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Page 1 of 11912 · PDF PAGE 108
…perceiving function is stilled also. Then you wish to obtain a perfect vigilance 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 c…
1912 · PDF PAGE 71
…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 support, and even resists attempts to distract it; when it stops it falls from that position. If the earth ceased to spin round the sun, it would at once fall into the sun. The moment then that the student takes a simple subject—or rather a simple object—and imagines it or visualizes …
1912 · PDF PAGE 107
…at the Infinite, the Absolute, God, the Over- soul, or whatever you may prefer to call it, is always present; but veiled or masked by the thoughts of the mind, just as one cannot hear a heart-beat in a noisy city. . Yes? . Then to obtain knowledgeof That, it is only necessaryto still all thoughts.
1912 · PDF PAGE 66
…youth spends a disgusted week in thinking of little else. It is positively amazingwith what persistence a thought, even a whole train of thoughts, returns again and again to the charge. It becomes a positive nightmare. It is intensely annoying, too, to find that one does not become consciousthat one has got on to the forbidden subject until one has gone right through with it. However, one continues day after day investigating thoughts and trying to check them; and sooner or later one proceeds to the next stage, Dharana, the attempt to restrain t…
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 48
…the breathing, once some little skill has been acquired, with a watch to bear witness, is by the use of a mantra. The mantra acts on the thoughts very much as Pranayama does upon the breath. The thought is bound down to a recurring cycle; any intruding thoughts are thrown off by the mantra, just as pieces of putty would be from a fly-wheel; and the swifter the wheel the more difficult would it be for anything to stick. This is the proper way to practise a mantra. Utter it as loudly and slowly as possible ten times, then not quite so loudly and a …
1912 · PDF PAGE 67
SI However, the main point is to acquire some sort of in- hibitory power over the thoughts. Fortunately there is an unfailing method of acquiring this power. It is given in Liber III. If Sections I and 2 are practised (if necessary with the assistance of another person to aid your vigilance) you will soon be able to master the final section. In some people this inhibitory power may flower suddenly in very much the same way as occurred with Asana. Quite without any relaxa- tion of vigilance, the mind will suddenly he stilled. There will be a marve…
1912 · PDF PAGE 82
…cular appearance is usually assumed to be “ God.” But, whatever it may be, the result on the mind of the student: is tremendous; all his thoughts are pushed to their greatest develop- ment. He sincerely believes that they have the divine sanction; perhaps he even supposes that they emanate from this “God.” He goes back into the world armed with this intense conviction.
1912 · PDF PAGE 25
…e 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 activity of bacteria with the reasoned steadiness of th…
1912 · PDF PAGE 49
…ill of God; ” to another, while engaged ’ apparently referring to the action of the inhibitory centres which he was using. By in killing thoughts, came the words “and push it down,’ keeping on with this he got his “ result.” The ideal mantra should be rhythmical, one might even say musical; but there should be sufficient emphasis on some syllable to assist the faculty of attention. The best mantras are of medium length, so far as the beginner is concerned. If the mantra is too long, one is apt to forget it, unless one practises very hard for a g…
1912 · PDF PAGE 24
…then we, with our well-trained minds, determine to control this wandering thought, we shall find that we are fairly well able to keep the thoughts running in a narrow channel, each thought linked to the last in a perfectly rational manner; but if we attempt to stop this current we shall find that, so far from succeeding, we shall merely break down the banks of the channel. The mind'will overflow, and instead of a chain 05 thought we shall have a chaos of confused images.
1912 · PDF PAGE 91
…sideration is this. The student has not been trying to excite the mind but to calm it, not to produce any one thought but to exclude all thoughts; for there is no connection between the object of meditation and the Dhyana. Why must we suppose a breaking down of the whole process, especially as the mind bears no subsequent traces of any interference, such as pain or fatigue? Surely this once, if never again, the Hindu image expressesthe simplest theory! That image is that of a lake into which five glaciers move. These glaciers are the senses. Whi…