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Page 1 of 11912 · PDF PAGE 65
49 A !) »,, / 33 P : 1-1g Ξ ω: : !? Ο H’ = oi“ : Ξ l = ᾿ : Ξ £ ᾽ Ξ ;! ! Ι’ B c Tm: ; BD shows the Control of the Mind, improving slowly at first, afterwards more quickly. It starts from at or near zero, and should reach absolute control at D. EF shows the Power of Observation of the contents of the mind, improving quickly at first, afterwards more slowly, up to perfection at F. It starts well above zero in the case of most educated men. The height of the perpendiculars HI indicates the dissatisfaction of the student with his power of control. Inc…
1912 · PDF PAGE 57
…s are familiar to all?,־they are rather similar; and so are those given by Christ2 in the “Sermon on the Mount.” ' Yama means literally “control.” It is dealt With in detail in Part II, “The Wand.” 2 Not, however, original. The whole sermon is to be found in the Talmud. 4.1
1912 · PDF PAGE 63
…ocess rather strategical than practical; it is introspection, a sort of general examination of the contents of the mind which we wish to control: Asana having been mastered, all immediate exciting causes have been removed, and we are free to think what we are thinking about. A very similar experience to that of Asana is in store for us. At first we shall very likely flatter ourselves that our minds are pretty calm; this is a defect of observation. Just as the European standing for the first time on the edge of the desert will see nothing there, wh…
1912 · PDF PAGE 108
…nd passions, and thus prevent them arising to disturb the mind. Thirdly, by Pratyahara we analyse the mind yet more deeply, and begin 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…
1912 · PDF PAGE 37
CHAPTER I ASANA ΗΕ problem before us may be stated thus simply. A man wishes to control his mind, to be able to think one chosen thought for as long as he will without interruption As previously remarked, the first difficulty arises from the body, which keeps on asserting its presence by causing its victim to itch, and in other ways to be distracted. He wants to stretch, scratch, sneeze. This nuisance is so persistent that the Hindus (in their scientific way) devised a special practice for quieting it. The word Asana means [505126763 but, as with …
1912 · PDF PAGE 71
…NA OW that we have learnt to observe the mind, so that we know how it works to some extent, and have begun to understand 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 freel…
1912 · PDF PAGE 64
…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 thoughts, please!” “Don’t think quite so fast, please!” “No more of that kind of thought, please!” It is only then that we discover that what we thought was a school of playful porpoises is really the con- volutions of the sea-serpent. The attempt to repress has the effect of exciting. When the unsuspecting pupil first approaches his holy but Wily Guru, and demands magical powers,…
1912 · PDF PAGE 75
…g time without realizing that one has wandered at all. Fowl/21y, we get a very high class of break, which is a sort of aberration of the control itself. You think, “ How well I am doing it! ” or perhaps that it would be rather a good idea if you were on a desert
1912 · PDF PAGE 76
… wink/z z's Με desired ïesu]! itself. It must be dealt with later in detail. Now there is a real sequence in these classes of breaks. As control improves, the percentage of primaries and secondaries will diminish, even though the total number of breaks in a meditation remain stationary. By the time that you are meditating two or three hours-a day, and filling up most of the rest of the day with other practices de- signed to assist, when nearly every time something or other happens,and there is constantly a feeling of being “ on the brink of some…
1912 · PDF PAGE 74
…umber of cases of smallpox, the reason being that people began to tell the truth about the disease instead of faking. Soon, however, the control will improve faster than the observation. When this occurs the improvementwill become apparent in the record. Any variation will probably be due to accidental circumstances; for example, one night you may be very tired when you start; another night you may have headache or indigestion. You will do well to avoid practising at such times. We will suppose, then, that you have reached the stage when your a…
1912 · PDF PAGE 24
…is never present, even when there is a large amount of intelligence and good will. If 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…
1912 · PDF PAGE 98
… merely a state of mind as natural as any other. Frater P., before he had Samadhi, wrote of Dhyana: “ Perhaps as a result of the intense control a nervous storm breaks: this we call Dhyana. Samadhi is but an expansion of this, so far as I can see.” Five years later he would not take this view. He would say perhaps that Dhyana was “ a flowing of the mind in one unbroken current from the ego to the non-ego without consciousnessof either, accompanied by a crescent wonder and bliss.” He can understand how that is the
1912 · PDF PAGE 26
…ely to be unfavourable. New faces, new scenes will disjturb us ; even the new habits of life which we undertake for this very purpose of controlling the mind will at first tend to upset it. Still, we must give up our habit of eating too much, and follow the natural rule of only eating when we are hungry, listening to the interior voice which tells us that we have had enough. The same rule applies to sleep. We have determined to control our minds, and so our time for meditation must take precedence of other hours. We must fix times for practice, a…