Just spotted in the wild:
“You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself”
–Buddha
This seems to be from Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s “Voice of the Silence,” which has,
Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself.
Blavatsky was a founder of Theosophy and in 1880 became one of the first westerners to convert to Buddhism. She was strongly interested in spiritualism, and accusations of fraud followed her her entire life. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that she was a talented charlatan, although she may have been a well-meaning one in that she hoped to turn people’s attention toward spirituality.
One of the means for achieving this was to write books that purported to be translations from mystical Eastern works. The Voice of the Silence, And Other Chosen Fragments from the “Book of the Golden Precepts”, published in 1889, was one such work.
Blavatsky wrote in a faux-antique style, full of “thees” and “thous,” and her writings bear very little resemblance to Buddhist teachings. For example, the lines immediately preceding our Fake Buddha Quote are:
Ere thy Soul’s mind can understand, the bud of personality must be crushed out; the worm of sense destroyed past resurrection.
And there are things like this:
Saith the Great Law: “In order to become the KNOWER of ALL SELF, thou has first of SELF to be the knower.” To reach the knowledge of that SELF, thou hast to give up Self to Non-Self, Being to Non-Being. (Hysterical ALL CAPS in original.)
Despite Blavatsky having used a smattering of Buddhist termininology, her model for spirituality seems to have been primarily Hindu, given her belief in a universal self (sorry, SELF) to which we must surrender our “selves.”
There’s also some straightforward teaching, such as “Shun praise, O Devotee. Praise leads to self-delusion.” I suspect most of this practical advice was made up rather than copied from any actual spiritual text.
This quote is rather similar to “There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.”
We each become the means of our own enlightenment.
Darn this was a favorite of mine, oh well. Doesn’t subtract from it’s use I suppose…
I have read alot of her books as well this one being a favorite, if it has helped your spirit grow then it was good reading and it was brought to your attention by something or someone.
Of course, it is profoundly difficult for anyone to know what 2500 years the Buddha said. Thus it is essentially a choice to call something true or fake. But regardless of the whether things have truly been spoken or not by someone we highly regard (or despise). the question is as to the usefulness of the words. And that question is only answered through practice and demonstration. theoretical battles make of the earth a blood bath, which is precisely what the teachings try to avoid.
I for one find very valuable the quote. As far as I’m concerned the quote is relevant, useful, and whom spoke it is for the keeper of the archives.
I don’t read much of Blavatsky. But I read Alice Bailey books, works of Theosophy, Buddhism and co..
Hi, Florian.
It’s not difficult to know exactly what the Buddha said. It’s impossible. The only records we have are the scriptures that were originally passed on orally and then were written down. Those scriptures may or may not reflect what the Buddha actually said, but they are the only basis for making claims about what he said. If something isn’t found in those scriptures, there’s no basis for claiming they’re the Buddha’s words.
It’s always a choice to say whether something’s fake or not, but it’s not merely a choice. If something is in the scriptures, we can claim that the Buddha (might have) said it. If it isn’t in the scriptures, we can’t.
That’s not the question. It’s a question. And the question of usefulness is entirely separate from the question of authenticity. The two aren’t related at all. A genuine quote from the scriptures may or may not be helpful. A fake quote (not from the scriptures but purporting to be by the Buddha) may or may not be helpful.
What is definitely not helpful is making false claims about authorship.