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Raja Yoga or Mental Development
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The Highlands and Lowlands of Mind.
The
Self of each of us has a vehicle of expression which we
call the Mind, but which vehicle is much larger
and far more complex than we are apt to realize. As a writer has said
"Our Self is greater than we know; it has peaks above, and lowlands below the plateau of our conscious experience."
That which we know as the
"conscious mind" is not the Soul. The Soul is not a part of that which we know in consciousness, but, on
the contrary, that which we know in consciousness is but a small part of
the Soul-ihe conscious vehicle of a greater
Self, or "I."
The
Yogis have always taught that the mind has many
planes of manifestation and actionand that many of
its planes operated above and below the plane of
consciousness. Western science is beginning to
realize this fact, and its theories regarding same may
be found in any of the later works on psychology. But this is a matter of
recent development in Western science. Until very recently the text books held
that Consciousness and Mind were synonymous, and
that the Mind was conscious of all of its activities, changes and modifications.
Liebnitz was one of the first Western philosophers to
advance the idea that there were planes of mental activity outside of
the plane of consciousness, and since his time the leading
thinkers have slowly but surely moved forward to his position.
At the present time
it is generally conceded that at least
ninety per cent of our mental operations take place in the
out-of-conscious realm. Prof. Elmer Gates, the well known scientist, has said:
"At least ninety per cent of our mental life is sub-conscious. If you will
analyze your mental operations you will find that conscious thinking is never a
continuous line of consciousness, but a series of conscious data with great
intervals of subconscious. We sit and try to solve a problem, and fail. We walk
around, try again, and fail. Suddenly an idea dawns that leads to the solution
of the problem. The subconscious processes wore at work. We do not volitionally
create our own thinking. It takes place in us. We are more or less passive
recipients. We cannot change the nature of a thought, or of a truth, but we
can, as it were, guide the ship by a
moving of the helm. Our mentation is largely the result of the great
Cosmic Whole upon us."
Sir William Hamilton says that the sphere of our consciousness is
only a small circle in the center of a far wider sphere of action and thought,
of which we are conscious through its effects.
Taine says:
"Outside of a little luminous circle, lies a large ring of twilight, and beyond this an indefinite night;
but the events of this twilight and this night are as real as those within the
luminous circle."
Sir Oliver Lodge, the eminent English scientist,
speaking
of the planes of the mind, says: "Imagine an iceberg
glorying in its crisp solidity, and sparkling pinnacles, resenting attention
paid to its submerged self, or supporting region, or to the saline liquid out
of which it arose, and into which in due course it will some day return. Or, reversing the metaphor, we might liken
our present state to that of the hulls of ships
submerged in a dim ocean among strange monsters, propelled in a blind
manner through space; proud perhaps of
accumulating many barnacles as decoration;
only recognizing our destination by bumping against the dock-wall; and with no cognizance of the deck
and cabins above us, or the spars and sails no thought of the sextant, and the
compass, and the captainno perception of
the lookout on the mast of the distant horizon. With no vision of
objects far aheaddangers to be avoideddestinations to be reachedother ships
to he spoken to by means other than by bodily contacta region of sunshine and cloud, of space, or perception, and of
intelligence utterly inaccessible to parts below the waterline."
We ask our students to read carefully the above expression of Sir Oliver
Lodge, for it gives one of the clearest and most accurate figures of the actual
state of affairs concerning the mental planes that we have seen in Western
writings.
And other Western
writers have noted and spoken of these out-of-conscious realms. Lewes has said:
"It is very certain that in every
conscious volition every act that is so characterizedthe larger part
of it is
quite unconscious. It is equally certain that in every
perception there are unconscious processes of reproduction
and inference. There is a middle distance of
sub-consciousness, and a background of unconsciousness."
Taine has told us that: "Mental events imperceptible to consciousness
arc far more numerous than the'others, and
of the world that makes up our being we only perceive the highest pointsthe
lighted-up peaks of a continent whose lower levels remain in the shade. Beneath ordinary sensations are their
components, that is to say, the
elementary sensations, which must be
combined into groups to reach our consciousnes."
Maudsley
says: "Examine closely and without bias the
ordinary mental operations of daily life, and you will find that consciousness
has not one-tenth part of the function therein which it is
commonly assumed to have. In every conscious
state there are at work conscious, sub-conscious, and
infra-conscious energies, the last as indispensable as the first."
Oliver
Wendall Holmes said: "There are thoughts that
never emerge into consciousness, which yet make their influence felt among the
perceptible mental currents, just as the unseen
planets sway the movements of those that are watched
and mapped by the astronomer."
Many
other writers have given us examples and instances
of the operation of the out-of-consciousness planes of thought. One has written that when the solution
of a problem he had long vainly dealt with, flashed
across his mind, he trembled as if in the presence of
another being who had communicated a secret to
him. All of us have tried to remember a name or
similar thing without success, and have then dismissed
the matter from our minds, only to have the missing
name or thought suddenly presented to oar conscious mind a few minutes, or hours,
afterwards. Something in our mind was at work hunting up the
missing
word, and when it found it it presented it to us.
A writer has mentioned what he called "unconscious rumination," which happened to him when he read
books presenting new points of view essentially opposed
to his previous opinions. After days, weeks, or
months, he found that to his great astonishment the old
opinions were entirely rearranged, and new ones
lodged there. Many examples of this unconscious
mental digestion and assimilation are mentioned in
the books on the subject written during the past few years.
It is related of Sir W. R. Hamilton that he discovered quarternions one day while walking with his wife
in the observatory at Dublin. He relates that he suddenly felt "the galvanic circle of thought" close, and the sparks that fell from it was the fundamental mathematical
relations of his problem, which is now an important law in
mathematics.
Dr. Thompson has written: "At times I have had a
feeling of the uselessness of all voluntary effort, and also that the matter was
working itself clear in my mind. It has many times seemed to me that I was
really a passive instrument in the hands of a person not myself. In view of
having to wait for the results of these unconscious processes, I have proved
the habit of getting together material in advance, and then leaving the mass to
digest itself till I am ready to write about it. I delayed for a month the
writing of my book 'System of Psychology' but continued reading the
authorities. I would not try to think about the book. I would watch with
interest the people passing the windows.
One evening when reading the paper, the substance of the missing part of
the book flashed upon my mind, and I began to write. This is only a sample of
many such experiences."
Berthelot, the founder of Synthetic Chemistry has said
that the experiments leading to his wonderful discoveries
have never been the result of carefully followed
trains of thoughtof pure reasoning processes but have
come of themselves, so to speak, from the clear sky.
Mozart has written:
"I cannot really say that I can
account for my compositions. My ideas flow, and I cannot say whence or
how they come, I do not hear in my imagination the parts successively, but 1
hear them, as it were, all at once. The rest is merely an attempt to reproduce
what I have heard."
Dr. Thompson, above mentioned, has also said: "In writing
this work I have been unable to arrange my knowledge of a subject for days
and, weeks, until I experienced
a clearing up of my mind, when I took my pen
and unhesitatingly wrote the result. I have best
accomplished this by leading the (conscious) mind as
far away as possible from the subject upon which I was writing."
Prof.
Barrett says: "The mysteriousnes of our being is not confined to subtle
physiological processes which we have in common with all
animal life. There are higher and more capacious
powers wrapped up in our human personality than are
expressed even by what we know of
consciousness, will, or reason. There are
supernormal and transcendental powers of which, at present, we only
catch occasional glimpses; and behind and
beyond the supernormal there are
fathomless abysses, the Divine ground of the soul; the ultimate reality of which our consciousness is but the reflection or faint perception. Into
such lofty themes I do not propose to
enter, they must be forever beyond
the scope of human inquiry; nor is it
possible within the limits of this paper to give any adequate conception of those mysterious regions of
our complex personality, which are
open to, and beginning to be
disclosed by. scientific investigation."
Rev. Dr. Andrew Murray has written: "Deeper down
than where the soul with its consciousness can enter
there is spirit matter linking man with God; and deeper
down than the mind and feelings or will in the
unseen depths of the hidden lifethere dwells the
Spirit of God." This testimony is remarkable, coming
from that source, for it corroborates and reiterates the Yogi teachings of the Indwelling Spirit.
Schofield
has written: "Our conscious mind, as compared
with the unconscious mind, has been likened to
the visible spectrum of the sun's rays, as compared to the invisible part
which stretches indefinitely on cither side. We know
now that the chief part of heat comes from the
ultra-red rays that show no light;* and the
main part of the chemical changes in the vegetable world are the results of
the ultra-violet rays at the other end of
the spectrum, which are equally invisible
to the eye, and are recognized only by their potent effects. Indeed as these invisible rays extend indefinitely on both sides of the visible
spectrum, so we may say that the mind
includes not only the visible or
conscious part, and what we have termed the sub-conscious, that which lies below the red line, but the supraconscious mind that lies at the other
end-all those regions of higher soul
and spirit life, of which we are only at times vaguely conscious, but which always exist, and link us on to eternal verities,
on the one side, as surely as the
sub-conscious mind links us to the body on the other."
We
know that our students will appreciate the above testimony of Dr. Schofield, for it is directly in the line of our teachings in the Yogi Philosophy regarding the Planes of the
Mind (see "Fourteen Lessons").
We
feel justified in quoting further from Dr. Schofield,
for he voices in the strongest manner that which the Yogi Philosophy teaches as
fundamental truths regarding the mind.
Dr. Schofield is an English writer on Psychology, and so
far as we know has no tendency toward occultism, his
views having been arrived at by careful scientific
study and investigation along the lines of Western
psychology, which renders his testimony all the more valuable, showing as it does, how the human mind will instinctively find
its way to the Truth, even if it has
to blaze a new trail through the woods, departing from the beaten tracks of other minds around it, which lack the courage
or enterprise to strike out for
themselves.
Dr. Schofield writes: "The mind, indeed, reaches all the
way, and while on the one hand it is inspired by the Almighty, on the
other it energizes the body, all whose
purposive life it originates. We may call the supra-conscious mind the sphere
of the spirit life, the sub-conscious
the sphere of the body life, and the conscious mind the middle region where
both meet."
Continuing, Dr. Schofield says: "The Spirit of God is said to dwell
in believers, and yet, as we have seen, His
presence is not the subject of direct consciousness. We
would include, therefore, in the supra-conscious, all such spiritual ideas, together with consciencethe voice of God, as Max Mulier calls itwhich is surely a
half-conscious faculty. Moreover, the supra-conscious,
like the sub-conscious, is, as we have said, best apprehended when the
conscious mind is not active. Visions, meditations, prayers, and even dreams
have been undoubtedly occasions of spiritual
revelations, and many instances may be adduced as
illustrations of the workings of the Spirit apart from the action of
reason or mind. The truth apparently is that the mind as a whole is an unconscious state, by that its middle
registers, excluding the highest spiritual and lowest physical manifestations,
are fitfully illuminated in varying degree by
consciousness; and that it is to this
illuminated part of the dial that the word "mind," which
rightly appertains to the whole, has been limited."
Oliver Wendell Holmes has said: "The automatic flow of thought is
often singularly favored by the fact of
listening to a weak continuous discourse, with just enough ideas in it to keep the (conscious) mind busy. The induced current of thought is often
rapid and brilliant in inverse ratio to the force of the inducing
current."
Wundt says: "The unconscious logical processes are carried on with a certainty and regularity which would be impossible where there exists the possibility of
error. Our mind is so happily designed that it prepares for us the most
important foundations of cognition, whilst we have
not the slightest apprehension of the modus operandi This
unconscious soul, like a benevolent stranger, works and
makes provisions for our benefit, pouring only the
mature fruits into our laps."
A writer in an
English magazine interestingly writes:
"Intimations reach our consciousness from unconsciousness, that
the mind is ready to work, is fresh, is
full of ideas." "The grounds of our judgment are often knowledge so remote from
consciousness that
we cannot bring them to view." "That the human
mind includes an unconscious part; that unconscious events occurring in that
part are proximate causes of consciousness; that
the greater part of human intuitional action is an
effect of an unconscious cause; the truth of these propositions is so deducible
from ordinary mental events, and is so near the surface that the failure of deduction to forestall induction in the
discerning of it may well excite wonder." "Our behavior is influenced by unconscious assumptions respecting
our own social and intellectual rank, and that of the
one we are addressing. In company we unconsciously
assume a bearing quite different from that of
the home circle. After being raised to a higher rank the
whole behavior subtly and unconsciously changes
in accordance with it." And Schofield adds to the
last sentence: "This is also the case in a minor degree with different styles and qualities of dress and different
environments. Quite unconsciously we change
our behavior, carriage, and style, to suit the circumstance."
Jensen writes: "When we reflect on anything with the whole force of the mind, we may fall into a state of
entire unconsciousness, in which we not only forget
the outer world, but also know nothing at all of ourselves and the
thoughts passing within us after a time. We
then suddenly awake as from a dream, and
usually at the same moment the result of our meditations appears as distinctly in consciousness without our knowing how we reached it."
Bascom
says: "It is inexplicable how premises which lie below consciousness can sustain conclusions in consciousness; how
the mind can wittingly take up a mental
movement at an advanced stage, having missed its primary steps."
Hamilton and other writers have compared the mind's action to
that of a row of billiard balls, of which
one is struck and the impetus transmitted throughout the entire row, the result being that only the last ball actually moves, the others
remaining in their places. The last
ball represents the conscious thoughtthe
other stages in the unconscious mentation.
Lewes, speaking of this illustration, says: "Something like this. Hamilton says, seems often to occur in a
train of thought, one idea immediately suggesting
another into consciousnessthis suggestion passing through one or more
ideas which do not themselves rise into consciousness. This point, that we are not conscious of the formation of
groups, but only of a formed group,
may throw light on the existence of
unconscious judgments, unconscious reasonings,
and unconscious registrations of experience."
Many writers have related the process by which the unconscious
mentation emerges gradually into the field of
consciousness, and the discomfort attending the
process. A few examples may prove interesting and instructive.
Maudsley says: "It is surprising how uncomfortable a person may be made by the obscure idea of something which he ought to
have said or done, and which he cannot for the life of him
remember. There is an effort of the lost
idea to get into consciousness, which
is relieved directly the idea bursts into consciousness."
Oliver
Wendell Holmes said: "There are thoughts that never emerge into
consciousness, and which yet make their influence felt
among the perceptive mental currents, just as the unseen
planets sway the movements of the known ones." The same writer also remarks: "I was told of a business man
in Boston who had given up thinking of an important question as too much for him. But he continued so uneasy
in his brain that he feared he was threatened with palsy. After some
hours the natural solution of the question
came to him, worked out, as he believed, in that troubled
interval."
Dr.
Schofield mentions several instances of this phase of
the workings of the unconscious planes of the mind.
We mention a couple that seem interesting and to the point:
"Last
year," says Dr. Schofield, "I was driving to Phillmore
Gardens to give some letters to a friend. On the
way, a vague uneasiness sprang up, and a voice
seemed to say, 'I doubt if you have those letters.' Conscious reason
rebuked it, and said, 'Of course you have;
you took them out of the drawer specially.' The vague feeling was not satisfied, but could not reply. On
arrival I found the letters were in none of my
pockets. On returning I found them on
the hall table,
where they had been placed a moment while putting on my gloves."
"The
other day I had to go to see a patient in Folkestone,
in Shakespeare Terrace. I got there very late, and
did not stay but drove down to the Pavilion for the
night, it being dark and rainy. Next morning at eleven
I walked up to find the house, knowing the general
direction, though never having walked there before.
I went up the main road, and, after passing a certain
turning, began to feel a vague uneasiness coming
into consciousness, that I had passed the terrace. On asking the way, I
found it was so; and the turning was where
the uneasiness began. The night
before was pitch dark, and very wet, and anything seen from a close carriage was quite unconsciously
impressed on my mind."
Prof.
Kirchener says: "Our consciousness can only grasp one quite
clear idea at once. All other ideas are for
the time somewhat obscure. They are really existing, but only potentially for consciousness, i. e., they hover, as it were, on our horizon, or
beneath the threshold of consciousness.
The fact that former ideas suddenly
return to consciousness is simply explained
by the fact that they have continued psychic existence; and attention is sometimes voluntarily or involuntarily turned away from the present, and
the appearance of former ideas is
thus made possible."
Oliver
Wendell Holmes says: "Our different ideas are
stepping-stones; how we get from one to another we do not know; something
carries us. We (our conscious selves) do not take the step. The
creating and informing spirit, which is within us and not of us,
is recognized everywhere in real life. It conies to us as a voice that will be
heard; it tells us what we must believe; it frames our sentences and we wonder
at this visitor who chooses our brain as his dwelling place."
Galton says: "I have desired to
show how whole states of mental operation that have lapsed out of ordinary
consciousness, admit of being dragged into light." "
Montgomery says: "We arc
constantly aware that feelings emerge unsolicited by any previous mental state,
directly from the dark womb of unconsciousness. Indeed all our most vivid
feelings are thus mystically derived. Suddenly a new irrelevant, unwilled,
unlooked-for presence intrudes itself into consciousness. Some inscrutable
power causes it to rise and enter the mental presence as a sensorial
constituent. If this vivid dependence on unconscious forces has to be conjectured with regard to the most vivid
mental occurrences, how much more must such a sustaining foundation be
postulated for those faint revivals of previous sensations that so largely
assist in making up our complex mental presence I"
Sir Benjamin Brodie says: "It
has often happened to me to have accumulated a store of facts, but to have been
able to proceed no further. Then after an interval of time, I have found the
obscurity and confusion to have cleared away; the facts to have settled in their right places, though I have not been sensible of having made
any effort for that purpose."
Wundt says:
"The traditional opinion that consciousness
is the entire field of the internal life cannot he accepted. In consciousness, psychic acts arc very distinct from one
another, and observation itself necessarily conducts to unity in
psychology. But the agent of this unity is
outside of consciousness, which knows only
the result of the work done in the unknown laboratory beneath it.
Suddenly a new thought springs into being. Ultimate analysis of psychic
processes shows that the unconscious is the
theater of the most important mental phenomena. The conscious is always
conditional upon the unconscious."
Creighton says:
"Our conscious life is the sum of these entrances and exits. Behind the
scenes, as we infer, there lies a vast
reserve which we call 'the unconscious,' finding a name for it by the
simple device of prefixing the negative article. The basis of all that lies behind the scene is the mere negative of
consciousness."
Maudsley says:
"The process of reasoning adds nothing to knowledge (in the reasoner). It
only displays what was there before, and
brings to conscious possession what
before was unconscious." And again: "Mind can do its work
without knowing it. Consciousness is the light that lightens the process, not
the agent that accomplishes it."
Walstein says: "It is through the sub-conscious self that Shakespeare
must have perceived, without effort, great
truths which arc hidden from the conscious mind of the student: that Phidias
painted marble and bronze: that Raphael painted Madonnas, and Beethoven
composed symphonies."
Ribot says: "The
mind receives from experience certain data, and elaborates them unconsciously
by laws peculiar to itself, and the result
merges into consciousness."
Xewman says: "When the unaccustomed causes surprise, we do not perceive
the thing and then feel the surprise: but surprise comes first, and then we
search out the cause; so the theory must have acted on the unconscious mind to create the feeling, before being
perceived in consciousness."
A
writer in an English magazine says: "Of what transcendent importance is the
fact that the unconscious part of the mind bears to the conscious part such a relation as the magic lantern bears to the
luminous disc which it projects; that the greater part
of the intentional
action, the whole practical life of the vast
majority of men, is an effect of events as remote from consciousness as the motion of the planets."
Dr. Schofield says:
"It is quite true that the range of the
unconscious mind must necessarily remain indefinite; none can say how high or low it may reach .... As to
how far the unconscious powers of life that,
as has been said, can make eggs and feathers
cut of Indian corn, and milk and beef and mutton out of grass, are to be considered within or beyond
the lowest limits of unconscious mind, we do not therefore here
press. It is enough to establish the fact of its existence;
to point out its more important features; and to
show that in all respects it is as worthy of being
called mind as that which works in consciousness. We therefore return to
our first definition of Mind, as 'the sum of
psychic action in us, whether conscious or unconscious.'"
Hartmann calls our attention to a very important fact
when he says: "The unconscious does not fall ill, the unconscious does not grow weary, but all conscious mental activity becomes fatigued."
Kant says: "To have ideas and yet not be conscious of
themtherein seems to lie a contradiction. However, we
may still be immediately aware of holding an idea,
though we are not directly conscious of it."
Maudsley says: "It may seem paradoxical to assert not merely that ideas may exist in the mind without any consciousness
of them, but that an idea, or a train of
associated ideas, may be quickened into action and actuate movements without itself being attended to. When an
idea disappears from consciousness
it does not necessarily disappear entirely; it may remain latent below the horizon of consciousness. Moreover it may produce an effect upon movement, or upon other ideas, when thus active below the
horizon of consciousness."
Liebnitz
says: "It does not follow that because we do not perceive thought that
it does not exist. It is a great source of
error to believe that there is no perception
in the mind but that of which it is conscious."
Oliver Wendell Holmes says: "The more we examine
the mechanism of thought the more we shall see that
anterior unconscious action of the mind that enters
largely into all of its processes. People who talk most do not always think most. I question whether persons
who think mostthat is who have most conscious
thought pass through their mindnecessarily do most
mental work. Every new idea planted in a real
thinker's mind grows when he is least conscious of it."
Maudsley
says: "It would go hard with mankind indeed, if they must act wittingly
before they acted at all. Men, without knowing why,
follow a course for which good reasons exist. Nay,
more. The practical instincts of mankind often work
beneficially in actual contradiction to their professed
doctrines."
The same writer says: "The best thoughts of an author are the unwilled thoughts which surprise himself
; and the poet, under the influence of creative activity,
is, so far as consciousness is concerned, being dictated to."
A writer in an English magazine says: "When waiting on a pier for a steamer, I went on to the first, which was the wrong one. I came hack and watted, losing
my boat, which was at another part of the pier, on
account of the unconscious assumption I had made, that this was the only place to wait for the steamer. I
saw a man enter a room, and leave by another door. Shortly
after, I saw another man exactly like him do the same It was the same man;
but I said it must be his twin brother, in the
unconscious assumption that there was no exit for the first man but by the way
he came (that by returning)."
Maudsley says: "The firmest resolve or purpose sometimes vanishes
issueless when it comes to the brink of an
act, while the true will, which determines perhaps a different act, springs up
suddenly out of the depths of the unconscious nature, surprising and overcoming
the conscious."
Schofield says: "Our
unconscious influence is the projection of our unconscious mind and personality
unconsciously over others. This
acts unconsciously on
their unconscious centers,
producing effects
in character and
conduct, recognized in consciousness. For instance, the
entrance of a good
man into a
room where foul
language is used, will unconsciously
modify and purify the torn-of the whole room. Our minds cast shadows of which we
are as unconscious as those cast by our bodies, but which affect for
good or evil all who unconsciously pass within their range. This is a matter of daily experience, and
is common to all, though more notice able with strong personalities."
Now we have given much time and space to the expressions of opinion of
various Western writers regarding this subject of there being a plane or plane
of the mind outside of the field of
consciousness. We have given space to
this valuable testimony, not alone because
of its intrinsic value and merit, but because we wished to impress upon the minds of our students that these out-of-Conscious
planes of mind are now being recognised by the best authorities in the Western world, although it has
been only a few years back-when the idea was laughed at as ridiculous, and as a
mere "dream of the Oriental teachers." Each writer quoted has brought out some interesting and
valuable point of the subject, and the student will find that his own
experiences corroborate the points cited by the several writers. In this way we
think the matter will be made plainer, and
will become fixed in the mind of those who arc studying this course of
lessons.
But we must caution our students
from hastily adopting the several theories
of Western writers, advanced during the past few years, regarding these
out-of-conscious states. The trouble has been that the Western writers dazzled by the view of the subconscious
planes of mentation that suddenly burst upon the Western thought, hastily
adopted certain theories, which they felt would account for all the phenomena
known as "psychic." and which they thought
would fully account for all the problems of the subjet. These writers
while doing a most valuable work, which has
helped thousands to form new ideas regarding the nature and workings of the
mind, nevertheless did not sufficiently explore the nature of the problem before them. A little study of the
Oriental philosophies might have
saved them and their readers much confusion.
For instance, the majority of these
writers hastily assumed that because there was an out-of-conscious plane of mentation, therefore all the workings
of the mind might be grouped under the head
of "conscious" and "sub-conscious," and that all the
out-of-conscious phenomena might be grouped
under the head of "subconscious mind," "subjective mind,"
etc., ignoring the fact that this class of mental phenomena embraced not only
the highest but the lowest forms of mentation. In their newly found
"mind" (which they called "subjective" or
"sub-conscious"), they placed the lowest traits and animal passions; insane impulses; delusions; bigotry;
animal-like intelligence, etc., etc., as well as the inspiration of the poet and musician, and the high spiritual
longings and feelings that one recognizes as having come from the higher
regions of the soul.
This mistake
was a natural one, and at first reading the Western world was taken by storm, and
accepted the new ideas and theories as Truth. But when reflection came, and
analysis was applied there arose a feeling of disappointment and
dissatisfaction, and people began to feel that there was something lacking.
They intuitively recognized that their higher inspirations and intuitions came from a different part of the mind than the lower emotions, passions, and other sub-conscious
feelings and instincts.
A glance at the Oriental
philosophies will give one the key to the
problem at once. The Oriental teachers have always held that the conscious
mentation was but a small fraction of the entire volume of thought, hut they
have always taught that just as there was a field of mentation below consciousness,
so was there a field
of mentation above consciousness as much higher
than Intellect as the other was lower than it. The mere mention of this fact
will prove a revelation to those who have not heard it
before, and who have become entangled with the several
"dual-mind" theories of the recent Western
writers. The more one has read on this subject the more
he will appreciate the superiority of the Oriental
theory over that of the Western writers. It is like
the chemical which at once clears the clouded liquid in the test-tube.
In
our next lesson we shall go into this subject of the above-conscious
planes, and the below-conscious planes,
bringing out the distinction clearly, and adding to what we have said on the subject in previous books.
And all this is leading us toward the point where we may give you instruction regarding the training and cultivationthe
retraining and guidance of these out-of-conscious
faculties. By retraining the lower planes
of mentation to their proper work, and by stimulating
the higher ones, man may "make himself over,"
mentally, and may acquire powers of which he hut dreams
now. This is why we are leading you up to the
understanding of this subject, step by step. We advise
you to acquaint yourself with each phase of the
matter, that you may be able to apply the teachings and instructions to follow
in later lessons of the course.
MANTRAM
(AFFIRMATION).
I
recognize that my Self is greater than it seems that above and below consciousness are planes of mind that
just as there are lower planes of mind which belong to
my past experience in ages past and over which I
must now assert my Masteryso are there planes
of mind into which I am unfolding gradually, which
will bring me wisdom, power, and joy. I Am Myself,
in the midst of this mental worldI am the Master of my MindI assert my
control of its lower phases, and I demand of its
higher all that it has in store for mc.
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