150 
MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS 
1. Immediate physical interruption: Asana should stop 
these. 
2. Things that are "on your mind ." 
3. Reverie, and "Wouldn't it help if I were to- ?" 
4. Atmospherics-e.g. 
voices apparently 
from some 
alien source. 
5. Aberrations of the control itself; and the result itself. 
(Remember the practice of some Hindu schools : "Not 
that, not that!" to whatever it is that presents itself as 
Tat Sat-reality, truth.) 
Need I remind you how urgent the wish to escape will 
assuredly become, how fantastic are the mind's devices and 
excuses, amounting often to deliberate revolt? In Kandy I 
broke away in a fury, and dashed down to Colombo with the 
intention of painting the very air as red as the betel-spittle on 
the pavements! But after three days of futile search for 
satisfying debauchery I came back to my horses, and, sure 
enough, it was merely that I had gone stale; the relaxation 
soothed and steadied me; I resumed the discipline with 
redoubled energy, and Dhyana dawned before a week had 
elapsed. 
I mention this because it is the normal habit of the mind 
to organize these counter-attacks 
that makes their task so 
easy. What you need is a mind that will help rather than 
hinder your Work by its normal function. 
This is where these Greetings, and Will-sayings, and 
Adorations come in. 
It is not a concentration-practice 
proper; I haven't a good 
word 
for it. 
"Background-concentration" 
or 
"long-distance-concentration" 
are clumsy , and not too 
accurate. It is really rather like a public school education. 
One is not constantly "doing a better thing than one has ever 
done" ; one is not dropping one's eye-glass every two minutes, 
or being a little gentleman in the act of brushing one's hair. 
The point is that one trains oneself to react properly at any 
moment of surprise. It must become "second nature" for