Practices for the Quest1

If he is not too proud to begin at the point where he finds himself rather than at some point where he once was or would now like to be, if he is willing to advance one step at a time, he may realize his goal far more quickly than the less humble and more pretentious man is likely to realize it.

2The Long Path represents the earlier stages through which all seekers after the higher wisdom will have to pass; they cannot leap up to the top. Therefore those stages will always remain valuable.

3The aspirant for illumination must first lift himself out of the quagmire of desire, passion, selfishness, and materialism in which he is sunk. To achieve this purpose, he must undergo a purificatory discipline. It is true that some individuals blessed by grace or karma spontaneously receive illumination without having to undergo such a discipline. But these individuals are few. Most of us have to toil hard to extricate ourselves from the depths of the lower nature before we can see the sky shining overhead.

4An intellectual understanding is not enough. These ideas can be turned into truths only by a thorough self-discipline leading to liberation from passions, governance of emotions, transformation of morals, and concentration of thoughts.

5He has to develop religious veneration, mystical intuition, moral worth, rational intelligence, and active usefulness in order to evolve a fuller personality. Thus he becomes a fit instrument for the descent of the Overself into the waking consciousness.

6Many a yogi will criticize this threefold path to realization. He will say meditation alone will be enough. He will deprecate the necessity of knowing metaphysics and ridicule the call to inspired action. But to show that I am introducing no new-fangled notion of my own here, it may be pointed out that in Buddhism there is a recognized triple discipline of attainment, consisting of (1)dyhana (meditation practice), (2) prajna (higher understanding), (3) sila (self-denying conduct).

7It is a fault in most of my writings that I did not mention at all, or mentioned too briefly and lightly, certain aspects of the quest so that wrong ideas about my views on these matters now prevail. I did not touch on these aspects or did not touch on them sufficiently, partly because I thought my task was to deal as a specialist primarily with meditation alone, and partly because so many other workers had dealt with them so often. It is now needful to change the emphasis over to these neglected hints. They include moral re-education; character building; prayer, communion, and worship in their most inward, least outward, and quite undenominational religious sense; mortification of flesh and feeling as a temporary

but indispensable discipline; and the use of creative imagination in contemplative exercises as a help to spiritual achievement.

8There is a point of view which rejects the attitude that destitution and dire poverty are the only paths to spirituality and replaces it by the attitude that a simple life and a small number of possessions are better. The poverty-stricken life is usually inadequate and unaesthetic. We need a sufficiency of possessions in order to obtain efficiency of living, and an aesthetic home in order to live the beautiful life. How much more conducive to success in meditation, for instance, is a well-ordered home, a refined elegant environment, a noiseless and undisturbed room or outdoor spot! But these things cost money. However much the seeker may saturate himself in youthful years with idealistic contempt for the world's values, he will find in time that even the things important to his inner spiritual life can usually be had only if he has enough money to buy them. Privacy, solitude, silence, and leisure for study and meditation are not free, and their price comes high.

9To live a simpler life is not the same as to live an impoverished life. Our wants are without end and it is economy of spiritual energy to reduce them at certain points. But this is not to say that all beautiful things are to be thrown out of the window merely because they are not functional or indispensable.

10What earlier scholars translated as "nonacceptance of gifts" in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, Mahadevan has translated as "non-possession." The difference in meaning is important. The idea clearly is to avoid burdens which keep attention busy with their care.

11What is really meant by renunciation of the world? I will tell you. It is what a man comes down to when confronted by certain death, when he knows that within an hour or two he will be gone from the living world--when he dictates his last will and testament disposing of all his earthly possessions.

12It is not the world that stands in our way and must be renounced but our mental and emotional relationship with the world; and this needs only to be corrected. We may remain just where we are without flight to ashram or convent, provided we make an inner shift.

13There is something crazy in this idea that we were put into the world to separate ourselves from it!

14The inability to believe in or detect the presence of a divine power in the universe is to be overcome by a threefold process. The first part some people overcome by "hearing" the truth directly uttered by an illumined person or by other people by reading their inspired writings. The second part is to reflect constantly upon the Great Truths. The third part is to introvert the mind in contemplation.

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He must be observant, must understand the heights and depths of human nature, human motives, and human egoism. He should do this because it will help him to know both others and himself, to serve them better and to protect his quest.

16He who enters upon this quest will have plenty to do, for he will have to work on the weaknesses in his character, to think impartially, to meditate regularly, and to aspire constantly. Above all, he will have to train himself in the discipline of surrendering the ego.

17Show me a man who is regular and persistent in his practice of daily study, reflection, and meditation, and you will show me a man determined to break the bonds of flesh and destined to walk into the sphere of the spirit, though years may elapse and lives may pass before he succeeds. He has learned to ask, to seek, and to find.

18As a preface to this reflective reading, he should put his heart in an attitude of humility and prayerfulness. He needs the one because it is the divine grace which will make his own efforts bear fruit in the end. He needs the other because he must ask for this grace. And however obscurely he may glimpse the book's meaning at times, his own reflective faith in the truth set down in its pages and in the inner leading of his higher self, will assist him to progress farther. Such a sublime stick-to-it-iveness brings the Overself's grace in illuminated understanding.

19From the first moment that he sets foot on this inner path until the last one when he has finished it, he will at intervals be assailed by tests which will try the stuff he is made of. Such trials are sent to the student to examine his mettle, to show how much he is really worth, and to reveal the strength and weakness that are really his, not what he believes are his. The hardships he encounters try the quality of his attainment and demonstrate whether his inner strength can survive them or will break down; the sufferings he experiences may engrave lessons on his heart, and the ordeals he undergoes may purify it. Life is the teacher as well as the judge.

20Every act is to be brought into the field of awareness and done deliberately.

21The discipline of the self, the following of ethical conduct, the practice of mystical meditation--all these are needed if the higher experience resulting in insight is being sought.

22Aspiration alone is not enough. It must be backed by discipline, training, and endeavour.

23He who wishes to triumph must learn to endure.

24From the intuitions that are the earliest guides of the seeking mind to the ecstatic self-absorptions that are the latest experiences of the illumined mystic, there are certain obstructions which have to be progressively removed if these manifestations

are to appear. They can be classified into three groups: those that belong to the unchecked passions of man, those that belong to his self-centered emotions, and those that belong to his prejudiced thinking. By a critical self-analysis, by a purificatory self-denial, and by an ascetic self-training, the philosophic discipline generates a deep moral and intellectual earnestness which wears down these obstructions and prepares the seeker for real advance.

25The neophyte may stumble and fall, but he can still rise up again; he may make mistakes, but he can still correct them. If he will stick to his quest through disheartening circumstances and long delays, his determination will not be useless. If it does nothing else, it will invite the onset of grace. When moods of doubt come to him, as they do to most, he must cling steadfastly to hope and renew his practice until the mood disappears. It is a difficult art, this of keeping to the symbol in his serene centre even for a few minutes. It can be learnt by practice only. Every time he strays from it into excitement, egotism, or anxiety, and discovers the fact, he must return promptly. It is an art which has to be learnt through constant effort and after frequent failure, this keeping his hold on the spiritual facts of existence. He should continue the quest with unbroken determination, even if his difficulties and weaknesses make him unable to continue it with unshaken determination. It implies a willingness to keep the main purpose of his quest in view whatever happens. He must resolve to continue his journey despite the setbacks which may arise out of his own weaknesses and undeflected by the misfortunes which may arise out of his own destiny. The need to endure patiently amid difficult periods is great, but it is worthwhile holding on and hoping on by remembering that the cycle of bad karma will come to an end. It is a matter of not letting go. This does not mean lethargic resignation to whatever happens, however. He has got to maintain his existence, striving to seize or create the slenderest opportunities.

26The Quest is not to be followed by studying metaphysically alone or by sitting meditatively alone. Both are needful yet still not enough. Experience must be reflectively observed and intuition must be carefully looked for. Above all, the aspirant must be determined to strive faithfully for the ethical ideals of philosophy and to practise sincerely its moral teachings.

27Even though he learns all these truths, he has only learnt them intellectually. They must be applied in the environment, they must be deeply felt in the heart, and, finally, they must be established as the Consciousness whence they are derived.

28Make it a matter of habit, until it becomes a matter of inclination, to be kind, gentle, forgiving, and compassionate. What can you lose? A few things now and then, a little money here and there, an occasional hour or an argument? But see what you can gain! More release from the personal ego, more right to the Overself's grace, more loveliness in the world inside us, and more friends in the world outside us.

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It is not merely undesirable for others' sake for a man to engage in spiritual service prematurely and unpurified, but positively dangerous to his own welfare.

30The only authentic mandate for spiritual service must come, if it does not come from a master, from within one's Higher Self. If it comes from the ego, it is then an unnecessary intrusion into other people's lives which can do little good, however excellent the intention.

31When he came down into reincarnation, he came with the responsibility for his own life, not for other people's. They were, and ever afterwards remained, responsible for their own lives. The burden was never at any time shifted by God onto his shoulders.

32To understand the mysterious language of the Silence, and to bring this understanding back into the world of forms through work that shall express the creative vitality of the Spirit, is one way in which you may serve mankind.

33He must examine himself to find out how far hidden self-seeking enters into his altruistic activity.

34It is futile for anyone who has muddled his own life to set out to straighten the lives of others. It is arrogant and impertinent for anyone to start out improving humanity whilst he himself lamentably needs improvement. The time and strength that he proposes to give in such service will be better used in his own. To meddle with the natural course of other men's lives under such conditions is to fish in troubled waters and make a fool of himself. Only when he has himself well in hand is there even a chance of rendering real service. A man whose own interior and exterior life is full of failure should not mock the teaching by prattling constantly about his wish to serve humanity. Such service must first begin at the point nearest to him, that is, his own self.

35If he can keep his motives really pure and his ego from getting involved, he may find the way to render service. But few men can do it.

36It is not that he is not to care about other people or try to help them, but that he is to remember that there is so little he can do for them while he is so little himself.

37Help given, or alms bestowed, out of the giver's feeling of oneness with the sufferer, is twice given: once as the physical benefit and once as the spiritual blessing along with it.

38Philosophic service is distinguished by practical competence and personal unselfishness.

39I must cut a clear line of difference between helping people and pleasing them. Many write and say my books have helped them when they really mean that my

books have pleased their emotions. We help only when we lift a man's mind to the next higher step, not when we confirm his present position by "pleasing" him. To help is to assist a man's progress; to please is to let his bonds enslave him.

40The seeker must live primarily for his own development, secondarily for society's. Only when he has attained the consummation of that development may he reverse the roles. If, in his early enthusiasm, he becomes a reformer or a missionary much more than a seeker, he will stub his toes.

41If he begins to think of himself as the doer of this service, the helper of these people, he begins to set up the ego again. It will act as as barricade between him and the higher impersonal power. The spiritual effectiveness of his activity will begin to dwindle.

42Because the ultimate issue lies with the grace of the Overself, the aspirant is not to prejudge the results of his Quest. He is to let them take care of themselves. This has one benefit, that it saves him from falling into the extremes of undue discouragement on the one hand and undue elation on the other. It tells him that even though he may not be able, in this incarnation, to attain the goal of union with the Overself by destroying the ego, he can certainly make some progress towards his goal by weakening the ego. Such a weakening does not depend upon grace; it is perfectly within the bounds of his own competence, his own capacity.

43Such inward invulnerability seems too far away to be practicable. But the chief value of seeking it lies in the direction which it gives to thought, feeling, and will. Even if it unlikely that the aspirant will achieve such a high standard in this present incarnation, it is likely that he will be able to take two or three steps nearer its achievement.

Fundamentals

Stop wandering thoughts1

The longest book on yoga can teach you nothing more about the practical aim of yoga than this: still your thoughts.

2One of the causes of the failure to get any results from meditation is that the meditator has not practised long enough. In fact, the wastage of much time in unprofitable, distracted, rambling thinking seems to be the general experience. Yet this is the prelude to the actual work of meditation in itself. It is a necessary excavation before the building can be erected. The fact is unpleasant but must be accepted. If this experience of the first period is frustrating and disappointing, the experience of the second period is happy and rewarding. He should really count the

first period as a preparation, and not as a defeat. If the preliminary period is so irksome that it seems like an artificial activity, and the subsequent period of meditation itself is so pleasant and effortless that it seems like a perfectly natural one, the moral is: more perseverance and more patience.

3If the turning wheel of thoughts can be brought to a perfect standstill without paying the penalty of sleep, the results will be that the Thinker will come to know himself instead of his thoughts.

4Meditation is admittedly one of the most difficult arts to learn. The mind of humanity in its present-day condition is so restless, so wandering, and especially so extroverted, that the effort to bring it under control seems to the beginner to meet with disheartening results. Proper patience, right technique, and the mental help of an expert are needed. In most cases it takes several years, but from experience and knowledge there may come the skill and ease of the proficient meditator.

5It is useful only in the most elementary stage to let thoughts drift hazily or haphazardly during the allotted period. For at that stage, he needs more to make the idea of sitting perfectly still for some time quite acceptable in practice than he needs to begin withdrawal from the body's sense. He must first gain command of his body before he can gain command of his thoughts. But in the next stage, he must forcibly direct attention to a single subject and forcibly sustain it there. He must begin to practise mental mastery, for this will not only bring him the spiritual profits of meditation but also will ward off some of its psychic dangers.

6A rabble of thoughts pursue him into the silence period, as if determined to keep his mind from ever becoming still.

7Do not miss the object of your meditations and lose yourself in useless reveries.

8The moral is, find the object that makes most appeal to your temperament, the object that experience proves to be most effective in inducing the condition of mental concentration.

9The first quarter-hour is often so fatiguing to beginners that they look for, and easily find, an excuse to bring the practice to an abrupt end, thus failing in it. They may frankly accept the fatigue itself as sufficient reason for their desertion. Or they may make the excuse of attending to some other task waiting to be done. But the fact is that almost as soon as they start, they do not want to go on. They sit down to meditate and then they find they do not want to meditate! Why? The answer lies in the intellect's intractable restlessness, its inherent repugnance to being governed or being still.

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Command your thoughts during this first period of meditation; direct them by the energized will towards a definite and specific subject. Do not let them drift vaguely. Assert your mastery by a positive effort.

11In your meditations, stop thinking about the things that ought to have been left outside the door and start thinking about the Overself.

12The mind will rush off like a wild bull from the discipline he seeks to impose on it. If this fails, it will use temptations or diversions or pessimism.

13Think of the lama sitting in long and sustained meditation in the freezing cell of a Tibetan monastery and be ashamed of your own weakness.

14If the meditation is not to lose itself in empty day-dreaming, it must be alert.

15If meditation were to stop with ruminating intently over one's own best ideas or over some inspired man's recorded ideas, the result would certainly be helpful and the time spent worthwhile. It would be helpful and constructive, but it would not be more than that. Such communion with thoughts is not the real aim of meditation. That aim is to open a door to the Overself. To achieve this, it casts out all ideas and throws away all thoughts. Where thinking still keeps us within the little ego, the deliberate silence of thinking lifts us out of the ego altogether.

16The essence of yoga is to put a stop to the ego's mental activities. Its ever-working, ever-restless character is right and necessary for human life but at the same time is a tyrant and slave-driver over human life.

17One of the hindrances to success in meditation, to be overcome with great difficulty, is the tendency of the intellect--and especially of the modern Western intellect--to think of the activity to which it could be attending if it were not trying to meditate, or to look forward to what it will be doing as soon as the meditation ends, or to project itself into imaginations and predictions about the next few hours or the next day. The only way to deal with this when it happens is forcibly to drag the mind's attention away from its wanderings and hold it to the Now, as if nothing else exists or can ever exist.

18Catch your thoughts in their first stage and you catch the cause of some of your troubles, sins, and even diseases.

19The thoughts which intrude themselves on your meditation in such multitudes and with such persistence may be quelled if you set going a search as to where they come from.

20If the wandering characteristic of all thoughts diverts attention and defeats the effort to meditate, try another way. Question the thoughts themselves, seek out their origin, trace them to their beginning and reduce their number more and more. Find

out what particular interest or impulse emotion or desire in the ego causes them to arise and push this cause back nearer to the void. In this way, you tend to separate yourself from the thoughts themselves, refuse to identify with them, and get back nearer to your higher identity.

21The first part of the exercise requires him to banish all thoughts, feelings, images, and energies which do not belong to the subject, prayer, ideal, or problem he chooses as a theme. Nothing else may be allowed to intrude into consciousness or, having intruded by the mind's old restlessness, it is to be blotted out immediately. Such expulsion is always to be accompanied by an exhaling of the breath. Each return of attention to the selected theme is to be accompanied by an inhaling of the breath.

22When thoughts are restless and hard to control, there is always something in us which is aware of this restlessness. This knowledge belongs to the hidden "I" which stands as an unruffled witness of all our efforts. We must seek therefore to feel for and identify ourself with it. If we succeed, then the restlessness passes away of itself, and the bubbling thoughts dissolve into undifferentiated Thought.

23He must first work at the cleansing of his mind. This is done by vigilantly keeping out degrading thoughts and by refusing entry to weakening ones.

24He must wait patiently yet work intently after he closes his eyes until his thoughts, circling like a flock of birds around a ship, come gently to rest.

25We habitually think at random. We begin our musings with one subject and usually end with an entirely different one. We even forget the very theme which started the movement of our mind. Such an undisciplined mind is an average one. If we were to watch ourselves for five minutes, we would be surprised to discover how many times thought had involuntarily jumped from one topic to another.

26The first problem is how to keep his interest from drying up, the second how to keep his attention from wandering off.

27When he has previously purified his character, he will naturally be able to sustain long periods of meditation without being distracted by wayward emotions.

28The passage in consciousness from mere thoughts to sheer Thought is not an easy one. Lifelong ingrained habit has made our consciousness form-ridden, tied to solids, and expectant of constant change. To surrender this habit seems to it (albeit wrongly) quite unnatural, and consequently artificial resistances are set up.

29To keep up the meditation for some length of time, to force himself to sit there while all his habitual bodily and mental instincts are urging him to abandon the practice, calls for arousing of inner strength to fight off inattention or fatigue. But

this very strength, once aroused, will eventually enable him to keep it up for longer and longer periods.

30As the mind slowly relaxes, the number of thoughts is reduced, the attentiveness to them increased.

31Whenever the meditator notices that he has lost his way and is no longer thinking of his chosen subject, he has to start again and rethink the subject. This process of refinding his way several times may have to be repeated during each session of meditation.

32It will be a help to meditate more successfully if, at the beginning, the breathing rhythm is equalized so that the inbreath and the outbreath are roughly of the same length and if one draws the air in a little more deeply than normally and lets it out a little more slowly than normally.

33The so-called normal mind is in a state of constant agitation. From the standpoint of yoga, there is little difference whether this agitation be pleasurable or painful.

34If a student is not purified enough, nor informed enough, it is better not to endeavour to reach the trance stage. He should devote his efforts to the control of thoughts and to the search for inner tranquillity along with this self-purification and improvement of knowledge.

35The thought-flow may be stopped by forcible means such as breath control, but the result will then be only a transient and superficial one. If a deeper and more durable result is desired, it is essential to conjoin the breath control with other kinds of self-control--with a discipline of the senses and a cleansing of the thoughts.

36The aim is to work, little by little, toward slowing down the action of thinking first and stilling it altogether later.

37If the initial period of distracted, wandering, overactive, or restless thoughts irks him by its length, he should remember that this shows the state of his mind during most of the day.

38It is a custom among the yogis, and one laid down in the traditional texts, to begin meditation by paying homage to God and to the master. The purpose of this is to attract help from these sources.

39The mind is dragged hither and thither by its desires or interest, dragged to fleeting and ephemeral things.

40The undisciplined mind will inevitably resist the effects needed for these exercises. This is a difficult period for the practiser. The remedy is to arouse himself,

"summon up the will," and return again and again to the fight until the mind, like a horse, begins to accept its training and learns to obey.

41In this interim waiting period nothing happens, only the thoughts bubble along as they usually do during an idle time, except that there is some strain, some constriction whenever he remembers that there is a purpose in his sitting here, a control needed to achieve it.

42He is to begin by giving a disciplined attention to the workings of his own mind.

43The body soon begins to protest against the unaccustomed stillness suddenly enforced on it: the mind soon starts to rebel against the tedium and boredom of the early stages, and the habitual unrest of both will have to be faced again and again.

44It is difficult, often impossible, to stop thinking by one's own effort. But by grace's help it gets done. With thinking no longer in the way, consciousness ceases to be broken up: nothing is there to impede movement into stillness.

45If the innate capacity is lacking, as it usually is, then the aspirant requires some skill gathered from repeated experience to shut out sounds which bring the mind back to physical situations.

46It is not only thoughts that come up in the form of words that have to be brought under control, but also those that come up in the form of images. So long as consciousness is peopled by the activities of imagination, so long does its stillness and emptiness remain unreached. That certain yoga exercises use either of these forms to reach their goal does not falsify this statement. For even there the method practised has to be abandoned at a particular point, or stop there by itself.

47The intellectual type tries to analyse what he does and sees in the attempt to understand it more fully. But the end result is that the transcendent part of the experience is lost; one set of thoughts succeeds only in producing another. He must be willing and ready to stop intellection at the start of the exercise. This is essential to success in meditation.

48Whatever method blocks the wandering of thoughts or the practice of intellectualism, whether random or continuous, may be useful so long as it assists concentration and logical examination is avoided. It could be a mantram, but not a devotional, intelligible, or meaningful one. It could be a diagram, a dot on the wall, or a door-handle.

49He must try to keep his mental equilibrium undisturbed by the hardships and unbroken by the pleasures which life may bring him. This cannot be done unless the mind is brought to rest on some point, idea, name, or symbol which gives it a happy poise, and unless it is kept there.

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It is not enough to achieve control of the body, its urges and its drives and its passions, splendid though that certainly is. His advance must not stop there. For he has yet to deal with his thoughts, to recognize that they come from his ego, feed and nurture it, and control of them must also be achieved.

51The first law of the disciple's life is to bring his own thoughts under law.

52"To stop thinking is as if one wanted to stop the wind" is an old Chinese statement.

53The control of thought and its consecration to exalted themes will bring him more peace and more power.

54He must give himself a sufficient length of time, first to attain the concentrated state and second, to hold it.

55He finds that, however willing and eager he may be, he can sustain the intensity of struggle against this restlessness of mind only for a certain time.

56He must give his thoughts a decisive turn in the chosen direction every time they stray from it.

57Imagination is likely to run away with his attention during this early period. At first it will be occupied with worldly matters already being thought about, but later it may involve psychical matters, producing visions or hallucinations of an unreliable kind.

58Even when he is meditating, the aspirant may find that feelings, thoughts, memories, or desires and other images of his worldly experience come into the consciousness. He must not bind himself to them by giving attention to them, but should immediately dismiss them.

59Experiences and happenings keep attention ever active and ever outward-turned, while memories, although internal, direct it back to the physical world. So a man's own thoughts get in the way and prevent him from a confrontation with pure Thought itself.

60The ability to bring the mind to controlled one-pointedness is extremely difficult, and its achievement may require some years of effort and determination. He need not allow himself to become discouraged but should accept the challenge thus offered for what it is.

61The mind flutters from subject to subject like a butterfly from flower to flower, and is unable to stay where we want it.

Blankness is not the goal

62A mere emptiness of mind is not enough, is not the objective of these practices. Some idiots possess this naturally but they do not possess the wisdom of the Overself, the understanding of Who and What they are.

63Philosophy does not teach people to make their minds a blank, does not say empty out all thoughts, be inert and passive. It teaches the reduction of all thinking activity to a single seed-thought, and that one is to be either interrogative like "What Am I?" or affirmative like "The godlike is with me." It is true that the opening-up of Overself-consciousness will, in the first delicate experience, mean the closing-down of the last thoughts, the uttermost stillness of mind. But that stage will pass. It will repeat itself again whenever one plunges into the deepest trance, the raptest meditative absorption. And it must then come of itself, induced by the higher self's grace, not by the lower self's force. Otherwise, mere mental blankness is a risky condition to be avoided by prudent seekers. It involves the risk of mediumship and of being possessed.

64Vacuity of mind is not to be confused with perception of reality.

65It is only a limp, semi-mesmeric state, after all, and yields a peace which imitates the true divine peace as the image in a mirror imitates the flesh-and-blood man. It is produced by self-effort, not by Grace, by auto-suggestion rather than by the Overself.

66"No more serious mistake can be committed than considering the hibernation of reptiles and other animals as illustrating the samadhi stage of Yoga. It corresponds with the pratyahara, and not the samadhi stage. Pratyahara has been compared with the stage of insensibility produced by the administration of anesthetics, for example, chloroform."*t--Major B.D. Basu, Indian Medical Service

67To seek mental blankness as a direct objective is to mistake an effect for a cause. It is true that some of the inferior yogis do so, trying by forcible means like suppression of the breath to put all thoughts out of the mind. But this is not advocated by philosophy.

68To attempt the elimination of all thoughts as they arise, with the aim of keeping consciousness entirely empty of all content, is another method which some yogis and not a few Occidentals try to practise. It is not as easy as it seems and is not frequently successful. Philosophy does not use this rash method, does not recommend making the mind just a blank. There are two perils in it. The first is that it lays a man open to psychic invasion from outside himself, or, failing that, from inside himself. In the first case, he becomes a spiritualistic medium, passively surrenders himself to any unseen entity which may pass through the door thus left open, and risks being taken possession of by this entity. It may be earthbound, foolish, lying, or evil, at worst. In the second case, he unlooses the controls of the

conscious self and lets into it forces that he has long outgrown but not fully eliminated--past selves that are dying and would be best left alone, subconscious impulses that lead into evil or insane hallucinations masquerading as occult perceptions or powers. Now it is correct to say that the mind must be completely mastered and that a vacuum will arise in the process, but this is still not the way to do it. The better way is to focus the mind so unwaveringly on some one thing, thought or image or phrase, so elevated that a point will be reached where the higher self itself suddenly obliterates the thoughts.

69The silence of meditation is a dignified thing, but the silence of a stupid empty mind is not.

70Merely being thought-free by itself may lead to psychic results. One has to sink back to a dynamic positive mental silence by starting meditation with a dynamic positive attitude.

Eliminating thoughts and eliminating the ego during meditation are two different things. You should experiment with the various methods given in the books if you want to know which would help you most.

71Su Tung Po: "People who do not understand sometimes describe a state of animal unconsciousness as the state of samadhi. If so, then when cats and dogs sleep after being well fed, they too do not have a thought on their minds. It would obviously be incorrect to argue that they have entered samadhi."

72Zen Patriarch Hui-neng: "It is a great mistake to suppress our mind from all thinking . . . to refrain from thinking of anything, this is an extreme erroneous view . . . your men are hereby warned not to take those exercises for contemplating on quietude or for keeping the mind in a blank state."

73The drowsy torpor of a lazy mind is not the true void to be desired and sought.

74The feeling of peace is good but deceptive. The ego--cause of all his tension--is still hidden within it, in repose but only temporarily inactive.

Practise concentrated attention75

Meditation has as its first object an increasing withdrawal of the mind from the things of this world, and also from the thoughts of this world, until it is stilled, passive, self-centered. But before it can achieve any object at all, attention must be made as keenly concentrated as an eagle's stare.

76The aim is to achieve a concentration as firm and as steady as the Mongolian horseman's when he gallops without spilling a drop of water from a completely filled glass held in his hand.

77

Each exercise in meditation must start with a focal point if it is to be effective. It must work upon a particular idea or theme, even though it need not end with it.

78When it is said that the object of concentration practice should be a single one, this does not mean a single thought. That is reserved either for advanced stages or for spiritual declarations. It means a single topic. This will involve a whole train of ideas. But they ought to be logically connected, ought to grow out of each other, as it were.

79The genius is the product of intense concentration. All those who lack this quality, will also lack genius.

80Exercise: When wholly absorbed in watching a cinema picture or a stage drama or in reading a book with complete interest, you are unconsciously in the first stage of meditation. Drop the seed of this attention, that is, the story, suddenly, but try to retain the pure concentrated awareness. If successful, that will be its second stage.

81These concentrations begin to become effective when they succeed in breaking up the hold of his habitual activities and immediate environment, when they free his attention from what would ordinarily be his present state.

82He is able to reach this stage only after many months of faithful practice or, more likely, after some years of it. But one day he will surely reach it, and then he will recognize that the straining, the toil, and the faith were all well worthwhile.

83The first thing which he has to do is to re-educate attention. It has to be turned in a new direction, directed towards a new object. It has to be brought inside himself, and brought with deep feeling and much love to the quest of the Soul that hides there.

84The mind can be weaponed into a sharp sword which pierces through the illusion that surrounds us into the Reality behind. If then the sword falls from our grasp, what matter? It has served its useful purpose.

85There is an invisible and inaudible force within us all. Who can read its riddle? He who can find the instrument wherewith to contact it. The scientist takes his dynamo and gathers electricity through its means. The truth-seeker concentrates his mind upon his interior and contacts the mysterious Force back of life. Concentrated thought is his instrument.

86The effort needed to withdraw consciousness from its focal point in the physical body to its focal point in a thought, a mental picture, or in its own self, is inevitably tremendous. Indeed, when the change is fully completed, the man is often quite unaware of having any body at all.

87

Patanjali points out that inability to hold a state of meditation after it is reached will prevent the arisal of spiritual consciousness as much as inability to reach the state at all.

88The mind must be emptied first of all content save this one paramount thought, this fixed focus of concentration.

89Let it be granted that the practice of concentration is hard to perform and irksome to continue for weeks and months without great result. Nevertheless, it is not too hard. Anyone who really makes up his mind to master it, can do so.

90When this concentration arrives at fixity and firmness which eliminates restless wandering, intrusion, and disturbance, the need of constantly repeating the exercise vanishes. It has fulfilled its immediate purpose. The aspirant should now transfer his attention to the next ("Constant Remembrance") exercise, and exert himself henceforth to bring his attainment into worldly life, into the midst of attending to earthly duties.

91The practice of yoga is, negatively, the process of isolating one's consciousness from the five senses and, positively, of concentrating it in the true self.

92With it maximum moral and mental consciousness is induced. There are two separate phases in this technique which must be distinguished from one another. The first involves the use of willpower and the practice of self-control. The second, which succeeds it, involves redirection of the forces in aspiration toward the Overself, and may be called the ego-stilling phase.

93All exercises in concentration, all learning and mastery of it, require two things: first, an object or subject upon which attention may be brought steadily to rest; second, enough interest in that object to create some feeling about it. When this feeling becomes deep enough, the distractions caused by other thoughts die away. Concentration has then been achieved.

94Just as we get strong by enduring tensions in the varied situations of life, so we get strong in concentration by patiently enduring defeats one after the other when distractions make us forget our purpose while sitting for meditation.

95Quietening the mind involves, and cannot but involve, quietening the senses.

96Concentration practice advances through stages. In the first stage that which is concentrated on is seen as from a distance, whereas in the second stage the idea tends to absorb the mind itself. In the first stage we still have to make hard efforts to hold the idea to attention whereas in the next stage the effort is slight and easy.

97The body must stop its habitual movement. The attention must take hold of one thing--a metaphysical subject or physical object, a mental picture or devotional

idea. Only after proficiency is reached in this preliminary stage should the intellect seek an unfamiliar stillness and an expectant passivity--which mark the closing section of the second stage.

98If any light flash or form is seen, he should instantly concentrate his whole mind upon it and sustain this concentration as long as he is able to. The active thoughts can be brought to

All ways of spiritual seeking divide into two classes. The first is basic, elementary, the second for more advanced people. The first for beginners is the Long Path. It takes a long time to get results, and a lot of work has to be done on it; much effort is necessary for it. The second is the Short Path. The results are more quickly got; it is an easier path, and requires less work. To the Long Path belongs the methodical yoga. It takes a lot of work to practise daily: building of character and removing of weaknesses and overcoming of faults, developing concentration of attention to stop the distraction of mind and to get control over thoughts, strengthening of willpower, and all the activities for the beginners. These are the earlier stages of meditation.Meditation has two parts. The lower one belongs to the Long Path. Also, the religions are for the beginners and popular masses. They, too, belong to the Long Path. To the Short Path belong Christian Science, Ramana Maharshi's teachings, Vedanta, Krishnamurti's teaching, and Zen. They all say You Are GOD. The Long Path says instead: You are only a man. The one says that you are man and the other says that you are also really rooted in God.Long Path--here is working through the ego. The student thinks he is the ego and develops concentration, aspiring to improve himself, getting more and more pure. He says: "I am doing this work." He is thinking that he is purifying himself and improving the quality of the ego. But it is still ego. He is rising from the lower to the higher part of the ego and becoming a spiritualized ego. He is looking for the Gurus (spiritual teachers).Short Path--it is different because the idea "ego" does not come in, only the Overself, not the longing (which belongs to the Long Path), but the identification, not even aspiration.Long Path has to do with progress and takes a time for it and therefore means moving in time, and it is the ego who is working.Short Path is not concerned with time and therefore not with progress. Thinking only of the timeless Overself. No idea of progress, no desire, it does not matter. Real Self is always changeless. Progress implies change. All questions and problems disappear because the questioning (ego) intellect is not allowed to be active.Now you understand the question of the Guru. On the Long Path the aspirant wants the Guru, he looks for a Guru, is depending on him, and the Guru helps him to progress. On the Short Path the Overself is the Guru and the aspirants depend directly only on the Overself. On the Short Path the Guru question does not come

into consideration. Guru is outside themselves, but God is inside on theShort Path stage. The aspirants on the Short Path need not depend on a Guru. Intellectually they have freedom from the Guru. If a guru dies or disappears, they do not worry about it. There is a real reliance on God--no human being, but your Spirit.Long Path--the aspirants are moving in shadows, there is not life but darkness, they are not in the light but in ignorance. Their reason is not enlightened. Because they are living in the ego they are living in spiritual ignorance, which is darkness.Short Path--he lives in the Sunlight, because he lives in Truth, the only reality--like looking, being in the sun. As in Plato's story, he comes out of a cave, walking to the opening with his back turned to the opening of the cave, moving and seeing only the darkness. The other way is turning around to the mouth of the cave, seeing a little light, then more and more light. Even from the beginning there is still some light.A question will be asked: Why does not every teacher teach the Short Path? The answer is: Because people have not got enough strength of character to give up the ego and are not willing to turn at once to the light. It is a sacrifice. To make this possible, the Long Path teaches them to make the ego weaker by graduated stages. In the Long Path the progress comes in, just to prepare them to reach a point where it is easier for them to give up the ego. This is one of the most important of the reasons. It makes the aspirant ready to benefit by the Short Path; otherwise he would not be able to travel on it. The second reason is because they have not the strength of concentration to keep the mind on the Overself. They may be able to keep it for one or two minutes, but they then fall back. Therefore it is necessary to develop the power of sustained concentration. Even if one sees the Truth, one must get the power to stay in the Truth and to be established in it.Most people have strong attachments and strong desires for worldly things. These are in their way, obstructing their way on the path to Reality. This means that they want to keep attachments and desires that are coming from the ego, which they do not want to lose. Therefore the teacher gives first the Long Path, because most aspirants are not able to follow the Short Path. The Long Path exists to prepare them for it. There is no use for them to go on the Short Path if they have not got the philosophical understanding to practise it. Even if they were shown the Truth in the Short Path, they may, if unprepared by study and thinking philosophically, fail to recognize it. They have not learnt what Truth is and might not value it. They have no philosophical knowledge to see the difference between Truth or Reality and illusion or error. They have to understand Truth even intellectually. That is a part of the Long Path.Another very important matter related to the Long Path: when people follow the Long Path and spend years working on it, many such persons after several years find they have not made the progress they have expected. In the beginning they have enthusiasm. They expect inner experiences giving power, knowledge, and self-control; but after many years they have not gained these things. On the contrary, tests, hard trials of the life come, death in the family, for instance, changes of the outside life, and so on. They are disappointed and say: "Why has

God chosen me for suffering even when I follow the Path? Troubles come to me." They are disheartened. At this point one of three things may happen:

(1) They may give up the Quest altogether, for one year or many years, or all life long, and turn back to materialistic living.

(2) They may think they have taken to the wrong path, or are using wrong methods, or have the wrong teacher, and they look for another teacher and another way. But with the new teacher the results are the same because they are still within the circle of the ego. The ego prevents them from sufficiently deepening their state of light and wisdom.(3) The third possibility may happen to them. When they themselves have tried so hard and did not succeed and feel too tired mentally and exhausted emotionally, they give up trying but they do not give up the Quest. They just sit passively and wait. Those who are in this last or third category are completely ready to enter the Short Path and should do it. Even beginners may enter the Short Path, but in practice they find it too hard.The best way is from the beginning to make a combination of both. But this combination must be varied and adjusted to each person, because people are different. There is not one fixed rule for everyone. One person is suited for a little of the Short Path and more or longer of the Long Path; with the other person it is vice versa. With most people the combination is the best way. It depends partly on their feelings, their intuition, and advice given by teachers. In the end, everyone must come to the Short Path.Contradictions between the two Paths: one is the ego and the other the Overself without ego. The Short Path is without plane, intuitive, like Sudden Enlightenment. On the Long Path they are looking step by step to get out of the darkness of their ignorance. The next important point: on the Long Path many students want experiences--mystical, occult, psychical ones. It is the ego wanting them and the satisfaction of progressing. The ego feels important. In the Short Path there is no desire for inner experiences of any kind. When you are already in the Real, there is no desire any more. For experiences come and go, but the Real does not. Now you see why the popular religions are only attempts to get people to make a beginning to find God, but are not able to go too far and too quickly. For those who are more developed and less bound to attachments, the teacher gives the Short Path. In the teachings of Jesus and Buddha we find both Paths. People have different stages of evolution and can therefore take what suits them. The teacher gives them what they understand from their level of understanding.Popular religions are mixtures of the Long and Short Paths. But unfortunately they sometimes lead to confusion. In the Biblical sentence, "Before Abraham was, I AM," there are two meanings. The lower one means the reincarnation, the higher one means: I AM the Reality.On the Short Path we do not care about reincarnation matters, we do not give them much importance. On the Short Path the aspirants need the philosophical study to understand only one point: What is Reality. It is necessary to understand the

difference between the Illusion and the Reality. Every teacher's biggest difficulty is to get the students to understand that not only the world but also the ego is illusion. The aspirants do not know what the ego is. Therefore Jesus said: "If you want to find your true Self you have to deny yourselves," meaning deny the ego. Buddha said: "This is not I." The Buddha taught his monks to practise saying and thinking this mantram. There is much confusion about the two points if there is not the knowledge that all teachings fall into these two classes and if there is no understanding of the difference between them.

It is necessary to publish a new book. Even among people who have studied for many years, there is this confusion.

A very important point: because the ego lives in its own darkness, it cannot give light. The light may come only from the Overself, which is the Sun and Light of human existence. With the reason we can control the ego to some extent, but it is not possible to control the Overself. As regards Enlightenment, this is not coming from self-willed effort; it is coming only by what the Overself does to him. It is a matter of Grace--unpredictable--and it is the last secret. It is like the wind that comes you do not know where from and goes you do not know where to. It is a mystery. At the end we have to be like little children and leave our Enlightenment to the Father and give up our lives to him. On the Long Path the aspirant tries to improve himself. He experiences successes and failures, ups and downs. When he is disappointed, he gets melancholy. On the Short Path such a situation cannot arise, because he has faith like a little child. He has given up all his future to Overself-God and he has enough faith to trust to it. He knows he has made the right decision and therefore is always happy. He depends on this GRACE, he knows It, that It comes from the wisest being behind the world. Whatever will come, it will be the best. He is always relying on the Overself and having the joy in it.The Short Path is a cheerful Path, a Path of happiness. Just before this begins, the aspirant may experience the Dark Night of the Soul. He feels utterly helpless, has no feeling of spiritual Reality. It is a melancholy time--no feeling of spirituality or longing for it. He is neither worldly nor spiritual. He feels alone and abandoned and separated by a wall from his Guru. He feels God has forgotten him. This dark night may last a short time or long years. He is unable to read spiritual things, or think about them. There is no desire for ordinary things either. He feels sad and disappointed and may even try suicide. In this unhappiness even those who love him cannot bring him comfort. In both hemispheres, Western and Eastern, there is a saying: the night is darkest just before dawn. He is on the lowest point. After that, the Short Path brings back the Joy--just like clouds moving away from the Sun.

The best advice is, first, that it will not last forever; he must have patience. Second, he must have hope. Then he reaches a better level than ever before. The Dark Night of the Soul does not come to every seeker. It is like a shadow thrown by the Sun. When the Sun appears in the subconscious, the shadows arise. But it is the beginning of a great inner change. It is not a wasted time; there is a great deal of

work going on--but in the subconscious--to root out the ego. It is being done by the Overself. It is a sign of Grace, but the aspirant nevertheless feels unhappy.

In the Short Path there are usually much fewer exercises to practise. It is not necessary to sit down specially to meditate, but to try to be always in meditation. When you are busy outwardly, meditation naturally takes a different form than when you sit down for it. During the active part of the day, meditation takes the form of remembrance, always to try to remember the Overself: IT IS (That is enough). In the special meditation time our object is not to improve the character. During the meditation we have to empty our mind of thoughts as quickly as possible, let the mind become still. Ordinarily we live in our thoughts, in our little selves, even if the thoughts are spiritual. Therefore we have to keep away from all thoughts. If you want to think of the Overself, which is without any form, it is not possible. We try, but any idea, form, or shape is wrong. You cannot imagine it. So better not to try but to be still. You must not remain in the ego. "Be still [let go] and know that I AM GOD," says the Bible.Wu-Wei, meaning inaction, not trying, is the highest teaching of Taoism and Zen and it means the same as what has just been explained. The Overself is already there. You as ego must get out of the way. Most people have to combine the Long Path with the Short Path--perhaps one day or one week (whatever the inner urge directs) on the Long Path and the other day on the Short Path. The attitude will be a passive one because all intellectual ideas have only a limited value. We must be now guided by our inner feeling of what we need, or by our intuition. If people ask whether they have to study, the answer is that the books deal with the thoughts. What they give is not the Truth, but only intellectual statements of it. It will only prepare them for a better understanding. When they study these books they will only get more thoughts. In the end they have to come to the point where they need no books. There are good books but we must always discriminate between wrong teachings and right teachings, which may get mixed together in the same book. This is the highest we can go with such studies.When changing to contemplation, the thinking stops. This is the deepest point within oneself. This is why everybody has to search within himself and to find his own Path. It is not necessary to travel on the Long Path any longer time than that which prepares you for the Short Path. It is quite important to have living faith in the Overself and to become like a child and to have as much dependence on the Overself as a little child has on its parents. This faith should be in the power of the Spirit itself, not in any other human being. If the aspirant is constantly anxious about his faults or weaknesses, then he is on the wrong Path. He can try to remove them but cannot do this completely until he is able to give up the ego.The basis of the Short Path is that we are always divine. It is with us already, it is no new thing, and we only have to try to recognize what is already there