From Chapter l8 –”I Meet An Adept”
A Search in Secret Egypt has been newly reprinted by North Atlantic Books. The first edition in 1936 has been expanded in the 2015 volume to include different photographs from PB’s private collection, and readers will find the editorial “Notes” in the final pages very interesting. The addition of a “Commentary on the Epilogue” as given by the author helps to explain the symbolism in this intriguing teaching. The following passages refer to this new edition.
Paul Brunton describes taking the bridle path over the Libyan Mountains to the terraced cliff temple of Deir el Bahri where he noticed a stranger squatting on a low boulder. He beheld a radiant vision of light as this utterly unusual man spoke….(see p. 328.)
The high grade yogi… explained how the ways of some men cross and crisscross at the bidding of unseen forces and how seeming coincidences may be prearranged links in a chain of causes destined to have certain effects. Without the slightest vanity but as a mere statement of an existent fact he referred to himself as an Adept (p. 330)…. He called himself Ra-Mak-Hotep and explained that for him the name means only one thing: at peace.“Egypt is not my home. Today the whole world is my home. Asia, Africa, Europe, and America – I know all these lands and move through them. I am an Easterner in body only, for in mind I belong to no single country and in heart I belong only to Peace.” He spoke somewhat quickly, forcibly and feelingly, yet it was quite obvious that all his feelings were under perfect control.
For more than an hour we talked of spiritual things, sitting on the hilltop under a sun whose light still glared in one’s eyes and whose heat still caressed one closely. Yet I forgot those conditions in my absorbed interest in this man and his words. He told me of some matters which concerned the world, and of many others which concerned only myself. He gave me precise instructions and special exercises in connection with my own efforts to arrive at a degree of spiritual equilibrium and enlightenment beyond that which I had so far attained. He spoke frankly and critically, even sternly, of certain obstacles in my path, arising out of my personal faults. Finally he fixed an appointment with me for the following day, near the Roman altar, inside the colonnade that stands on the Nile bank at the Temple of Luxor.
Without rising from his rocky seat, he bade me farewell, excusing himself from further conversation on account of his being extremely busy and with much to do at the moment….
The descent of the hill was steep and slithery; I made it on foot down the rock and rubble, holding the donkey’s rein in one hand. When we reached the base I mounted the saddle and took a last look at the peak, which loomed up so portentously.
Ra-Mak-Hotep had not even begun his return journey. He was evidently still squatting on that bleak hilltop. What could he be doing up there, to keep him “extremely busy” while sitting as immobile as a statue? Would he still be there when the shadows of dusk deepened over the pink terraces of the Libyan Hills? (pp. 331-332.)