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1 " I, myself, searched for Sham-bha-la for eleven years.I am perhaps a little wiser than I was, but it may be I am onlylazy and afraid. At any rate, it seems to me a waste of energyto try to learn what is beyond my understanding. I don't evenunderstand my own religion. How shall I understand that ofindividuals whose thinking is said to comprehend all religionsand philosophies and all the problems of the human race? "
― Talbot Mundy , The Devil's Guard
2 " They're hypnotists. They're incredibly expert psychologists. Andthey're just as keen on getting control of the whole world as, forinstance, the Bolshevists are. They believe in their black scienceas enthusiastically as the Bolshevists believe in communism--muchmore enthusiastically, that is, than most Christians believe inChristianity. And remember: those men who have caught Rait aremerely the small fry who take orders from the higher-ups behindthe scenes."They may propose to catch us, and psychologize us, and make useof us in some way. The White Lodge accepts chelas. Christiansmake converts and put them to work. Everybody with a bug in hishead tries to rope in everybody else--so why not dugpas? "
3 " Teach a child arithmetic," he said at last, "and he can use it tocheat with, can't he? Teach a man the laws and forces of theuniverse, and he can turn them against his teacher, can't he?Give a child a box of matches, and there will always be some oneto show him how to set fire to a house. Teach me spiritual knowledge,and for every one desire to use it rightly I shall have a thousandimpulses to do the wrong thing. Persistence in thinking the wrongthing makes a man a fool if he is untaught and a dugpa if he knowstoo much. Do you think you know enough to be a dugpa? "
4 " There be many gurus, and some good ones whom it is no great taskto differentiate, seeing that those who make the loudest claimare least entitled to respect. They who are the true guides intoKnowledge know that nothing can be taught, although the learnereasily can be assisted to discover what is in himself. Other thanwhich there is no knowledge of importance, except this: that whatis in himself is everywhere.--From The Book Of The Sayings OfTsiang Samdup "
5 " Since dugpas wished to get you out of here, where you were safe, howelse should they expel you than by causing you to expel yourselves byviolence? When fools make war they expend their resources squanderingmoney and life and food until the victor loses with the vanquished,and another, who is wiser, overwhelms them both. No dugpa would dosuch foolishness. He sacrifices little dugpas, even as the governmentssend soldiers to be slain, because there are always plenty who willfill the lower ranks. But one little sleepy, stupid, belly-lovingdugpa is as useful to him as an army that a government flatters andsends to its death; because he wages war by causing his enemy tomake mistakes, and he wins not by what he himself does, but throughthe self-destroying acts of whomsoever he would conquer. "
6 " Consider this, my son: this earth-life is a little time, of whicha third is spent asleep. What went before it, and what cometh after,are a long time--verily a time too long for measurement. Shall webe of the herd who say that dreams are a delusion because wakingwe can not interpret them in terms of common speech? Or shall we,rather than pretend to have more knowledge than the gods, admitthat possibly some dreams may link us with that universe from whichwe came into a temporary world, and into which we must inevitablyyield ourselves again? Some dreams are memories, it may be, ofexperience gained in the infinity of time before the world was.And the wisest--aye, the very wisest of us--is he altogether surethat all earth-life is not a dream.--From The Book Of The SayingsOf Tsiang Samdup "
7 " You may be sure of this, my son: that no decision you may take,nor any course, will meet with universal favor. Though you turnto the right or to the left, or go ahead, or turn back, or attemptto stand still, there will come to you some critic to advise thecontrary. For ten fail where the one succeeds; and some who failedare jealous, others vain, some full of malice. There are also honestmen who, having failed, would warn you of the reef on which theywrecked their too unmanageable bark. I tell you, in the end youmust decide all issues for yourself, and there is only one true guide,which is experience.--From The Book Of The Sayings Of Tsiang Samdup "
8 " Of every ten who tread the Middle Way to Knowledge there are ninewho turn aside through avarice, though not all avarice is born ofbelly-hunger or the greed for gold. Some seek preeminence, sucheminence as they have won corroded by insane pride. So by thismark you shall know the Middle Way, that whoso treads it trulyavoids vices, having found them in himself, so that he knows theirhabit and is temperate in judgment, throwing no stones lest hebreak the windows of his own soul.--From The Book Of The Sayingsof Tsiang Samdup "
9 " I am a lama," said the man in yellow. "It is lamas who identifyincarnate Buddhas. If I say the Lord Chenresi is among us, somewill listen. Some of high rank will confirm my word. It is a goodthing for religion to have manifestations--which have been scarceof late, and men are not so respectful as they used to be. Also,it is a long way from Lhassa to this monastery. There can be arumor sent forth, that will take hold and excite, arousing the hopeof people, of whom many will be monks. So that they who will besent from Lhassa to investigate will not dare to deny the story,knowing how much safer it is to deceive men than to undeceive them. "
10 " And forget not this: that outward semblance of authority is nota necessary symptom of its essence. There are men in high placewho have no authority at all beyond what indolence confers becausethe indolence of many is the opportunity of one. Such men leadmultitudes astray.--From The Book Of The Sayings Of Tsiang Samdup "
11 " Oh, would thatI had died the way the Sikh did! I can not go forward. I shallnot submit to being made to see more clearly than I do. Yet, ifI turn back I am self-confessed coward! Furthermore, how can Iturn back! How shall I reach India, alone, alive? As a corpse Ishould no longer interest myself. And if I should succeed inreaching India, I should despise myself, because you and Jimgrimtreated me as fellow man and yet I failed you. On the other hand,if I go forward they will teach me the reality of things, of whichalready I know much too much! It has been bad enough as failedB.A. to stick my tongue into my cheek and flatter blind men--pompous Englishmen and supine Indians--for a living. I have hadto eat dust from the wheels of what the politicians think isprogress; and I have had to be polite when I was patronized bymen whom I should pity if I had the heart to do it! And I couldendure it, Rammy sahib, because I only knew more than was goodfor me and not all of it by any means! I do not wish to know more.If I saw more clearly I should have to join the revolutionaries--who are worse than those they revolute against! It is alreadybad enough to have to toady to the snobs on top. To have to agreewith the snobs underneath, who seek to level all men to a commonmeanness since they can not admire any sort of superiority--thatwould be living death! I would rather pretend to admire theEnglishman whose snobbery exasperates me, than repeat the liesof Indians whose only object is to do dishonestly and badly butmuch more cleverly what the English do honestly and with all thestupidity of which they are capable! "
