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Page 1 of 21939 · PDF PAGE 54
…the surface in any direction without ever coming to an end. I said above that Riemann's Geometry was not quite sufficient to explain the phenomena of nature. We have to postulate different kinds of curvature in different parts of the continuum. And even then we are not happy! 26. Now for a spot of Sullivan! 'The geometry is so general that it admits of different degrees of curvature in different parts of space-time. It is to this curvature that gravitational effects are due. The curvature of space-time is most prominent, therefore, around large…
1939 · PDF PAGE 63
find is that there is a tendency to perceive a sensation of the natural phenomena. 20. The former stages are easy to assimilate intellectually; one assents to them immediately that one discovers them, but with regard to the 'tendency,' this is not the case, at least it was not so for my own part. It took me a long while before I understood what was meant by 'tendency.' To help you to realise this I should like to find a good illustration. For instance, a clock does nothing at all but offer indications of the time. It is so constructed that this…
1939 · PDF PAGE 53
…entity has been completely upset by the discovery that the equations of Newton based on Euclidean Geometry are inadequate to explain the phenomena of gravitation. It is instinctive to us to think of a straight line; it is somehow axiomatic. But we learn that this does not exist in the objective universe. We have to use another geometry, Riemann's Geometry, which is one of the curved geometries. (There are, of course, as many systems of geometry as there are absurd axioms to build them on. Three lines make one ellipse: any nonsense you like: you…
1939 · PDF PAGE 11
…propose to give you are carefully studied, they should present no difficulty. (12) Having now understood that Yoga is the essence of all phenomena whatsoever, we may ask what is the special meaning of the word in respect of our proposed investigation, since the process and the results are familiar to every one of us; so familiar indeed that there is actually nothing else at all of which we have any knowledge. It is knowledge. What is it we are going to study, and why should we study it? (13) The answer is very simple. All this Yoga that we know…
1939 · PDF PAGE 61
11. Let us now deal with a few of the phenomena which occur during the practices of Pratyahara. Very early during my retirement in Kandy, I had been trying to concentrate by slanting my eyes towards the tip of my nose. This, by the way, is not a good practice; one is liable to strain the eyes. But what happened was that I woke up in the night; my hand touched a nose; I immediately concluded that some one was in the room. Not at all; I only thought so because my nose had passed away from the region of my observation by the practice of concentrat…
1939 · PDF PAGE 36
…, but near it. 25. Men of science are terribly handicapped in every investigation by having been trained to ignore the immeasurable. All phenomena have subtle qualities which are at present insusceptible to any properly scientific methods of investigation. We can imitate the processes of nature in the laboratory, but the imitation is not always exactly identical with the original. For instance, Professor J. B. S. Haldane attempted some of the experiments suggested in 'The Equinox' in this matter of Pranayama, and very nearly killed himself in t…
1939 · PDF PAGE 24
…w long 'long enough' may be) whether that is going to ring the bell. It may be that if you increase your sixty seconds to sixty-four the phenomena would begin immediately. That sounds all right but as you have nearly burst your lungs doing the sixty, you want this added energy to make the grade. That is only one example of the difficulty which arises with every practice. Mars, moreover, is the flaming energy of passion, it is the male quality in its lowest sense; it is the courage which goes berserk, and I do not mind telling you that, in my ow…
1939 · PDF PAGE 28
…obtained in this way which will not only fit the aspirant for the actual battle, but will introduce him to classes of hitherto unguessed phenomena whose impact will prepare his mind for that terrific shock of its own complete overthrow which marks the first critical result of the practices of Yoga. Love is the law, love under will.
1939 · PDF PAGE 8
…ca. I propose to invoke the most remote and elusive of all Gods to throw clear light upon the subjectthe light of common sense. (2) All phenomena of which we are aware take place in our own minds, and therefore the only thing we have to look at is the mind; which is a more constant quantity over all the species of humanity than is generally supposed. What appear to be radical differences, irreconcilable by argument, are usually found to be due to the obstinacy of habit produced by generations of systematic sectarian training. (3) We must then …
1939 · PDF PAGE 39
…ng briefly over the ground covered by my first four lectures. I told you that Yoga meant union, and that this union was the cause of all phenomena. Consciousness results from the conjunction of a mysterious stimulus with a mysterious sensorium. The kind of Yoga which is the subject of these remarks is merely an expansion of this, the union of self-consciousness with the universe. We spoke of the eight limbs of Yoga, and dealt with the four which refer to physical training and experiences. The remaining four deal with mental training and experie…
1939 · PDF PAGE 9
…ies of astonishing sublimity. All these combinations, these unions, are Yoga. (8) Yoga means Union. How are we to apply this word to the phenomena of mind? What is the first characteristic of everything in thought? How did it come to be a thought at all? Only by making a distinction between it and the rest of the world. The first proposition, the type of all propositions, is: S is P. There must be two thingsdifferent thingswhose relation forms knowledge.
1939 · PDF PAGE 56
…s called matter in relativity theory do not seem to be adequate to the whole of our scientific knowledge of matter. There remain quantum phenomena.' Ah! "So we leave her, so we leave her, Far from where her swarthy kindred roam-kindred roam In the Scarlet Fever, Scarlet Fever, Scarlet Fever Convalescent Home." 31. So now, no less than that chivalrous gentleman, His Grace, the Most Reverend the Archbishop of Canterbury, who in a recent broadcast confounded for ever all those infidels who had presumed to doubt the possibility of devils entering i…
1939 · PDF PAGE 45
… number and nature of the intruding thoughts; the tendency of the object itself to depart from the course laid out for it, and any other phenomena which may present themselves. Avoid overstrain; this is very important. "7. Proceed to imagine living objects; as a man, preferably some man known to, and respected by, you. "8. In the intervals of these experiments you might try to imagine the objects of the other senses, and to concentrate upon them. For example, try to imagine the taste of chocolate, the smell or roses, the feeling of velvet, the …
1939 · PDF PAGE 35
…her practices. For instance, one can make the breathing as quick and shallow as possible. Any good practice is likely to produce its own phenomena, but in accordance with the general thesis of these lectures I think it will be obvious that the proper practice will aim at holding the breath for as long a period as possiblebecause that condition will represent as close an approximation to complete stillness of the physiological apparatus as may be. Of course we are not stilling it; we
1939 · PDF PAGE 55
…sed system. If values form an integral part of reality, it seems strange that science should be able to give a consistent description of phenomena which ignores them. 'At the present time, this difficulty is being met in two ways. On the one hand, it is pointed out that science remains within its own domain by the device of cyclic definition, that is to say, the abstractions with which it
1939 · PDF PAGE 52
… the reality of our instruments, of our organs of sense, is just as much in need of description and demonstration as are the most remote phenomena. And we find ourselves forced to the conclusion that anything we perceive is only perceived by us as such because of our tendency so to perceive it. And we shall find that in the fourth stage of the great Buddhist practice, Mahasatipatthana, we become directly and immediately aware of this fact instead of digging it out of the holts of these interminable sorites which
1939 · PDF PAGE 12
… not be found in your dictionary, is an exceedingly common complaint. It means the splitting up of the mind. In extreme cases we get the phenomena of multiple personality, Jekyll and Hyde, only more so. At the best, when a man says 'I' he refers only to a transitory phenomenon. His 'I' changes as he utters the word. Butphilosophy apartit is rarer and rarer to find a man with a mind of his own and a will of his own, even in this modified sense. (18) I want you therefore to see the nature of the obstacles to union with the Absolute. For one thi…
1939 · PDF PAGE 51
…gh. It appears very essential to describe this vision as well as possible, considering the difficulty of language, and the fact that the phenomena involved logical contradictions, the conditions of consciousness being other than those obtaining normally. The vision developed gradually. It was repeated on so many occasions that I am unable to say at what period it may be called complete. The beginning, however, is clear enough in my memory. 19. I was on a Great Magical Retirement in a cottage overlooking Lake Pasquaney in New Hampshire. I lost c…
1939 · PDF PAGE 50
only occur in one way instead of in three different ways. We compare two phenomena in time by the idea of sequence. 12. Now it will be perfectly clear to all of you that this is all nonsense. In order to conceive the simplest possible object, we have to keep on inventing ideas, which even in the proud moment of invention are seen to be unreal. How are we to get away from the world of phantasmagoria to the common universe of sense? We shall require quite a lot more acts of imagination. We have got to endow our mathematical conceptions with three…
1939 · PDF PAGE 33
…e process of repressing them is extremely difficult; and, like all other forms of repression, it leads to a terrific exaggeration of the phenomena which it is intended to repress. 16. There are quite a lot of little tricks familiar to most scientific people from their student days. Some of them are very significant in this connection of Yoga. For instance, in the matter of endurance, such as holding out a weight at arm's length, you can usually beat a man stronger than yourself. If you attend to your arm, you will probably tire in a minute; if …