Arthur Avalon > Quotes

“the first avyakta creation issued the second mahat, with its three guna distinctly manifested. Thence sprung the third creation ahangkara (selfhood), which is of threefold form – vaikarika, or pure sattvika ahangkara; the taijasa, or rajasika ahangkara; and the tamasika, or bhutadika ahangkara.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“The sadhaka and sadhika are respectively the man or woman who perform sadhana. They are, according to their physical, mental, and moral qualities, divided into four classes – mridu, madhya, adhimatraka, and the highest adhimatrama, who is qualified (adhikari) for all forms of yoga. In a similar way the Kaula division of worshippers are divided into the prakriti, or common Kaula following virachara, addicted to ritual practice, and sadhana, with pancha-tattva; the madhyama-kaulika, or middling Kaula, accomplishing the same sadhana, but with a mind more turned towards meditation, knowledge, and samadhi; and the highest type of Kaula (kaulikottama), who, having surpassed all ritualism, meditates upon the Universal Self.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“Für jeden einzelnen Menschen aber, der eine bestimmte Sprache spricht, ist die ausgesprochene Bezeichnung eines beliebigen Dinges der grobe Ausdruck für seinen inneren Denkvorgang. Sie ruft diese Denktätigkeit hervor, und sie beschreibt sie auch wieder. Sie formt die Vorstellung, und die Vorstellung zeigt sich im Bewußtsein als Mentalfunktion. Und dieser Prozeß kann so gesteigert werden, daß er schöpferisch wird. Das ist das Mantra-Chaitanya.”
― Arthur Avalon, The Serpent Power: The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga

“Brahma-gayatri for worshippers of the Brahman: "Parameshva-raya vidmahe para-tattvaya dhimahi: tan no Brahma prachodayat”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“The term pashu comes from the root pash, "to bind." The pashu is, in fact, the man who is bound by the bonds (pasha), of which the Kularnava Tantra enurnerates eight – namely, pity (daya), ignorance and delusion (moha), fear (bhaya), shame (lajja), disgust (ghrina), family (kula), custom (shila), and caste (varna).”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“A well-known saying in Tantra describes the true "hero" (vira) to be, not he who is of great physical strength and prowess, the great eater and drinker, or man of powerful sexual energy, but he who has controlled his senses, is a truth-seeker, ever engaged in worship, and who has sacrificed lust and all other passions. (Jitendriyah satyavadi nityanushthanatatparah kamadi-validanashcha sa vira iti giyate.)”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“The human being is called jiva – that is, the embodied Atma possessed by egoism and of the notion that it directs the puryashtaka, namely, the five organs of action (karmendriya), the five organs of perception (jnanendriya), the fourfold antahkarana or mental self (Manas, Buddhi, Ahangkara, Chitta), the five vital airs (Prana), the five elements, Kama (desire), Karma (action and its results), and Avidya (illusion). When these false notions are destroyed, the embodiment is destroyed, and the wearer of the mayik garment attains nirvana. When the jiva is absorbed in Brahman, there is no longer any jiva remaining as such.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“The object of Tantrik sadhana is to bring out and make preponderant the sattva guna by the aid of rajas, which operates to make the former guna active.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“Thus, in one man as compared with another, the sattva guna may predominate, in which case his temperament is sattvik, or, as the Tantra calls it, divyabhava. In another the rajoguna may prevail, and in the third the tamoguna, in which case the individual is described as rajasik, or tamasik, or, to use Tantrik phraseology, he is said to belong to virabhava, or is a pashu respectively.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“The Devas are of two classes: "unborn" (ajata) – that is, those which have not, and those which have (sadhya) evolved from humanity as in the case of King Nahusha, who became Indra. Opposed to the divine hosts are the Asura, Danava, Daitya, Rakshasa, who, with other spirits, represent the tamasik or demonic element in creation.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“Alles was an Seele und Stoff im Universum vorhanden sein kann, findet sich in irgendeiner Form und irgendwie auch im menschlichen Körper. Wie sagt doch das schon erwähnte Vishvasāra Tantra: »Was hier ist, ist auch dort. Was hier nicht ist, ist nirgends.«”
― Arthur Avalon, The Serpent Power: The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga

“Listen, then, O My Beloved! while I tell Thee of the meaning and awakening of Mantra. By the letter A is meant the Protector of the world; the letter U denotes its Destroyer; and M stands for its Creator (32). The meaning of Sat is Ever-existent; of Chit, Intelligence; and of Ekam, One without a second.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“It should be thirty-six fingers breadth (in circumference) in its widest part, and sixteen in height. The neck should be four fingers breadth, the mouth six fingers, and the bottom five fingers breadth. This is the rule for the design of the kalasha (182). It should be made either of gold, silver, copper, bell-metal, mud, stone, or glass, and without hole or crack.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“So verkörpert das Vaikharī Shabda im zitierten Fall durch sein Vehikel Dhvani eine Bewußtseinskraft, die den Mantrierenden zum Feuerbeherrscher werden läßt.”
― Arthur Avalon, The Serpent Power: The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga

“The Vamakeshvara Tantra says that Tri-pura is threefold, as Brahma, Vishnu, and Isha; and as the energies desire, wisdom, and action, the energy of will when Brahman would create; the energy of wisdom when She reminds Him, saying "Let this be thus" ; and when, thus knowing, He acts, She becomes the energy of action. The Devi is thus Ichchha-shakti-jñana-shakti-kriya-shakti-svaru-pini.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“The Nitya Tantra gives various names to mantra. according to the number of their syllables, a one-syllabled mantra being called pinda, a three-syllabled one kartari, a mantra with four to nine syllables vija, with ten to twenty syllables mantra, and mantra with more than twenty syllables mala.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“This Tantra states that in the Kali age there are only two Ashrama. The second garhasthya and the last bhikshuka or avadhuta. Neither the conditions of life, nor the character, capacity, and powers of the people of this age allow of the first and third. The two ashramas prescribed for the Kali age are open to all castes indiscriminately.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“The yuga is a fraction of a kalpa, or day of Brahma of 4,320,000 human years.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“The Rishi are seers who know, and by their knowledge are the makers of shastra and "see" all mantras. The word comes from the root rish Rishati-prapnoti sarvvang mantrang jnanena pashyati sangsaraparangva, etc.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“Para-shiva exists as a septenary under the form, firstly, of Shambhu, who is the associate of time (kala-bandhu). From Him issues Sada-shiva, Who pervades and manifests all things, and then come Ishana and the triad, Rudra, Vishnu, and Brahma, each with their respective Shakti (without whom they avail nothing) separately and particularly associated with the gunas, tamas, sattva and rajas. Of these Devas, the last triad, together with Ishana, and Sada-shiva, are the five Shivas who are collectively known as the Maha-preta, whose vija is "Hsauh." Of the Maha-preta, it is said that the last four form the support, and the fifth the seat, of the bed on which the Devi is united with Parama-shiva, in the room of chintamani stone, on the jewelled island clad with clumps of kadamba and heavenly trees set in the ocean of Ambrosia.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“The dual principles of Shiva and Shakti, which are in such dual form the product of the polarity manifested in Parashakti-maya, pervade the whole universe, and are present in man in the Svayambhu-Linga of the muladhara and the Devi Kundalini, who, in serpent form, encircles it. The Shabda-Brahman assumes in the body of man the form of the Devi Kundalini, and as such is in all prani (breathing creatures), and in the shape of letters appears in prose and verse. Kundala means coiled. Hence Kundalini, whose form is that of a coiled serpent, means that which is coiled. She is the luminous vital energy (jiva-shakti) which manifests as prana, She sleeps in the muladhara, and has three and a half coils corresponding in number with the three and a half vindus of which the Kubjika Tantra”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“Kali says of Herself in Yogini Tantra "Sachchidananda-rupaham brahmaivaham sphurat-prab-ham." So the Devi is described with attributes both of the qualified Brahman; and (since that Brahman is but the manifestation of the Absolute) She is also addressed with epithets, which denote the unconditioned Brahman.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“I am a Deva. I am indeed the sorrowless Brahman. By nature I am eternally free, and in the form of existence, intelligence, and Bliss.”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra

“In this Age the Mantras of the Tantras are efficacious, yield immediate fruit, and are auspicious for Japa, Yajna, and all such practices and ceremonies (14). The Vedic rites and Mantras which were efficacious in the First Age have ceased to be so in this. They are now as powerless as snakes, the poison-fangs of which are drawn and are like to that which is dead (15). The whole heap of other Mantras have no more power than the organs of sense of some pictured image on a wall. To worship with the aid of other Mantras is as fruitless as it is to cohabit with a barren woman. The labour is lost (16-17).”
― Arthur Avalon, Mahanirvana Tantra Of The Great Liberation