Amenemope

The beginning of the instruction about life,
The guide for well-being,
All the principles of official procedure,
The duties of the courtiers;
To know how to refute the accusation of one who made it,
And to send back a reply to the one who wrote,
To set one straight on the paths of life,
And make him prosper on earth;
To let his heart settle down in its chapel,
As one who steers him clear of evil;
To save him from the talk of others,
As one who is respected in the speech of men.

Written by the superintendent of the land, experienced in his office,
The offspring of a scribe of the Beloved Land,
The Superintendent of produce, who fixes the grain measure,
Who sets the grain tax amount for his lord,
Who registers the islands which appear as new land over the cartouche of His Majesty,
And sets up the land mark at the boundary of the arable land,
Who protects the king by his tax rolls,
And makes the Register of the Black land.
The scribe who places the divine offerings for all the gods,
The donor of land grants to the people,
The superintendent of grain who administers the food offerings,
Who supplies the storerooms with grain
A truly silent man in Tjeni in the Ta-wer nome,
One whose verdict is "acquitted" in Ipu,
The owner of a pyramid tomb on the west of Senut,
As well as the owner of a memorial chapel in Abydos,
Amenemope, the son of Kanakht,
Whose verdict is "acquitted" in the Ta-wer nome.

For his son, the youngest of his children,
The least of his family,
Initiate of the mysteries of Min-Kamutef,
Libation pourer of Wennofre,
Who introduces Horus upon the throne of his father,
His stolist in his august chapel,

...........................................................................

The seer of the Mother of God,
The inspector of the black cattle of the terrace of Min,
Who protects Min in his chapel,
Hoermmaakheru is his true name,
A child of an official of Ipu,
The son of the sistrum player of Shu and Tefnut,
The chief singer of Horus, the Lady Tawosret.

He Says: Chapter 1

Give your years and hear what is said,
Give your mind over to their interpretation:
It is profitable to put them in your heart,
But woe to him that neglects them!
Let them rest in the shrine of your insides
That they may act as a lock in your heart;
Now when there comes a storm of words,
They will be a mooring post on your tongue.

If you spend a lifetime with these things in your heart,
You will find it good fortune;
You will discover my words to be a treasure house of life,
And your body will flourish upon earth.

Chapter 2

Beware of stealing from a miserable man
And of raging against the cripple.
Do not stretch out your hand to touch an old man,
Nor snip at the words of an elder.
Don't let yourself be involved in a fraudulent business,
Not desire the carrying out of it;
Do not get tired because of being interfered with,
Nor return an answer on your own.
The evildoer, throw him <in> the canal,
And he will bring back its slime.
The north wind comes down and ends his appointed hour,
It is joined to the tempest;
The thunder is high, the crocodiles are nasty,
O hot-headed man, what are you like?
he cries out, and his voice (reaches) heaven.
O Moon, make his crime manifest!
Row that we may ferry the evil man away,
For we will not act according to his evil nature;
Lift him up, give him your hand,
And leave him <in> the hands of god;
Fill his gut with your own food
That he may be sated and ashamed.
Something else of value in the heart of God
Is to stop and think before speaking.

Chapter 3

Do not get into a quarrel with the argumentative man
Nor incite him with words;
Proceed cautiously before an opponent,
And give way to an adversary;
Sleep on it before speaking,
For a storm come forth like fire in hay is
The hot-headed man in his appointed time.
May you be restrained before him;
Leave him to himself,
And God will know how to answer him.

If you spend your life with these things in your heart,
Your children shall behold them.

Chapter 4

The hot-headed man in the temple
Is like a tree grown indoors;
Only for a moment does it put forth roots.
It reaches its end in the carpentry shop,
It is floated away far from its place,
Or fire is its funeral pyre.

the truly temperate man sets himself apart,
He is like a tree grown in a sunlit field,
But it flourishes, it doubles its yield,
It stands before its owner;
Its fruit is something sweet, its shade is pleasant,
And it reaches its end as a statue.

Chapter 5

Do not take by violence the shares of the temple,
Do not be grasping, and you will find overabundance;
Do not take away a temple servant
In order to acquire the property of another man.
Do not say today is the same as tomorrow,
Or how will matters come to pass?
When tomorrow comes, today is past;
The deep waters sink from the canal bank,
Crocodiles are uncovered, the hippopotamuses are on dry land,
And the fishes gasping for air;

The wolves are fat, the wild fowl in festival,
And the nets are drained.

Every temperate man in the temple says,
"Great is the benevolence of Re."
Fill yourself with silence, you will find life,
And your body shall flourish upon earth.

Chapter 6

Do not displace the surveyor's marker on the boundaries of the arable land,
Nor alter the position of the measuring line;
Do not be greedy for a plot of land,
Nor overturn the boundaries of a widow.

As for the road in the field worn down by time,
He who takes it violently for fields,
If he traps by deceptive attestations,
Will be lassoed by the might of the moon.

To one who has done this on earth, pay attention,
For he is a weak enemy;
He is an enemy overturned inside himself;
Life is taken from his eye;
His household is hostile to the community,
His storerooms are toppled over,
His property taken from his children,
And to someone else his possessions given.

Take care not to topple over the boundary marks of the arable land,
Not fearing that you will be brought to court;
Man propitiates God by the might of the Lord
When he sets straight the boundaries of the arable land.

Desire, then, to make yourself prosper,
And take care for the Lord of All;
Do not trample on the furrow of someone else,
Their good order will be profitable for you.

So plough the fields, and you will find whatever you need,
And receive the bread from your own threshing floor:
Better is the bushel which God gives you
Than five thousand deceitfully gotten;
They do not spend a day in the storehouse or warehouse,
They are no use for dough for beer;
Their stay in the granary is short-lived,
When morning comes they will be swept away.
Better, then, is poverty in the hand of God
Than riches in the storehouse;
Better is bread when the mind is at ease
Than riches with anxiety.

Chapter 7

Do not set your heart upon seeking riches,
For there is no one who can ignore Destiny and Fortune;
Do not set your thoughts on external matters:
For every man there is his appointed time.

Do not exert yourself to seek out excess
And your wealth will prosper for you;
If riches come to you by theft
They will not spend the night with you;
As soon as day breaks they will not be in your household;
Although their places can be seen, they are not there.

When the earth opens up its mouth, it levels him and swallows him up,
And it drowns him in the deep;
They have made for themselves a great hole which suites them.
And they have sunk themselves in the tomb;
Or they have made themselves wings like geese,
And they fly up to the sky.
Do not be pleased with yourself (because of) riches acquired through robbery,

Neither complain about poverty.
If an officer commands one who goes in front of him,
His company leaves him;
The boat of the covetous is abandoned <in> the mud,
While the skiff of the truly temperate man sails on.
When he rises you shall offer to the Aten,
Saying, "Grant me prosperity and health."
And he will give you your necessities for life,
And you will be safe from fear.

Chapter 8

Set your good deeds throughout the world
That you may greet everyone;
They make rejoicing for the Uraeus,
And spit against the Apophis.
Keep your tongue safe from words of detraction,
And you will be the loved one of the people,
Then you will find your place within the temple
And your offerings among the bread deliveries of your lord;
You will be revered, when you are concealed <in> your grave,
And be safe from the might of God.

Do not accuse a man,
When the news of an escape is concealed.
If you hear something good or bad,
Say it outside, where it is not heard;
Set a good report on your tongue,
While the bad thing is covered up inside you.

Chapter 9

Do not fraternize with the hot-tempered man,
Nor approach him to converse.
Safeguard your tongue from answering your superior,
And take care not to speak against him.
Do not allow him to cast words only to entrap you,
And be not too free in your reply;
With a man of your own station discuss the reply;
And take care of speaking thoughtlessly;
When a man's heart is upset, words travel faster
Than wind and rain.

He is ruined and created by his tongue,
And yet he speaks slander;
He makes an answer deserving of a beating,
For its work is evil;
He sails among all the world,
But his cargo is false words;
He acts the ferryman in knitting words:
He goes forth and comes back arguing.

But whether he eats or whether he drinks inside,
His accusation (waits for him) without.
They day when his evil deed is brought to court
Is a disaster for his children.
Even Khnum will straightway come, even Khnum will straightway come,
The creator of the ill-tempered man
Whom he molds and fires....;
He is like a wolf cub in the farmyard,
And he turns one eye to the other (squinting),
For he sets families to argue.
He goes before all the wind like clouds,
He darkens his color in the sun;
He crocks his tail like a baby crocodile,
He curls himself up to inflict harm,
His lips are sweet, but his tongue is bitter,
And fire burns inside him.

Do not fly up to join that man
Not fearing you will be brought to account.

Chapter 10

Do not address your intemperate friend in your unrighteousness,
Nor destroy your own mind;
Do not say to him, "May you be praised,: not meaning it
When there is fear within you.
Do not converse falsely with a man,
For it is the abomination of God.
Do not separate your mind from your tongue,
All your plans will succeed.
You will be important before others,
While you will be secure in the hand of God.

God hates one who falsified words,
His great abomination is duplicity.

Chapter 11

Do not covet the property of the dependent
Nor hunger for his bread;
The property of a dependent blocks the throat,
It is vomit for the gullet.
If he has engendered it by false oaths,
His heart slips back inside him.
It is through the disaffected that success is lost,
Bad and good elude.

If you are at a loss before your superior,
And are confused in your speeches,
Your flattering are turned back with curses,
And your humble action by beatings.
Whoever fills the mouth with too much bread swallows it and spits up,
So he is emptied of his good.

To the examination of a dependant give thought
While the sticks touch him,
And while all his people are fettered with manacles:
Who is to have the execution?
When you are too free before your superior,
Then you are in bad favor with your subordinates,
So steer away from the poor man on the road,
That you may see him but keep clear of his property.

Chapter 12

Do not covet the property of an official,
And do not fill (your) mouth with too much food extravagantly;
If he sets you to manage his property,
Respect his, and yours will prosper.

Do not deal with the intemperate man,
Nor associate yourself to a disloyal party.

If you are sent to transport straw,
Respect its account;
If a man is detected in a dishonest transaction,
Never again will he be employed.

Chapter 13

Do not lead a man astray <with> reed pen or papyrus document:
It is the abomination of God.
Do not witness a false statement,
Nor remove a man (from the list) by your order;
Do not enroll someone who has nothing,
Nor make your pen be false.
If you find a large debt against a poor man,
Make it into three parts;
Release two of them and let one remain:
You will find it a path of life;
You will pass the night in sound sleep; in the morning

You will find it like good news.

Better it is to be praised as one loved by men
Than wealth in the storehouse;
Better is bread when the mind is at ease
Than riches with troubles.

Chapter 14

Do not pay attention to a person,
Nor exert yourself to seek out his hand,
If he says to you, "take a bribe,"
It is not an insignificant matter to heed him;
Do not avert your glance from him, nor bend down your head,
Nor turn aside your gaze.
Address him with your words and say to him greetings;
When he stops, your chance will come;
Do not repel him at his first approach,
Another time he will be brought (to judgment).

Chapter 15

Do well, and you will attain influence.
Do not dip (your) reed against the one who sins.
The beak of the Ibis is the finger of the scribe;
Take care not to disturb it;
The Ape (Thoth) rests (in) the temple of Khmun,
While his eye travels around the Two Lands;
If he sees one who sins with his finger (that is, a false scribe),
he takes away his provisions by the flood.
As for a scribe who sins with his finger,
His son shall not be enrolled.

If you spend your life with these things in your heart,
Your children shall see them.

Chapter 16

Do not unbalance the scale nor make the weights false,
Nor diminish the fractions of the grain measure;
Do not wish for the grain measures of the fields
And then cast aside those of the treasury.
The Ape sits by the balance,
While his heart is the plummet.
Where is a god as great as Thoth
The one who discovered these things, to create them?

Do not get for yourself short weights;
They are plentiful, yea, an army by the might of God.
If you see someone cheating,
At a distance you must pass him by.
Do not be avaricious for copper,
And abjure fine clothes;
What good is one cloaked in fine linen woven as mek,
When he cheats before God.
When gold is heaped upon gold,
At daybreak it turns to lead.

Chapter 17

Beware of robbing the grain measure
To falsify its fractions;
Do not act wrongfully through force,
Although it is empty inside;
May you have it measure exactly as to its size,
Your hand stretching out with precision.

Make not for yourself a measure of two capacities,
For then it is toward the depths that you will go.
The measure is the eye of Re,
Its abomination is the one who takes.
As for a grain measurer who multiplies and subtracts,
His eye will seal up against him.

Do not receive the harvest tax of a cultivator,
Nor bind up a papyrus against him to lead him astray.
Do not enter into collusion with the grain measurer,
Nor play with the seed allotment,
More important is the threshing floor for barley
Than swearing by the Great Throne.

Chapter 18

Do not go to bed fearing tomorrow,
For when day breaks what is tomorrow?
Man knows not what tomorrow is!
God is success,
Man is failure.
The words which men say pass on one side,
The things which God does pass on another side.

Do not say, "I am without fault,"
Nor try to seek out trouble.
Fault is the business of God,
It is locked up with his seal.
There is no success in the hand of God,
Nor is there failure before Him;
If he turns himself about to seek out success,
In a moment He destroys him.

Be strong in your heart, make your mind firm,
Do not steer with your tongue;
The tongue of a man is the steering oar of a boat,
And the Lord of All is its pilot.

Chapter 19

Do not enter the council chamber in the presence of a magistrate
And then falsify your speech.
Do not go up and down with your accusation
When your witnesses stand readied.
Do not overstate <through> oaths in the name of your lord,
<Through> pleas <in> the place of questioning.

Tell the truth before the magistrate,
lest he gain power over your body;
If you come before him the next day,
He will concur with all you say;
He will present your case <in> court before the Council of the Thirty,
And it will be lenient another time as well.

Chapter 20

Do not corrupt the people of the law court,
Nor put aside the just man,
Do not agree because of garments of white,
Nor accept one in rags.
Take not the gift of the strong man,
Nor repress the weak for him.
Justice is a wonderful gift of God,
And He will render it to whomever he wishes.
The strength of one like him
Saves a poor wretch from his beatings.

Do not make false enrollment lists,
For they are a serious affair deserving death;
They are serious oaths of the kind promising not to misuse an office,
And they are to be investigated by an informer.

Do not falsify the oracles on a papyrus
And (thereby) alter the designs of God.
Do not arrogate to yourself the might of God
As if Destiny and Fortune did not exist.

Hand property over to its (rightful) owners,
And seek out life for yourself;
Let not your heart build in their house,

for then your neck will be on the execution block.

Chapter 21

Do not say, I have found a strong protector
And now I can challenge a man in my town.
Do not say, I have found an active intercessor,
And now I can challenge him whom I hate.

Indeed, you cannot know the plans of God;
You cannot perceive tomorrow.
Sit yourself at the hands of God:
Your tranquility will cause them to open.

As for the crocodile deprived of his tongue,
the fear of him is negligible.
Empty not your soul to everybody
And do not diminish thereby your importance;
Do not circulate your words to others,
Nor fraternize with one who is too candid.

Better is a man whose knowledge is inside him
Than one who talks to disadvantage.
One cannot run to attain perfection;
One cannot create (only) to destroy it.

Chapter 22

Do not castigate your companion in a dispute,
And do not <let> him say his innermost thoughts;
Do not fly up to greet him
When you do not see how he acts.
May you first comprehend his accusation
And cool down your opponent.

Leave it to him and he will empty his soul;
Sleep knows how to find him out;
Take his feet, do not bother him;
Fear him, do not underestimate him.
Indeed, you cannot know the plans of God,
You cannot perceive tomorrow.
Sit yourself at the hands of God;
Your tranquility will cause them to open.

Chapter 23

Do not eat a meal in the presence of a magistrate,
Nor set to speaking first.
If you are satisfied with false words,
Enjoy yourself with your spittle.

Look at the cup in front of you,
And let it suffice your need.
Even as a noble is important in his office,
He is like the abundance of a well when it is drawn.

Chapter 24

Do not listen to the accusation of an official indoors,
And then repeat it to another outside.
Do not allow your discussions to be brought outside
So that your heart will not be grieved.

the heart of a man is the beak of the God,
So take care not to slight it;
A man who stands <at> the side of an official
Should not have his name known (in the street).

Chapter 25

Do not jeer at a blind man nor tease a dwarf,
Neither interfere with the condition of a cripple;
Do not taunt a man who is in the hand of God,
Nor scowl at him if he errs.

Man is clay and straw,
And God is his potter;
He overthrows and he builds daily,

He impoverishes a thousand if He wishes.
He makes a thousand into examiners,
When He is in His hour of life.
How fortunate is he who reaches the West,
When he is safe in the hand of God.

Chapter 26

Do not stay in the tavern
And join someone greater than you,
Whether he be high or low in his station,
An old man or a youth;
But take as a friend for yourself someone compatible:
Re is helpful though he is far away.

When you see someone greater than you outside,
And attendants following him, respect (him).
And give a hand to an old man filled with beer:
Respect him as his children would.

The strong arm is not weakened when it is uncovered,
The back is not broken when one bends it;
Better is the poor man who speaks sweet words,
Than the rich man who speaks harshly.

A pilot who sees into the distance
Will not let his ship capsize.

Chapter 27

Do not reproach someone older than you,
For he has seen the Sun before you;
Do not let yourself be reported to the Aten when he rises,
With the words, "Another young man has reproached an elder."
Very sick in the sight of Re
Is a young man who reproaches an elder.

Let him beat you with your hands folded,
Let him reproach you while you keep quiet.
Then when you come before him in the morning
He will give you bread freely.
As for bread, he who has it becomes a dog,
He barks to the one who gives it.

Chapter 28

Do not expose a widow if you have caught her in the fields,
Nor fail to give way if she is accused.
Do not turn a stranger away <from> your oil jar
That it may be made double for your family.
God loves him who cares for the poor,
More than him who respects the wealthy.

1.  

Chapter 29

Do not turn people away from crossing the river When you have room in your ferryboat; If a steering oar is given you in the midst of the deep waters, So bend back your hands <to> take it up. It is not an abomination in the hand of God If the passenger is not cared for. Do not acquire a ferryboat on the river, And then attempt to seek out its fares; Take the are from the man of means, But (also) accept the destitute (without charge).

Chapter 30

Mark for your self these thirty chapters: They please, they instruct, They are the foremost of all books; They teach the ignorant. If they are read to an ignorant man, He will be purified through them. Seize them; put them in your mind And have men interpret them, explaining as a teacher. As to a scribe who is experienced in his position, He will find himself worthy of being a courtier. [Colophon] It is finished. By the writing of Senu, son of the god's father Pamiu

EMERALD TABLET XIII :
The Keys of Life and Death

List ye, O man, hear ye the wisdom. Hear ye the Word that shall fill thee with Life. Hear ye the Word that shall banish the darkness. Hear ye the voice that shall banish the night. Mystery and wisdom have I brought to my children; knowledge and power descended from old. Know ye not that all shall be opened when ye shall find the oneness of all? One shall ye be with the Masters of Mystery, Conquerors of Death and Masters of Life. Aye, ye shall learn of the flower of Amenti the blossom of life that shines in the Halls. In Spirit shall ye reach that Halls of Amenti and bring back the wisdom that liveth in Light. Know ye the gateway to power is secret. Know ye the gateway to life is through death. Aye, through death but not as ye know death, but a death that is life and is fire and is Light.
Desireth thou to know the deep, hidden secret? Look in thy heart where the knowledge is bound. Know that in thee the secret is hidden, the source of all life and the source of all death. List ye, O man, while I tell the secret, reveal unto thee the secret of old. Deep in Earth's heart lies the flower, the source of the Spirit that binds all in its form. For know ye that the Earth is living in body as thou art alive in thine own formed form. The Flower of Life is as thine own place of Spirit and streams through the Earth as thine flows through thy form; giving of life to the Earth and its children, renewing the Spirit from form unto form. This is the Spirit that is form of thy body, shaping and moulding into its form. Know ye, O man, that thy form is dual, balanced in polarity while formed in its form. Know that when fast on thee Death approaches, it is only because thy balance is shaken. It is only because one pole has been lost. Know that thy body when in perfect balance may never be touched by the finger of Death. Aye, even accident may only approach when the balance is gone. When ye are in a balanced equilibrium, ye shall live on in time and not taste of Death. Know that thou art the balanced completion, existing because of thy balance of poles. As, in thee, one pole is drawn downward, fast from thee goes the balance of life. Then unto thee cold Death approaches, and change must come to thine unbalanced life. Know that the secret of life in Amenti is the secret of restoring the balance of poles. All that exists has form and is living because of the Spirit of life in its poles. See ye not that in Earth's heart is the balance of all things that exist and have being on its face? The source of thy Spirit is drawn from Earth's heart, for in thy form thou are one with the Earth. When thou hast learned to hold thine own balance, then shalt thou draw on the balance of Earth. Exist then shalt thou while Earth is existing, changing in form, only when Earth, too, shalt change: Tasting not of death, but one with this planet, holding thy form till all pass away. List ye, O man, whilst I give the secret so that ye, too, shalt taste not of change. One hour each day shalt thou lie with thine head pointed to the place of the positive pole (north). One hour each day shalt thy head be pointed to the place of the negative pole (south). Whilst thy head is placed to the northward, hold thou thy consciousness from the chest to the head. And when thy head is placed southward, hold thou thy thought from chest to the feet. Hold thou in balance once in each seven, and thy balance will retain the whole of its strength. Aye, if thou be old, thy body will freshen and thy strength will become as a youth's. This is the secret known to the Masters by which they hold off the fingers of Death. Neglect not to follow the path I have shown, for when thou hast passed beyond years to a hundred to neglect it will mean the coming of Death.

Hear ye, my words, and follow the pathway. Keep thou thy balance and live on in life. Hear ye, O man, and list to my voice. List to the wisdom that gives thee of Death. When at the end of thy work appointed, thou may desire to pass from this life, pass to the plane where the Suns of the Morning live and have being as Children of Light. Pass without pain and pass without sorrow into the plane where is eternal Light. First lie at rest with thine head to the eastward. Fold thou thy hands at the Source of thy life (solar plexus). Place thou thy consciousness in the life seat. Whirl it and divide to north and to south. Send thou the one out toward the northward. Send thou the other out to the south. Relax thou thy hold upon thy being. Forth from they form will thy silver spark fly, upward and onward to the Sun of the morning, blending with Light, at one with its source. There it shall flame till desire shall be created. Then shall return to a place in a form. Know ye, O men, that thus pass the great Souls, changing at will from life unto life. Thus ever passes the Avatar, willing his Death as he wills his own life. List ye, O man, drink of my wisdom. Learn ye the secret that is Master of Time. Learn ye how those ye call Masters are able to remember the lives of the past. Great is the secret yet easy to master, giving to thee the mastery of time. When upon thee death fast approaches, fear not but know ye are master of Death. Relax thy body, resist not with tension. Place in thy heart the flame of thy Soul. Swiftly then sweep it to the seat of the triangle. Hold for a moment, then move to the goal. This, thy goal, is the place between thine eyebrows, the place where the memory of life must hold sway. Hold thou thy flame here in thy brain-seat until the fingers of Death grasp thy Soul. Then as thou pass through the state of transition, surely the memories of life shall pass, too. Then shalt the past be as one with the present. Then shall the memory of all be retained. Free shalt thou be from all retrogression. The things of the past shall live in today. Man, ye have heard the voice of my wisdom. Follow and ye shall live through the ages as I…

Before beginning any spiritual text it is customary to clear the mind of all distracting thoughts, to calm the breath and to purify the heart.

1.1 Now, instruction in Union. 1.2. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind. 1.3. Then the seer dwells in his own nature. 1.4. Otherwise he is of the same form as the thought-streams. 1.5. The thought-streams are five-fold, painful and not painful.  1.6. Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep and memory. 1.7. Right knowledge is inference, tradition and genuine cognition. 1.8. Wrong knowledge is false, illusory, erroneous beliefs or notions. 1.9. Fancy is following after word-knowledge empty of substance. 1.10. Deep sleep is the modification of the mind which has for its substratum nothingness. 1.11. Memory is not allowing mental impressions to escape. 1.12. These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment. 1.13. Practice is the effort to secure steadiness. 1.14. This practice becomes well-grounded when continued with reverent devotion and without interruption over a long period of time. 1.15. Desirelessness towards the seen and the unseen gives the consciousness of mastery. 1.16. This is signified by an indifference to the three attributes, due to knowledge of the Indweller. 1.17. Cognitive meditation is accompanied by reasoning, discrimination, bliss and the sense of 'I am.'
1.18. There is another meditation which is attained by the practice of alert mental suspension until only subtle impressions remain. 1.19. For those beings who are formless and for those beings who are merged in unitive consciousness, the world is the cause. 1.20. For others, clarity is preceded by faith, energy, memory and equalminded contemplation.
1.21. Equalminded contemplation is nearest to those whose desire is most ardent. 1.22. There is further distinction on account of the mild, moderate or intense means employed.
1.23. Or by surrender to God. 1.24. God is a particular yet universal indweller, untouched by afflictions, actions, impressions and their results. 1.25. In God, the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed. 1.26. Not being conditioned by time, God is the teacher of even the ancients. 1.27. God's voice is Om. 1.28. The repetition of Om should be made with an understanding of its meaning. 1.29. From that is gained introspection and also the disappearance of obstacles. 1.30. Disease, inertia, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, sensuality, mind-wandering, missing the point, instability- these distractions of the mind are the obstacles. 1.31. Pain, despair, nervousness, and disordered inspiration and expiration are co-existent with these obstacles. 1.32. For the prevention of the obstacles, one truth should be practiced constantly. 1.33. By cultivating friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery, gladness towards virtue and indifference towards vice, the mind becomes pure. 1.34. Optionally, mental equanimity may be gained by the even expulsion and retention of energy. 1.35. Or activity of the higher senses causes mental steadiness. 1.36. Or the state of sorrowless Light. 1.37. Or the mind taking as an object of concentration those who are freed of compulsion. 1.38. Or depending on the knowledge of dreams and sleep. 1.39. Or by meditation as desired. 1.40. The mastery of one in Union extends from the finest atomic particle to the greatest infinity. 1.41. When the agitations of the mind are under control, the mind becomes like a transparent crystal and has the power of becoming whatever form is presented. knower, act of knowing, or what is known. 1.42. The argumentative condition is the confused mixing of the word, its right meaning, and knowledge. 1.43. When the memory is purified and the mind shines forth as the object alone, it is called non-argumentative. 1.44. In this way the meditative and the ultra-meditative having the subtle for their objects are also described. 1.45. The province of the subtle terminates with pure matter that has no pattern or distinguishing mark. 1.46. These constitute seeded contemplations. 1.47. On attaining the purity of the ultra-meditative state there is the pure flow of spiritual consciousness. 1.48. Therein is the faculty of supreme wisdom. 1.49. The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars. 1.50. The habitual pattern of thought stands in the way of other impressions. 1.51. With the suppression of even that through the suspension of all modifications of the mind, contemplation without seed is attained. End Part One.

Part Two
on Spiritual Disciplines

2.1 Austerity, the study of sacred texts, and the dedication of action to God constitute the discipline of Mystic Union. 2.2 This discipline is practised for the purpose of acquiring fixity of mind on the Lord, free from all impurities and agitations, or on One's Own Reality, and for attenuating the afflictions. 2.3 The five afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and the desire to cling to life. 2.4 Ignorance is the breeding place for all the others whether they are dormant or attenuated, partially overcome or fully operative. 2.5 Ignorance is taking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, evil for good and non-self as self. 2.6 Egoism is the identification of the power that knows with the instruments of knowing. 2.7 Attachment is that magnetic pattern which clusters in pleasure and pulls one towards such experience.
2.8 Aversion is the magnetic pattern which clusters in misery and pushes one from such experience. 2.9 Flowing by its own energy, established even in the wise and in the foolish, is the unending desire for life. 2.10 These patterns when subtle may be removed by developing their contraries. 2.11 Their active afflictions are to be destroyed by meditation.
2.12 The impressions of works have their roots in afflictions and arise as experience in the present and the future births. 2.13 When the root exists, its fruition is birth, life and experience. 2.14 They have pleasure or pain as their fruit, according as their cause be virtue or vice. 2.15 All is misery to the wise because of the pains of change, anxiety, and purificatory acts. 2.16 The grief which has not yet come may be avoided. 2.17 The cause of the avoidable is the superimposition of the external world onto the unseen world.
2.18 The experienced world consists of the elements and the senses in play. It is of the nature of cognition, activity and rest, and is for the purpose of experience and realization.
2.19 The stages of the attributes effecting the experienced world are the specialized and the unspecialized, the differentiated and the undifferentiated. 2.20 The indweller is pure consciousness only, which though pure, sees through the mind and is identified by ego as being only the mind. 2.21 The very existence of the seen is for the sake of the seer.
2.22 Although Creation is discerned as not real for the one who has achieved the goal, it is yet real in that Creation remains the common experience to others.
2.23 The association of the seer with Creation is for the distinct recognition of the objective world, as well as for the recognition of the distinct nature of the seer.
2.24 The cause of the association is ignorance. 2.25 Liberation of the seer is the result of the dissassociation of the seer and the seen, with the disappearance of ignorance.
2.26 The continuous practice of discrimination is the means of attaining liberation. 2.27 Steady wisdom manifests in seven stages. 2.28 On the destruction of impurity by the sustained practice of the limbs of Union, the light of knowledge reveals the faculty of discrimination. 2.29 The eight limbs of Union are self-restraint in actions, fixed observance, posture, regulation of energy, mind-control in sense engagements, concentration, meditation, and realization. 2.30 Self-restraint in actions includes abstention from violence, from falsehoods, from stealing, from sexual engagements, and from acceptance of gifts. 2.31 These five willing abstentions are not limited by rank, place, time or circumstance and constitute the Great Vow. 2.32 The fixed observances are cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study and persevering devotion to God. 2.33 When improper thoughts disturb the mind, there should be constant pondering over the opposites. 2.34 Improper thoughts and emotions such as those of violence- whether done, caused to be done, or even approved of- indeed, any thought originating in desire, anger or delusion, whether mild medium or intense- do all

result in endless pain and misery. Overcome such distractions by pondering on the opposites.

2.35 When one is confirmed in non-violence, hostility ceases in his presence. 2.36 When one is firmly established in speaking truth, the fruits of action become subservient to him.
2.37 All jewels approach him who is confirmed in honesty. 2.38 When one is confirmed in celibacy, spiritual vigor is gained. 2.39 When one is confirmed in non-possessiveness, the knowledge of the why and how of existence is attained. 2.40 From purity follows a withdrawal from enchantment over one's own body as well as a cessation of desire for physical contact with others. 2.41 As a result of contentment there is purity of mind, one-pointedness, control of the senses, and fitness for the vision of the self. 2.42 Supreme happiness is gained via contentment. 2.43 Through sanctification and the removal of impurities, there arise special powers in the body and senses. 2.44 By study comes communion with the Lord in the Form most admired. 2.45 Realization is experienced by making the Lord the motive of all actions. 2.46 The posture should be steady and comfortable. 2.47 In effortless relaxation, dwell mentally on the Endless with utter attention. 2.48 From that there is no disturbance from the dualities. 2.49 When that exists, control of incoming and outgoing energies is next. 2.50 It may be external, internal, or midway, regulated by time, place, or number, and of brief or long duration. 2.51 Energy-control which goes beyond the sphere of external and internal is the fourth level- the vital. 2.52 In this way, that which covers the light is destroyed. 2.53 Thus the mind becomes fit for concentration.
2.54 When the mind maintains awareness, yet does not mingle with the senses, nor the senses with sense impressions, then self-awareness blossoms. 2.55 In this way comes mastery over the senses. End Part Two

 

Part Three
on Divine Powers
3.1 One-pointedness is steadfastness of the mind. 3.2 Unbroken continuation of that mental ability is meditation. 3.3 That same meditation when there is only consciousness of the object of meditation and not of the mind is realization. 3.4 The three appearing together are self-control. 3.5 By mastery comes wisdom. 3.6 The application of mastery is by stages. 3.7 The three are more efficacious than the restraints. 3.8 Even that is external to the seedless realization. 3.9 The significant aspect is the union of the mind with the moment of absorption, when the outgoing thought disappears and the absorptive experience appears. 3.10 From sublimation of this union comes the peaceful flow of unbroken unitive cognition. 3.11 The contemplative transformation of this is equalmindedness, witnessing the rise and destruction of distraction as well as one-pointedness itself. 3.12 The mind becomes one-pointed when the subsiding and rising thought-waves are exactly similar. 3.13 In this state, it passes beyond the changes of inherent characteristics, properties and the conditional modifications of object or sensory recognition. 3.14 The object is that which preserves the latent characteristic, the rising characteristic or the yet-to-be-named characteristic that establishes one entity as specific. 3.15 The succession of these changes in that entity is the cause of its modification. 3.16 By self-control over these three-fold changes (of property, character and condition), knowledge of the past and the future arises. 3.17 The sound of a word, the idea behind the word, and the object the idea signfies are often taken as being one thing and may be mistaken for one another. By self-control over their distinctions, understanding of all languages of all creatures arises. 3.18 By self-control on the perception of mental impressions, knowledge of previous lives arises. 3.19 By self-control on any mark of a body, the wisdom of the mind activating that body arises. 3.20 By self-control on the form of a body, by suspending perceptibility and separating effulgence therefrom, there arises invisibility and inaudibilty. 3.21 Action is of two kinds, dormant and fruitful. By self-control on such action, one portends the time of death. 3.22 By performing self-control on friendliness, the strength to grant joy arises. 3.23 By self-control over any kind of strength, such as that of the elephant, that very strength arises. 3.24 By self-control on the primal activator comes knowledge of the hidden, the subtle, and the distant. 3.25 By self-control on the Sun comes knowledge of spatial specificities. 3.26 By self-control on the Moon comes knowledge of the heavens. 3.27 By self-control on the Polestar arises knowledge of orbits. 3.28 By self-control on the navel arises knowledge of the constitution of the body. 3.29 By self-control on the pit of the throat one subdues hunger and thirst. 3.30 By self-control on the tube within the chest one acquires absolute steadiness. 3.31 By self-control on the light in the head one envisions perfected beings. 3.32 There is knowledge of everything from intuition. 3.33 Self-control on the heart brings knowledge of the mental entity. 3.34 Experience arises due to the inability of discerning the attributes of vitality from the indweller, even though they are indeed distinct from one another. Self-control brings true knowledge of the indweller by itself. 3.35 This spontaneous enlightenment results in intuitional perception of hearing, touching, seeing and smelling. 3.36 To the outward turned mind, the sensory organs are perfections, but are obstacles to realization. 3.37 When the bonds of the mind caused by action have been loosened, one may enter the body of another by knowledge of how the nerve-currents function. 3.38 By self-control of the nerve-currents utilising the lifebreath, one may levitate, walk on water, swamps, thorns, or the like. 3.39 By self-control over the maintenance of breath, one may radiate light. 3.40 By self-control on the relation of the ear to the ether one gains distant hearing. 3.41 By self-control over the relation of the body to the ether, and maintaining at the same time the thought of the lightness of cotton, one is able to pass through space. 3.42 By self-control on the mind when it is separated from the body- the state known as the Great Transcorporeal- all coverings are removed from the Light. 3.43 Mastery over the elements arises when their gross and subtle forms,as well as their essential characteristics, and the inherent attributes and experiences they produce, is examined in self-control. 3.44 Thereby one may become as tiny as an atom as well as having many other abilities, such as perfection of the body, and non-resistence to duty. 3.45 Perfection of the body consists in beauty, grace, strength and adamantine hardness. 3.46 By self-control on the changes that the sense-organs endure when contacting objects, and on the power of the sense of identity, and of the influence of the attributes, and the experience all these produce- one masters the senses. 3.47 From that come swiftness of mind, independence of perception, and mastery over primoridal matter. 3.48 To one who recognizes the distinctive relation between vitality and indweller comes omnipotence and omniscience. 3.49 Even for the destruction of the seed of bondage by desirelessness there comes absolute independence. 3.50 When invited by invisible beings one should be neither flattered nor satisfied, for there is yet a possibility of ignorance rising up. 3.51 By self-control over single moments and their succession there is wisdom born of discrimination. 3.52 From that there is recognition of two similars when that difference cannot be distinguished by class, characteristic or position. 3.53 Intuition, which is the entire discriminative knowledge, relates to all objects at all times, and is without succession. 3.54 Liberation is attained when there is equal purity between vitality and the indweller. End Part Three

 

Part Four
on Realizations
4.1 Psychic powers arise by birth, drugs, incantations, purificatory acts or concentrated insight.
4.2 Transformation into another state is by the directed flow of creative nature. 4.3 Creative nature is not moved into action by any incidental cause, but by the removal of obstacles, as in the case of a farmer clearing his field of stones for irrigation. 4.4 Created minds arise from egoism alone. 4.5 There being difference of interest, one mind is the director of many minds.

4.6 Of these, the mind born of concentrated insight is free from the impressions. 4.7 The impressions of unitive cognition are neither good nor bad. In the case of the others, there are three kinds of impressions. 4.8 From them proceed the development of the tendencies which bring about the fruition of actions. 4.9 Because of the magnetic qualities of habitual mental patterns and memory, a relationship of cause and effect clings even though there may be a change of embodiment by class, space and time. 4.10 The desire to live is eternal, and the thought-clusters prompting a sense of identity are beginningless. 4.11 Being held together by cause and effect, substratum and object- the tendencies themselves disappear on the dissolution of these bases. 4.12 The past and the future exist in the object itself as form and expression, there being difference in the conditions of the properties. 4.13 Whether manifested or unmanifested they are of the nature of the attributes. 4.14 Things assume reality because of the unity maintained within that modification. 4.15 Even though the external object is the same, there is a difference of cognition in regard to the object because of the difference in mentality. 4.16 And if an object known only to a single mind were not cognized by that mind, would it then exist? 4.17 An object is known or not known by the mind, depending on whether or not the mind is colored by the object. 4.18 The mutations of awareness are always known on account of the changelessness of its Lord, the indweller. 4.19 Nor is the mind self-luminous, as it can be known. 4.20 It is not possible for the mind to be both the perceived and the perceiver simultaneously. 4.21 In the case of cognition of one mind by another, we would have to assume cognition of cognition, and there would be confusion of memories. 4.22 Consciousness appears to the mind itself as intellect when in that form in which it does not pass from place to place. 4.23 The mind is said to perceive when it reflects both the indweller (the knower) and the objects of perception (the known). 4.24 Though variegated by innumerable tendencies, the mind acts not for itself but for another, for the mind is of compound substance. 4.25 For one who sees the distinction, there is no further confusing of the mind with the self. 4.26 Then the awareness begins to discriminate, and gravitates towards liberation. 4.27 Distractions arise from habitual thought patterns when practice is intermittent. 4.28 The removal of the habitual thought patterns is similar to that of the afflictions already described. 4.29 To one who remains undistracted in even the highest intellection there comes the equalminded realization known as The Cloud of Virtue. This is a result of discriminative discernment. 4.30 From this there follows freedom from cause and effect and afflictions. 4.31 The infinity of knowledge available to such a mind freed of all obscuration and property makes the universe of sensory perception seem small. 4.32 Then the sequence of change in the three attributes comes to an end, for they have fulfilled their function. 4.33 The sequence of mutation occurs in every second, yet is comprehensible only at the end of a series. 4.34 When the attributes cease mutative association with awarenessness, they resolve into dormancy in Nature, and the indweller shines forth as pure consciousness. This is absolute freedom.

End Part Four
The end of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

EMERALD TABLET III :
The Key of Wisdom

I, Thoth, the Atlantean, give of my wisdom, give of my knowledge, give of my power. Freely I give to the children of men. Give that they, too, might have wisdom to shine through the world from the veil of the night. Wisdom is power and power is wisdom, one with each other, perfecting the whole.
Be thou not proud, O man, in thy wisdom. Discourse with the ignorant as well as the wise. If one comes to thee full of knowledge, listen and heed, for wisdom is all. Keep thou not silent when evil is spoken for Truth like the sunlight shines above all. He who over-steppeth the Law shall be punished, for only through Law comes the freedom of men. Follow thine heart during thy lifetime. Do thou more than is commanded of thee.
When thou has gained riches, follow thou thine heart, for all these are of no avail if thine heart be weary. Diminish thou not the time of following thine heart. It is abhorred of the soul. They that are guided go not astray, but they that are lost cannot find a straight path. If thou go among men, make for thyself, Love, the beginning and end of the heart. If one cometh unto thee for council, let him speak freely, that the thing for which he hath come to thee may be done. If he hesitates to open his heart to thee, it is because thou, the judge, doeth the wrong. Repeat thou not extravagant speech, neither listen thou to it, for it is the utterance of one not in equilibrium. Speak thou not of it, so that he before thee may know wisdom. Silence is of great profit. An abundance of speech profiteth nothing. Exalt not thine heart above the children of men, lest it be brought lower than the dust. If thou be great among men, be honored for knowledge and gentleness. If thou seeketh to know the nature of a friend, ask not his companion, but pass a time alone with him.  Debate with him, testing his heart by his words and his bearing. That which goeth into the store-house must come forth, and the things that are thine must be shared with a friend. Knowledge is regarded by the fool as ignorance, and the things that are profitable are to him hurtful. He liveth in death.  It is therefore his food. The wise man lets his heart overflow but keeps silent his mouth. O man, list to the voice of wisdom; list to the voice of light. Mysteries there are in the Cosmos that unveiled fill the world with their light. Let he who would be free from the bonds of darkness first divine the material from the immaterial, the fire from the earth; for know ye that as earth descends to earth, so also fire ascends unto fire and becomes one with fire. He who knows the fire that is within himself shall ascend unto the eternal fire and dwell in it eternally. Fire, the inner fire, is the most potent of all force, for it overcometh all things and penetrates to all things of the Earth. Man supports himself only on that which resists. So Earth must resist man else he existeth not. All eyes do not see with the same vision, for to one an object appears of one form and color and to a different eye of another. So also the infinite fire, changing from color to color, is never the same from day to day. Thus, speak I, Thoth, of my wisdom, for man is a fire burning bright through the night; never is quenched in the veil of the darkness, never is quenched by the veil of the night. Hark ye, O man, and list to this wisdom: where do name and form cease? Only in consciousness, invisible, an infinite force of radiance bright. The forms that ye create by brightening thy vision are truly effects that follow thy cause . Wisdom cometh to all her children even as they cometh unto wisdom. All through the ages, the light has been hidden. Awake, O man, and be wise.Man is a star bound to a body, until in the end, he is freed through his strife. Only struggle and toiling thy utmost shall the star within thee bloom out in new life. He who knows the commencement of all things, free is his star from the realms of night.
Remember, O man, that all which exists is only another form of that which exists not. Everything that has being is passing into yet other being and thou thyself are not an exception.Consider the Law, for all is Law. Seek not that which is not of the Law, for such exists only in the illusions of the senses. Deep in the mysteries of life have I traveled, seeking and searching for that which is hidden. List ye, O man, and be wise. Far 'neath the earth crust, in the Halls of Amenti, mysteries I saw that are hidden from men. Oft have I journeyed the deep hidden passage, looked on the Light that is Life among men. There 'neath the Flowers of Life ever living, searched I the hearts and the secrets of men. Found I that man is but living in darkness, light of the great fire is hidden within. Before the Lords of hidden Amenti learned I the wisdom I give unto men. Masters are they of the great Secret Wisdom, brought from the future of infinity's end. Seven are they, the Lords of Amenti, overlords they of the Children of Morning, Suns of the Cycles, Masters of Wisdom. Formed are not they as the children of men? Three, Four, Five and Six, Seven, Eight, Nine are the titles of the Masters of men.

Far from the future, formless yet forming, came they as teachers for the children of men. Live they forever, yet not of the living, bound not to life and yet free from death. Rule they forever with infinite wisdom, bound yet not bound to the dark Halls of Death. Life they have in them, yet life that is not life, free from all are the Lords of the ALL Forth from them came forth the Logos, instruments they of the power o'er all. Vast is their countenance, yet hidden in smallness, formed by a forming, known yet unknown.

Three holds the key of all hidden magic, creator he of the Halls of the Dead; sending forth power, shrouding with darkness, binding the souls of the children of men; sending the darkness, binding the soul force; director of negative to the children of men. Four is he who looses the power. Lord, he, of Life to the children of men.  Light is his body, flame is his countenance; freer of souls to the children of men. Five is the master, the Lord of all magic-Key to The Word that resounds among men.  Six is the Lord of Light, the hidden pathway, part of the souls of the children of men.  Seven is he who is Lord of the vastness, master of Space and the key of the Times. Eight is he who orders the progress; weighs and balances the journey of men. Nine is the father, vast he of countenance, forming and changing from out of the formless. Meditate on the symbols I give thee. Keys are they, though hidden from men. Reach ever upward, O Soul of the morning. Turn thy thoughts upward to Light and to Life. Find in the keys of the numbers I bring thee, light on the pathway from life unto life. Seek ye with wisdom. Turn thy thoughts inward. Close not thy mind to the Flower of Light. Place in thy body a thought-formed picture. Think of the numbers that lead thee to Life. Clear is the pathway to he who has wisdom. Open the door to the Kingdom of Light Pour forth thy flame as a Sun of the morning. Shut out the darkness and live in the day. Take thee, O man! As part of thy being, the Seven who are but are not as they seem. Opened, O man! Have I my wisdom. Follow the path in the way I have led. Masters of Wisdom, Sun of the Morning Light and Life to the children of men.

Precepts of the prefect, the lord Ptah-hotep,
under the Majesty of the King of the South and North,
Assa, living eternally forever.

The prefect, the feudal lord Ptah-hotep, says: O Ptah with the two crocodiles, my lord, the progress of age changes into senility. Decay falls upon man and decline takes the place of youth. A vexation weighs upon him every day; sight fails, the ear becomes deaf; his strength dissolves without ceasing. The mouth is silent, speech fails him; the mind decays, remembering not the day before. The whole body suffers. That which is good becomes evil; taste completely disappears. Old age makes a man altogether miserable; the nose is stopped up, breathing no more from exhaustion. Standing or sitting there is here a condition of . . . Who will cause me to have authority to speak, that I may declare to him the words of those who have heard the counsels of former days? And the counsels heard of the gods, who will give me authority to declare them? Cause that it be so and that evil be removed from those that are enlightened; send the double . . . The majesty of this god says: Instruct him in the sayings of former days. It is this which constitutes the merit of the children of the great. All that which makes the soul equal penetrates him who hears it, and that which it says produces no satiety.

Beginning of the arrangement of the good sayings, spoken by the noble lord, the divine father, beloved of Ptah, the son of the king, the first-born of his race, the prefect and feudal lord Ptah-hotep, so as to instruct the ignorant in the knowledge of the arguments of the good sayings. It is profitable for him who hears them, it is a loss to him who shall transgress them. He says to his son:  Be not arrogant because of that which you know; deal with the ignorant as with the learned; for the barriers of art are not closed, no artist being in possession of the perfection to which he should aspire. But good words are more difficult to find than the emerald, for it is by slaves that that is discovered among the rocks of pegmatite.

If you find a disputant while he is hot, and if he is superior to you in ability, lower the hands, bend the back, do not get into a passion with him. As he will not let you destroy his words, it is utterly wrong to interrupt him; that proclaims that you are incapable of keeping yourself calm, when you are contradicted. If then you have to do with a disputant while he is hot, imitate one who does not stir. You have the advantage over him if you keep silence when he is uttering evil words. "The better of the two is he who is impassive," say the bystanders, and you are right in the opinion of the great.  If you find a disputant while he is hot, do not despise him because you are not of the same opinion. Be not angry against him when he is wrong; away with such a thing. He fights against himself; require him not further to flatter your feelings. Do not amuse yourself with the spectacle which you have before you; it is odious, it is mean, it is the part of a despicable soul so to do. As soon as you let yourself be moved by your feelings, combat this desire as a thing that is reproved by the great.

If you have, as leader, to decide on the conduct of a great number of men, seek the most perfect
manner of doing so that your own conduct may be without reproach. Justice is great, invariable, and assured; it has not been disturbed since the age of Ptah. To throw obstacles in the way of the laws is to open the way before violence. Shall that which is below gain the upper hand, if the unjust does not attain to the place of justice? Even he who says: I take for myself, of my own free-will; but says not: I take by virtue of my authority. The limitations of justice are invariable; such is the instruction which every man receives from his father.  Inspire not men with fear, else Ptah will fight against you in the same manner. If any one asserts that he lives by such means, Ptah will take away the bread from his mouth; if any one asserts that he enriches himself thereby, Ptah says: I may take those riches to myself. If any one asserts that he beats others, Ptah will end by reducing him to impotence. Let no one inspire men with fear; this is the will of Ptah. Let one provide sustenance for them in the lap of peace; it will then be that they will freely give what has been torn from them by terror.

If you are among the persons seated at meat in the house of a greater man than yourself, take that which he gives you, bowing to the ground. Regard that which is placed before you, but point not at it; regard it not frequently; he is a blameworthy person who departs from this rule. Speak not to the great man more than he requires, for one knows not what may be displeasing to him. Speak when he invites you and your worth will be pleasing. As for the great man who has plenty of means of existence, his conduct is as he himself wishes. He does that which pleases him; if he desires to repose, he realizes his intention. The great man stretching forth his hand does that to which other men do not attain. But as the means of existence are under the will of Ptah, one can not rebel against it.  If you are one of those who bring the messages of one great man to another, conform yourself exactly to that wherewith he has charged you; perform for him the commission as he has enjoined you. Beware of altering in speaking the offensive words which one great person addresses to another; he who perverts the trustfulness of his way, in order to repeat only what produces pleasure in the words of every man, great or small, is a detestable person.

If you are a farmer, gather the crops in the field which the great Ptah has given you, do not boast in the house of your neighbors; it is better to make oneself dreaded by one's deeds. As for him who, master of his own way of acting, being all-powerful, seizes the goods of others like a crocodile in the midst even of watchment, his children are an object of malediction, of scorn, and of hatred on account of it, while his father is grievously distressed, and as for the mother who has borne him, happy is another rather than herself. But a man becomes a god when he is chief of a tribe which has confidence in following him.  If you abase yourself in obeying a superior, your conduct is entirely good before Ptah. Knowing who you ought to obey and who you ought to command, do not lift up your heart against him. As you know that in him is authority, be respectful toward him as belonging to him. Wealth comes only at Ptah's own good-will, and his caprice only is the law; as for him who . . Ptah, who has created his superiority, turns himself from him and he is overthrown.

Be active during the time of your existence, do no more than is commanded. Do not spoil the time of your activity; he is a blameworthy person who makes a bad use of his moments. Do not lose the daily opportunity of increasing that which your house possesses. Activity produces riches, and riches do not endure when it slackens.  If you are a wise man, bring up a son who shall be pleasing to Ptah. If he conforms his conduct to your way and occupies himself with your affairs as is right, do to him all the good you can; he is your son, a person attached to you whom your own self has begotten. Separate not your heart from him.... But if he conducts himself ill and transgresses your wish, if he rejects all counsel, if his mouth goes according to the evil word, strike him on the mouth in return. Give orders without hesitation to those who do wrong, to him whose temper is turbulent; and he will not deviate from the straight path, and there will be no obstacle to interrupt the way.

If you are employed in the larit, stand or sit rather than walk about. Lay down rules for yourself from the first: not to absent yourself even when weariness overtakes you. Keep an eye on him who enters announcing that what he asks is secret; what is entrusted to you is above appreciation, and all contrary argument is a matter to be rejected. He is a god who penetrates into a place where no relaxation of the rules is made for the privileged.  If you are with people who display for you an extreme affection, saying: "Aspiration of my heart, aspiration of my heart, where there is no remedy! That which is said in your heart, let it be realized by springing up spontaneously. Sovereign master, I give myself to your opinion. Your name is approved without speaking. Your body is full of vigor, your face is above your neighbors." If then you are accustomed to this excess of flattery, and there be an obstacle to you in your desires, then your impulse is to obey your passion. But he who . . . according to his caprice, his soul is . . ., his body is . . . While the man who is master of his soul is superior to those whom Ptah has loaded with his gifts; the man who obeys his passion is under the power of his wife.

Declare your line of conduct without reticence; give your opinion in the council of your lord; while there are people who turn back upon their own words when they speak, so as not to offend him who has put forward a statement, and answer not in this fashion: "He is the great man who will recognize the error of another; and when he shall raise his voice to oppose the other about it he will keep silence after what I have said."  If you are a leader, setting forward your plans according to that which you decide, perform perfect actions which posterity may remember, without letting the words prevail with you which multiply flattery, which excite pride and produce vanity.

If you are a leader of peace, listen to the discourse of the petitioner. Be not abrupt with him; that would trouble him. Say not to him: "You have already recounted this." Indulgence will encourage him to accomplish the object of his coming. As for being abrupt with the complainant because he described what passed when the injury was done, instead of complaining of the injury itself let it not be! The way to obtain a clear explanation is to listen with kindness.  If you desire to excite respect within the house you enter, for example the house of a superior, a friend, or any person of consideration, in short everywhere where you enter, keep yourself from making advances to a woman, for there is nothing good in so doing. There is no prudence in taking part in it, and thousands of men destroy themselves in order to enjoy a moment, brief as a dream, while they gain death, so as to know it. It is a villainous intention, that of a man who thus excites himself; if he goes on to carry it out, his mind abandons him. For as for him who is without repugnance for such an act, there is no good sense at all in him.

If you desire that your conduct should be good and preserved from all evil, keep yourself from every attack of bad humor. It is a fatal malady which leads to discord, and there is no longer any existence for him who gives way to it. For it introduces discord between fathers and mothers, as well as between brothers and sisters; it causes the wife and the husband to hate each other; it contains all kinds of wickedness, it embodies all kinds of wrong. When a man has established his just equilibrium and walks in this path, there where he makes his dwelling, there is no room for bad humor.  Be not of an irritable temper as regards that which happens at your side; grumble not over your own affairs. Be not of an irritable temper in regard to your neighbors; better is a compliment to that which displeases than rudeness. It is wrong to get into a passion with one's neighbors, to be no longer master of one's words. When there is only a little irritation, one creates for oneself an affliction for the time when one will again be cool.

If you are wise, look after your house; love your wife without alloy. Fill her stomach, clothe her back; these are the cares to be bestowed on her person. Caress her, fulfil her desires during the time of her existence; it is a kindness which does honor to its possessor. Be not brutal; tact will influence her better than violence; her . . . behold to what she aspires, at what she aims, what she regards. It is that which fixes her in your house; if you repel her, it is an abyss. Open your arms for her, respond to her arms; call her, display to her your love. Treat your dependents well, in so far as it belongs to you to do so; and it belongs to those whom Ptah has favored. If any one fails in treating his dependents well it is said: "He is a person . . ." As we do not know the events which may happen tomorrow, he is a wise person by whom one is well treated. When there comes the necessity of showing zeal, it will then be the dependents themselves who say: "Come on, come on," if good treatment has not quitted the place; if it has quitted it, the dependents are defaulters.

Do not repeat any extravagance of language; do not listen to it; it is a thing which has escaped from a hasty mouth. If it is repeated, look, without hearing it, toward the earth; say nothing in regard to it. Cause him who speaks to you to know what is just, even him who provokes to injustice; cause that which is just to be done, cause it to triumph. As for that which is hateful according to the law, condemn it by unveiling it. If you are a wise man, sitting in the council of your lord, direct your thought toward that which is wise. Be silent rather than scatter your words. When you speak, know that which can be brought against you. To speak in the council is an art, and speech is criticized more than any other labor; it is contradiction which puts it to the proof.

If you are powerful, respect knowledge and calmness of language. Command only to direct; to be absolute is to run into evil. Let not your heart be haughty, neither let it be mean. Do not let your orders remain unsaid and cause your answers to penetrate; but speak without heat, assume a serious countenance. As for the vivacity of an ardent heart, temper it; the gentle man penetrates all obstacles. He who agitates himself all the day long has not a good moment; and he who amuses himself all the day long keeps not his fortune. Aim at fulness like pilots; once one is seated another works, and seeks to obey one's orders.  Disturb not a great man; weaken not the attention of him who is occupied. His care is to embrace his task, and he strips his person through the love which he puts into it. That transports men to Ptah, even the love for the work which they accomplish. Compose then your face even in trouble, that peace may be with you, when agitation is with . . .These are the people who succeed in what they desire.

Teach others to render homage to a great man. If you gather the crop for him among men, cause it to return fully to its owner, at whose hands is your subsistence. But the gift of affection is worth more than the provisions with which your back is covered. For that which the great man receives from you will enable your house to live, without speaking of the maintenance you enjoy, which you desire to preserve; it is thereby that he extends a beneficent hand, and that in your home good things are added to good things. Let your love pass into the heart of those who love you; cause those about you to be loving and obedient.  If you are a son of the guardians deputed to watch over the public tranquillity, execute your commission without knowing its meaning, and speak with firmness. Substitute not for that which the instructor has said what you believe to be his intention; the great use words as it suits them. Your part is to transmit rather than to comment upon.

If you are annoyed at a thing, if you are tormented by someone who is acting within his right, get out of his sight, and remember him no more when he has ceased to address you.  If you have become great after having been little, if you have become rich after having been poor, when you are at the head of the city, know how not to take advantage of the fact that you have reached the first rank, harden not your heart because of your elevation; you are become only the administrator, the prefect, of the provisions which belong to Ptah. Put not behind you the neighbor who is like you; be unto him as a companion.

Bend your back before your superior. You are attached to the palace of the king; your house is established in its fortune, and your profits are as is fitting. Yet a man is annoyed at having an authority above himself, and passes the period of life in being vexed thereat. Although that hurts not your . . . Do not plunder the house of your neighbors, seize not by force the goods which are beside you. Exclaim not then against that which you hear, and do not feel humiliated. It is necessary to reflect when one is hindered by it that the pressure of authority is felt also by one's neighbor.  Do not make . . . you know that there are obstacles to the water which comes to its hinder part, and that there is no trickling of that which is in its bosom. Let it not . . . after having corrupted his heart.

If you aim at polished manners, call not him whom you accost. Converse with him especially in such a way as not to annoy him. Enter on a discussion with him only after having left him time to saturate his mind with the subject of the conversation. If he lets his ignorance display itself, and if he gives you all opportunity to disgrace him, treat him with courtesy rather; proceed not to drive him into a corner; do not . . . the word to him; answer not in a crushing manner; crush him not; worry him not; in order that in his turn he may not return to the subject, but depart to the profit of your conversation.

Let your countenance be cheerful during the time of your existence. When we see one departing from the storehouse who has entered in order to bring his share of provision, with his face contracted, it shows that his stomach is empty and that authority is offensive to him. Let not that happen to you; it is . . .  Know those who are faithful to you when you are in low estate. Your merit then is worth more than those who did you honor. His . . ., behold that which a man possesses completely. That is of more importance than his high rank; for this is a matter which passes from one to another. The merit of one's son is advantageous to the father, and that which he really is, is worth more than the remembrance of his father's rank.

Distinguish the superintendent who directs from the workman, for manual labor is little elevated; the inaction of the hands is honorable. If a man is not in the evil way, that which places him there is the want of subordination to authority. If you take a wife, do not . . . Let her be more contented than any of her fellow-citizens. She will be attached to you doubly, if her chain is pleasant. Do not repel her; grant that which pleases her; it is to her contentment that she appreciates your work.  If you hear those things which I have said to you, your wisdom will be fully advanced. Although they are the means which are suitable for arriving at the maat, and it is that which makes them precious, their memory would recede from the mouth of men. But thanks to the beauty of their arrangement in rhythm all their words will now be carried without alteration over this earth eternally. That will create a canvass to be embellished, whereof the great will speak, in order to instruct men in its sayings. After having listened to them the pupil will become a master, even he who shall have properly listened to the sayings because he shall have heard them. Let him win success by placing himself in the first rank; that is for him a position perfect and durable, and he has nothing further to desire forever. By knowledge his path is assured, and he is made happy by it on the earth. The wise man is satiated by knowledge; he is a great man through his own merits. His tongue is in accord with his mind; just are his lips when he speaks, his eyes when he gazes, his ears when he hears. The advantage of his son is to do that which is just without deceiving himself.

To attend therefore profits the son of him who has attended. To attend is the result of the fact that one has attended. A teachable auditor is formed, because I have attended. Good when he has attended, good when he speaks, he who has attended has profited, and it is profitable to attend to him who has attended. To attend is worth more than anything else, for it produces love, the good thing that is twice good. The son who accepts the instruction of his father will grow old on that account. What Ptah loves is that one should attend; if one attends not, it is abhorrent to Ptah. The heart makes itself its own master when it attends and when it does not attend; but if it attends, then his heart is a beneficent master to a man. In attending to instruction, a man loves what he attends to, and to do that which is prescribed is pleasant. When a son attends to his father, it is a twofold joy for both; when wise things are prescribed to him, the son is gentle toward his master. Attending to him who has attended when such things have been prescribed to him, he engraves upon his heart that which is approved by his father; and the recollection of it is preserved in the mouth of the living who exist upon this earth.

When a son receives the instruction of his father there is no error in all his plans. Train your son to be a teachable man whose wisdom is agreeable to the great. Let him direct his mouth according to that which has been said to him; in the docility of a son is discovered his wisdom. His conduct is perfect while error carries away the unteachable. Tomorrow knowledge will support him, while the ignorant will be destroyed.

As for the man without experience who listens not, he effects nothing whatsoever. He sees knowledge in ignorance, profit in loss; he commits all kinds of error, always accordingly choosing the contrary of what is praiseworthy. He lives on that which is mortal, in this fashion. His food is evil words, whereat he is filled with astonishment. That which the great know to be mortal he lives upon every day, flying from that which would be profitable to him, because of the multitude of errors which present themselves before him every day.

A son who attends is like a follower of Horus; he is happy after having attended. He becomes great, he arrives at dignity, he gives the same lesson to his children. Let none innovate upon the precepts of his father; let the same precepts form his lessons to his children. "Verily," will his children say to him, "to accomplish what you say works marvels." Cause therefore that to flourish which is just, in order to nourish your children with it. If the teachers allow themselves to be led toward evil principles, verily the people who understand them not will speak accordingly, and that being said to those who are docile they will act accordingly. Then all the world considers them as masters and they inspire confidence in the public; but their glory endures not so long as would please them. Take not away then a word from the ancient teaching, and add not one; put not one thing in place of another; beware of uncovering the rebellious ideas which arise in you; but teach according to the words of the wise. Attend if you wish to dwell in the mouth of those who shall attend to your words, when you have entered upon the office of master, that your words may be upon our lips . . . and that there may be a chair from which to deliver your arguments.

Let your thoughts be abundant, but let your mouth be under restraint, and you shall argue with the great. Put yourself in unison with the ways of your master; cause him to say: "He is my son," so that those who shall hear it shall say "Praise be to her who has borne him to him!" Apply yourself while you speak; speak only of perfect things; and let the great who shall hear you say: "Twice good is that which issues from his mouth!"

Do that which your master bids you. Twice good is the precept of his father, from whom he has issued, from his flesh. What he tells us, let it be fixed in our heart; to satisfy him greatly let us do for him more than he has prescribed. Verily a good son is one of the gifts of Ptah, a son who does even better than he has been told to do. For his master he does what is satisfactory, putting himself with all his heart on the part of right. So I shall bring it about that your body shall be healthful, that the Pharaoh shall be satisfied with you in all circumstances and that you shall obtain years of life without default. It has caused me on earth to obtain one hundred and ten years of life, along with the gift of the favor of the Pharoah among the first of those whom their works have ennobled, satisfying the Pharoah in a place of dignity.

It is finished, from its beginning to its end, according to that which is found in writing.

 

 

9 axioms of Tehuti

1. The Principle of Mentalism: THE ALL is mind; The Universe is mental

2. The Principle of Correspondence : As above, so below ; as below, so above.

3. The Principle of Vibration: Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.

4. The Principle of Polarity: Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has it’s pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites Are identical in nature but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.

5. The Principle of Gender: Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.

6. The Principle of Rhythm: Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; Rhythm compensates.

7. The Principle of Causality: Every cause has its Effect; every Effect has its cause; everything happens according to law; Chance is but a name for law not recognized; there are several planes of causation but nothing escapes The Law.

8. The Principle of Growth and Creation: Growth is a manifestation of size altering from one point in time and space to another. Creation is a manifestation of beginning and on to a specific designated point as found in the seed of thought that initiates the idea of creation.

9. The Principle of Breathing: Everything appears to be breathing inward and outward. This appears to be the principle by which one acknowledges life, but in actuality, true life existed before the breath, or the necessity to breathe to exist.

The Stanzas of Dyzan

STANZA I

The Secret of the Fire lieth hid in the second letter of the Sacred Word. The mystery of life is concealed within the heart. When the lower point vibrates, when the sacred triangle glows, when the point, the middle center, and the apex, connect and circulate the Fire, when the threefold apex likewise burns, then the two triangles—the greater and the lesser—merge into one flame, which burneth up the whole.

STANZA II

"AUM," said the Mighty One, and sounded forth the Word. The sevenfold waves of matter resolved themselves, and varied forms appeared. Each took its place, each in the sphere ordained. They waited for the sacred flood to enter and to fill.

The Builders responded to the sacred sound. In musical collaboration they attended to the work. They built in many spheres, beginning with the third. Upon this plane their work commenced. They built the sheath of atma and strung it to its Primary.

"AUM," said the Mighty One. "Let now the work proceed. Let the Builders of the air continue with the plan."

The Deva-Lord and Builders upon the plane of air worked with the forms within that sphere which is reckoned mainly theirs. They wrought for union, each in his group assigned. The moulds grew fast beneath their hands.

The sacred plane of juncture, the fourth great plane, became the sphere within the greater circle which marked the goal for man.

"AUM," said the Mighty One, He breathed forth to the fifth, the plane which is the burning-ground, the meeting place for fire. This time a cosmic note is heard beneath the sound systemic. The fire within, the fire without, meet with the fire ascending. The guardians of the cosmic fire, the devas of fohatic heat, watched o'er the forms that formless stood, waiting a point in time.

The builders of a lesser grade, devas who work with matter, wrought at the forms. They stood in fourfold order. Upon the threefold levels in empty silence stood the forms. They vibrated, they responded to the key, yet useless stood and uninhabited.

"AUM," said the Mighty One, "let the waters too bring forth." The builders of the watery sphere, the denizens of moisture, produced the forms that move within the kingdom of Varuna. They grew and multiplied. In constant flux they swayed. Each ebb of cosmic motion increased the endless flow. The ripple of the forms was seen.

"AUM," said the Mighty One, "let the Builders deal with matter." The molten solidified. The solid forms were built. The crust cooled. The rocks congealed. The builders wrought in tumult to produce the forms of maya. When the rocky strata were completed the work stood in completion. The builders of the lowest grade announced the work was finished.

Forth from the rocky strata emerged the covering next. The builders of the second agreed the work was done. The first and second on the upward way stood forth in fourfold form. The inner five was somewhat seen by those whose sight was keen.

"AUM," said the Mighty One, and gathered in His Breath. The spark within the peopling third impelled to further growth. The builders of the lowest forms, manipulating densest maya, merged their production with the forms built by the watery ones. Matter and water merged produced the third in time. Ascension thus progressed. The builders worked in union. They called the guardians of the fiery zone. Matter and water mixed with fire, the inner spark within the form were blended all together.

The Mighty One looked down. The forms met His approval. Forth came the cry for further light. Again He gathered in the sound. He drew to higher levels the feeble spark of light. Another tone was heard, the sound of cosmic fire, hid in the Sons of Manas. They called to their Primaries. The lower four, the higher three, and the cosmic fifth met at the great inbreathing. Another sheath was formed.

STANZA III

The great Wheel turned upon itself. The seven lesser wheels rushed into being. They revolve like their Mother, around, within and forward. All that existeth was.

The wheels were diverse, and in unification, one. As evolved the great Wheel, the inner fire burst forth. It touched into life wheel the first. It circulated. A million fires rose up. The quality of matter densified, but form was not. The Sons of God arose, scanned the depth of Flame, took from its heart the sacred Stone of Fire, and proceeded to the next.

In turning next the Great Wheel launched the second. Again the flame burst forth, took to its heart the Stone and proceeded in revolution. The Sons of God again arose, and sought within the flame. "The form sufficeth not," they said, "remove from without the fire."

Faster revolved the greater Wheel, blue white emerged the flame. The Sons of God again came down and a lesser wheel revolved. Seven times the revolution, and seven times great the heat. More solid grew the formless mass, and deeper sank the Stone. To the heart of inmost fire the sacred Stone went down. This time the work was better done, and the product more perfected. At the seventh revolution, the third wheel rendered back the Stone. Triple the form, rosy the light, and sevenfold the eternal principle.

From out the greater Wheel, down from the vault of heaven, came into light the lesser wheel that counted as the fourth. The eternal Lhas looked down, and the Sons of God reached forth. Down to the inmost point of death They flung the

sacred Stone. The plaudits of the Chohans rose. The work had turned a point. From the pit of outer darkness, They gathered forth the Stone, translucent now and unalloyed, of colour rose and blue.

The turning of the fifth wheel and its action on the Stone rendered it still more fit. Yellow the blending tint, orange the inner fire, till yellow, rose and blue mingled their subtle tones. The four wheels with the greater worked thus upon the Stone till all the Sons of God acclaimed, and said: "The work is done."

STANZA IV

In revolution fifth of the great Wheel the period set was reached. The lesser wheel, that responded to that fifth great turn, passed through the cycle and entered into peace.

The lesser wheels come forth and likewise do their work. The great Wheel gathers back the emanating sparks. The Five dealt with the work, the lesser two but wrought with detail. The Stone had gathered fire, lambent with flame it shone. The outer sheath met not the need till the sixth wheel and the seventh had passed it through their fires.

The Sons of God emerged from out their source, gazed on the sevenfold work, and stated it was good. The Stone was set alone. In dual revolution moved the greater Wheel. The fourth Lord of the greater Twelve handled the work of sevenfold fire. "It is not fit," He said, "merge thou this Stone within the wheel which started revolution."

The lords of the greater seven plunged the Stone within the moving wheel. The lords of the greater fifth and sixth likewise plunged their Stone.

Within the fire, deep at the inmost sphere, as whirled through space the greater Wheel, bearing the lesser seven, the two were fused. The fourth, the fifth, the sixth blended, merged and intermingled.

The aeon closed, the work was done. The stars stood still. The eternal Ones cried to inmost heaven: "Display the work. Draw forth the Stones." And lo, the Stones were one.

STANZA V

The moment manvantaric, for which had waited all the Triads, the hour that marked the solemn point of juncture, arrived within the scope of time, and lo, the work was done.

The hour for which the seven groups purushic, each vibrant to the sounding of the Word, seeking the adding of the power, had waited for millennia, passed in a flash of time, and lo, the work was done.

The First Degree in mighty acclamation deeming the hour propitious, sounded the triple note in threefold reverberation. The echo reached the goal. They three times sent it forth. Restless the sphere of blue felt the vibration and answering, roused herself and hastened to the call.

The Second, with wise insistence, hearing the First sound forth, knowing the hour had likewise come, echoed the sound or note quadruple. This fourfold reverberation circled the gamut of the spheres. Again it was sent forth. Three times the note was sounded, pealing across the heavens. At the third intoning came the answer to the call. Vibrant as a key attuned, the eternal Primary replied. The blue to the dense one answered and responded to the need.

Quivering the sphere heard the third take up the note, pealing it forth, a full-toned chord smote on the ears of the Watchers of the Flame.

The Lords of Flame arose and prepared Themselves. It was decision's hour. The seven Lords of the seven spheres watched breathless the result. The great Lord of sphere the fourth awaited the oncoming.

The lower was prepared. The upper was resigned. The great Five waited for the point of equidistant merging. The foundation note ascended. Deep answered unto deep. The fivefold chord awaited the response from Those Whose hour had come.

Dark grew the space between the spheres. Radiant two balls became. The threefold thirty-five, finding the distance just, flashed like a sheet of intermittent flame, and lo, the work was done. The great Five met the Three and Four. The point intermediate was achieved. The hour of sacrifice, the sacrifice of Flame, arrived, and for aeons hath endured. The timeless Ones entered into time. The Watchers began Their task, and lo, the work proceeds.

STANZA VI

Within the cavern dark the fourfold one groped for expansion and for further light. No light above, and all around the gloom enveloped. Pitchy the darkness that surrounded it. To the innermost centre of the heart, throbbing without the Warming Light, crept in the icy cold of uttermost darkness.

Above the cavern dark shone all the light of day; yet the fourfold one saw it not, nor did the light pervade.

The rending of the cavern precedes the light of day. Great, then, must be the shattering. No help is found within the cave, nor any hidden light. Around the fourfold one lieth the vault of stone; beneath him menaceth the root of blackness, of utter denseness; beside him and above, naught but the same is seen.

The threefold Watchers know and see. The fourfold is now ready; the work of denseness is completed; the vehicle prepared.

Soundeth the trump of shattering. Blinding the power of the oncoming flame. The mystic earthquake rocks the cavern; the burning Flames disintegrate the maya, and lo, the work is done.

Gone is the gloom and the blackness; rent is the cavern's roof. The light of life shines in; the warmth inspires. The Lords on-looking see the work commence. The fourfold one becomes the seven. The chant of those who flame rises to all creation. The moment of achievement is attained.

Proceedeth the work anew. Creation moveth on its way, while waxeth the light within the cavern.

STANZA VII

Riseth the cave of beauty rare, of colour iridescent. Shineth the walls with azure tint, bathed in the light of rose.

blending shade of blue irradiates the whole and all is merged in gleaming.

Within the cave of iridescent colour, within its arching circle, standeth the fivefold One demanding further light. He struggleth for expansion, he wrestleth towards the day. The Five demand the greater Sixth and Seventh. The surrounding beauty meeteth not the need. The inner warmth sufficeth but to feed the urge for FIRE.

The Lords of Flame look on; they chant aloud: "The time is come, that time for which We wait. Let the Flame become the FIRE and let the light shine forth."

The effort of the Flame within the crystal cave becometh ever greater. The cry goes forth for other aid from other Flaming Souls. The response comes.

The Lord of Flame, the Ancient One, the Mighty Lord of Fire, the Point of Blue within the hidden diamond, the Youth of Timeless Aeons, assisteth in the work. The inner burning light and the outer waiting fire, together with the ROD, meet on the sphere of crystal, and lo, the work is done. The crystal rends and quivers.

Seven times the work proceeds. Seven the efforts made. Seven the applications of the Rod, held by a Lord of Flame. Three are the lesser touches; four the divine assistance. At the final fourth the work is done and the whole cave disrupts. The lighted flame within spreads through the rending walls. It mounteth to its Source. Another fire is merged; another point of blue findeth its place within the diadem logoic.

STANZA VIII

The greater Three, each with their seven lesser wheels, in spiral evolution, rotate within the timeless Now, and move as one. The cosmic Lords from Their high place, view the past, control the Now, and ponder on the Day be with us.

The Lhas of the eternal Sound, the product of the time that was, surmount the sevenfold display. Within the Ring-pass-not the Word of Love sounds forth.

The sevenfold Lords proceed with just vibration to carry out the work. They sound forth each a note of the deep logoic chord. Each to His greater Lord makes record due. In the solemn breathing forth the forms are built, the colour just apportioned, and the flame within reveals itself with ever growing light.

Blue to the green is added and completion quick is seen. The vibration of the third is added to the one. Blue to the orange blends, and in their wise admixture is seen the stable scheme. To the yellow and the red, to the purple and the ultimate is the vibration of the seventh adjusted as the Primary.

Each of the seven Lords, within Their seven schemes, adjusted to the second karmic circle, merge Their migrating spheres and blend Their myriad atoms.

The forms through which They work, the lesser million spheres, the cause of separation and the curse of the Asuras, shatter when sounds the Sacred Word within a point in time.

The life logoic surges out. The streams of colour melt together. The forms are left behind, and Parabrahm stands complete. The Lord of the cosmic Third utters a Word unknown. The sevenfold lesser Word forms part of the vaster chord.

The Now becomes the time that was. The aeon mergeth into space. The Word of Motion hath been heard. The Word of Love succeedeth. The Past controlled the form. The Now evolves the life. The Day that is to be sounds forth the Word of Power.

The form perfected and the life evolved hold the third secret of the greater Wheel. It is the hidden mystery of living motion. The mystery, lost in the Now but known to the Lord of Cosmic Will.

STANZA IX

The thirty thousand million Watchers refused to heed the call. "We enter not the forms," they said, "until the seventh aeon." The twice thirty thousand million hearkened to the call and took the forms designed.

The rebellious ones laughed within themselves, and sought pralayic peace until the seventh aeon. But the seven great Lords called to the greater Chohans, and with the eternal Lhas of the third cosmic heaven entered into debate.

The dictum then went forth. The laggards in the highest sphere heard it echo through the scheme. "Not till the seventh aeon, but at the fourteenth seventh will the chance again come round. The first shall be the last and time be lost for aeons."

The obedient Sons of Mind connected with the Sons of Heart, and evolution spiralled on its way. The Sons of Power stayed in their appointed place, though cosmic karma forced a handful to join the Sons of Heart.

At the fourteenth seventh aeon, the Sons of Mind and Heart, absorbed by endless flame, will join the Sons of Will, in manvantaric manifestation. Three times the wheel will turn.

At the centre stand the buddhas of activity, helped by the lords of love, and following their twofold work will come the radiant lords of power.

The buddhas of creation from out the past have come. The buddhas of love are gathering now. The buddhas of will at the final turn of the third major wheel will flash into being. The end will then be consummated.

STANZA X

The Fifth progresseth and from the remnants of the Fourth multiplied and reproduced. The waters arose. All sank and was submerged. The sacred remnant, in the place appointed, emerged at later date from out the zone of safety.

The waters dissipated. The solid ground emerged in certain destined places. The Fifth o'er-ran the Sacred Land, and in their fivefold groups developed the lower Fifth.

They passed from stage to stage. The watching Lords, recognising the rupas formed, gave a sign to the circulating Fourth and it speeded faster on its way. When the lesser Fifth had midway passed and all the lesser four were peopling

the land, the Lords of Dark Intent arose. They said: "Not so shall go the force. The forms and rupas of the third and fourth, within the corresponding Fifth, approach too close the archetype. The work is far too good."

They constructed other forms. They called for cosmic fire. The seven deep pits of hell belched forth the animating shades. The incoming seventh reduced to order all the forms,–the white, the dark, the red, and shaded brown.

The period of destruction extended far on either hand. The work was sadly marred. The Chohans of the highest plane gazed in silence on the work. The Asuras and the Chaitans, the Sons of Cosmic Evil, and the Rishis of the darkest constellations, gathered their lesser hosts, the darkest spawn of hell. They darkened all the space.

* * * * * From the coming of the heaven-sent One peace passed upon the earth. The planet staggered and belched forth fire. Part rose. Part fell. The form was changed. Millions took other forms or ascended to the appointed place of waiting. They tarried till the hour of progress should again sound forth for them.

* * * * *

The early Third produced the monsters, great beasts and evil forms. They prowled upon the surface of the sphere.

The watery Fourth produced within the watery sphere, reptiles and spawn of evil fame, the product of their karma. The waters came and swept away the progenitors of the fluidic spawn.

The separating Fifth built in the rupa sphere the concrete forms of thought. They cast them forth. They peopled the lower four, and like a black and evil cloud shut out the light of day. The higher three were hid.

* * * * *

The war upon the planet had been waged. Both sides descended into hell. Then came the Conqueror of form. He drew on the Sacred Fire, and purified the rupa levels. The fire destroyed the lands in the days of the lesser Sixth.

When the Sixth appeared the land was changed. The surface of the globe circled through another cycle. Men of the higher Fifth mastered the lower three. The work was shifted to the plane whereon the Pilgrim stood. The lesser triangle within the lower auric egg became the centre of cosmic dissonance.

STANZA XI

The wheel of life turns within the wheel of outer form.

The matter of Fohat circulateth, and its fire hardeneth all the forms. The wheel that is not glimpsed moveth in rapid revolution within the slower outer case, till it weareth out the form.

The forty-nine fires burn at the inner centre. The thirty-five circulating fiery vortices extend along the circle of the periphery. Between the two passeth in ordered sequence the various coloured flames.

The great Triangles in their just arrangement hold hid the secret of the wheel of life. The cosmic fire radiates as directed from the second sphere, controlled by the Ruler of the merging ray. The cohorts of the third encircling sphere in varied ranks mark out the lesser threes.

The wheel of life still moves within the form. The devas of the fourth connect the thirty-five, and blend them with the central forty-nine. Above they work, seeking to merge the whole. Upward they strive, who in their myriad forms revolve within the wheels of lesser magnitude. The whole is one, yet on the lower spheres only the forms appear. They seem in their divisions more than can be grasped or met.

The many circulate. The forms are built, become too firm, are broken by the life, and circulate again. The few revolve, holding the many in the heat of motion. The one embraces all, and carries all from great activity into the heart of cosmic peace.

STANZA XII

The Blessed Ones hide Their threefold nature but reveal Their triple essence by means of the three great groups of atoms. Three are the atoms and threefold the radiation.

The inner core of Fire hides itself and is known only through radiation and that which radiates. Only after the blaze dies out and the heat is no longer felt can the fire be known.

STANZA XIII

Through the band of violet that encircleth the Heavens passeth the globe of purple dark. It passeth and returneth not. It becometh enrapt in the blue. Three times the blue enfoldeth, and when the cycle is completed the purple fadeth and is merged into the rose, and the path again is traversed.

Three the great colours in the cycle that counteth as the fourth, violet, blue and rose, with the basic purple in revolution.

Four are the colours secondary in the cycle of discrimination in which the revolution taketh place. It is circled to the midmost point and somewhat passed. Yellow the band that cometh, orange the cloud that hideth, and green for vivification. Yet the time is not yet.

Many the circling fires; many the revolving rounds, but only when the complementary colours recognise their source, and the whole adjusteth itself to the seven will be seen completion. Then will be seen each colour in adjustment right, and the cessation of revolution.

 

The Instructions of Ankhsheshonq are found in British Museum, papyrus 10508 and consists of 28 columns where large parts are missing. Its origin is unknown but the handwriting has been dated to the late Ptolemaic period, although it is believed that it could have come from an earlier source. It begins with a long introduction, describing the circumstances of why these instructions were written. The numbers within parenthesis refer to the lines on the papyrus I should think. The letters within brackets [ ] mean that they are missing from the original text and are filled in afterwards. The lines ---- indicate text missing and not possible to fill in:

"Mistreatment and misery, o great lord Pre!
Imprisonment, mistreatment is what is done to me in return for not having killed a man!
This is what you despise, my great lord Pre! Is this not how Pre is angry with a land?
Oh (21) you people who shall find these potsherds, hear from me how Pre is angry with a land!

 
(5,1)[When Pre is angry]with a land he causes-----
82) [When] Pre is angry with a land its rulers neglects the law.
(3) When Pre is angry with a land he makes law cease in it.
(4) When Pre is angry with a land he makes sanctity cease in it.
(5) When Pre is angry with a land he makes justice cease in it.
(6) When Pre is angry with a land he makes value scarce in it.
(7) When Pre is angry with a land he does not let one be trusting in it.
(8) When Pre is angry with a land he does not let one [receive ransom] [in]it.
(9) When Pre is angry with a land he makes great its humble people and humbles its great people.
(10) When Pre is angry with a land he sets the fools over the wise.
(11) When Pre is angry with a land he orders its ruler to mistreat its people.
(12) When Pre is angry with a land he appoints his scribe to rule it.
(13) When Pre is angry with a land he appoints its washerman as chief. of police.

(6,x)-----
(6,1) S(erve your) god, that he may guard you.
(2) Serve your brothers, that you may have good repute.
(3) Serve a wise man, that he may serve you.
(4) Serve him who serves you.
(5) Serve any man, that you may find profit.
(6) Serve your father and mother, that you may go and prosper.
(7) Examine every matter, that you may understand it.
(8) Be gentle and patient, then your heart will be beautiful.
(9) It is in maturity that instrucion succeeds.
(10) Do not rely on the property of another,
saying," I will live on it"; acquire your own.
(11) Do not abuse when you fare well, lest you fare bady.
(12) Do not send a low woman on a business of yours; she will go after her own.
(13) Do not send a wise man in a small matter when a big matter is waiting.
(14) Do not send a fool in a big matter when there is a wise man whom you can send.
(15) Do not send into town when you may find trouble in it.
(16) Do not long for your home when you do an errand.
(17) Do not long for your home to drink beer in it in midday.
(18) Do not pamper your body, lest you become weak.
(19) Do not pamper yourself when you are young, lest you be weak when you are old.
(20) Do not hate a man to his face when you know nothing of him.
(21) Do not fret so long as you own something.
(22) Do not worry so long as you know something.
(23) Do not fret at all.
(24) Do not fret about your occupation.

(7,1)------
(2) Force (your son), do not let your servant force him.
(3) Do not spare your son work when you can make him do it.
(4) Do not instruct a fool, lest he hate you.
(5) Do not instruct him who will not listen to you.
(6) Do not rely on a fool.
(7) Do not rely on the property of an idiot.
(8) Do not hide and then let yourself be found.
(9) Do not hide when you have no food.
(10) He who hides when he has no food is in the place
of one who seeks it.
(11) Do not go away and then come back of your own accord.
(12) Do not run away after you´ve been beaten,
lest your punishment be doubled.
(13) Do not insult your superior.
(14) Do not neglect to serve your god.
(15) Do not neglect to serve your master.
(16) Do not neglect to serve him who can serve you.
(17) Do not neglect to acquire a manservant and a maidservant when you are able to do so.
(18) A servant who is not beaten is full of curses in his heart.
(19) A small man with great wrath makes much stench.
(20) A great man with small wrath gets much praise.
(21) Do not say "young man" to one who is old.
(22) Do not belittle an old man in your heart.
(23) Do not speak hastily, lest you give offense.
(24) Do not say right away what comes out of your heart.

(8,1)----------
(2) Learning and foolishness belong to the people of your town; respect the people of your town.
(3) Do not says "I am learned"; set yourself to become wise.
(4) Do not do a thing that you have not first examined.
(5) Examining makes your good fortune.
(6) If you examine three wise men about a matter it is perfect; the outcome lies with the great god.
(7) Do dwell by your body in your days of well-being.
(8) There is no one who does not die.
(9) Do not withdraw from a scribe who is being taken to the house of detention.
(10) If you withdraw from him they will take him to his house of eternity.
(11) Do not go to court against your superior
when you do not have protection (against) him.
(12) Do not take yourself a woman whose husband is alive,
lest he become your enemy.
(13) In strait times or happy times wealth grows
because of spreading it.
(14) May your fate not be the fate of one who begs and is given.
(15) When you work the land do not pamper your body.
(16) Do not say "Here is my brother´s acre"; look to your own.
(17) The wealth of a town is a lord who does justice.
(18) The wealth of a temple is the priest.
(19) The wealth of a field is the time when it is worked.
(20) The wealth of a treasury is in (being in) a single hand.
(21) The wealth of property is a wise woman.
(22) The wealth of a wise man is his speech.

 

 

 

 

 

Hail, Usekh-nemmt, who comes  from Anu,
  I have not committed sin.
Hail, Hept-khet, who comes  from Kher-aha,
   I have not committed robbery with violence.
Hail, Fanti, who comes  from Khemenu,
  I have not stolen.
Hail, Am-khaibit, who comes  from Qernet,
  I have not slain men and women.
Hail, Neha-her, who comes  from Rasta,
  I have not stolen grain.
Hail, Ruruti, who comes  from heaven,
  I have not purloined offerings.
Hail, Arfi-em-khet, who comes  from Suat,
  I have not stolen the property of God.
Hail, Neba, who comes and goes,
  I have not uttered lies.
Hail, Set-qesu, who comes  from Hensu,
  I have not carried away food.
Hail, Utu-nesert, who comes  from Het-ka-Ptah,
   I have not uttered curses.
Hail, Qerrti, who comes  from Amentet,
  I have not committed adultery, I have not lain with men.
Hail, Her-f-ha-f, who comes  from your cavern,
  I have made none to weep.
Hail, Basti, who comes  from Bast,
  I have not eaten the heart.
Hail, Ta-retiu, who comes  from the night,
  I have not attacked any man.
Hail, Unem-snef, who comes  from the execution chamber,
  I am not a man of deceit.
Hail, Unem-besek, who comes  from Mabit,
  I have not stolen cultivated land.
Hail, Neb-Maat, who comes  from Maati,
  I have not been an eavesdropper.
Hail, Tenemiu, who comes  from Bast,
  I have not slandered any man.
Hail, Sertiu, who comes  from Anu,
   I have not been angry without just cause.
Hail, Tutu, who comes  from Ati,
   I have not violated the wife of any man.
Hail, Uamenti, who comes  from the Khebt chamber,
  I have not violated the wife of any man.
Hail, Maa-antuf, who comes  from Per-Menu,
  I have not polluted myself.
Hail, Her-uru, who comes  from Nehatu,
  I have terrorized none.
Hail, Khemiu, who comes  from Kaui,
  I have not broken the law.
Hail, Shet-kheru, who comes  from Urit,
  I have not been irate.
Hail, Nekhenu, who comes  from Heqat,
  I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
Hail, Kenemti, who comes  from Kenmet,
   I have not blasphemed.
Hail, An-hetep-f, who comes  from Sau,
   I am not a man of violence.
Hail, Sera-kheru, who comes  from Unaset,
   I have not been a stirrer up of strife.
Hail, Neb-heru, who comes  from Netchfet,
  I have not acted with undue haste.
Hail, Sekhriu, who comes  from Uten,
   I have not pried into matters.
Hail, Neb-abui, who comes  from Sauti,
  I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
Hail, Nefer-Tem, who comes  from Het-ka-Ptah,
  I have wronged none, I have done no evil.
Hail, Tem-Sepu, who comes  from Tetu,
  I have not worked witchcraft against the king.
Hail, Ari-em-ab-f, who comes  from Tebu,
  I have never stopped the flow of water.
Hail, Ahi, who comes  from Nu,
   I have never raised my voice.
Hail, Uatch-rekhit, who comes  from Sau,
  I have not cursed God.
Hail, Neheb-ka, who comes  from thy cavern,
   I have not acted with arrogance.
Hail, Neheb-nefert, who comes  from thy cavern,
I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
Hail, Tcheser-tep, who comes  from the shrine,
  I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead.
Hail, An-af, who comes  from Maati,
   I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
Hail, Hetch-abhu, who comes  from Ta-she,
  I have not slain the cattle belonging to the god

 

 The Instruction of Merikare

    [Here begins the teaching which King /// made] for his son Merikare [///].

    As for [///] his kinsfolk [///] the citizens [///] him, and his partisans are many in sum [///] enter [///] he is pleasing in the sight of his serfs, being firmly established in [///].

    A talker is a mischief-maker, suppress him, kill [him], erase his name, [destroy] his kinsfolk, suppress the remembrance of him and his partisans who love him.

    A violent man is a confuser of the citizens who always makes partisans of the younger generation. If now you find someone belonging to the citizenry [///] and his deeds have passed beyond you, accuse him before the entourage and suppress [him], for he is a rebel indeed; a talker is a mischief-maker. Bend the multitude and drive out hot temper from it; [///] will not rise [in] rebellion by means of the poor man when he is made to rebel.  [The mind] of the underling is confused; the army [///]; put an end to it by mixing [///]. Many are angry, for men are put in the labour establishment.

    Be lenient [///] when you oppose; when you fatten [herds, the people] are in joy. Justify yourself in the presence of God; then men will say [///] you [plan]. You shall contend against wrong [///] a good disposition is a man's heaven, but vilification by the ill-disposed man is dangerous.

    Be skillful in speech, that you may be strong; [///] it is the strength of [///] the tongue, and words are braver than all fighting; none can circumvent the clever man [///] on the mat; a wise man is a [school] for the magnates, and those who are aware of his knowledge do not attack him. [Falsehood] does not exist near him, but truth comes to him in full essence, after the manner of what the ancestors said.   

    Copy your forefathers, for [work] is carried out through knowledge; see, their words endure in writing. Open, that you may read and copy knowledge; (even) the expert will become one who is instructed.

    Do not be evil, for patience is good; make your lasting monument in the love of you. Multiply [the people] whom the city has enfolded; then will God be praised because of rewards; men will watch over your [///] and give thanks for your goodness, and your health will be prayed for [///].     Copy your forefathers, for [work] is carried out through knowledge: In the absence of formal schooling the direct transmission of knowledge from father to son was crucial.

 

    Respect the great; keep your people safe; consolidate your frontier and your patrolled area, for it is good to work for the future. Show respect [///] life for the clear-sighted, but the trusting man will suffer pain. Let men be sent [///] through your kindly disposition. Wretched is he who has bound the land to himself [///] a fool is he who is greedy when others posses. [Life] on earth passes away, it is not long; he is fortunate who [has a good] remembrance in it. No man goes straight forward, (even though) a million belong to the Lord of the Two Lands. [///] shall live forever; he who comes from the hand of Osiris shall depart, just as he who is self-indulgent shall be lost.

    Respect the great: in a conservative society like ancient Egypt preserving the social fabric with all its inequalities was part of upholding Maat.

  keep your people safe: Privilege went hand in hnd with obligations to ones social inferiors.

 

    Make your magnates great, that they may execute your laws; one who is rich in his house will not be one-sided, for he who does not lack is an owner of property; a poor man does not speak truly, and one who says, "Would that I had," is not straightforward; he is one-sided toward the possessor of rewards. Great is the great one whose great ones are great; valiant is a king who owns an entourage; and august is he who is rich in magnates. Speak truth in your house, so that the magnates who are on earth may respect you, for a sovereign's renown (lies in) straightforwardness; it is the front room of a house that inspires the back room with respect.

    execute your laws: There was no separation of powers, as we would define it. The executive and the judicial branch of government were essentially the same. cf Law and Order

 

    Do justice, that you may live long upon earth. Calm the weeper, do not oppress the widow, do not oust a man from his father's property, do not degrade magnates from their seats. Beware of punishing wrongfully; do not kill, for it will not profit you, but punish with beatings and with imprisonment, for thus the land will be set in order, excepting only the rebel who has conspired, for God knows those who are disaffected, and God will smite down his evil doing with blood. It is the lenient man who [///] lifetime; so do not kill a man of whose ability you are aware, and with whom you once recited writings, but read in the account [///] because of God, and stride forward freely in a difficult place. The soul comes to the place which it knows, and it will not overstep the ways of the past; no magic can oppose it, and it will reach those who will give it water.

    live long upon earth: and in the next world. Being free of sin was essential for the survival of the "soul", cf. The negative confessions

  his father's property: It was part of the proper ways of the world, of Maat, that a man should follow in his father's footsteps, inheriting his social position, profession and property.

  do not kill, ///..: Death sentences were generally imposed only for murder (cf. Law and Order)

 

    As for the tribunal which judges the needy, you know that they will not be lenient on that day of judging the poor; in the hour of exercising (their) function, wretched is he who is accused as a wise man. Do not put your trust in length of years, for they regard a lifetime as an hour; a man survives after death, and his deeds are laid before him in a heap. Existence yonder is eternal, and he who complains of it is a fool, but as for him who attains it, he will be like a god yonder, striding forward like the lords of eternity.     tribunal: In ancient Egypt, cases, when they were not simple administative matters, were often heard by tribunals (kenbet) rather than by single judges.

The gods too were thought to convene as tribunals (cf. the Ennead in the Contendings of Horus and Seth) 

    Raise up your young troops, that the Residence may love you. Multiply your partisans as neighbours; see, your towns are full of newly settled folk. It is for twenty years that the rising generation is happy in following its desire, and neighbours come forth again; he who is caused to enter goes in for himself by means of children [///]. Ancient times have fought for us, and I raised (troops) from them at my accession. Make your magnates great, promote your [warriors], increase the rising generation of your retainers, they being equipped with knowledge, established with lands, and endowed with cattle.

    Do not distinguish the son of a man of rank from a commoner, but take a man to yourself because of his actions, so that every craft may be carried on [///] for the possessor of strength.     Do not distinguish the son of a man of rank from a commoner: Pharaohs would be surrounded mostly by people belonging to the same social class, i.e. noblemen, and the temptation to appoint those one is familiar with is great, above all when they have political influence. Some servants frequently in the presence of the king, like butlers and sandal-bearers, had at times extraordinarily successful careers (c.f. The autobiography of Weni) 

    Guard your frontier, marshal your fortresses, for troops are profitable to their master.

    Construct [fine] monuments to God, for it means the perpetuation of the name of whoever does it, and a man should do what is profitable to his soul, (namely) monthly service as priest and the wearing of white sandals. Enrich the temple, be discreet concerning the mysteries, enter into the sanctuary, eat bread in the temple, richly provide the altars, increase the revenues, add to the daily offerings, for it is a profitable matter for whoever does it; maintain your monuments in proportion to your wealth, for a single day gives to eternity, an hour does good for the future, and God is aware of him who serves him. Dispatch your statues to a distant land of which they shall not render an inventory, for he who destroys the goods of an enemy will suffer.

    The enemy cannot be quiet (even) within Egypt, but troops shall subdue troops, in accordance with the prophecy of the ancestors about it, and men fight against Egypt (even) in the necropolis.

    Do not destroy ancient buildings with a destruction through action; I acted thus and so it happened, just as he who had transgressed likewise did against God.

    Do not deal ill with the Southern Region, for you know the prophecy of the Residence about it, and it has happened [even as] this shall happen; they shall not transgress as they said [///]. I turned back [to] Thinis [///] its southern boundary at Tawer, and I captured it like a cloudburst, though King Mer-[///]re did not do it. Be lenient about it ///. [///] renew contracts. There is no pure reason who is caused to be hidden, and it is good to act on behalf of posterity.

    You stand well with the Southern Region, for the bearers of loads come to you with produce; I did the same as the ancestors, and there was none who had corn who gave it. Be kindly to those who are weak toward you, and satisfy yourself with your own bread and beer.

    it means the perpetuation of the name: and thus immortality (cf. Body and Soul)

  Enrich the temple: By the time of the Ramessides, the temples had grown so wealthy and powerful that they could no more be challenged (cf. The Priests of Amen and the Theban Kings).

 

    Granite comes to you without hindrance, so do not destroy someone else's monuments. Hew stone in Turah, but do not build your tomb of what has been thrown down, (or of) what has been made for what is to be made.

    See, the king is a possessor of joy; you can be drowsy and you can sleep through your strength of arm; follow your desire through what I have done, for there is no enemy within your frontier.

    do not destroy someone else's monuments: an injunction ignored by most pharaohs. Ramses II, the most prolific builder, was also a ruthless destroyer of old buildings.

 

    I rose as ruler in my city, but I was anxious about the Delta from Het-shenu to Sembaka, its southern boundary being at the Canal of the Two Fishes. I pacified the west as far as the sand dunes of the Fayyum; it labors and yields meru-wood; men see wan-wood (once again) and yield it to us. But the east is rich in foreigners, and their taxes are [withheld]; the Middle Island is turned about, (and also) everyone in it. (yet) the temples say of me: O Great One, men salute you.

    See, [the land] which they destroyed is made into districts and every great city [is restored]. The governance of (each) one is in the hands of ten men, a magistrate is appointed who will levy [///] the amount of all taxes. The priest is provided with a farm, and men work for you like a single gang.

    How is it that disaffection does not occur? (Because) you will not suffer from a Nile which fails to come, and the revenues of the Delta are in your hand. See, the mooring post which I have made in the east is driven in from the limits of Hebnu to Road-of-Horus, settled with towns and full of people of the pick of the entire land, to repel enemies from them. May I see a brave man who will imitate it and who will do more than I have done [///] by the hand of a cowardly heir.     as far as the sand dunes of the Fayyum: as far as the coast of the sea (M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume One - M.L.)

  meru-wood /// wan-wood: According to Lichtheim cedar and juniper

  The governance of (each) one is in the hands of ten men: Apparently, at this time cities were governed by counsels

  The priest is provided with a farm: When free men are given land (M.L.)

  Hebnu: There was a town by this name in Middle Egypt, but this site seems to have been located in the eastern Delta.

  Road-of-Horus: Horus Road, hugging the Mediterranean coast

  settled with towns and full of people: Fortified border towns like Sile protected the the Delta from Asiatic incursions

 

    Speak thus concerning the barbarian: As for the wretched Asiatic, unpleasant is the place where he is (with) trouble from water, difficulty from many trees, and the roads thereof awkward by reason of mountains. He does not dwell in one place, being driven hither and yon through want, going about [the desert] on foot. He has been fighting since the time of Horus; he never conquers, yet he is not conquered, and he does not announce a day of fighting, like a thief whom a community has driven out.     He does not dwell in one place: Many of the inhabitants of Canaan were still semi-nomadic at the turn of the second millennium BCE and migrated to Egypt in times of severe drought. The Egyptians had a very low opinion of foreigners.

 

    But I lived, and while I existed the barbarians were as though in the walls of a fortress; [my troops] broke open [///]. I caused the Delta to smite them, I carried off their people, I took away their cattle, until the detestation of the Asiatics was against Egypt. Do not worry about him, for the Asiatic is a crocodile on his riverbank; he snatches a lonely serf, but he will never rob in the vicinity of a populous town.

    Dig a moat against [///] and flood the half of it at the Bitter Lakes, for see, it is the navel-string of the desert dwellers; its walls and its soldiers are many and the partisans in it know how to take up arms, apart from the freemen of the camp; the region of Djed-esut totals ten thousand men consisting of free untaxed commoners, and magnates have been in it since the time of the Residence. <its> boundary is established, its garrison is brave, and many northerners irrigate it to the limits of the Delta, they being taxed in corn like freemen; it is/// the face of him who made it, and see, it is the door of the Delta. They made a moat for Ninsu, for a populous city is/// Beware of being surrounded by the partisans of an enemy; watchfulness is what renews years.     I carried off their people: the enslavement of defeated foreigners began during the Old Kingdom mostly in Nubia, though Pepi I campaigned in Canaan.

  he snatches a lonely serf: This may have been true prior to the take over of Lower Egypt by the Hyksos.

  flood the half of it at the Bitter Lakes, for see, it is the navel-string of the desert dwellers: Its one side is irrigated as far as Kem-wer, It is the [defense] against the Bowmen. (M.L.)

  the partisans: the serfs (M.L.)

  Djed-esut: Memphis

  untaxed commoners: they apparently served in the military in lieu of paying taxes

  Ninsu: Heracleopolis

  a populous city is///: Abundant citizens are the heart's support (M.L.)

 

    When your frontier to the Southern Region is troubled, it is the barbarians who have taken the belt. Build castles in the Delta, for a man's name will not be diminished by what he has done, and a well-founded city cannot be harmed. Build castles [///], for an enemy loves disturbance, and his actions are mean.

    The late King Akhtoy ordained in a teaching: "Be inactive about the violent man who destroys altars, for God will attack him who rebels against the temples. men will come about it according as he does it; he will be satisfied with what is ordained for him, (namely) a trap for him; no one will use loyalty toward him on that day of coming. protect the altars, worship God, and do not say: It is weakness of mind"; do not let your arms be loose. As for him who makes rebellion against you, it is to destroy the sky. Prosperity means a year of monuments; even if an enemy knows, he will not destroy them, through the desire that what he ahs done may be embellished by another who comes after. There is not one devoid of an enemy, but the ruler of the Two Banks is a wise man, and a king who possesses an entourage cannot act stupidly. He is wise from birth, and God will distinguish him above millions of men.     Build castles: The Egyptians protected the southern and eastern approaches to their country with major fortifications only during the Middle Kingdom. cf The subjugation of Nubia

  Akhtoy: a number of pharaohs belonging to the ninth and tenth dynasties

 

    The kingship is a goodly office; it has no son and it has no brother who shall make its monuments endure, yet it is the one person who ennobles the other; a man works for his predecessor, through the desire that what he has done may be embellished by another who shall come after him. A mean act was committed in my reign; the territory of Thinis was devastated. It indeed happened, but not through what I had done; I knew of it only after it was done. See, the consequences exceeded what I had done, for what is damaged is spoiled, and there is no benefit for him who restores what he (himself) has ruined, who demolishes what he ahs built and embellished what he has defaced; beware of it! A blow is repaid by the like of it, and all that is achieved is a hitting.

    One generation of men passes to another, and God, who knows character, has hidden Himself. There is none who will oppose the possessor of a hand, and he is an attacker of what the eyes see, so worship God upon his way. Things are made of costly stone and fashioned in copper; the mud flat is replaced with water; there is no stream that can be made to hide, for it means that the dike in which it hid itself is destroyed. The soul goes to the place it knows and does not stray on yesterday's road. Beautify your mansion in the West, embellish your place in the necropolis with straightforwardness and just dealing, for it is on that which their hearts rely; more acceptable is the character of the straightforward man than the ox of the wrongdoer.

    Serve God, that he may do the like for you, with offerings for replenishing the altars and with carving; it is that which will show forth your name, and God is aware of whoever serves Him. Provide for men, the cattle of God, for He made heaven and earth at their desire. He suppressed the greed of the waters, He gave the breath of life to their noses, for they are likenesses of Him which issued from His flesh. He shines in the sky for the benefit of their hearts; He has made herbs, cattle, and fish to nourish them. He has killed His enemies and destroyed His own children, because they had planned to make rebellion; He makes daylight for the benefit of their hearts, and he sails around in order to see them. He has raised up a shrine behind them, and when they weep, He hears. He has made them rulers even from the egg, a lifter to lift (the load) from the back of the weak man. He has made for them magic to be weapons to ward off what may happen. Be watchful over it by night as by day. How has He killed the disaffected! Even as a man strikes his son for his brother's sake, for God knows every name.

    Do not be distressed (at) my utterance even when it gives laws concerning the king. Instruct yourself, that you may rise up as a man; then you will attain to my repute without anyone who accuses you.

    Do not kill anyone who approaches you, but favour him, for God knows him. He who flourishes on earth is one of them, and they who serve the king are gods. Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered/// is perished, and it is said of you: "He who will destroy the time of suffering by those who are at the back in the House of Akhtoy, in praying for him who will come today".

    See, I have told you the best of my inmost thoughts, which you should set steadfastly before your face.

The Teaching of King Amenemhet I to his son Senusret

    Here begins the teaching which the late King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Sehetepibre, the son of Re Ammenemes made when he spoke in imparting truth to his son the Lord of All.

 

  Ammenemes: Amenemhet I (c. 1991-1962)

Sesostris: Senusret I Kheperkare (c. 1962-1917)

 

    He said: O you who appear as a god, hear what I shall say to you, that you may be king of the land and rule the Banks, and achieve abundance of good fortune. Be on your guard against all who are subordinate to you when there occurs something to whose terrors no thought has been given; do not approach them in your solitude, trust no brother, know no friend, make no intimates, for there is no profit in it. When you go to rest, guard your own heart, for no man has partisans on the day of trouble. I gave to the poor man, I cherished the orphan, I caused him who had nothing to attain (to wealth) like him who was wealthy, but it was he who ate my bread who raised levies; he to whom I had given my hand created terror thereby; those who wore my fine linen looked on me as a shadow; and they who smeared on my myrrh poured water under (me).

 

  He said: ... Breasted [1]: He saith, while distinguishing truth, for his son, the All-Lord; he saith: "Shine as a god!

when there occurs something to whose terrors no thought has been given: Breasted: The people give heed to him who terrorizes them.

I caused him who had nothing to attain (to wealth) like him who was wealthy: Breasted: I admitted the insignificant as well as him who was of great account. Lichtheim [2]: I gave success to the poor as to the wealthy

raised levies: Breasted: made insurrection

 

    O you living images of me, my heirs among men, make for me a funeral oration which has not been heard (before), a great deed of battle which has not been seen, for men fight in the arena and the past is forgotten; goodness cannot profit one who does not know him whom he should know. It was after supper, and night had fallen. I took an hour of recreation lying on my bed, for I was weary and I began to doze, when weapons were brandished and men argued about me. I acted like the snake of the desert, for I awoke at the fighting and was by myself, and I found that it was a combat with the guard. If I had made haste with weapons in my hand, I would have made the cowards retreat in confusion, but no one is brave at night, and no one can fight alone; no happy outcome can result without a protector.   images of me: Lichtheim: peers

goodness cannot profit one who does not know him whom he should know: Lichtheim: Success will elude him who ignores what he should know

weapons were brandished and men argued about me: Lichtheim: weapons for my protection were turned against me, Breasted:weapons were flourished, [council was held against me (?)]

protector Lichtheim: helper

 

    See, my injuries occurred while I was without you, before the entourage had heard that I was handing over to you, before I had sat down with you. Therefore I will give you good advice, because I neither fear them nor (even) think about them; I take no cognizance of the slackness of servants. Have women ever marshaled the ranks? Are brawlers nourished within a house? Are the waters opened up or the earthen banks destroyed? Are the citizens befooled because of what they have done?  my injuries: Breasted: the abomination, Lichtheim: bloodshed

Therefore I will give you good advice, because I neither fear them nor (even) think about them; I take no cognizance of the slackness of servants: Breasted: Let me adjust thy administration. For I do not terrify them, I do not think of them. My heart does not endure the slackness of servants.

 Trouble has not come about me since I was born, and the like of my deeds through the exercise of my valor has not come to pass. I traveled to Elephantine, I turned back to the Delta; I have stood at the limits of the land and have seen its middle; I have attained the limits of my power by my strong arm and by my nature.

    It was I who made barley and loved grain; the Nile-god showed me respect in every open place, and none went hungry in my years, none went thirsty in them. Men dwelt (in peace) through what I had done, talking of me, for everything that I commanded was in good order.   grain: Breasted: the harvest-god

 

Hapi, the Nile god 

    I have curbed lions, I have carried off crocodiles, I have crushed the people of Wawat, I have carried off the Medjay, I have made the Asiatics slink like dogs.  I have built for myself a house adorned with gold, its ceiling of lapis lazuli, its walls of silver, the doors of copper and the door-bolts of bronze, it having been made for eternity and prepared for everlasting.

    I know that the owner of it is the Lord of All. Indeed, many children are in the streets; the wise man agrees and the fool says "no," inasmuch as he who does not know it is devoid of vision.    O my son Sesostris, may your legs walk; you are my own heart, and my eyes watch you. You were born in an hour of happiness in the presence of the sun-folk, and they give you praise. See, I have made a beginning and you have arranged the end. I have moored...what is in your heart ... leaving the White Crown for the seed of the god. The fortification is in good order, beginning from .... vessels are in the bark of Re. The kingship came into being in my presence, and there are none who could achieve my deeds of valor. Erect monuments, embellish your causeway, fight for... because he does not desire it in His Majesty's presence.  It has come happily to an end.

The Loyalist Instruction from the Sehetepibre Stela

    I have something important to say; I shall have you hear it, and I shall let you know it: the design for eternity, a way of life as it should be and of passing a lifetime at peace.

    Adore the king, Nimaatre, living forever, in your innermost parts. Place His Majesty in friendly fashion in your thoughts. He is perception, which is in (all) hearts, and his eyes piece through every being.

    He is Re, by whose rays one sees, for he is one who illumines the Two Lands more than the sun disk. He is one who makes (the land) green, even more than a high inundation: he has filled the Two Lands with victory and life. Nostrils are cool when he starts to rage, but when he sets in peace, one can breathe the air (again). He gives nourishment to those in his circle, and he feeds the one who sticks to his path.

    The king is Ka. His utterance is Abundance. The one whom he brought up is one who will be somebody.

    His is Khnum for all limbs, the Begetter of the begotten.

    He is Bastet, who protects the Two Lands. The one who praises him will be protected by his arm.

    He is Sakhmet, against those who disobey his orders, and the one with whom he disagrees will be laden with sorrow.

    Fight on behalf of his name: be obeisant to his life. Be free and clear of any instance of negligence. The one whom the king loves shall be a well provided spirit; there is no tomb for anyone who rebels against His Majesty, and his corpse shall be cast to the waters. Do this, and your body will flourish, and you will find it (excellent) for eternity.

Source of this text: [3]

The admonitions of Khekheperre-sonbu

The collection of words, the gathering of sayings, the pursuit of utterances with searching of heart, made by the priest of Heliopolis, ... Khekheperre-sonbu, called Onkhu. He says:

Would that I had unknown utterances, sayings that are unfamiliar, even new speech that has not occurred (before), free from repetitions,, not the utterance of what has [long (?)] passed, which the ancestors spake. I squeeze out my breast for what is in it, in dislodging all that I say; for it is but to repeat what has been said when what has (already) been said has been said. There is no [support (?)] for the speech of the ancestors when the descendants find it ...

I have spoken this in accordance with what I have seen, beginning with the first men down to those who shall come after. Would that I might know what others have not known, even what has not been repeated, that I might speak them and that my heart might answer me; that I might make clear to it (my heart) concerning my ill, that I might throw off the burden that is on my back....

I am meditating on the things that have happened, the events that have occurred in the land. Transformations go on, it is not like last year, one year is more burdensome than the next... Righteousness is cast out, iniquity is in the midst of the council-hall. The plans of the gods are violated, their dispositions are disregarded. The land is in distress, mourning is in every place, towns and districts are in lamentation. All men alike are under wrongs; as for respect, an end is made of it. The lords of quiet are disquieted. A morning comes every day and turned back again to what has been (formerly). When I would speak [thereof (?)], my limbs are heavy laden. I am distressed because of my heart, it is suffering to hold my peace concerning it. Another heart would bow down, (but) a brave heart in distress is the companion of its lord. Would that I had a heart able to suffer. Then would I rest in it. I would load it with words of ... that I might dislodge through it my malady.

He said to his heart: Come then my heart, that I may speak to thee and that thou mayest answer for me my sayings and mayest explain to me that which is in the land.... I am meditating on what has happened. Calamities come in today, to-morrow [afflictions (?)] are not past. All men are silent concerning it, (although) the land is in great disturbance. Nobody is free from evil; all men alike do it. Hearts are sorrowful. He who gives commands is as he to whom commands are given; the heart of both of them is content. Men awake to it in the morning daily, (but) hearts thrust it not away. The fashion of yesterday therein is like to-day and resembles it [because of (?)] many things .... there is none so wise that he perceives and none so angry that he speaks. Men awake in the morning to suffer every day. Long and heavy is my malady. The poor man has no strength to save himself from him that is stronger than he. It is painful to keep silent concerning the things heard, (but) it is suffering to reply to the ignorant man. To criticise an utterance causes enmity, (for) the heart receives not the truth, and the reply to a matter is not endured. All that a man desires is his own utterance....

I speak to thee, my heart; answer thou me, (for) a heart assailed is not silent. Lo, the affairs of the servant are like those of the master. Manyfold is the burden upon thee. 

Debate between a man tired of life and his soul

    [...] you in order to say [...] their [tongues] cannot question, for it will be crookedness [...] payments their tongues cannot question.    pBerlin 3024

 

  [...] The tongues of the Gods, they do not speak amiss, they make no special cases

Translation by John L. Foster 

    I opened my mouth to my soul, that I might answer what it had said: "This is too much for me today, that my soul does not argue with me; it is too great for [exaggeration], it is as if one ignored me. Let my soul not depart, that it may attend to it for me [...] in my body like a net of cord, but it will not succeed in escaping the day of trouble.    Soul: jxw: generally translated as spirit. It has also been defined as a state of transfiguration. According to Pyramid Text 474, The jxw belongs to the heaven, the corpse to the earth.

 

    See, my soul misleads me, but I do not listen to it; draws me toward death ere (I) have come to it and casts (me) on the fire to burn me [...] it approaches me on the day of trouble and it stands on yonder side as does a ... Such is he who goes forth that he may bring himself for him. O my soul, too stupid to ease misery in life and yet holding me back from death ere I come to it, sweeten the West for me. Is it (too much) trouble? Yet life is a transitory state, and even trees fall. Trample on wrong, for my misery endures.  

    May Thoth who pacifies the gods judge me; may Khons defend me, even he who writes truly; may Re hear my plaint, even he who commands the solar bark; may Isdes defend me in the Holy Chamber, [because] the needy one is weighed down with [the burden] which he has lifted up from me; it is pleasant that the gods should ward off the secret (thoughts) of my body."

 

   Thoth: Called Lord of the Moon, and as such Master of Time and Counter of Years. Recorded the result of the weighing of the heart.

  Khons: Moon god, offspring of Amen and Mut.

  Isdes: Lord of the West, one of the judges of the dead.

  This passage has also been interpreted differently, stressing the justice and mercy of the gods as opposed to the lack of it among humanity: Thoth who pacifies the gods, judges me; Khons defends me ... ; Re hears my plaint etc. [1] 

    What my soul said to me: "Are you not a man? Indeed you are alive, but what do you profit? Yet you yearn for life like a man of wealth."

 

    I said: "I have not gone, (even though) that is on the ground. Indeed, you leap away, but you will not be cared for. Every prisoner says: 'I will take you,' but you are dead, though your name lives. Yonder is a resting place attractive to the heart; the West is a dwelling place, rowing [...] face. If my guiltless soul listens to me and its heart is in accord with me, it will be fortunate, for I will cause it to attain the West, like one who is in his pyramid, to whose burial a survivor attended. I will [...over] your corpse, so that you make another soul envious in weariness. I will...., then you will not be cold, so that you make envious another soul which is hot. I will drink water at the eddy, I will raise up shade so that you make envious another soul which is hungry. If you hold me back from death in this manner, you will find nowhere you can rest in the West. Be so kind, my soul, my brother, as to become my heir who shall make offering and stand at the tomb on the day of burial, that he may prepare a bier for the necropolis."

 

   your name lives: A being came only into existence when it bore a name, thus the continuity of a person's name was crucial for the life after death. As the Egyptian proverb has it: He whose name is spoken, lives. ( The name was one of the constituent parts of a human being, cf. Body and Soul)

  West: where the sun set, i.e. entered the underworld. The deceased were called westerners, Osiris was the Lord of the West, Khentamenti, the god of the necropolis of Abydos, was Foremost of the Westerners.

 

    My soul opened its mouth to me that it might answer what I had said: "If you think of burial, it is a sad matter; it is a bringer of weeping through making a man miserable; it is taking a man from his house, he being cast on the high ground, never again will you go up that you may see the sun. Those who built in granite and constructed halls in goodly pyramids with fine work, when the builders became gods their stelae were destroyed, like the weary ones who died on the riverbank through lack of a survivor, the flood having taken its toll and the sun likewise to whom talk the fishes of the banks of the water. Listen to me; behold it is good for men to hear. Follow the happy day and forget care.    to whom talk the fishes ... : who are being eaten by the fishes ... (A. Erman [1]) 

    A peasant ploughed his plot and loaded his harvest aboard a ship, towing it when his time of festival drew near. He saw the coming of the darkness of the northerly, for he was vigilant in the boat when the sun set. He escaped with his wife and children, but came to grief on a lake infested by night with crocodiles. At last he sat down and broke silence, saying: 'I weep not for yonder mother, who has no more going forth from the West for another (term) upon earth; I sorrow rather for her children broken in the egg, who have looked in the face of the crocodile god ere they have lived.'    There was a man, and he farmed his plot of land; and he was loading his harvest into a ship for the voyage to his accounting, which drew near. And he saw coming a night of wind and weather so that he was watchful of that ship, waiting for day, While he dreamed of life with his wife and children who had perished on the Lake of Death on a dark night, with crocodiles. And after he was pondering there some time, he shaped the silence into words, saying, 'I have not wept that mother yonder-- for her there is no returning from the West, no more than any who have lived on the earth. But let me mourn the children, killed in her womb, who saw the face of Death ere ever they were born.'

Translation by John L. Foster 

    A peasant asked for a meal, and his wife said to him: 'There is .... for supper.' He went out to ... for a moment and returned to his house (raging) as if he were an ape. His wife reasoned with him, but he would not listen to her, he.... and the bystanders were helpless."    There was another man, and he wanted his evening meat; and there was his wife, saying, 'There will be bread.' And he went outdoors to fume awhile and then go back inside Behaving like a better person (his wife was wise to his ways). Yet he never really listened to her. so the death demons came and carried him off.

Translation by John L. Foster 

 

    I opened my mouth to my soul that I might answer what it had said:

"Behold, my name is detested,

Behold, more than the smell of vultures

On a summer's day when the sky is hot.

Behold, my name is detested,

Behold, [more than the smell of] a catch of fish

On a day of catching when the sky is hot.

Behold, my name is detested,

Behold, more than the smell of ducks,

More than a covert of reeds full of waterfowl.

Behold, my name is detested,

Behold, more than the smell of fishermen,

More than the creeks of the marshes where they have fished.

Behold, my name is detested,

Behold, more than the smell of crocodiles,

More than sitting by sandbanks full of crocodiles.

Behold, my name is detested,

Behold, more than a woman

About whom lies are told to a man.

Behold, my name is detested,

Behold, more than a sturdy child

Of whom it is said: "he belongs to his rival."

Behold, my name is detested,

Behold, [more than] a town belonging to the monarch

Which mutters sedition when his back is turned.

To whom can I speak today?

Brothers are evil

And the friends of today unlovable.

To whom can I speak today?

Hearts are rapacious

And everyone takes his neighbour's goods.

[To whom can I speak today?]

Gentleness has perished

And the violent man has come down on everyone.

To whom can I speak today?

Men are contented with evil

And goodness is neglected everywhere.

To whom can I speak today?

He who should enrage a man by his ill deeds,

he makes everyone laugh (by) his wicked wrongdoing.

To whom can I speak today?

Men plunder

And every man robs his neighbour.

To whom can I speak today?

The wrongdoer is an intimate friend

And the brother with whom one used to act is become an enemy.

To whom can I speak today?

None remember the past,

And no one now helps him who used to do (good).

To whom can I speak today?

Brothers are evil,

And men have recourse to strangers for affection.

To whom can I speak today?

Faces are averted,

And every man looks askance at his brethren.

To whom can I speak today?

Hearts are rapacious

And there is no man's heart in which one can trust.

To whom can I speak today?

There are no just persons

And the land is left over to the doers of wrong.

To whom can I speak today?

There is a lack of an intimate friend

And men have recourse to someone unknown in order to complain to him.

To whom can I speak today?

There is no contented man,

And that person who once walked with him no longer exists.

To whom can I speak today?

I am heavy-laden with trouble

Through lack of an intimate friend.

To whom can I speak today?

The wrong which roams the earth,

There is no end to it.

 

 

Death is in my sight today

[As when] a sick man becomes well,

Like going out-of-doors after detention.

Death is in my sight today

Like the smell of myrrh,

Like sitting under an awning on a windy day.

Death is in my sight today

Like the perfume of lotuses,

Like sitting on the shore of the Land of Drunkenness.

Death is in my sight today

Like a trodden way,

As when a man returns home from an expedition.

Death is in my sight today

Like the clearing of the sky,

Like a man who ...... for something which he does not know.

Death is in my sight today.

As when a man desires to see home

When he has spent many years in captivity.

 

 

Verily, he who is yonder will be a living god,

Averting the ill of him who does it.

Verily, he who is yonder will be one who stands in the Bark of the Sun,

Causing choice things to be given therefrom for the temples.

Verily, he who is yonder will be a sage

Who will not be prevented from appealing to Re when he speaks."

 

 

 

    What my soul said to me: "Cast complaint upon the peg, my comrade and brother; make offering on the brazier and cleave to life, according as I have said. Desire me here, thrust the West aside, but desire that you may attain the West when your body goes to earth, that I may alight after you are weary; then will we make an abode together." It is finished from its beginning to its end, just as it was found in writing.

The Instructions of Dua-Khety

The beginning of the teaching which the man of Tjel named Dua-Khety made for his son named Pepy, while he sailed southwards to the Residence to place him in the school of writings among the children of the magistrates, the most eminent men of the Residence.

  So he spoke to him: Since I have seen those who have been beaten, it is to writings that you must set your mind. Observe the man who has been carried off to a work force. Behold, there is nothing that surpasses writings! They are a boat upon the water. Read then at the end of the Book of Kemyet this statement in it saying:

 As for a scribe in any office in the Residence, he will not suffer want in it. When he fulfills the bidding of another, he does not come forth satisfied. I do not see an office to be compared with it, to which this maxim could relate. I shall make you love books more than your mother, and I shall place their excellence before you. It is greater than any office. There is nothing like it on earth. When he began to become sturdy but was still a child, he was greeted (respectfully). When he was sent to carry out a task, before he returned he was dressed in adult garments.     pSallier II

 This didactic text, also called The Satire of the Trades dates from the Middle Kingdom. Whether it was intended to be a humorous description of crafts or just a dry schoolmaster's copying exercise for budding officials, it depicts working life quite realistically: mostly hard and often boring drudgery.

 

Tjel: Tjaru, in the eastern Delta.

who have been beaten: the higher up one was on the social scale, the less likely one was to undergo corporal punishment. (cf. Law and Order) 

 I do not see a stoneworker on an important errand or a in a place to which he has been sent, but I have seen a coppersmith at his work at the door of his furnace. His fingers were like the claws of the crocodile, and he stank more than fish excrement.

    Metal smith 

    Every carpenter who bears the adze is wearier than a fieldhand. His field is his wood, his hoe is the axe. There is no end to his work, and he must labor excessively in his activity. At nighttime he still must light his lamp.

    At nighttime he still must light his lamp: Working into the night must have been the exception. Most people probably rose at daybreak and went to bed shortly after nightfall. Lamps filled with oil (preferably castor oil which is excellent for the purpose), or fat were used for lighting.

 The jeweler pierces stone in stringing beads in all kinds of hard stone. When he has completed the inlaying of the eye-amulets, his strength vanishes and he is tired out. He sits until the arrival of the sun, his knees and his back bent at (the place called) Aku-Re.

 his back bent: Tables were only rarely used in ancient Egypt. Most craftsmen worked crouching with their workpieces on the ground before them.

  The barber shaves until the end of the evening. But he must be up early, crying out, his bowl upon his arm. He takes himself from street to street to seek out someone to shave. He wears out his arms to fill his belly, like bees who eat (only) according to their work.

    The barber shaves: Considering the tools they had shaving must have been pretty exhausting for the barber and quite an ordeal for his client. Freshly knapped flint knives were very keen, but copper and bronze tools are not known for razor-sharp edges.

  The reed-cutter goes downstream to the Delta to fetch himself arrows. He must work excessively in his activity. When the gnats sting him and the sand fleas bite him as well, then he is judged.

    The potter is covered with earth, although his lifetime is still among the living. He burrows in the field more than swine to bake his cooking vessels. His clothes being stiff with mud, his head cloth consists only of rags, so that the air which comes forth from his burning furnace enters his nose. He operates a pestle with his feet with which he himself is pounded, penetrating the courtyard of every house and driving earth into every open place.

   

 potter: cf Pottery

 

    I shall also describe to you the bricklayer. His kidneys are painful. When he must be outside in the wind, he lays bricks without a garment. His belt is a cord for his back, a string for his buttocks. His strength has vanished through fatigue and stiffness, kneading all his excrement. He eats bread with his fingers, although he washes himself but once a day.

   

 bricklayer: cf Building in ancient Egypt

His kidneys are painful: much of the work was done bending over while lifting quite heavy loads.

without a garment: clothes were relatively expensive. They were often taken off when they might get spoiled.

 

    It is miserable for the carpenter when he planes the roof-beam. It is the roof of a chamber 10 by 6 cubits. A month goes by in laying the beams and spreading the matting. All the work is accomplished. But as for the food which is to be given to his household (while he is away), there is no one who provides for his children.

   

 planes: The modern plane was unknown, instead carpenters used adzes which require careful handling. The soft material blades were made of did not lighten the workload either. Cf. Carpenters and their Tools

10 by 6 cubits: 5 by 3 metres. Because local trees yielded only short beams of timber, 3 metres was about the maximal width of a room without pillars supporting the ceiling.

 

The vintner carries his shoulder-yoke. Each of his shoulders is burdened with age. A swelling is on his neck, and it festers. He spends the morning in watering leeks and the evening with corianders, after he has spent the midday in the palm grove. So it happens that he sinks down (at last) and dies through his deliveries, more than one of any other profession.

   

 The vintner carries his shoulder-yoke: Only rarely were animals used for transporting loads.

 

The fieldhand cries out more than the guinea fowl. His voice is louder than the raven's. His fingers have become ulcerous with an excess of stench. When he is taken away to be enrolled in Delta labour, he is in tatters. He suffers when he proceeds to the island, and sickness is his payment. The forced labour then is tripled. If he comes back from the marshes there, he reaches his house worn out, for the forced labor has ruined him.  The fieldhand: Most of Egypt's population worked the land.cries out more than the guinea fowl: complains eternally [1]

raven: In Egyptian abw, meaning some kind of bird, not necessarily a raven

forced labour: Corvée duty was not just an onus, but also supplied the workers with food during the off-season when they could not work on their own fields. This food was of course just a small part of what he had had to pay in taxes.The weaver inside the weaving house is more wretched than a woman. His knees are drawn up against his belly. He cannot breathe the air. If he wastes a single day without weaving, he is beaten with 50 whip lashes. He has to give food to the doorkeeper to allow him to come out to the daylight.  Some weaving was done on primitive horizontal looms at home by the women. Professional weavers were generally men.to come out to the daylight: On work days one had to work while there was enough light to see by. he arrow maker, completely wretched, goes into the desert. Greater than his own pay is what he has to spend for his she-ass for its work afterwards. Great is also what he has to give to the fieldhand to set him on the right road to the flint source. When he reaches his house in the evening, the journey has ruined him.  spend for his she-ass: Cf. Records of legal proceedings at Deir el Medine flintsource: Flint occurs as nodules in limestone where it can be quarried. Many flint quarries were located in the eastern desert. By the time of the composition of these Instructions, bronze arrow heads were becoming more common.  The courier goes abroad after handing over his property to his children, being fearful of the lions and the Asiatics. He only knows himself when he is back in Egypt. But his household by then is only a tent. There is no happy homecoming. The courier goes abroad: Overland travel was on foot and therefore exceedingly slow, cf. a letter from Burnaburiash to Akhenaten.  earful of the lions and the Asiatics: Many regions were largely unpopulated, and a traveller might be attacked by wild animals or robbers, cf. another letter from the king of Babylon. The furnace-tender, his fingers are foul, the smell thereof is as corpses. His eyes are inflamed because of the heaviness of smoke. He cannot get rid of his dirt, although he spends the day at the reed pond. Clothes are an abomination to him.

 The sandal maker is utterly wretched carrying his tubs of oil. His stores are provided with carcasses, and what he bites is hides.

   

 

Foundry workers

heaviness of smoke: In a country where wood was rare and any combustible matter might serve as fuel, the use of clean-burning charcoal was probably not widespread among the poor, but it contributed to the denuding of the eastern desert where most of the mines were located.

stores are provided with carcasses: His health is health as corpses [1]

 

The washerman launders at the riverbank in the vicinity of the crocodile. I shall go away, father, from the flowing water, said his son and his daughter, to a more satisfactory profession, one more distinguished than any other profession. His food is mixed with filth, and there is no part of him which is clean. He cleans the clothes of a woman in menstruation. He weeps when he spends all day with a beating stick and a stone there. One says to him, dirty laundry, come to me, the brim overflows.   crocodile: crocodiles and hippos were the most dangerous big animals in Egypt and lived in close proximity to the human population. They have been exterminated in the lower Nile.

 

    The fowler is utterly weak while searching out for the denizens of the sky. If the flock passes by above him, then he says: would that I might have nets. But God will not let this come to pass for him, for He is opposed to his activity.

   I mention for you also the fisherman. He is more miserable than one of any other profession, one who is at his work in a river infested with crocodiles. When the totalling of his account is made for him, then he will lament. One did not tell him that a crocodile was standing there, and fear has now blinded him. When he comes to the flowing water, so he falls as through the might of God.  Fish, fresh, dried or salted were an important part of the diet. a river infested with crocodiles: most fishing was done from reed-rafts lying low in the water.  See, there is no office free from supervisors, except the scribe's. He is the supervisor!   But if you understand writings, then it will be better for you than the professions which I have set before you. Behold the official and the dependent pertaining to him. The tenant farmer of a man cannot say to him: Do not keep watching me. What I have done in journeying southward to the Residence is what I have done through love of you. A day at school is advantageous to you. Seek out its work early, while the workmen I have caused you to know hurry on and cause the recalcitrant to hasten.   I will also tell you another matter to teach you what you should know at the station of your debating. Do not come close to where there is a dispute. If a man reproves you, and you do not know how to oppose his anger, make your reply cautiously in the presence of listeners.

 

 

    If you walk to the rear of officials, approach from a distance behind the last. If you enter while the master of the house is at home, and his hands are extended to another in front of you, sit with your hand to your mouth. Do not ask for anything in his presence. But do as he says to you. Beware of approaching the table.  your hand to your mouth: a gesture of respect. But do as he says to you: but react to him when addressed

  Be serious, and great as to your worth. Do not speak secret matters. For he who hides his innermost thoughts is one who makes a shield for himself. Do not utter thoughtless words when you sit down with an angry man.   Be serious, and great as to your worth: Be serious with anyone greater in dignity when you sit down with an angry man: but take your seat with the reliable.

  When you come forth from school after midday recess has been announced to you, go into the courtyard and discuss the last part of your lesson book.   When an official sends you as a messenger, then say what he said. Neither take away nor add to it. He who abandons a chest of books, his name will not endure. He who is wise in all his ways, nothing will be hidden from him, and he will not be rebuffed from any station of his.

     He who abandons a chest of books: Whoever leaves out the declamation (?),

  Do not say anything false about your mother. This is an abomination to the officials. The offspring who does useful things, his condition is equal to the one of yesterday. Do not indulge with an undisciplined man, for it is bad after it is heard about you. When you have eaten three loaves of bread and swallowed two jugs of beer, and the body has not yet had enough, fight against it. But if another is satiated, do not stand, take care not to approach the table.   See, you send out a large number. You hear the words of the officials. Then you may assume the characteristics of the children of men, and you may walk in their footsteps. One values a scribe for his understanding, for understanding transforms an eager person. You are to stand when words of welcome are offered. Your feet shall not hurry when you walk. Do not approach a trusted man, but associate with one more distinguished than you. But let you friend be a man of your generation.

   

 A different translation [1]: Look, you send out the throng, you hear the words of officials, Behave then like the children of (important) people, when you are going to collect them. The scribe is the one seen hearing (cases); Would fighters be the ones to hear? Fight words that are contrary; move fast when you are proceeding - your heart should never trust. Keep to the paths for it: the friends of a man are your troops. 

    See, I have placed you on the path of God. The fate of a man is on his shoulders on the day he is born. He comes to the judgement hall and the court of magistrates which the people have made. See, there is no scribe lacking sustenance, (or) the provisions of the royal house. It is Meskhenet who is turned toward the scribe who presents himself before the court of magistrates. Honour your father and mother who have placed you on the path of the living. Mark this, which I have placed before your eyes, and the children of your children.

    I have placed you on the path of God: Abundance is on the path of the god

the court of magistrates which the people have made: that court of officials is the one allotting people to him

Meskhenet: Goddess of childbirth

Honour your father and mother: Thank god for the father, and for your mother [1]

 

    It has come to an end in peace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Teaching of a Man for his Son

1 Beginning of the teaching made by a man for his son

He says: hear my voice, do not avoid my words,

do not untie your heart from what I tell you.

 

 

  Middle Kingdom 

Have character, without exaggerating it;

5 for a sensible man idleness does not happen.

Silence is precise, the leveller of the arm.

The heart that does what is told is the effective one;

rejection of words leads to violence;

there is no baggage-man raised to the audience-hall.

10 Whoever enters into words, opens the way for hearing

there is no winnower from whom one takes advice.

Interpret words without humiliating;

a mean phrase slights its sayer.

 

 

 no winnower ... : agricultural (and other) labourers did not command much respect.

 

Do not let your heart stray from god.

15 Praise the king, may you love him, as a worker

He makes radiant by the giving of his powers

but whoever neglects him is deprived of a mooring.

He is greater than a million men for the one he has favoured,

he is the shield for the one who makes him content.

20 Whoever has escorted will be great in wealth

It is to the one he has loved that he gives his heart;

guard against speaking out and vexing him.