Magick Without Tears

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