The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 295 With eyes well fixed on my proboscis ,' I soon absorbed the Yogi Gnosis . He taught me to steer clear of vices, The giddy waltz , the tuneful aria , Those fatal foes of Brahma - charya ; And said , “ How very mild and nice is One's luck to lop out truth in slices, And chance to chop up cosmic crises ! ” He taught me A, he taught me B , He stopped my baccy and my tea . He taught me Y, he taught me 2 , He made strange noises in my head . He taught me that , he taught me this , He spoke of knowledge , life and bliss. He taught me this , he taught me that , He grew me mangoes in his hat . I brought him corn : he made good grist of it : And here , my Christian friend , 's the gist of it ! " In “ Science and Buddhism ” there is a vivid de scription of Pratyâhâra : The work is comparable to that of an electrician who should sit for hours with his finger on a delicately adjusted resistance - box , and his eye on the spot of light of a galvano meter , charged with the duty of keeping the spot still , at least , that it should never move beyond a certain number of degrees , and of recording the more important details of his experiment . Our work is identical in design , though worked with subtler_if less complex - means . For the finger on the resistance - box we substitute the Will ; and its control extends but to the Mind ; for the eye we substi tute the Introspective Faculty with its keen observation of the most minute disturbance , while the spot of light is the Consciousness itself , the central point of the gal vanometer scale the predetermined object , and the other figures in the scale , other objects , connected with the 1 The monks of Mount Athos substituted , as a gazing - point , the navel for the nose . -VAUGHAN , Hours with the Mystics , p . 57 . 2 The Sword of Song , Pentecost , vol . ii, p . 166 .