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BUILDERS OF BRIDGES

THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD. W. Y. Evans-Wentz.

Oxford University Press. 25 s.

THE THIRD EYE. T. Lobsang Rampa. Doubleday. $3.50.

THE HUNGRY EYE. Raymond F. Piper. De Vorss & Co. $3.00

MIRA East and West. 10 Connaught Rd., Poona, India. $2.00 year.

Meher Baba once told a writer who asked how she could serve Him, to "be a builder of bridges"—bridges of understanding between East and West, between material and spiritual truths. The four works listed above fall into this class.

Professor Evans-Wentz' 3rd edition of the famed "Tibetan Book of the Dead" has a new introduction by Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist noted for his progressive studies of man's Unconscious. Though Dr. Jung has not been able to accept reincarnation as the basis of the formation of the Unconscious and its "arch types," he is sympathetic to the Eastern view; and is specially impressed by the fact that the Easterner accepts and prepares for death in a rational, intelligent way, in contrast to the Western efforts to keep the soul in the body after its karmic hour. Certainly this ancient document, still in use, is worthy of study, as it bears out Baba's teaching that the soul, in the "Bardo" or after death state, experiences the end effects of its own sanskaras and an imbalance of impressions drives it into rebirth. That one can voluntarily refrain from rebirth and become liberated seems doubtful in the light of Baba's teaching that Realization is attained only through the grace of a Perfect Master.

In the book "The Third Eye" a Tibetan monk writes of his experiences in a lamasery in the Himalayas. So much nonsense has been written about "Tibetan Masters" it is refreshing to read such a factual account. At only 7 years of age Lama Lobsang underwent a delicate operation on his third eye, enabling him to see auras and read the thoughts of others. Other severe occult training was given the boy, an advanced soul from previous lives. Fascinating though it is, this autobiography points up the vast difference in spiritual training given by adepts and by a Perfect Master such as Baba, who radiates divine love and stresses love and service above occult experiences; and who usually takes His close disciples along the Path under a "veil" until final Realization. Incidentally, Lama Lobsang's