Dharma / Dhamma

When I visited the ancient pagoda at Turukalukundram, southern India, a local pundit explained to me that the old temples were purposely covered on the outside, from top to bottom, with obscene sculptures, in order to remind ordinary people of their sexuality. The spirit, he said, was a great danger, because Yama, the god of death, would instantly carry off these people (the “imperfecti”) if they trod the spiritual path directly, without preparation. The erotic sculptures were meant to remind them of their dharma (law), which bids them fulfil their ordinary lives. Only when they have fulfilled their dharma can they tread the spiritual path. The obscenities were intended to arouse the erotic curiosity of visitors to the temples, so that they should not forget their dharma; otherwise they would not fulfil it. Only the man who was qualified by his karma (the fate earned through works in previous existences), and who was destined for the life of the spirit, could ignore this injunction with impunity, for to him these obscenities mean nothing. That was also why the two seductresses stood at the entrance of the temple, luring the people to fulfil their dharma, because only in this way could the ordinary man attain to higher spiritual development. And since the temple represented the whole world, all human activities were portrayed in it; and because most people are always thinking of sex anyway, the great majority of the temple sculptures were of an erotic nature. For this reason too, he said, the lingam (phallus) stands in the sacred cavity of the adyton (Holy of Holies), in the garbha griha (house of the womb). This pundit was a Tantrist (scholastic; tantra = book) Aion 217

The principle of dharma, and of what Yeats called the primary mask, both of which are put on you by the society, relieve the individual of personal responsibility.   RG3

This is the attitude of the solider: a good soldier is not responsible for what he does; he is responsible for how well he does it – and that’s the attitude of Oriental life.  When a draft comes along and a Western individual becomes a soldier, very often he has a terrific psychological crisis to face, because he has to move into another order of virtue, where there are no individuals but only agents of an impersonal order.  Of course, no one is responsible for the order, either, because that comes down from the ancestors, so no one is responsible for anything, and you have an absolutely cold-blooded situation.  RG 4