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Page 1 of 21912 · PDF PAGE 43
…ll other conceivable positions of the body are uncomfortable. This feeling represents success. There will be no further difficulty in the practice. One Will get into one’s Asana with almost the same feeling as that with which a tired man gets into a hot bath; and While he is in that position, the body may be trusted to send him no message that might disturb his mind. Other results of this practice are described by Hindu authors, but they do not concern us at present. Ourfirst obstacle has been removed, and we can continue With the others.
1912 · PDF PAGE 26
…sleep. We have determined to control our minds, and so our time for meditation must take precedence of other hours. We must fix times for practice, and make our feasts movable. In order to test our progress, for we shall find that (as in all physio- logical matters) meditation cannot be gauged by the feelings, We shall have a note-book and pencil, and we shall also have a watch. We shall then endeavour to count how often, during the first quarter of an hour, the mind breaks away from the idea upon which it is determined to concentrate. We shall pr…
1912 · PDF PAGE 73
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 keep…
1912 · PDF PAGE 37
…tracted. He wants to stretch, scratch, sneeze. This nuisance is so persistent that the Hindus (in their scientific way) devised a special practice for quieting it. The word Asana means [505126763 but, as with all words which have caused debate, its exact meaning has altered, and it is used in several distinct senses by various authors. The greatest authority on “ Yoga ” ᾽“ is Patanjali. He says, “Asana is that which is firm and pleasant.” This may be taken as meaning the result of success in the practice. 1 Yoga is the general name for that form …
1912 · PDF PAGE 54
38 Four hours is a better period, a golden mean; sixteen hours is too much for most peOple. On the Whole, the ambulatory practices are more generally useful to the health than the sedentary; for in this way walking and fresh air are assured. But some of the Sedentary practice should be done, and combined with meditation. Of course when actually “ racing ” to get results, walking is a distraction.
1912 · PDF PAGE 25
…it is hard to understand how any one first got the idea that it was a weakness and a nuisance. Perhaps it was because in the more natural practice of “devotion,” people found that their thoughts interfered. In any case calm and self-controlare to be preferred to restlessness. Darwin in his study presents a marked contrast with a monkey in a cage. Generallyspeaking, the larger and stronger and more highly developed any animal is, the less does it move about, and such movements as it does make are slow and purposeful. Compare the ceaseless activit…
1912 · PDF PAGE 49
…word Azmz, one sometimes forgets the other words, and remains concentrated, repeating the ΑΜ]; at intervals; but this is the result of a practice already begun, not the beginning of a practice. . D
1912 · PDF PAGE 75
…are waking up from the sleep which men call waking, the sleep Whose dreams are life. There is another way to test one’s progress in this practice, and that is by the character of the breaks. Breaks are classed as follows: E'rsz‘ly, physical sensations. These should have been overcome by Asana. Secondly, breaks that seem to be dictated by events immediately pre- ceding the meditation. Their activity becomes tremendous. Only by this practice does one understand how much is really observed by the senses without the mind becoming conscious of it. Z…
1912 · PDF PAGE 101
…th the single exception which we shall note in due course. The first class of objects for serious meditation (as opposed to pre- liminary practice, in which one should keep to simple recognizable objects, whose definitenessis easy to maintain) is varz'ousparz'sofz‘lzelady. The Hindus have an elaborate system of anatomy and physiology which has apparently no reference to the facts of the dissecting-room. Prominent in this class are the seven Cakkras, which will be described in Part II. There are also various “ nerves”, equally mythical. The second…
1912 · PDF PAGE 74
…ndigestion. You will do well to avoid practising at such times. We will suppose, then, that you have reached the stage when your average practice on one subject is about half an hour, and the average number of breaks between ten and twenty. One would suppose that this implied that during the periods between the breaks one was really concentrated, but this is not the case. The mind is flickering, although imperceptibly. However, there may be sufficient real steadiness even at this early stage to cause some very striking phenomena, of which the mos…
1912 · PDF PAGE 86
… no reason to reject this ex- planation altogether, though it would be quite absurd to suppose that to accept it would be to condemn the practice. Spasm is a normal func- tion of at least one of the organs of the body. That the brain is not damaged by the practice is proved by the fact that many people who claim to have had this experience repeatedly continue to exercise the ordinary avocations of life without diminished activity. We may dismiss, then, the physiologicalquestion. It throws no light on the main problem, which is the value of the …
1912 · PDF PAGE 110
…ncipal point of this grade is that the Probationer has a master appointed, whose experience can guide him in his work. He may select any practices that he prefers, but in any case must keep an exact record, so that he may discover the relation of cause and effect in his working, and so that the As. A.'. may judge of his progress, and direct his further studies. After a year of probation he may be admitted a Neophyte of the A:. A.'., and receive the secret holy book Liber VII. These are the principal instructions for practice which every pro- ba…
1912 · PDF PAGE 63
CHAPTER IV PRATYAHARA RATYAHARA is the first process in the mental part of our task. PThe previous practices, Asana, Pranayama, Yama, and Niyama, are all acts of the body, while the mantra is connected with speech: Praty- ahara1s purely mental. And what is Pratyahara? This word is used by different authors in different senses. The same word is employed to designate both the practice and the result. It means for our present purpose a process rather strategical than practical; it is introspection, a sort of general examination of the contents of t…
1912 · PDF PAGE 47
…ble or no it would be useless to the beginner, so he Will endeavour to make the breathing very slow and very regular. The rules for this practice are given in Liber CCVI. 31
1912 · PDF PAGE 108
…nce and attention of the mind, uninterrupted by the rise of thoughts? Yes. . And how do you proceed? . Firstly, we still the body by the practice called.Asana, and secure its ease and the regularity of its functions by Pranayama. Thus no messages from the body will disturb the mind. Secondly, by Yamaand Niyama, we still the emotionsand passions, and thus prevent them arising to disturb the mind. Thirdly, by Pratyahara we analyse the mind yet more deeply, and begin to control and suppress thought in general of whatever nature. Fourthly, we suppr…
1912 · PDF PAGE 107
…sential identity in the method. . Indeed! . It was the great work of the life of Frater Perdurabo to prove this. Studying each religious practice of each great religion on the spot, he was able to show the Identity-in-diversityof all, and to formulate a method free from all dogmatic bias, and based only on the ascer- tained facts of anatomy, physiology, and psychology. . Can you give me a brief abstract of this method? . The main idea is that the Infinite, the Absolute, God, the Over- soul, or whatever you may prefer to call it, is always presen…
1912 · PDF PAGE 66
…esolved into a number of elements (see “The Psychology of Hashish,” Section V, in Equinox II). Others take the View that supcess in this practice is something like the experience which Sir Humphrey Davy had as a result of taking nitrous oxide, in which he exclaimed: “The universe is composed exclusively of ideas.” , Others say that it gives Hamlet’s feeling: “ There ’8 nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so,” interpreted as literally as was done by Mrs. Eddy.
1912 · PDF PAGE 64
48 Arab can tell him the family history of each of the fifty persons in View, because he has learnt how to look, so with practice the thoughts will become more numerous and more insistent. As soon as the body was accurately observed it was found to be terribly restless and painful; now that we ob- serve the mind it is seen to be more restless and painful still. (See 0722137627” opposite.) A similar curve might be plotted for the real and apparent painful- ness of Asana. Conscious of this fact, we begin to try to control it: “Not quite so many th…
1912 · PDF PAGE 41
…will be found to pass away, if they are resolutely neglected, but the cramp and fatigue may be expected to increase until the end of the practice. One may begin with half an hour or an hour. The student must not mind if the process of quitting the Asana involves several minutes of the acutest agony. It will require a good deal of determination to persist day after day, for in most cases it will be found that the discomfort and pain, instead of diminishing, tend to increase.
1912 · PDF PAGE 24
…esemblance to one another. They recommend “virtue” (of various kinds), solitude, absence of excitement, moderation in diet, and finally a practice which some call prayer and some call meditation. (The former four may turn out on examination to be merely conditions favourable to the last.) On investigating what is meant by these two things, we find that they are only one. For what is the state of either prayer or meditation? It is the restraining of the mind to a single act, state, or thought. If we sit down quietly and investigate the contents of…