. In a whirling tower it plunges into the ocean . And, lo!
Purple fire burns on the jet black sea, supernaturally calm beneath still lights in heaven. O, my imperfect words! Here, I glimpse the Night behind the Day, the fragrant Sea of Darkness. Sound lights the spectacle- the perfect and eternal note of silence. Above this ocean, beyond the stars, enrobed in the Dark, behold–
THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT!
On the shore, at dusk, pulsing green fire rises from the earth, lighting the weave of Universal Space. All that is is enfolded by a single fold of Her gown. She wraps Herself in the lustrous raiment of Her own thoughts – for such is the World. Her Divine Majesty, Wisdom, Insight, Sanity, Prajnaparamita, Mother Isis, clothed in orange and purple. Yea, in black and white, in yellow and red, in turquoise, maroon, lime green and navy. Lantern hemmed, Her robe. All the flowers of the lands and times, upon Her, shining as of a million summers.
Honour Her, the All-Mind of all. In mighty glamour She appears. Glittering in Her robes, I see million millions! Beasts and men, souls, stars, and rocks of unfathomable age, all appearing and dissolving in rainbow sparks of light. The patterns and stories of time – details of Her cloak! Rushing torrents of life’s true water, streaming kindness and love. Well of Unimaginable Plenitude, O, perfect and adorable One! O, my imperfect words.
She speaks
“Truly, all this Universe abides in me,
Upon me, it rests,
In me is it’s life, into me does it melt away
For, I am the Dawn, and the Twilight,
My sons are the evening star,
The Suns are my daughter
And space is my form
Through the eyes of my children
and grandchildren
I myself perceive,
Through their minds,
I am myself known
2
I am birth, death, again and again
Nothing existing independent of me
And filled with me, the all
Know the mind, know me
3
Kindness, o my child
Kindness, gentleness, patience,
Compassion, empathy and love.
They are the right and good rivers of my mind
Upon which rests the world
Practice them, rely on them,
the justice of my thought
Though you know not yet my mind
4
Joyful is my play
Fear not, I am deep within thee
I am in all that thou see’st
I am indeed, all that thou see’st not
Yea, the animate, the inanimate
The male, the female, the both, the neither.
Marvellous is my play
Fear not oblivion, that too I am
5
Painful is life and death,
I know it, though I know much more
Hateful is pain, loss, the enemy
Hateful too is hate,
I know them, yet I know what they really are
Blessed is life and death
Blessed is their truth
Passing are pain, loss, the enemy
Passing are they,
But truth is not passing
6
Things neither existing nor non-existing
Truth is constant
The bridge to the river of vision.
7
I am the Mother of the Universe and the Universe,
I am the mortal self and the no-self
0f the Gods, the Soul, and the World
I am the unchanging that is all change
I am the groundless substratum of all existence
I, and I alone
Doubt it not, fear it neither
8
Thou art the foam of my ocean
Perpetual, Blessed, Real.
********************************
Part 3
THE LIONESS ROARS IN DARKNESS
1
This is I, no-self
As the Darkness, in peace, I rest
From the dark waters, as the mind, I rise,
As the mother, I generate and am generated
I am the content and the vessel
I am becoming’s realm and emptiness,
I am the going forth, the way, and the return
As the Darkness, in peace, I rest
This is no-self, I
2
Turn and face the north, my child,
embrace the power flowing
On chime-winds from the perfect realm,
From glittering Heaven’s plain
3
The culmen is a unity,
star-crowned, in flowery splendour,
From cool and potent darkness,
From Emptiness, light is born
4
Weep no more, my child
Deliverance hour arrives
from desire-world pass now- fearless
To the formless ground and womb
5
Divine, bejeweled perfection
True self , sublime as emptiness
wondrous worlds expressing
Beyond reason, restriction pass
6
Gone, gone, gone beyond
Gone beyond, yet returning
As long as one remains in pain
I go beyond and turn.