Attention, Part One, Section B

[dfr1973]

 A couple more gems from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translated by Charles Johnston, in Book 3:

• 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.
• 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.

I'm still working through Book Three, which appears to be all about mental powers that develop from following yoga - all eight "arms" of it, not just the postures or breathing work.

I am very glad I decided to go back to the original source, as what is presented here in the U.S. as yoga is only the physical side, even on the meditation and energy-work side.  It is reminding me a lot of how Buddhist meditation has been transformed into mindfullness and relaxation, without any of the spiritual or religious context.  What Patanjali wrote is a religious text, with all of the first book and most of the second being all about the spiritual Man (read: Self) and how to liberate him/her from the cycle of reincarnation.  This has turned out to be a very productive and fruitful side excursion to the main topic of Atkinson's work.

Comments

More threads to other readings

[syfen]

"It gains strength as it goes along" seems to be a common theme in self-development. One I need to keep reminding myself about.

You've also make a fantastic point that the whole system needs to be cared for rather than just a individual parts. We work on the character development piecemeal, yes, but with the intent of developing the whole. The academic study of occult practices, whether the embrace of meditation, visualization, or what-have-you doesn't focus on the whole system and creates some very volatile results.

Several years ago I read an article about San Francisco, this when gentrification of the City was reaching its final stage. The article was about the fight between neighborhood communities and the tech colonists who were buying up or renting out properties at exorbitant rates. The neighborhood communities, all generations old and working class, were outraged and fighting for their survival. The city even established town halls where aggrieved residents could come and air their complaints. During one such meeting, where residents were complaining about the being pushed out of their homes and excluded from the silicone valley tech companies bus services, the tech colonists reacted to the anger of the residents by advising them to be zen. When a reporter asked them about the comment after the meeting, the tech colonists very serenely replied that the residents were too angry and needed to find their inner peace. Apparently these people missed the whole compassion aspect of their spiritual training. These people are very mindful of themselves, but not very mindful of anyone else.

Another example was Anders Behring Breivik, the shooter who killed over a hundred people in Norway. During the investigation into his actions it was revealed that Berivik meticulously planned the attack, including finding ways to train himself through meditation and visualization. He had no military experience, just the will and one-pointed mind. Again, very little understanding of the whole system, but impressive focus on his goals.

This is the problem with occultism, it’s developed some seriously dangerous techniques that can be deployed for the worst possible reasons. That’s the other reason why old masters kept their work hidden, it was dangerous in the wrong hands.

Re: More threads to other readings

[dfr1973]

Yup. It would seem that actual self development involves work and practice no matter which system appeals to you.