Book 4 (Part I)

57 For the first week it may seem rather amusing, and you may even imagine you are progressing; but as the practice teaches you what you are doing, you will apparently get worse and worse. Please understand that in doing this practice you are sup- posed to be seated in Asana, and to have note-book and pencil by your side, and a watch in front of you. You are not to practise at first for more than ten minutes at a time, so as to avoid risk of overtiring the brain. In fact you will probably find that the Whole of your will-power is not equal to keeping to a sub- ject at all for so long as three minutes, or even apparently con— centrating on it for so long as three seconds, or three-fifths of one second. By “keeping to it at all” is meant the mere attempt to keep to it. The mind becomes so fatigued, and the object so incredibly loathsome, that it is useless to continue for the time being. In Frater R’s record we find that after daily practice for six months, meditations of four minutes and less are still being recorded. The student is supposed to count the number of times that his thought wanders; this he can do on his fingers or on a string of beads.1 If these breaks seem to become more frequent instead 1 This counting can easily become quite mechanical. With the thought that reminds you of a break associate the notion of counting. The grosser kind of break can be detected by another person. It is accompanied