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Page 1 of 11912 · PDF PAGE 108
…to control and suppress thought in general of whatever nature. Fourthly, we suppress all other thoughts by a direct concentration upon a single thought. This process, which leads to the highest results, consists of three parts, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, grouped under the single term Samyama. . How can I obtain further knowledge and experience of this? . The A3. A:. is an organization whose heads have obtained by personal experience to the summit of this science. They have
1912 · PDF PAGE 71
…rstand the elements of control, we may try the resultof gathering together all the powers of the mind, and attempting to focus them on a single point. We know that it is fairly easy for the ordinary educated mind to think without much distraction on a subject in which it is much interested. We have the popular phrase, “ revolving a thing in the mind ”; and as long as the subject is sufficiently complex, as long as thoughts pass freely, there is no great difficulty. So long as a gyroscope is in motion, it remains motionless relatively to its suppo…
1912 · PDF PAGE 66
…ng thoughts and trying to check them; and sooner or later one proceeds to the next stage, Dharana, the attempt to restrain the mind to a single object. Before we go on to this, however, we must consider what is meant by success in Pratyahara. This is a very extensive subject, and different authors take widely divergent views. One writer means an analysis so acute that every thought is resolved 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 li…
1912 · PDF PAGE 81
65 existing theory; that is common enough. But no single fact is sufficient to construct one. It will have been understood that Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi form a continuous process, and exactly when the climax comes does not matter. It is of this climax that we must speak, for this is a matter of experience, and a very striking one. In the course of our concentration we noticed that the contents of the mind at any moment consisted of two things, and no more: the Object, variable, and the Subject, invariable, or apparently so. By success in Dh…
1912 · PDF PAGE 49
… mantra is too long, one is apt to forget it, unless one practises very hard for a great length of time. On the other hand, mantras of a single syllable, such as Aumf are rather jerky; the rhythmical idea is lost. Here are a few useful mantras: ᾿See Part II. 2 However, in saying a mantra containing the 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 33
…eve in the possibilityof altering anything?,־but there are those who think existenceeven in heaven intoler- able so long as there is one single being who does not share that joy. There are some who may wish to travel back from the very threshold of the bridal chamber to assist belated guests. Such at least was the attitude which Gotama Buddha adopted. Nor shall he be alone. Again it may be pointed out that the contemplative life is generally opposed to the active life, and it must require an extremely careful bal- ance to prevent the one absorb…
1912 · PDF PAGE 101
…me there seems no particular objection to our following tradition, and using the same objects of meditation as our predecessors,with 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 th…
1912 · PDF PAGE 24
… 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 our minds, we shall find that even at the best 05 times the principal characteristics are wandering and distraction. Any one who has had anything to do with children and untrained minds generally knows that fixity of attention is never present, even when there is a large amount of intelligence and good will. If then we, with ou…
1912 · PDF PAGE 90
…as hallucination, even though he is only too well aware that he has fallen from that state into “normal” life. It is probably rare for a single experience to upset thus radically the whole conception of the Universe, just as sometimes, in the first moments of waking, there remains a half-doubt as to whether dream or waking is real. But as one gains further experience, when Dhyana is no longer a shock, when the student has had plenty of time to make himself at home in the new world, this conviction will become absolute.1 ᾽It should be remembered …
1912 · PDF PAGE 99
…re all sorts of more or less probable circumstances any one of which would prevent success. Now we do know this, that if thought is kept single and steady, Dhyana results. We do not know whether an intensification of this is sufficient to cause Samadhi, or whether some other circumstances are required. One is science, the other empiricism. One author says (unless memory deceives) that twelve seconds’ steadiness is Dharana, a hundred and forty-four Dhyana, and seven- teen hundred and twenty-eight Samadhi. And Vivekananda, comment- ing on Patanjali…
1912 · PDF PAGE 23
…asters, we have those of their immediate followers. 1 We have the documents of Hinduism, and of two Chinese systems. But Hinduism has no single founder. Lao Tze is one of our best examples of a man who went away and had a mysterious experience; perhaps the best of all examples, as his system is the best of all systems. We have full details of his method of training in the [)'/13118 Kang King, and elsewhere. But it is so little known that we shall omit considera- tion of it in this popular account.
1912 · PDF PAGE 96
… wretched plebeian Pali corruption of it.1 There are many kinds of Samadhi.2 Some auf/2073 consider Alma- dars/zana, z'lze Universe as a single plzenomenon wir/zeu! conditions, to öe z‘lzefirsz‘real Samao’nz'. If we accept this, we must relegate many less exalted states to the class of Dhyana. Patanjali enumerates a number of these states: to perform these on different things gives different 1 The vulgarism and provincialism of the Buddhist canon is infinitely repulsive to all nice minds; and the attempt to use the terms of an ego-centric philoso…