In lessons 1 and 2 we have initiated you into the mysteries of Will
and Mind-Force, the governing principles of the Universe and the laws
of their development. We have also taught you how to acquire absolute
control over Body and Mind. In these lessons we have striven to point
out to you the right "Mental Attitude" towards your daily life, so that
while mainly engaged in the task of Self-Culture you might also lend a
hand in the great work of strengthening the race. Moreover our
convictions, beliefs, and ideals are no mean, insignificant factors
in the determination of our health and environmental conditions. They
react on our circumstances as well as on the WHOLE MAN. We have also
given you important points of instruction in Soul Unfoldment, Meditation,
Bramhacharya, Breathing, Fasting, Health-Culture, Body building
and shown you, as distinctly as we could, the exact process of developing
a single virtue in your self thereby you may master the process and
method of developing other virtues, the lines of action and thought being
well nigh similar in all, and foculising at certain common points of
primary importance. We have given the bare body of truth in connection
with the development, evolution and unfoldment of the body and the
soul, stripping of the metaphysical trappings and the theoretical
draperies in which they are clothed. We have had to literally rend
asunder the heavy wheel that had the divine face of truth. Hence our
lessons are brief and to the point. We have had to contend against and
overcome another serious difficulty. Expressed in the matter of fact
English language, these wondrous truths of mysticism cannot but lose the
air of profound solemnity and sanctity that pervades the subject of Yoga
in Sanskrit literature. The wise and thoughtful student and we certainly
do not write for light-headed and non-serious people, will not let their
apparent simplicity deceive him or throw him off his guard. Rather
let him realise that these lessons can be pressed into service in all
directions and in all spheres of life. Let him just put them into
practice and he will at once see their practical bearing on his daily
life. These lessons do not go into the "WHAT" but point out the "HOW" of
every thing. We leave every student to suit his individual case as to the
intellectual side of the ETERNAL PROBLEM. In conclusion we have to
say that this Course does not pretend to deal with the advanced stages
of Yoga, much less exhaust them. But they will, positively and decidedly
prepare him for those higher things by lifting the PALL OF DARKNESS
from his mind.