Fishhead06 - You have never been more wrong in your life!! At least Towie can see what it is all about.
Action speaks louder than words.
One may well ask why Pride is one of the 7 DEADLY Sins & yet we hear & see on the media how much pride I have in my family,daughter, son etc etc. That is one of the human traits but to be above the riff raff one must rise above the crowd & it ain't easy but to get over any human emotion is a Giant Step for that person who can do it.
Here are the steps for those souls who seek discerning intercourse with the Universe & beyond in search of the Golden Keys!!
THE SEVEN PORTALS
"UPADYA (1), the choice is made, I thirst for Wisdom. Now hast thou rent the veil before the secret Path and taught the greater Yana (2). Thy servant here is ready for thy guidance."
'Tis well, Sravaka (3). Prepare thyself, for thou wilt have to travel on alone. The Teacher can but point the way. The Path is one for all, the means to reach the goal must vary with the Pilgrims.
Which wilt thou choose, O thou of dauntless heart? The Samtan (4) of "eye Doctrine," four-fold Dhyana, or thread thy way through Paramitas (5), six in number, noble gates of virtue leading to Bodhi and to Prajna, seventh step of Wisdom?
The rugged Path of four-fold Dhyana winds on uphill. Thrice great is he who climbs the lofty top.
The Paramita heights are crossed by a still steeper path. Thou hast to fight thy way through portals seven, seven strongholds held by cruel crafty Powers -- passions incarnate.
Be of good cheer, Disciple; bear in mind the golden rule. Once thou hast passed the gate Srotapatti (6), "he who the stream hath entered"; once thy foot hath pressed the bed of the Nirvanic stream in this or any future life, thou hast but seven other births before thee, O thou of adamantine Will.
Look on. What see'st thou before thine eye, O aspirant to god-like Wisdom?
"The cloak of darkness is upon the deep of matter; within its folds I struggle. Beneath my gaze it deepens, Lord; it is dispelled beneath the waving of thy hand. A shadow moveth, creeping like the stretching serpent coils. . . . It grows, swells out and disappears in darkness."
It is the shadow of thyself outside the Path, cast on the darkness of thy sins.
"Yea, Lord; I see the PATH; its foot in mire, its summits lost in glorious light Nirvanic. And now I see the ever narrowing Portals on the hard and thorny way to Gnyana."*
[*Knowledge, Wisdom.]
Thou seest well, Lanoo. These Portals lead the aspirant across the waters on "to the other shore" (7). Each Portal hath a golden key that openeth its gate; and these keys are: --
1. DANA, the key of charity and love immortal.
2. SHILA, the key of Harmony in word and act, the key that counterbalances the cause and the effect, and leaves no further room for Karmic action.
3. KSHANTI, patience sweet, that nought can ruffle.
4. VIRAG, indifference to pleasure and to pain, illusion conquered, truth alone perceived.
5. VIRYA, the dauntless energy that fights its way to the supernal TRUTH, out of the mire of lies terrestrial.
6. DHYANA, whose golden gate once opened leads the Narjol* toward the realm of Sat eternal and its ceaseless contemplation.
[*A saint, an adept.]
7. PRAJNA, the key to which makes of a man a god, creating him a Bodhisattva, son of the Dhyanis.
