1. The binding of the perceiving consciousness to a certain region is
attention (dharana).
Emerson quotes Sir Isaac Newton as saying that he made his great
discoveries by intending his mind on them. That is what is meant here.
I read the page of a book while inking of something else. At the end of
he page, I have no idea of what it is about, and read it again, still
thinking of something else, with the same result. Then I wake up, so to
speak, make an effort of attention, fix my thought on what I am
reading, and easily take in its meaning. The act of will, the effort of
attention, the intending of the mind on each word and line of the page,
just as the eyes are focussed on each word and line, is the power here
contemplated. It is the power to focus the consciousness on a given
spot, and hold it there Attention is the first and indispensable step
in all knowledge. Attention to spiritual things is the first step to
spiritual knowledge.
2. A prolonged holding of the perceiving consciousness in that region
is meditation (dhyana).
This will apply equally to outer and inner things. I may for a moment
fix my attention on some visible object, in a single penetrating
glance, or I may hold the attention fixedly on it until it reveals far
more of its nature than a single glance could perceive. The first is
the focussing of the searchlight of consciousness upon the object. The
other is the holding of the white beam of light steadily and
persistently on the object, until it yields up the secret of its
details. So for things within; one may fix the inner glance for a
moment on spiritual things, or one may hold the consciousness steadily
upon them, until what was in the dark slowly comes forth into the
light, and yields up its immortal secret. But this is possible only for
the spiritual man, after the Commandments and the Rules have been kept;
for until this is done, the thronging storms of psychical thoughts
dissipate and distract the attention, so that it will not remain fixed
on spiritual things. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of
riches, choke the word of the spiritual message.
3. When the perceiving consciousness in this meditative is wholly given
to illuminating the essential meaning of the object contemplated, and
is freed from the sense of separateness and personality, this is
contemplation (samadhi).
Let us review the steps so far taken. First, the beam of perceiving
consciousness is focussed on a certain region or subject, through the
effort of attention. Then this attending consciousness is held on its
object. Third, there is the ardent will to know its meaning, to
illumine it with comprehending thought. Fourth, all personal bias—all
desire merely to indorse a previous opinion and so prove oneself right,
and all desire for personal profit or gratification must be quite put
away. There must be a purely disinterested love of truth for its own
sake. Thus is the perceiving consciousness made void, as it were, of
all personality or sense of separateness. The personal limitation
stands aside and lets the All-consciousness come to bear upon the
problem. The Oversoul bends its ray upon the object, and illumines it
with pure light.
4. When these three, Attention, Meditation Contemplation, are exercised
at once, this is perfectly concentrated Meditation (sanyama).
When the personal limitation of the perceiving consciousness stands
aside, and allows the All-conscious to come to bear upon the problem,
then arises that real knowledge which is called a flash of genius; that
real knowledge which makes discoveries, and without which no discovery
can be made, however painstaking the effort. For genius is the vision
of the spiritual man, and that vision is a question of growth rather
than present effort; though right effort, rightly continued, will in
time infallibly lead to growth and vision. Through the power thus to
set aside personal limitation, to push aside petty concerns and cares,
and steady the whole nature and will in an ardent love of truth and
desire to know it; through the power thus to make way for the
All-consciousness, all great men make their discoveries. Newton,
watching the apple fall to the earth, was able to look beyond, to see
the subtle waves of force pulsating through apples and worlds and suns
and galaxies, and thus to perceive universal gravitation. The Oversoul,
looking through his eyes, recognized the universal force, one of its
own children. Darwin, watching the forms and motions of plants and
animals, let the same august consciousness come to bear on them, and
saw infinite growth perfected through ceaseless struggle. He perceived
the superb process of evolution, the Oversoul once more recognizing its
own. Fraunhofer, noting the dark lines in the band of sunlight in his
spectroscope, divined their identity with the bright lines in the
spectra of incandescent iron, sodium and the rest, and so saw the
oneness of substance in the worlds and suns, the unity of the materials
of the universe. Once again the Oversoul, looking with his eyes,
recognized its own. So it is with all true knowledge. But the mind must
transcend its limitations, its idiosyncrasies; there must be purity,
for to the pure in heart is the promise, that they shall see God.
5. By mastering this perfectly concentrated Meditation, there comes the
illumination of perception.
The meaning of this is illustrated by what has been said before. When
the spiritual man is able to throw aside the trammels of emotional and
mental limitation, and to open his eyes, he sees clearly, he attains to
illuminated perception. A poet once said that Occultism is the
conscious cultivation of genius; and it is certain that the awakened
spiritual man attains to the perceptions of genius. Genius is the
vision, the power, of the spiritual man, whether its possessor
recognizes this or not. All true knowledge is of the spiritual man. The
greatest in all ages have recognized this and put their testimony on
record. The great in wisdom who have not consciously recognized it,
have ever been full of the spirit of reverence, of selfless devotion to
truth, of humility, as was Darwin; and reverence and humility are the
unconscious recognition of the nearness of the Spirit, that Divinity
which broods over us, a Master o’er a slave.
6. This power is distributed in ascending degrees.
It is to be attained step by step. It is a question, not of miracle,
but of evolution, of growth. Newton had to master the multiplication
table, then the four rules of arithmetic, then the rudiments of
algebra, before he came to the binomial theorem. At each point, there
was attention, concentration, insight; until these were attained, no
progress to the next point was possible. So with Darwin. He had to
learn the form and use of leaf and flower, of bone and muscle; the
characteristics of genera and species; the distribution of plants and
animals, before he had in mind that nexus of knowledge on which the
light of his great idea was at last able to shine. So is it with all
knowledge. So is it with spiritual knowledge. Take the matter this way:
The first subject for the exercise of my spiritual insight is my day,
with its circumstances, its hindrances, its opportunities, its duties.
I do what I can to solve it, to fulfil its duties, to learn its
lessons. I try to live my day with aspiration and faith. That is the
first step. By doing this, I gather a harvest for the evening, I gain a
deeper insight into life, in virtue of which I begin the next day with
a certain advantage, a certain spiritual advance and attainment. So
with all successive days. In faith and aspiration, we pass from day to
day, in growing knowledge and power, with never more than one day to
solve at a time, until all life becomes radiant and transparent.
7. This threefold power, of Attention, Meditation, Contemplation, is
more interior than the means of growth previously described.
Very naturally so; because the means of growth previously described
were concerned with the extrication of the spiritual man from psychic
bondages and veils; while this threefold power is to be exercised by
the spiritual man thus extricated and standing on his feet, viewing
life with open eyes.
8. But this triad is still exterior to the soul vision which is
unconditioned, free from the seed of mental analyses.
The reason is this: The threefold power we have been considering, the
triad of Attention, Contemplation, Meditation is, so far as we have yet
considered it, the focussing of the beam of perceiving consciousness
upon some form of manifesting being, with a view of understanding it
completely. There is a higher stage, where the beam of consciousness is
turned back upon itself, and the individual consciousness enters into,
and knows, the All consciousness. This is a being, a being in
immortality, rather than a knowing; it is free from mental analysis or
mental forms. It is not an activity of the higher mind, even the mind
of the spiritual man. It is an activity of the soul. Had Newton risen
to this higher stage, he would have known, not the laws of motion, but
that high Being, from whose Life comes eternal motion. Had Darwin risen
to this, he would have seen the Soul, whose graduated thought and being
all evolution expresses. There are, therefore, these two perceptions:
that of living things, and that of the Life; that of the Soul’s works,
and that of the Soul itself.
9. One of the ascending degrees is the development of Control. First
there is the overcoming of the mind-impress of excitation. Then comes
the manifestation of the mind-impress of Control. Then the perceiving
consciousness follows after the moment of Control.
This is the development of Control. The meaning seems to be this: Some
object enters the field of observation, and at first violently excites
the mind, stirring up curiosity, fear, wonder; then the consciousness
returns upon itself, as it were, and takes the perception firmly in
hand, steadying itself, and viewing the matter calmly from above. This
steadying effort of the will upon the perceiving consciousness is
Control, and immediately upon it follows perception, understanding,
insight.
Take a trite example. Supposing one is walking in an Indian forest. A
charging elephant suddenly appears. The man is excited by astonishment,
and, perhaps, terror. But he exercises an effort of will, perceives the
situation in its true bearings, and recognizes that a certain thing
must be done; in this case, probably, that he must get out of the way
as quickly as possible.
Or a comet, unheralded, appears in the sky like a flaming sword. The
beholder is at first astonished, perhaps terror-stricken; but he takes
himself in hand, controls his thoughts, views the apparition calmly,
and finally calculates its orbit and its relation to meteor showers.
These are extreme illustrations; but with all knowledge the order of
perception is the same: first, the excitation of the mind by the new
object impressed on it; then the control of the mind from within; upon
which follows the perception of the nature of the object. Where the
eyes of the spiritual man are open, this will be a true and penetrating
spiritual perception. In some such way do our living experiences come
to us; first, with a shock of pain; then the Soul steadies itself and
controls the pain; then the spirit perceives the lesson of the event,
and its bearing upon the progressive revelation of life.
10. Through frequent repetition of this process, the mind becomes
habituated to it, and there arises an equable flow of perceiving
consciousness.
Control of the mind by the Soul, like control of the muscles by the
mind, comes by practice, and constant voluntary repetition.
As an example of control of the muscles by the mind, take the ceaseless
practice by which a musician gains mastery over his instrument, or a
fencer gains skill with a rapier. Innumerable small efforts of
attention will make a result which seems well-nigh miraculous; which,
for the novice, is really miraculous. Then consider that far more
wonderful instrument, the perceiving mind, played on by that fine
musician, the Soul. Here again, innumerable small efforts of attention
will accumulate into mastery, and a mastery worth winning. For a
concrete example, take the gradual conquest of each day, the effort to
live that day for the Soul. To him that is faithful unto death, the
Master gives the crown of life.
11. The gradual conquest of the mind’s tendency to flit from one object
to another, and the power of one-pointedness, make the development of
Contemplation.
As an illustration of the mind’s tendency to flit from one object to
another, take a small boy, learning arithmetic. He begins: two ones are
two; three ones are three-and then he thinks of three coins in his
pocket, which will purchase so much candy, in the store down the
street, next to the toy-shop, where are base-balls, marbles and so
on,—and then he comes back with a jerk, to four ones are four. So with
us also. We are seeking the meaning of our task, but the mind takes
advantage of a moment of slackened attention, and flits off from one
frivolous detail to another, till we suddenly come back to
consciousness after traversing leagues of space. We must learn to
conquer this, and to go back within ourselves into the beam of
perceiving consciousness itself, which is a beam of the Oversoul. This
is the true onepointedness, the bringing of our consciousness to a
focus in the Soul.
12. When, following this, the controlled manifold tendency and the
aroused one-pointedness are equally balanced parts of the perceiving
consciousness, his the development of one-pointedness.
This would seem to mean that the insight which is called
one-pointedness has two sides, equally balanced. There is, first, the
manifold aspect of any object, the sum of all its characteristics and
properties. This is to be held firmly in the mind. Then there is the
perception of the object as a unity, as a whole, the perception of its
essence. First, the details must be clearly perceived; then the essence
must be comprehended. When the two processes are equally balanced, the
true onepointedness is attained. Everything has these two sides, the
side of difference and the side of unity; there is the individual and
there is the genus; the pole of matter and diversity, and the pole of
oneness and spirit. To see the object truly, we must see both.
13. Through this, the inherent character, distinctive marks and
conditions of being and powers, according to their development, are
made clear.
By the power defined in the preceding sutra, the inherent character,
distinctive marks and conditions of beings and powers are made clear.
For through this power, as defined, we get a twofold view of each
object, seeing at once all its individual characteristics and its
essential character, species and genus; we see it in relation to
itself, and in relation to the Eternal. Thus we see a rose as that
particular flower, with its colour and scent, its peculiar fold of each
petal; but we also see in it the species, the family to which it
belongs, with its relation to all plants, to all life, to Life itself.
So in any day, we see events and circumstances; we also see in it the
lesson set for the soul by the Eternal.
14. Every object has its characteristics which are already quiescent,
those which are active, and those which are not yet definable.
Every object has characteristics belonging to its past, its present and
its future. In a fir tree, for example, there are the stumps or scars
of dead branches, which once represented its foremost growth; there are
the branches with their needles spread out to the air; there are the
buds at the end of each branch and twig, which carry the still closely
packed needles which are the promise of the future. In like manner, the
chrysalis has, as its past, the caterpillar; as its future, the
butterfly. The man has, in his past, the animal; in his future, the
angel. Both are visible even now in his face. So with all things, for
all things change and grow.
15. Difference in stage is the cause of difference in development.
This but amplifies what has just been said. The first stage is the
sapling, the caterpillar, the animal. The second stage is the growing
tree, the chrysalis, the man. The third is the splendid pine, the
butterfly, the angel. Difference of stage is the cause of difference of
development. So it is among men, and among the races of men.
16. Through perfectly concentrated Meditation on the three stages of
development comes a knowledge of past and future.
We have taken our illustrations from natural science, because, since
every true discovery in natural science is a divination of a law in
nature, attained through a flash of genius, such discoveries really
represent acts of spiritual perception, acts of perception by the
spiritual man, even though they are generally not so recognized. So we
may once more use the same illustration. Perfectly concentrated
Meditation, perfect insight into the chrysalis, reveals the caterpillar
that it has been, the butterfly that it is destined to be. He who knows
the seed, knows the seed-pod or ear it has come from, and the plant
that is to come from it. So in like manner he who really knows today,
and the heart of to-day, knows its parent yesterday and its child
tomorrow. Past, present and future are all in the Eternal. He who
dwells in the Eternal knows all three.
17. The sound and the object and the thought called up by a word are
confounded because they are all blurred together in the mind. By
perfectly concentrated Meditation on the distinction between them,
there comes an understanding of the sounds uttered by all beings.
It must be remembered that we are speaking of perception by the
spiritual man.
Sound, like every force, is the expression of a power of the Eternal.
Infinite shades of this power are expressed in the infinitely varied
tones of sound. He who, having entry to the consciousness of the
Eternal knows the essence of this power, can divine the meanings of all
sounds, from the voice of the insect to the music of the spheres.
In like manner, he who has attained to spiritual vision can perceive
the mind-images in the thoughts of others, with the shade of feeling
which goes with them, thus reading their thoughts as easily as he hears
their words. Every one has the germ of this power, since difference of
tone will give widely differing meanings to the same words, meanings
which are intuitively perceived by everyone.
18. When the mind-impressions become visible, there comes an
understanding of previous births.
This is simple enough if we grasp the truth of rebirth. The fine
harvest of past experiences is drawn into the spiritual nature,
forming, indeed, the basis of its development. When the consciousness
has been raised to a point above these fine subjective impressions, and
can look down upon them from above, this will in itself be a
remembering of past births.
19. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on mind-images is gained the
understanding of the thoughts of others.
Here, for those who can profit by it, is the secret of thought-reading.
Take the simplest case of intentional thought transference. It is the
testimony of those who have done this, that the perceiving mind must be
stilled, before the mind-image projected by the other mind can be seen.
With it comes a sense of the feeling and temper of the other mind and
so on, in higher degrees.
20. But since that on which the thought in the mind of another rests is
not objective to the thought-reader’s consciousness, he perceives the
thought only, and not also that on which the thought rests.
The meaning appears to be simple: One may be able to perceive the
thoughts of some one at a distance; one cannot, by that means alone,
also perceive the external surroundings of that person, which arouse
these thoughts.
21. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the form of the body, by
arresting the body’s perceptibility, and by inhibiting the eye’s power
of sight, there comes the power to make the body invisible.
There are many instances of the exercise of this power, by mesmerists,
hypnotists and the like; and we may simply call it an instance of the
power of suggestion. Shankara tells us that by this power the popular
magicians of the East perform their wonders, working on the mind-images
of others, while remaining invisible themselves. It is all a question
of being able to see and control the mind-images.
22. The works which fill out the life-span may be either immediately or
gradually operative. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on these
comes a knowledge of the time of the end, as also through signs.
A garment which is wet, says the commentator, may be hung up to dry,
and so dry rapidly, or it may be rolled in a ball and dry slowly; so a
fire may blaze or smoulder. Thus it is with Karma, the works that fill
out the life-span. By an insight into the mental forms and forces which
make up Karma, there comes a knowledge of the rapidity or slowness of
their development, and of the time when the debt will be paid.
23. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on sympathy, compassion and
kindness, is gained the power of interior union with others.
Unity is the reality; separateness the illusion. The nearer we come to
reality, the nearer we come to unity of heart. Sympathy, compassion,
kindness are modes of this unity of heart, whereby we rejoice with
those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. These things are
learned by desiring to learn them.
24. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on power, even such power as
that of the elephant may be gained.
This is a pretty image. Elephants possess not only force, but poise and
fineness of control. They can lift a straw, a child, a tree with
perfectly judged control and effort. So the simile is a good one. By
detachment, by withdrawing into the soul’s reservoir of power, we can
gain all these, force and fineness and poise; the ability to handle
with equal mastery things small and great, concrete and abstract alike.
25. By bending upon them the awakened inner light, there comes a
knowledge of things subtle, or concealed, or obscure.
As was said at the outset, each consciousness is related to all
consciousness; and, through it, has a potential consciousness of all
things; whether subtle or concealed or obscure. An understanding of
this great truth will come with practice. As one of the wise has said,
we have no conception of the power of Meditation.
26. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the sun comes a knowledge
of the worlds.
This has several meanings: First, by a knowledge of the constitution of
the sun, astronomers can understand the kindred nature of the stars.
And it is said that there is a finer astronomy, where the spiritual man
is the astronomer. But the sun also means the Soul, and through
knowledge of the Soul comes a knowledge of the realms of life.
27. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the moon comes a knowledge
of the lunar mansions.
Here again are different meanings. The moon is, first, the companion
planet, which, each day, passes backward through one mansion of the
stars. By watching the moon, the boundaries of the mansion are learned,
with their succession in the great time-dial of the sky. But the moon
also symbolizes the analytic mind, with its divided realms; and these,
too, may be understood through perfectly concentrated Meditation.
28. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the fixed pole-star comes a
knowledge of the motions of the stars.
Addressing Duty, stern daughter of the Voice of God, Wordsworth finely
said:
Thou cost preserve the stars from wrong,
And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong—
thus suggesting a profound relation between the moral powers and the
powers that rule the worlds. So in this Sutra the fixed polestar is the
eternal spirit about which all things move, as well as the star toward
which points the axis of the earth. Deep mysteries attend both, and the
veil of mystery is only to be raised by Meditation, by open-eyed vision
of the awakened spiritual man.
29. Perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the
lower trunk brings an understanding of the order of the bodily powers.
We are coming to a vitally important part of the teaching of Yoga:
namely, the spiritual man’s attainment of full self-consciousness, the
awakening of the spiritual man as a self-conscious individual, behind
and above the natural man. In this awakening, and in the process of
gestation which precedes it, there is a close relation with the powers
of the natural man, which are, in a certain sense, the projection,
outward and downward, of the powers of the spiritual man. This is
notably true of that creative power of the spiritual man which, when
embodied in the natural man, becomes the power of generation. Not only
is this power the cause of the continuance of the bodily race of
mankind, but further, in the individual, it is the key to the dominance
of the personal life. Rising, as it were, through the life-channels of
the body, it flushes the personality with physical force, and maintains
and colours the illusion that the physical life is the dominant and
all-important expression of life. In due time, when the spiritual man
has begun to take form, the creative force will be drawn off, and
become operative in building the body of the spiritual man, just as it
has been operative in the building of physical bodies, through
generation in the natural world.
Perfectly concentrated Meditation on the nature of this force means,
first, that rising of the consciousness into the spiritual world,
already described, which gives the one sure foothold for Meditation;
and then, from that spiritual point of vantage, not only an insight
into the creative force, in its spiritual and physical aspects, but
also a gradually attained control of this wonderful force, which will
mean its direction to the body of the spiritual man, and its gradual
withdrawal from the body of the natural man, until the over-pressure,
so general and such a fruitful source of misery in our day, is abated,
and purity takes the place of passion. This over pressure, which is the
cause of so many evils and so much of human shame, is an abnormal, not
a natural, condition. It is primarily due to spiritual blindness, to
blindness regarding the spiritual man, and ignorance even of his
existence; for by this blind ignorance are closed the channels through
which, were they open, the creative force could flow into the body of
the spiritual man, there building up an immortal vesture. There is no
cure for blindness, with its consequent over-pressure and attendant
misery and shame, but spiritual vision, spiritual aspiration,
sacrifice, the new birth from above. There is no other way to lighten
the burden, to lift the misery and shame from human life. Therefore,
let us follow after sacrifice and aspiration, let us seek the light. In
this way only shall we gain that insight into the order of the bodily
powers, and that mastery of them, which this Sutra implies.
30. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the
well of the throat, there comes the cessation of hunger and thirst.
We are continuing the study of the bodily powers and centres of force
in their relation to the powers and forces of the spiritual man. We
have already considered the dominant power of physical life, the
creative power which secures the continuance of physical life; and,
further, the manner in which, through aspiration and sacrifice, it is
gradually raised and set to the work of upbuilding the body of the
spiritual man. We come now to the dominant psychic force, the power
which manifests itself in speech, and in virtue of which the voice may
carry so much of the personal magnetism, endowing the orator with a
tongue of fire, magical in its power to arouse and rule the emotions of
his hearers. This emotional power, this distinctively psychical force,
is the cause of “hunger and thirst,” the psychical hunger and thirst
for sensations, which is the source of our two-sided life of
emotionalism, with its hopes and fears, its expectations and memories,
its desires and hates. The source of this psychical power, or, perhaps
we should say, its centre of activity in the physical body is said to
be in the cavity of the throat. Thus, in the Taittiriya Upanishad it is
written: “There is this shining ether in the inner being. Therein is
the spiritual man, formed through thought, immortal, golden. Inward, in
the palate, the organ that hangs down like a nipple,-this is the womb
of Indra. And there, where the dividing of the hair turns, extending
upward to the crown of the head.”
Indra is the name given to the creative power of which we have spoken,
and which, we are told, resides in “the organ which hangs down like a
nipple, inward, in the palate.”
31. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the centre of force in the
channel called the “tortoise-formed,” comes steadfastness.
We are concerned now with the centre of nervous or psychical force
below the cavity of the throat, in the chest, in which is felt the
sensation of fear; the centre, the disturbance of which sets the heart
beating miserably with dread, or which produces that sense of terror
through which the heart is said to stand still.
When the truth concerning fear is thoroughly mastered, through
spiritual insight into the immortal, fearless life, then this force is
perfectly controlled; there is no more fear, just as, through the
control of the psychic power which works through the nerve-centre in
the throat, there comes a cessation of “hunger and thirst.” Thereafter,
these forces, or their spiritual prototypes, are turned to the building
of the spiritual man.
Always, it must be remembered, the victory is first a spiritual one;
only later does it bring control of the bodily powers.
32. Through perfectly concentrated Meditation on the light in the head
comes the vision of the Masters who have attained.
The tradition is, that there is a certain centre of force in the head,
perhaps the “pineal gland,” which some of our Western philosophers have
supposed to be the dwelling of the soul, a centre which is, as it were,
the door way between the natural and the spiritual man. It is the seat
of that better and wiser consciousness behind the outward looking
consciousness in the forward part of the head; that better and wiser
consciousness of “the back of the mind,” which views spiritual things,
and seeks to impress the spiritual view on the outward looking
consciousness in the forward part of the head. It is the spiritual man
seeking to guide the natural man, seeking to bring the natural man to
concern himself with the things of his immortality. This is suggested
in the words of the Upanishad already quoted: “There, where the
dividing of the hair turns, extending upward to the crown of the head”;
all of which may sound very fantastical, until one comes to understand
it.
It is said that when this power is fully awakened, it brings a vision
of the great Companions of the spiritual man, those who have already
attained, crossing over to the further shore of the sea of death and
rebirth. Perhaps it is to this divine sight that the Master alluded,
who is reported to have said: “I counsel you to buy of me eye-salve,
that you may see.” It is of this same vision of the great Companions,
the children of light, that a seer wrote:
“Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the Children sport upon the shore
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.”
33. Or through the divining power of tuition he knows all things.
This is really the supplement, the spiritual side, of the Sutra just
translated. Step by step, as the better consciousness, the spiritual
view, gains force in the back of the mind, so, in the same measure, the
spiritual man is gaining the power to see: learning to open the
spiritual eyes. When the eyes are fully opened, the spiritual man
beholds the great Companions standing about him; he has begun to “know
all things.”
This divining power of intuition is the power which lies above and
behind the so-called rational mind; the rational mind formulates a
question and lays it before the intuition, which gives a real answer,
often immediately distorted by the rational mind, yet always embodying
a kernel of truth. It is by this process, through which the rational
mind brings questions to the intuition for solution, that the truths of
science are reached, the flashes of discovery and genius. But this
higher power need not work in subordination to the so-called rational
mind, it may act directly, as full illumination, “the vision and the
faculty divine.”
34 By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the heart, the interior
being, comes the knowledge of consciousness.
The heart here seems to mean, as it so often does in the Upanishads,
the interior, spiritual nature, the consciousness of the spiritual man,
which is related to the heart, and to the wisdom of the heart. By
steadily seeking after, and finding, the consciousness of the spiritual
man, by coming to consciousness as the spiritual man, a perfect
knowledge of consciousness will be attained. For the consciousness of
the spiritual man has this divine quality: while being and remaining a
truly individual consciousness, it at the same time flows over, as it
were, and blends with the Divine Consciousness above and about it, the
consciousness of the great Companions; and by showing itself to be one
with the Divine Consciousness, it reveals the nature of all
consciousness, the secret that all consciousness is One and Divine.
35. The personal self seeks to feast on life, through a failure to
perceive the distinction between the personal self and the spiritual
man. All personal experience really exists for the sake of another:
namely, the spiritual man. By perfectly concentrated Meditation on
experience for the sake of the Self, comes a knowledge of the spiritual
man.
The divine ray of the Higher Self, which is eternal, impersonal and
abstract, descends into life, and forms a personality, which, through
the stress and storm of life, is hammered into a definite and concrete
self-conscious individuality. The problem is, to blend these two
powers, taking the eternal and spiritual being of the first, and
blending with it, transferring into it, the self-conscious
individuality of the second; and thus bringing to life a third being,
the spiritual man, who is heir to the immortality of his father, the
Higher Self, and yet has the self-conscious, concrete individuality of
his other parent, the personal self. This is the true immaculate
conception, the new birth from above, “conceived of the Holy Spirit.”
Of this new birth it is said: “that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit: ye must be born again.”
Rightly understood, therefore, the whole life of the personal man is
for another, not for himself. He exists only to render his very life
and all his experience for the building up of the spiritual man. Only
through failure to see this, does he seek enjoyment for himself, seek
to secure the feasts of life for himself; not understanding that he
must live for the other, live sacrificially, offering both feasts and
his very being on the altar; giving himself as a contribution for the
building of the spiritual man. When he does understand this, and lives
for the Higher Self, setting his heart and thought on the Higher Self,
then his sacrifice bears divine fruit, the spiritual man is built up,
consciousness awakes in him, and he comes fully into being as a divine
and immortal individuality.
36. Thereupon are born the divine power of intuition, and the hearing,
the touch, the vision, the taste and the power of smell of the
spiritual man.
When, in virtue of the perpetual sacrifice of the personal man, daily
and hourly giving his life for his divine brother the spiritual man,
and through the radiance ever pouring down from the Higher Self,
eternal in the Heavens, the spiritual man comes to birth,-there awake
in him those powers whose physical counterparts we know in the personal
man. The spiritual man begins to see, to hear, to touch, to taste. And,
besides the senses of the spiritual man, there awakes his mind, that
divine counterpart of the mind of the physical man, the power of direct
and immediate knowledge, the power of spiritual intuition, of
divination. This power, as we have seen, owes its virtue to the unity,
the continuity, of consciousness, whereby whatever is known to any
consciousness, is knowable by any other consciousness. Thus the
consciousness of the spiritual man, who lives above our narrow barriers
of separateness, is in intimate touch with the consciousness of the
great Companions, and can draw on that vast reservoir for all real
needs. Thus arises within the spiritual man that certain knowledge
which is called intuition, divination, illumination.
37. These powers stand in contradistinction to the highest spiritual
vision. In manifestation they are called magical powers.
The divine man is destined to supersede the spiritual man, as the
spiritual man supersedes the natural man. Then the disciple becomes a
Master. The opened powers of tile spiritual man, spiritual vision,
hearing, and touch, stand, therefore, in contradistinction to the
higher divine power above them, and must in no wise be regarded as the
end of the way, for the path has no end, but rises ever to higher and
higher glories; the soul’s growth and splendour have no limit. So that,
if the spiritual powers we have been considering are regarded as in any
sense final, they are a hindrance, a barrier to the far higher powers
of the divine man. But viewed from below, from the standpoint of normal
physical experience, they are powers truly magical; as the powers
natural to a four-dimensional being will appear magical to a
three-dimensional being.
38. Through the weakening of the causes of bondage, and by learning the
method of sassing, the consciousness is transferred to the other body.
In due time, after the spiritual man has been formed and grown stable
through the forces and virtues already enumerated, and after the senses
of the spiritual man have awaked, there comes the transfer of the
dominant consciousness, the sense of individuality, from the physical
to the spiritual man. Thereafter the physical man is felt to be a
secondary, a subordinate, an instrument through whom the spiritual man
works; and the spiritual man is felt to be the real individuality. This
is, in a sense, the attainment to full salvation and immortal life; yet
it is not the final goal or resting place, but only the beginning of
the greater way.
The means for this transfer are described as the weakening of the
causes of bondage, and an understanding of the method of passing from
the one consciousness to the other. The first may also be described as
detach meet, and comes from the conquest of the delusion that the
personal self is the real man. When that delusion abates and is held in
check, the finer consciousness of the spiritual man begins to shine in
the background of the mind. The transfer of the sense of individuality
to this finer consciousness, and thus to the spiritual man, then
becomes a matter of recollection, of attention; primarily, a matter of
taking a deeper interest in the life and doings of the spiritual man,
than in the pleasures or occupations of the personality. Therefore it
is said: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth
and rust cloth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
cloth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
39. Through mastery of the upward-life comes freedom from the dangers
of water, morass, and thorny places, and the power of ascension is
gained.
Here is one of the sentences, so characteristic of this author, and,
indeed, of the Eastern spirit, in which there is an obvious exterior
meaning, and, within this, a clear interior meaning, not quite so
obvious, but far more vital.
The surface meaning is, that by mastery of a certain power, called here
the upward-life, and akin to levitation, there comes the ability to
walk on water, or to pass over thorny places without wounding the feet.
But there is a deeper meaning. When we speak of the disciple’s path as
a path of thorns, we use a symbol; and the same symbol is used here.
The upward-life means something more than the power, often manifested
in abnormal psychical experiences, of levitating the physical body, or
near-by physical objects. It means the strong power of aspiration, of
upward will, which first builds, and then awakes the spiritual man, and
finally transfers the conscious individuality to him; for it is he who
passes safely over the waters of death and rebirth, and is not pierced
by the thorns in the path. Therefore it is said that he who would tread
the path of power must look for a home in the air, and afterwards in
the ether.
Of the upward-life, this is written in the Katha Upanishad: “A hundred
and one are the heart’s channels; of these one passes to the crown.
Going up this, he comes to the immortal.” This is the power of
ascension spoken of in the Sutra.
40. By mastery of the binding-life comes radiance.
In the Upanishads, it is said that this binding-life unites the
upward-life to the downward-life, and these lives have their analogies
in the “vital breaths” in the body. The thought in the text seems to
be, that, when the personality is brought thoroughly under control of
the spiritual man, through the life-currents which bind them together,
the personality is endowed with a new force, a strong personal
magnetism, one might call it, such as is often an appanage of genius.
But the text seems to mean more than this and to have in view the
“vesture of the colour of the sun” attributed by the Upanishads to the
spiritual man; that vesture which a disciple has thus described: “The
Lord shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body”; perhaps “body of radiance” would better translate the
Greek.
In both these passages, the teaching seems to be, that the body of the
full-grown spiritual man is radiant or luminous,-for those at least,
who have anointed their eyes wit! eye-salve, so that they see.
41. From perfectly concentrated Meditation on the correlation of
hearing and the ether, comes the power of spiritual hearing.
Physical sound, we are told, is carried by the air, or by water, iron,
or some medium on the same plane of substance. But then is a finer
hearing, whose medium of transmission would seem to be the ether;
perhaps no that ether which carries light, heat and magnetic waves,
but, it may be, the far finer ether through which the power of gravity
works. For, while light or heat or magnetic waves, travelling from the
sun to the earth, take eight minutes for the journey, it is
mathematically certain that the pull of gravitation does not take as
much as eight seconds, or even the eighth of a second. The pull of
gravitation travels, it would seem “as quick as thought”; so it may
well be that, in thought transference or telepathy, the thoughts travel
by the same way, carried by the same “thought-swift” medium.
The transfer of a word by telepathy is the simplest and earliest form
of the “divine hearing” of the spiritual man; as that power grows, and
as, through perfectly concentrated Meditation, the spiritual man comes
into more complete mastery of it, he grows able to hear and clearly
distinguish the speech of the great Companions, who counsel and comfort
him on his way. They may speak to him either in wordless thoughts, or
in perfectly definite words and sentences.
42. By perfectly concentrated Meditation em the correlation of the body
with the ether, and by thinking of it as light as thistle-down, will
come the power to traverse the ether.
It has been said that he who would tread the path of power must look
for a home in the air, and afterwards in the ether. This would seem to
mean, besides the constant injunction to detachment, that he must be
prepared to inhabit first a psychic, and then an etheric body; the
former being the body of dreams; the latter, the body of the spiritual
man, when he wakes up on the other side of dreamland. The gradual
accustoming of the consciousness to its new etheric vesture, its
gradual acclimatization, so to speak, in the etheric body of the
spiritual man, is what our text seems to contemplate.
43. When that condition of consciousness is reached, which is
far-reaching and not confined to the body, which is outside the body
and not conditioned by it, then the veil which conceals the light is
worn away.
Perhaps the best comment on this is afforded by the words of Paul: “I
knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I
cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man,
(whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable [or,
unspoken] words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”
The condition is, briefly, that of the awakened spiritual man, who sees
and hears beyond the veil.
44. Mastery of the elements comes from perfectly concentrated
Meditation on their five forms: the gross, the elemental, the subtle,
the inherent, the purposive.
These five forms are analogous to those recognized by modern physics:
solid, liquid, gaseous, radiant and ionic. When the piercing vision of
the awakened spiritual man is directed to the forms of matter, from
within, as it were, from behind the scenes, then perfect mastery over
the “beggarly elements” is attained. This is, perhaps, equivalent to
the injunction: “Inquire of the earth, the air, and the water, of the
secrets they hold for you. The development of your inner senses will
enable you to do this.”
45. Thereupon will come the manifestation of the atomic and other
powers, which are the endowment of the body, together with its
unassailable force.
The body in question is, of course, the etheric body of the spiritual
man. He is said to possess eight powers: the atomic, the power of
assimilating himself with the nature of the atom, which will, perhaps,
involve the power to disintegrate material forms; the power of
levitation; the power of limitless extension; the power of boundless
reach, so that, as the commentator says, “he can touch the moon with
the tip of his finger”; the power to accomplish his will; the power of
gravitation, the correlative of levitation; the power of command; the
power of creative will. These are the endowments of the spiritual man.
Further, the spiritual body is unassailable. Fire burns it not, water
wets it not, the sword cleaves it not, dry winds parch it not. And, it
is said, the spiritual man can impart something of this quality and
temper to his bodily vesture.
46. Shapeliness, beauty, force, the temper of the diamond: these are
the endowments of that body.
The spiritual man is shapely, beautiful strong, firm as the diamond.
Therefore it is written: “These things saith the Son of God, who hath
his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass:
He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I
give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron;
and I will give him the morning star.”
47. Mastery over the powers of perception and action comes through
perfectly concentrated Meditation on their fivefold forms; namely,
their power to grasp their distinctive nature, the element of
self-consciousness in them, their inherence, and their purposiveness.
Take, for example, sight. This possesses, first, the power to grasp,
apprehend, perceive; second, it has its distinctive form of perception;
that is, visual perception; third, it always carries with its
operations self-consciousness, the thought: “I perceive”; fourth sight
has the power of extension through the whole field of vision, even to
the utmost star; fifth, it is used for the purposes of the Seer. So
with the other senses. Perfectly concentrated Meditation on each sense,
a viewing it from behind and within, as is possible for the spiritual
man, brings a mastery of the scope and true character of each sense,
and of the world on which they report collectively.
48. Thence comes the power swift as thought, independent of
instruments, and the mastery over matter.
We are further enumerating the endowments of the spiritual man. Among
these is the power to traverse space with the swiftness of thought, so
that whatever place the spiritual man thinks of, to that he goes, in
that place he already is. Thought has now become his means of
locomotion. He is, therefore, independent of instruments, and can bring
his force to bear directly, wherever he wills.
49. When the spiritual man is perfectly disentangled from the psychic
body, he attains to mastery over all things and to a knowledge of all.
The spiritual man is enmeshed in the web of the emotions; desire, fear,
ambition, passion; and impeded by the mental forms of separateness and
materialism. When these meshes are sundered, these obstacles completely
overcome, then the spiritual man stands forth in his own wide world,
strong, mighty, wise. He uses divine powers, with a divine scope and
energy, working together with divine Companions. To such a one it is
said: “Thou art now a disciple, able to stand, able to hear, able to
see, able to speak, thou hast conquered desire and attained to
self-knowledge, thou hast seen thy soul in its bloom and recognized it,
and heard the voice of the silence.”
50. By absence of all self-indulgence at this point, when the seeds of
bondage to sorrow are destroyed, pure spiritual being is attained.
The seeking of indulgence for the personal self, whether through
passion or ambition, sows the seed of future sorrow. For this self
indulgence of the personality is a double sin against the real; a sin
against the cleanness of life, and a sin against the universal being,
which permits no exclusive particular good, since, in the real, all
spiritual possessions are held in common. This twofold sin brings its
reacting punishment, its confining bondage to sorrow. But ceasing from
self-indulgence brings purity, liberation, spiritual life.
51. There should be complete overcoming of allurement or pride in the
invitations of the different realms of life, lest attachment to things
evil arise once more.
The commentator tells us that disciples, seekers for union, are of four
degrees: first, those who are entering the path; second, those who are
in the realm of allurements; third, those who have won the victory over
matter and the senses; fourth, those who stand firm in pure spiritual
life. To the second, especially, the caution in the text is addressed.
More modern teachers would express the same truth by a warning against
the delusions and fascinations of the psychic realm, which open around
the disciple, as he breaks through into the unseen worlds. These are
the dangers of the anteroom. Safety lies in passing on swiftly into the
inner chamber. “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple
of my God, and he shall go no more out.”
52. From perfectly concentrated Meditation on the divisions of time and
their succession comes that wisdom which is born of discernment.
The Upanishads say of the liberated that “he has passed beyond the
triad of time”; he no longer sees life as projected into past, present
and future, since these are forms of the mind; but beholds all things
spread out in the quiet light of the Eternal. This would seem to be the
same thought, and to point to that clear-eyed spiritual perception
which is above time; that wisdom born of the unveiling of Time’s
delusion. Then shall the disciple live neither in the present nor the
future, but in the Eternal.
53. Hence comes discernment between things which are of like nature,
not distinguished by difference of kind, character or position.
Here, as also in the preceding Sutra, we are close to the doctrine that
distinctions of order, time and space are creations of the mind; the
threefold prism through which the real object appears to us distorted
and refracted. When the prism is withdrawn, the object returns to its
primal unity, no longer distinguishable by the mind, yet clearly
knowable by that high power of spiritual discernment, of illumination,
which is above the mind.
54. The wisdom which is born of discernment is starlike; it discerns
all things, and all conditions of things, it discerns without
succession: simultaneously.
That wisdom, that intuitive, divining power is starlike, says the
commentator, because it shines with its own light, because it rises on
high, and illumines all things. Nought is hid from it, whether things
past, things present, or things to come; for it is beyond the threefold
form of time, so that all things are spread before it together, in the
single light of the divine. This power has been beautifully described
by Columba: “Some there are, though very few, to whom Divine grace has
granted this: that they can clearly and most distinctly see, at one and
the same moment, as though under one ray of the sun, even the entire
circuit of the whole world with its surroundings of ocean and sky, the
inmost part of their mind being marvellously enlarged.”
55. When the vesture and the spiritual man are alike pure, then perfect
spiritual life is attained.
The vesture, says the commentator, must first be washed pure of all
stains of passion and darkness, and the seeds of future sorrow must be
burned up utterly. Then, both the vesture and the wearer of the vesture
being alike pure, the spiritual man enters into perfect spiritual life.
INTRODUCTION TO BOOK IV
The third book of the Sutras has fairly completed the history of the
birth and growth of the spiritual man, and the enumeration of his
powers; at least so far as concerns that first epoch in his immortal
life, which immediately succeeds, and supersedes, the life of the
natural man.
In the fourth book, we are to consider what one might call the
mechanism of salvation, the ideally simple working of cosmic law which
brings the spiritual man to birth, growth, and fulness of power, and
prepares him for the splendid, toilsome further stages of his great
journey home.
The Sutras are here brief to obscurity; only a few words, for example,
are given to the great triune mystery and illusion of Time; a phrase or
two indicates the sweep of some universal law. Yet it is hoped that, by
keeping our eyes fixed on the spiritual man, remembering that he is the
hero of the story, and that all that is written concerns him and his
adventures, we may be able to find our way through this thicket of
tangled words, and keep in our hands the clue to the mystery.
The last part of the last book needs little introduction. In a sense,
it is the most important part of the whole treatise, since it unmasks
the nature of the personality, that psychical “mind,” which is the
wakeful enemy of all who seek to tread the path. Even now, we can hear
it whispering the doubt whether that can be a good path, which thus
sets “mind” at defiance.
If this, then, be the most vital and fundamental part of the teaching,
should it not stand at the very beginning? It may seem so at first; but
had it stood there, we should not have comprehended it. For he who
would know the doctrine must lead the life, doing the will of his
Father which is in Heaven.