ro
aJ 0 010
Concentration,
Quest book,
Professor
Ernest
1910
two
University
Colleges
and
the
first
1945
$2.25
ISBN: 0-8356-0435-7
Beven
Schools
flrodXgga .
by
ErnestWood
This book previously appeared in an lndian edition
under the title
THE OCCULT TRAINING OF THE HINDUS
AQUEST BOCK
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE
Wheaton, 111., U.S.A.
Madras, India I London, England
I louse, I CJ 7 ( i
un
CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword
..............................................................
vu
CHAPTER
I.
II.
. .
. . . .. .
.
. .
. .
. . .
. . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
Ill.
IV.
Happiness Through Understanding The Third Raja Yoga .. ...... .. ...... ... 54
.
V.
VI.
. . . .
. .
. . .
. . .
. .
. . . . . . . . . .
77
. .
. .
. .
FOREWORD
CHAPTER I
Abnormal
Phenomena in India
Occultism
The Seven Kinds of
telling
had willed
sufficient
not to have his
my
him that I
card, he said that that was
explanation,
firmly
because his method was to concentrate
on subcon
a card,
to myrequired
and transmi t which
the thought of it
direct
scious mind,
could know whereit.the
card lay, and could
my hand to
transference
occurred
by of the power
A surprising experience
of thought
some
evening
si tting
possessed
such people
to me
time later, when I was
one college
was
with one of the professors
on some
the staff of my cards.
Suddenl
speaking
full-bodied
showing
tricks
with
in Sind, yand he
clear
I heard amiddle
voice
experi
six
ly, as though
in the
of my head. It pronounced
only
words : " Five of clubs. Try that piece
shuf
and
of
ment." I at once wrote "five of
clubs" on a
out
He
did
paper, gave it to
the professor,
asked him to
it
his cards and pick onethis
up.
fle and spread
so, and
was the five of clubs. clever
To
day my
friend thinks that Ibelief
played a very
trick upon
phenomenon
is that the old gentleman
him, but my own
at a distance,
performed the whole
after speaking occasion
to me telepathically.
visit
never
manI had a had in
the middle
On another
He
what
seen or
whom I
of the night from a
an of before.
own
with
even heard
came in
is sometimes
called
"astral body, " bringing his
light
the (through the wall
him, by which I first saw him
of the room ) until
coming across
field outside, and
he came into the room and spoke
watched him
away,I
hundred
to me. He told me some
who he was,
and afterwards
miles
;_, two
went to his village,
11
'11I I
il
1[1'11
Op.
BIBLIOTH
E
der
Theosofische Ve:,
T olstra:-+
1 -
EK
lli
xv.
20.
Abridged
transla tion.
120.
Aparokshanubhuti,
verses 108
10
I
:11
I,
111
I
1
I
11
11r,1
I!
12
11
13
14
CHAPTER 2
2.
1
I
I
16
17
vrittis
of
chitta
mind
is
not
self-illumi nating,
because
it
is
objective,
both mind and man cannot be cognized by the same act." iv.
and
18-20.
18
'i
lr
t i. 15.
:j: i. 16.
ii. I et seq.
19
20
t ii. 6.
21
22
time all his facul ties, any more than a child in school
can properly think of geography, history, and mathe
matics in the period which is devoted to music.
In H in du l i fe, before it was disturbed from the
West, men were wise enough in old age to give the
family business into the hands of their mature sons,
and devote themselves to the study and contempla
tion of life; and just as in the West it is considered
the bounden duty of parents to support th eir children
with every kindness and give them the o pportuni ties
that their stage in life requires, so was i t always
considered in the East the duty of the children to
support their elders with every kindness, treat them
with honor and dignity as the source of their own
opportuni ty and power, and give them every oppor
tunity that their stage of l ife requires.
Let the would-be yogi, then, fix his eye on the
long l ife of the soul, which uses many bodies, one
after another, and advances on the path to the per
fection of character that is freedom by keeping i ts
goal ever in view.
Removal of the Afflictions
li ilj
.. ii.
l.
23
EiiBLIO
THEE.K
der
Theosofische
Vereniging
Tolstraat 1 54
Amsterdam
24
25
2G
il '
I
.. ii. 32.
t ii. 33, 34.
Il
27
28
and regul arly a t all ; let them prac tice simple natural
exercises, such as those recommended by teachers of
singing, and take care that the body is breathing
regu larly before they en ter their medi tation .
Sometimes numbers
times
are
The question is :
29
1 1'
30
Freedom Through Wi ll
31
32
33
t iii. 35.
::: iii. 36
iii. 49.
.
Ei i 3 L I O T H E
EK
der
Th eo so :i; c h e Ve ren i g i n g
To isir aat 1 5 4 A m ste rd a m
CHAPTER 3
35
11
36
'Il :
(Thos. Morell).
37
38
1111
11
39
iii. 1 9, 20.
40
Devotion
And yet that Karma Yoga is also devotion to God.
Among Krishna ' s devotees, as among those of Christ,
there are two distinct kinds.
to
The first
worlds,
H e says :
Let
I
11
Il
.. iii. 22-24.
41
42
ill Ill
43
t xii.
Ill1
I
li
'I Iil
'.:'.1:1
44
t xviii. 40.
:): vii. 20.
45
iv.
34.
B ! BLIOTHEE
K
der
Tf, ev; c ; d: e Ve ren ig i n
g
<J o t
1 5 4 A m sterdam
1.1
11 1
46
111
Degrees of Awakening
.!1 '
il
Un i ty Through Feeling
47
11'
11
l il
48
M en of this
11
Il I
kind
I n time
1
'II
:li
i\1
li
il '
!
11
11 1
i' '
Illi
1:
li l
til l
The natural
Un i ty Through Feeling
49
50
rafasJ
as it may be called, of
He
51
/1 [1:
I'
!1i!ll lli
I
!' I l
11
(
1 11
'1 1 1
I1!I
!i l
\1I
!I,
l
! li'
,ilIl l!i
' ,l I
52
53
are freed from all guilt, but those who cook for their own sakes
eat evil . "
CHAPTER
55
is
as
though o n e were
to s a y to
Chri stian:
Do what
" Never
he
said,
that is, love your neighbor as yourself. Try it, and that will lead to
the greatest good and happiness.
-to his state of being."
11 11.1 1'
11
56
1'1
11 '
ill
!1l. 1' l
;;i, lI:
,,
'I '
!li'!l
1 ,]1
,,
' !'
op.
cit., 1 0 - 1 2 ,
abridged translation.
57
!l li
58
11
59
Th e os o fis c h e
Ver e ni n
60
111
61
Shri- Va k hya-Sudha, 1 3- 1 9, 35 .
62
11
1
,I
63
64
65
G6
67
By these
He has a body.
1
I!
1[1
68
' .,1[
1
li
!111
!i1
lili
. 1
69
70
(Will)
KRISHNA
1 . Pranipata
(Love)
SHANKARA
1 . Viveka
(Thought)
2. Swadhyaya
(Thought)
2. Pariprash na
(Thought)
2. Vairagya
(Love)
3. Ish warapranidhana
3. Seva
(Will)
(Will)
(Love)
The Use of Thought
71
insight. * It
comes from the practice of meditation upon the per
sonality, so that life in it may henceforth be the
posi tive life of the indwelling consciousness, and not
simply a succession of conscious s tates called into
expression by person al stimuli. This meditation is
threefold. First, one must dwell upon the body and
realize that it is only an instrument for the conscious
self to play upon. Then, one must dwell on the
habits of feeling and emotion which have been ac
cumulated during the presen t lifetime (or strictly,
body-time) and realize these also to be part of the in
strumen t-" ! am surely not my feelings and emo
tions toward things and people. " Thirdly, one must
meditate upon the fact that the lower mind, the
collection of information , ideas and opinions that
one has acquired up to this period, is also not the
self, but merely an internal library more or less im
perfectly indexed, in which the books have a ten
dency to open at certain places because they have
been opened there many times before.
This meditation must then be applied to other
people, so that one comes to think of them as the
consciousness beyond the personal ity, and in dealing
with them to assist and further the higher purposes
of the Self within them rather than the desires rising
from the personality. Being a material thing, even
up to the mental plane, that personality has i ts own
quality of inertia, and dislikes the discomfort in
volved in new thinking and willing and feeling, until
" Viveka-Chudamani,
1 8 -28.
72
73
74
and sees flashing into life now and then in the people
around him.
Vaimgya is the absence of agitation due to things
outside. A mistaken idea which is sometimes asso
ciated wi th this word is that it implies absence of
emotion. That is not so. The purified personality
responds to the higher emotions, the love emotions
that belong to the real self. Those emotions come
from that aspect of the indwelling consciousness which
feels the other life to be as interesting as one's own.
This is the root of all the love emotions-admira
tion, kindness, friendship, devotion and others
which must not be confused wi th any sort of passion,
which is personal or bodily desire. If a man has
vairagya and he is still emotional, his emotion must
be some form of love.
Vairagya may be developed by a form of medita
tion in which the aspirant should picture and turn
over in his mind the various things tha t have been
causing him agi tation, or the disturbing emotions of
pride, anger and fear. Having made a picture of the
cat spill ing the ink on the best tablecloth, or of
your enemy putting in a bad word for you with your
employer or superior behind your back, you calmly
in the midst of it all change the emotion that rises,
and picture yourself as acting without agitation.
This is a question of feeling, not of action. Do
not here substitu te the deadly coldness that some peo
p l e sometimes feel instead of anger, and imagine
that to be the calm state ; but meditate u pon the
scene and decide what the right emotion would
Through Understanding
Happiness
unders tood
75
matter
what the whole what
be if you
meant
have
effect
to the Self, and if you also understood
the wouldwhom in turn uponkick.
progress
your
own action
the spir
man
itualcalmness of
you want tomake
meditation
obtained in this way will soon
The
meditation best
all the other
far more effective to
than be
inspiration
the
fore, because
opens the door
inner world and all are
i ts
when the body
any
calm, and the attention
is quiet, the emotions
physical
whatever
is turned wi thout
muscular or nervous strain or
to the meditation
subject of thought.
sensation
Incidentally it should be said that inj urious with
physical sensation or strain may prove
to
healdo
th, but meditation rightly done in this way can
never
the least harm.
The Userequirement
of Will
is
" the six
The third
76
CHAPTER 5
op. cit.,
v.
IS!.
78
11
I
i.
15.
79
and the old, the sick and the weak, and will result
in slenderness and brightn ess of body. t
The theory behind these breathing exercises is that
between the mind and the body comes prana. This
word is translated "breath , " b u t various descriptions
of i ts five kinds operating in various parts of the
body would indicate that it means not only the or
dinary breathing, but also some other functions of
air in the body, or perhaps of etheric currents of
some kind. However, in practice, the first two, the
principal forms of breath are associated with the
inbreathing and outbreath ing. Therefore it is con
sidered that the regulation of breath will govern the
body, which will then react upon the mind.
Some teachers maintain that all the impurities of
the body may be removed merely by control of
breath, but others hold that i t is necessary to prac
tice certain cleansings, especially in the case of per
sons who are flabby and phlegmatic. *
I should like to make i t clear that I am not rec
ommending these practices, as I hold that all Hatha
Yogas are extremely dangerous, and they are unnec
essary, because Raja Yoga will bring abou t a correct
mental and emotional condi tion, and purity and
health of the body will gradually follow upon that.
The science of heal th is always more important than
the science of curing disease, and external curing
l acks permanent effect, unless the causes of troubles
are also attended to. The Raja Yoga is undoubtedly
correct in laying down first morality based on respect
t Ibid., i. 64 and ii. 20.
Ha tha Yoga Pra dipika, ii. 37 , 2 1 .
li l
11
'11
1il
il
lil i
i
1l:il'
80
36.
46.
29.
20.
81
Serpent Power,
by Arthur Avalon.
Published by Ganesh
Ui 3LIOTH EEK
der
T h ec,s o i i 5 c h e Ver e n i g i n g
r
r oat
1 54
A m ster dam
82
center, i n stead
83
'
r il
84
85
man
head. "
lj
!li
11
1l
86
" Op. cit., ii. 49-5 3. Buddhi Yoga is taught, and then, in verse
50, the teacher sa ys, "Yoga is skill in karmas, " while i n verses 5 1 5 3 h e explain s that i n all this work o r activity there will b e no
desire for the material results of work , because the m a n never
loses his perception of the life.
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
t Op.
cit.,
xvii .
5 , 6.
CHAPTER 6
98
the
tiger cub.
tigers.
The opportunity for this universal ity, or the find
ing of the infinite i n the finite, is ever presen t. We
may quite na tural l y l ove even our enemies when the
mind is no l onger lashed i n to a s torm of unnatural
and undignified sensations and emotions .
It i s suffi
I f I have loved
One friend in
troduces me to a l l peopl e.
I see,
too, that the play of life , true to itself, and when not
losing i ts na ture of intel l igence and love, is more
fruitful than tha t stupidity called work.
I am offering some h i n ts about the training of
the mind, as a fitting conclusion to this s tudy of
occult training.
99
Concentration
L , ;::J L I O T H E E K
der
C
> c h e V er en ig i n g
,
- : A A m sterd a m
1 00
101
102
103
1 04
105
1 06
water will run out, and the level in the jar may
not rise very high ; but if the holes are filled up
the water rises. Most people are like jars full of
holes, always ready to leak all over the place, being
quite uncontrolled. But concentration, starting with
its quietness of the physical body, and then of the
emotions, and then of the mind, stops up all the holes.
Meditation is the flow of the water from above, and
as long as it is clear and strong, plenty of water is
coming down and filling u p the vessel quite steadily.
Thus by meditation you observe the obj ect in detail
and accurately, and you proceed to understand its
functions in relation to other things.
Medi tation is thus the opposite of going to sleep.
In it you make the body quiet, but keep the mind
alert, and carry u p to higher and broader conditions
of thought the clearness of consciousness that you
have acquired by concentration.
Meditation may be practiced with the aid of the
following hints :
1 . Sit down as before, and concentrate on a cat,
bringing the subj ect fully forward by means of the
four roads of thought. Then think of the cat in a
wider significance, making your lines of thought go
further than they did before, but still without losing
sight of the cat. It is just as though, in the example
of the elephant, you could think of the timber yards,
of your new house, of the delay, and even more,
without losing sight of the elephant. This is the
expansive meditation. It is not essentially different
from thinking, but it does not go out of sight of a
1 07
1 08
1 09
and feel yourself acting the part. Thus one may prac
tice a little each day for about a month on one virtue.
3 . Sometimes a devotee wants to meditate on the
ideal man, with a definite face before him, but finds
it difficult to hold the complete thing in imagination.
In that case he may build it up in the following man
ner. First of all concentrate on one portion, such as
an eye; then drop that and concentrate on another
portion, say the other eye. Then recall the first and
make a joint picture of the two. Drop that and con
centrate on a third portion, say the nose. Then recall
the other pair and make a joint picture of the three,
and so on. Thus he will have given equal a ttention
and full concentration to forming each portion, and
in the end the whole picture will be equally clear in
every part. In India, not so much attention would
usually be given to the physical features, as to the
form, containing a great variety of symbolical detail,
and suggesting many trains of thought, as in the fol
lowing example, translated by Pandit Rama Prasada,
from one of the Puranas:
The personified appearance of the Lord leaves no
room for the desire to possess any other obj ect o f
concentration. The fact o f the mind being held fast
there is what is called concentration. And, 0 King,
hear what that personified appearance of the Lord
is that should be meditated upon; there can be no
concentration without something upon which the
mind may rest. The face is cheerful and pleasing to
the mind, the eyes are full of freshness and depth
like lotus leaves, the cheeks are beautiful, the
forehead is bright and high, the ears are sym-
'I
il l '!
I
1 10
the neck is
appears on his
discus, his club, his sword, his conch shell and his
rosary of Rudraksha. H e has become Brahma. With
mind merged i n him, let the yogi devote himself to
meditating upon him.
o f concentration,
the yogi
should in
that
Ill
l l2
1 13
I
I