There is a thing inherent and natural, which existed before heaven and earth, motionless and fathomless. It stands alone and never changes; it is everywhere and never becomes exhausted. It may be regarded as the Mother of the Universe. I do not know its name. If I am forced to give it a name I call it Tao, and I name it as supreme.
The Tao that can be expressed is not the natural Tao; the name that can be named is not the unchanging name.
I have heard that he who possesses the secret of life, when traveling abroad will not flee from rhinoceros or tiger; when entering a hostile camp he will not equip himself with sword or buckler. The rhinoceros finds in him no place to insert his horn; the tiger has nowhere to fasten its claws; the soldier has nowhere to thrust his blade. And why? Because he has no spot where death can enter. — Lao-Tzu.
After the Chosen People of Atlantis had been segregated from the masses on that island continent doomed to destruction, two more races were developed, the posterity of which was to find safety and to continue its evolution in the post-Atlantean Earth, the post-Flood period that is our present evolutionary Epoch. These races were the Akkadians and the Mongolians. The Akkadians are known to history as one of three peoples whose blood intermingled to produce the Chaldean race. It was from Ur of Chaldea that Abraham and his clansmen migrated to Canaan and there founded the Hebrew nation.
The Chosen People of esoteric teaching, the Original Semites who were fifth of the seven Atlantean sub-races, were led from the doomed continent in a succession of great migrations. The biblical story of Noah's ark relates only to the last of these. A remnant of the Akkadians and Mongolians also escaped.
The Original Semites were an entirely new departure in racial evolution. It was from this fifth sub-race and not, as one might suppose, from the seventh or last, that the post-Atlantean, the Fifth Root Race, was developed.
The Akkadians and Mongolians, the sixth and seventh of the Atlantean sub-races, were in the nature of a deviation from the Atlantean Root Race; but the civilization of Atlantis was carried over by the transplanted Mongolian (later known as Chinese) culture which carried on the parent arts and sciences almost without a break — just as, during the decadence of Greece, Greek learning was continued in Gaul and the universities of Gaul became superior to those of Athens.
Thus, the Golden Age of China extended further into the past than historians suspect. Those legends about the divine wisdom of its rulers echo the superiority of that far-off time, which was like a paradise. It has been said that from an artist's viewpoint Mongolian beauty is the most perfect. It is certainly true that the Mongolian race is the ultimate flowering of the Atlantean, and as such is nearer perfection than the Fifth Epoch Race, which has yet to reach the corresponding level of development. The difference is comparable to that between a partly opened bud and the blossom opened so that its beauty is fully revealed.
However, civilizations have a life cycle as do individuals. In due course the glorious post-Atlantean culture of ancient China fell into decay and its Golden Age was no more. Then it was necessary for a new teacher to be sent to the Flowery Kingdom, and this was done during the time the Hebrews were beginning to compile their Scriptures into that wonderful Book which is our Bible. This was the sixth century, B. C., the Exilic Period of Hebrew history.
Although the masses of mankind first became conscious of their humanity while dwelling in Atlantis, a few pioneers had awakened in an earlier epoch on the continent called Lemuria. Like Atlantis, Lemuria sank below the waters of an ocean when its usefulness was ended. Also like Atlantis, one day it will emerge to serve in a new age. Lemuria, now on the floor of the Pacific Ocean except for a few mountain peaks that protrude as islands and certain areas of Africa and Australia, was the scene of the first human civilization, an exceedingly primitive one. It could not have been otherwise, for mentally the Lemurian was very little superior to the anthropoid ape of today; physically he was quite inferior.
Yet a small number were able to receive the germ of mind from the Lords of Mind — thus named in Western Wisdom Teaching. They are glorious spiritual Beings, the Hierarchy of Sagittarius, whose work is with the rational in man. That small number formed the nucleus for the new race developed later on Atlantis.
Thus the Atlantean race possessed certain mental qualities which made possible the eventual implantation of intellect. In the middle of the Atlantean Epoch virtually the whole race received the germ of mind and were henceforth amenable to reason. Further development of this faculty has been the chief work of the Earth Period. Under the supervision of Archangels, the Original Semites were the first to embody the rational principle as a race. A few favored individuals, who had already reached this status in Lemuria, were set apart as leaders and teachers of the Mysteries. With the appearance of men capable of reason, the post-Flood type of civilization had its inception.
Infant races now developing were not left without guidance. A great spiritual Hierarchy under the leadership of Archangels took charge of them and guided their evolution. Mystery Schools, dedicated primarily to cultivation of the rational principle in man, were founded under the Mercurians who specialize in culture of the intellect. Each race had its own Archangel or "God" and its own.Mystery School adapted to serve its own peculiar needs. The mighty Archangel Michael led the Original Semites into the new world after the Flood.
As the equinoctial Sun proceeds through the constellations of the Zodiac, age succeeds age, each age being governed by the particular Archangel associated with the constellation where the Sun is at the time of the Vernal Equinox. In each new zodiacal age further instruction and a fresh infusion of power becomes necessary, so the archangelic Race Spirit sends a Teacher to his people. These emissaries from the World of Light have various appellations: Sages, Wise Men, Elder Brothers, Masters, Mahatmas, to mention merely a few. They recognize no lines of demarcation as to race, color or creed. Their work is with and for humanity as a whole, although they come among a particular people to perform a specific task. Hence, the descriptive title by which they are known in — esotericism is Lords of Compassion, for compassionate and tender all of them have been.
Their work began with the first reasoning human being in Lemuria. At that time a Mystery Temple was established wherein Initiates learned to focus their combined love radiations upon the very heart of the earth in order to create a storage center for a love power that it might be available in times of planetary crisis. Through the manipulation of this divine love force by the Hierarchs and their human Initiates, the earth was saved from dissolution during the Atlantean catastrophy.
The Temple referred to is not to be found on the surface of the earth; nor, indeed, anywhere in space. It is a spiritual structure, a state of consciousness rather than a place. Such walls as it may be said to have are the wings of archangelic builders. From this center streams of wisdom have gone out to the world of men. They enriched the civilizations of China, Egypt, India, Greece, Persia. No race or continent has been overlooked or forsaken. Age after age Master Egos have been sent forth by the Wisdom Hierarchy, and men have looked upon them as "Saviors." Each age attracts its own Savior. In this way the great Wisdom Hierarchy envelops and ensouls the seven races of this earth plane.
This Hierarchy continues to labor under the supervision of the Supreme Master, that great archangelic Presence who, in the Second Creative Day, as described in Genesis, dedicated Himself as Regent of our solar system and Savior of this small planet Earth which He realized would need His special ministration.
After the fall of the post-Atlantean civilization of China there appeared a new teacher bearing the mystic name of Lao-Tzu. The personality of this Illumined One remains but an evanescent and half-luminous outline to secular history. The substance of the man is not to be found. Never has a world messenger set his seal upon such multitudes without leaving a record of his own personality. The keynote of Lao-Tzu's life may be found in the words, "I am nothing, the Tao is All."
Ancient legends have it that this Wise One was conceived under the benign rays of the mighty Cancer, and that he was born under a flowering plum tree-from which he took his name. They assert he was seventy years of age when born, and his demeanor was that of an ancient Sage. This conveys the idea of a serious and thoughtful child, indifferent to pleasures which ordinarily entice youth from paths of wisdom and peace. That his was an evolved soul and a superior intellect is indicated by the claim that "the three gateways" (reference to occult physiognomy) and "the two pillars of the Temple of Light" were marked upon his eyes and ears, and that the numbers five and ten were formed in mysterious letters of light by the tread of his feet. This last may refer to an anciently known science by which lines in the soles of one's feet could be interpreted as palmistry interprets lines in the palms of one's hands. The numbers five and ten symbolize the Path of Becoming and the Way (Tao) of Perfection.
Apart from any divinatory science, it is known that spiritual powers, when developed, are unmistakably evident to the vision of a seer as "signs" within a human aura. These may be accompanied by physical signs as well, since it is an established fact that glandular activity affects the form and general appearance of a person's body. The pineal gland and the pituitary body located in the head are most important in developing the spiritual faculties of extended sight (clairvoyance) and extended hearing (clairaudience).
Lao-Tzu's work was first recognized as a classic under the Emperor Ching Ti of the Han Dynasty. Each succeeding ruler accepted or rejected his teaching according to whether or not it reflected adversely upon his own merits. Consequently, the Tao Teh King was alternately banned and held in high favor at court.
One emperor was in the habit of discussing the doctrine of Lao-Tzu with his assembled ministers, and was strict in degrading anyone who showed lack of attention or the least disrespect. Another Emperor had published a special edition of the Teh King, which is described in the preface as "The Root of All Things, the teacher of kings and the most precious jewel of the public." The Tao came to be so much a part of every wise government in China that there arose the saying, "A corpse with the Tao could govern the Empire."
By successive edicts a thorough knowledge of the Tao Teh King was made obligatory for governmental examinations, and everyone was required to possess a copy of this work. It was even cut in stone at both capitals and later printed copies were distributed to all directors of education. Finally, when Kublai Khan ordered all Taoist books burned he excepted the work of Lao-Tzu, thus revealing that he could discriminate between the authentic and the spurious.
Lao-Tzu himself did not claim that he originated the doctrine of the Tao. Rather, he seems to have been one of a line of teachers who transmitted the Ancient Wisdom that was an heritage from Atlantis.
China has been steeped in esotericism and supernaturalism from its remotest past. Long before the birth of civilization in Europe, China had as her own a culture so strange, so beautiful, so profound it was almost celestial. She could point to her line of Priest-Kings and their superlative attainment of Initiateship. Through them flowed a special sort of Lucifer-type wisdom requiring fineness of perception and delicacy of nervous reaction scarcely understood by Fifth Epoch peoples of today. Out of this early post-Atlantean culture came five great blessings to the world: the Marriage Rite, which originated in the Holy of Holies belonging to Atlantean Temples of Initiation; musical instruments and the attunement of spiritual Wisdom to musical rhythms; writing; the language of divination; the domestication of animals. It is understood that these "gifts" were the work of the Wisdom Hierarchy in an effort to further the evolutionary development of their human charges.
In his Ten Great Religions James Freeman writes: "China is a type of permanence in the world. To say that it is older than any other existing nation is saying very little.... This nation and its institutions have outlasted everything. The ancient Bactrian and Assyrian kingdoms, the Persian monarchy, Greece and Rome have all risen, flourished and fallen, but China continues the same. The dynasty has been occasionally changed, but the laws, customs, institutions, all that makes national life, have continued.
Father Hue, in Christianity in China, states that "The first Europeans who went to China were no less struck with the libraries of the Chinese than with their artillery. They were astonished at the sight of the elegant books printed rapidly upon a pliant silky paper by means of wooden blocks. The first edition of classical works appeared in China in 958, five hundred years before the inventions of Gutenberg. Many other marvelous productions were also noted, such as silk, porcelain, playing cards, spectacles and products of art and industry entirely unknown in Europe." The travelers brought these new ideas back to Europe and from that time on, the writer continues, "The West began to hold in due esteem the most beautiful, the most populous and the most anciently civilized of all the four quarters of the world."
And yet these discoveries which so amazed and delighted the first Europeans in China were mere fragments of Atlantean glory. At its height it surpassed, in both inventive and creative attainment, twentieth century Christendom. The original settlers of the Chinese Empire, the Lao people whose origin mystifies historians, were Atlanteans, the seventh and final sub-race of the great Fourth Root Race of Atlantis. (The Original Semites were the Fifth Root Race, the Seed Race for the post-Atlanteans.) Despite their extraordinary achievements, the Chinese of that historic period were decadent in comparison with Atlanteans in their prime, yet the former were inheritors of the latter's attainments.
The aboriginal Chinese race, termed variously the Great Mung, the Pu, the Lurig and the Lao Shan peoples, were actually Atlanteans. Secular history makes no attempt to account for the origin of these peoples. When the Chinese migrated from Central Asia about 3000 B.C., they found these Aborigines in the land. The latter had their own civilization, government, and religion. Although the Chinese were conquerors, they adopted the manners, customs and learning of the conquered; and these prevail in China today. So also did invading Semites absorb and profit by the Sumerian culture of Babylonia, and from that blend of peoples arose the great Chaldean civilization.
The names of China's great spiritual teachers point to their line of descent from Atlantis, for they belong to the earlier ethnic groups and not to their conquerors. Lao-Tzu, Mencius or Mang-Tsze and Confucius were born in or near the small kingdom of Lu, from 600 - 350 B.C. — products of a wave of spiritual power that swept around the globe, carrying on its crest a great renaissance which culminated in the Golden Age of Greece. Ever westward it rolled bringing prophesy of the coming Christ Glory, the advent of Man Supremely Good of whom Lao-Tzu sang: "Pure water is by nature clear ... It is an emblem of the virtue of God."
There can be no question but that Lao-Tzu's great work, the Tao Teh King or Canon of Reason and Virtue, is the Chinese Bible. It is popularly translated to mean "The Way" for it is essentially a treatise upon the Way or the Discipline about which all great spiritual teachers have spoken. It is the Path of Illumination leading to the One who said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." Judaism also had a Way that was more than a mere tradition; it was a way of life, a discipline for drawing near to God. The first Christians called themselves "Followers of the Way."
The Tao Teh King is fragmentary at best, but it is still the most accurate transcription extant of the Mysteries of Atlantis. The Tao teaches that reliance is not to be put upon objective but upon spiritual faculties. Lao-Tzu called his people to peace and communion with the infinite wonders of Tao. Like the Hebrew Seers and prophets, he understood perfectly that Divinity could not be expressed in any word or collection of words. The Name above all names was, and must forever be, inexpressible verbally or in writing. The philosophy of the Tao made China a nation of pacifists and built the wall that long secluded her from the world.
The western mind is too far removed from the Atlantean, which had acquired remarkable control over powers we call "magical," to fully comprehend Taoism. Such comprehension can be achieved only by those who can read Akashic recordings concerning the wonders of the lost continent. Hence, for a time at least, the West looks upon Lao-Tzu as a "glorious dreamer."
After the departure of Lao-Tzu, the Tao was unfolded by his most gifted disciple, Chuang-Tze, who reveals the Tao as the Great Truth, the Great Illuminator, the Infinite, the Mystery, the Great Unity. He declares that "The explanation of Tao is as if it were no explanation, and the knowledge of it as if it were no knowledge. Were language adequate, it would take but a day to fully set forth Tao; not being adequate, we may talk all day and explain only material existence. In that state which is neither speech nor silence, its transcendentalism may be apprehended."
And further, in commenting on the brevity of human existence, he says, "Man passes through this sublunary life as a white horse passes a crack, here one moment, gone the next. The living creature cries out, human beings sorrow, the low sheath is slipped off, and in the confusion, the soul wings its flight and the body follows on its great journey."
— Corinne Heline
