Concentration and Thought Control
Student! Your life is your own. You have only yourself to thank for what you are, have been and will be. Take your present into your own hand. Consciously shape out of it your future. Direct your forces along lines of study and endeavour that have the strongest attraction for you. Such attraction is the indication of need. Read more
Concentration
Concentration signifies the state of being at a centre (»con« and »centrum«). Applied to thought, it is the act of bringing the mind to a single point. Each human being must practise concentration »subjectively« and »objectively«. In other words, each human being aims with more or less precision at concentration on a point »within« and a point »without« his own world. Read more
What is Maya?
Now, first of all, what is Maya (ignorance of the real)? Take the dial-plate of a watch. You know quite well that the hands of the watch are governed by the mechanism behind. Both are necessary. Ignorance exists in thinking that the hands of the watch move by themselves. Read more
How to Concentrate Objectively
(»a«) In all undertakings whether of small or great importance shut off all thoughts and ideas except such as have any immediate and direct bearing upon the thing in hand. Pay attention. Bend all the energies of your mind and will upon it till it is completed to your satisfaction. Divert your attention from one thing to another only when you sanction by a resolve and understand why you do so. Your daily work which you must choose according to the special bent of your mind, will present you opportunities. Read more
Active and Passive mentation
These terms imply two different distinct functions of the human mind. The active function performs the volitional, voluntary thinking. It is the conscious focusing of the mind on some mental problem. Banishing from the mind all thoughts and ideas not in harmony with your special subject of study implies Active Mentation. Read more
Subjective Concentration – How Practised
This is a vast subject. If you practise earnestly my instructions on Thought-Control, Will-Culture, and take the Meditation Exercise I am going to give you, you will realize greater strength than average humanity. But you must study and think hard for yourself before any considerable benefit can be derived from even these. Remember please, you alone can teach yourself through intuition. Intuition is tuition from within. Follow strictly the general rules I give you and you cannot but unfold your Inner Soul Vision which includes intuition in its fullest sense. Read more
The Adductive Power of Thought
Now as you think, the quality of your thoughts and feelings sets up a magnetic centre within your Aura, vortices are created, attracting to yourself similar forms of thought and mentative energy and combining with other similar forms of energy, reacting upon you and your circumstances and also wielding an influence upon all such as may come within its area, radius or field of Force. Read more
Thought Control
There are four special classes of thoughts that are poisoning the lives of almost all humanity. They are:–(1) Fear-thoughts, (2) Hate-thoughts, (3) Sensual-thoughts, (4) Selfish-thoughts. All worry, doubt, timidty, lack of self-respect, jealousy, spite, malice, envy, slander, dirty, vicious, will-weakening, health-destroying, poverty-breeding, soul-killing influences radiate from one or all of these four. You must cut at their roots and utterly destroy them. In your efforts follow assiduously the following four rules. They alone can give you absolute thought-control. Read more
Character Building
You can accomplish this result by tensing the will and by strengthening the active function of your mind and thus enabling it to “step in” and simply ‘command’ the passive function to drop the old thought-habit and take up the new one. Read more
Thought Absorption
i. Go away by yourself to some place where you will not be disturbed. Of course, not always and very rarely can you obtain this condition. Never mind. Do your best where you are and the great law will at least find for you all necessary conditions. Shut out all distracting conditions and impressions from the outer world. After a little effort you will be able to do so anywhere, at any time, and under any condition. All mental disturbance is within you. Read more
Guru Worship
You grow by absorption and assimilation. In order to quicken your progress you need abstract as well as concrete ideals. The secret of all rapid and startling spiritual development is man-worship. By man-worship I mean devotion to, reverence, and intense and all-absorbing passion for the perfect individual man of realization–a Mahapurusha, Christ, Buddha and Vivekananda were all such-type men. Read more
Personal Magnetism, Will Culture, Self-Control
Personal Magnetism is the individual expression of a subtle irresistible and dynamic »Force« in man, which enables him to exert an unusual influence upon others. You all have come into contact with men of this type. They are endowed with marvelous, almost miraculous powers of influencing, persuading, attracting, fascinating, ruling and bending to their own Will-Force men of widely varying mental peculiarities and temperaments. Men actually go out of their way to please them. They attract others without any visible effort and others feel drawn to them in spite of themselves. Various are the examples of such power as afforded by history. Read more
The Mystery of the Will Force
Will-Force is the power of Re-action. It can render all the other mental functions »active« or »passive«. It is the DETERMINATIVE faculty and is affected most of all by the JUDGMENT. Read more
The “I AM” Consciousness
If you just turn in and examine the report of your consciousness regarding the »self«-dwelling within, you will become conscious of the “I”. But if you press your examination a little closer you will find that this “I” may be split up into two distinct aspects which, while working in unison and conjunction, may nevertheless be set apart in thought. There is an “I” function and there is a “me” function and these mental twins develop distinct phenomena. Read more
Will Power is this
(»a«) Teach Thy Will to “Resist and Renounce.” Strengthen your Will-Power by Renunciation. By Resistance is not meant outer resistance or aggressiveness. I find that all the modern teachers of Hypnotism advise their students to develop Will-Power by exercising it upon others. This is placing the cart before the horse. Read more
Self Control
Rightly has it been remarked that is easy to talk of and write upon this subject but most difficult to possess it. Perfect Self-Control means infinite power. Only the Buddas and the Christs of this World manifested Perfect Self-Control. Read more
Preliminary Steps
“The first requisite,” says Mr. Atkinson, “of concentering is the ability to shut out outside thoughts, sights and sounds; to conquer inattention; to obtain perfect control over the body and mind. The body must be brought under the control of the mind; the mind under the direct control of the Will. The Will is strong enough, but the mind needs strengthening by being brought under the direct influence of the will. The mind, strengthened by the impulse of the will, becomes a much more powerful projector of thought vibrations than otherwise and the vibrations have much greater force and effect.” Read more
The Law of Habit
An acquired habit, from the physiological point of view, is nothing but a new pathway of discharge formed in the brain, by which certain incoming currents ever often tend to escape.
The great thing is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.–Guard against ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. Read more
Worship of the Terrible
The attitude of the soul which is not to be baffled by the lower nature or the “Personal Self” should be to seek Death and not life, to hurl oneself upon the sword’s point and become one with the terrible. Those who are commissioned by the Lord to bear aloft the torch of spirit are fated to see every joy of the senses turn to ashes and crushing blows upon their eyes to the unsubstantially of the relative life of Maya. Read more
The Yogi Self-Developer
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. Read more
You can be Fearless
Quite a number of you there must be to whom the “Fearless” mind is not only an enviable possession but something to which you are and have been an utter stranger. You may not say it to others–confession may hurt your pride–but secretly away deep in your heart, there resides strongly and fiercely the desire to be a Fearless Individual. Read more
Devotion to the Absolute Will
I have always said, written, observed and felt that the most courageous individuals are devoted to God. Such men are rare. You all understand the meaning of “Fearlessness” in its fullest sense. It means absolute independence–in two words, he is the FEARLESS man who “fears-nothing,” and “faces-everything.” Read more
Meditation Exercise – flashes of Soul-Consciousness
Retire into the SILENCE. Shut off all thoughts and purposes relating to the external world. Try to realise that you, the Real Ego are not the body but that it is a mere garment you have put on for functioning on the physical plane and which you shall put off some day. Try to realise that you are immortal and that although a thousand bodies might come and go, you, the Ego, shall be as alive as ever. These are your shadows–your personalities. Read more
Concentration
The mind can think of one thing only. Fear is an acute form of negative concentration–worry its chronic form. If you learn how to place your mind upon a particular subject and inhibit or “shut off” all other thoughts, the fascination of fear and worry shall have no power over you. Most of the things you fear never happen–others can be routed by a bold front. Read more
Will-Power
You all understand this. It is that aspect of your make-up that enables you to make your mind and body obey you. The true principle of Will is closely interlocked with the “I am I” as I have already explained it. Read more
Love for Humanity, Energy, Aspiration, Self-Esteem
I cannot too strongly emphasise the difference between Self-Esteem and Self-Conceit. I wish to drive and thoroughly pound this difference into your brain. Self-Esteem is decidedly a manly trait. It is based upon a conviction of the Kingship of God and the Sonship of Man. Read more
Fasting and Self-control
If you feel heavy in body and brain, if you feel mentally sluggish it is a sure indication that your system is “clogged” with waste matter, due to partial or total inactivity of the physical channels of elimination. You have been indulging in high living and gluttony or you have been indulging in physical gratifications and have thus exhausted the vital fibres of your body. Read more
Transmuting Sex-Energy
Here is some sensible advice from a leading thinker and teacher: To be a perfect Bramhacharin (a regenerate). Read more
Breathing Exercise
Find a quiet place as far as possible, where the air is pure and the surroundings soothing and pleasant. After a bath or a thorough rubbing of the body from top to toe, with a wet towel, on an empty stomach, take this exercise: Send a current of holy thought to everyone, on planes seen and unseen, north and south, east and west, engage in meditation–take anyone of the meditation exercises you like. Read more
Physical Exercises – Series 1
Exercise No. 1.
Stand straight, facing a corner of the room with bare feet about 14 or 15 inches from the corner itself, arms straight out, even with shoulders or perhaps two inches below, hands resting on the two-side walls, chest out, abdomen in. Now lean forward towards the corner, without moving the feet or bending the knees. Read more
