The Bowl of Saki Commentary

As it is evident that human intellect cannot grasp Deity and as it is said that God created the world to become known, there must be some other means of attaining to Divine Knowledge than through an intellectual process. As has been explained, the means is through love, through the casting away of self. Love has two aspects, the love of the greater for the lesser, called "compassion," and the love of the lesser for the greater called "adoration." These are pictured in the six-pointed star.

Compassion is the love that seems to fall like water, or as Shakespeare has beautifully described it, "The quality of Mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven." The use of the word "strained" is excellent for, because it is not strained, it describes the passing of the Divine Light-Love down into the sphere of sentient beings. The idea of the God Avalokita or Avalokitesvara came from that realization.

But, from the standpoint of the human being love is like a flame, and in adoration it rises and raises the whole personality. It is the rising flame of love which turns one around to face God, to begin the upward journey until one gets above the mind-mesh and karmic activity. Then the knowledge of God unfolds of itself, no effort is needed once one has discarded one's lower self.