English
My ideas flow, and I cannot say whence or how they come. I do not hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I 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 know¬ ledge of a subject for days and weeks, until I experienced a clearing up of my mind, when I took my pen and un¬ hesitatingly wrote the result. I have best accomplished misrfy RAJA YOGA <§t leading the (conscious) mind as far away rom the subject upon which I was writing.’ : - Prof. Barrett says: “ The mysteriousness 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 for ever 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 begin¬ ning 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 life—there 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 com¬ pared 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 either 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 Nil Nisr/ty IpS^ANDS AND LOWLANDS OF MIND ;v ^cjnii, which are equally invisible to the eye, recognized only by their potent effects. Indeed, 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 supra-conscious 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 towards 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, show¬ ing, 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 enter¬ prise 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-con¬ scious mind the sphere of the spirit life, the sub-conscious RAJA YOGA Dhere of the body life, and the conscious Je 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 conscience—the voice of God, as Max Muller calls it—which is surely a half-con¬ scious 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 occa¬ sions 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 favoured 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 oper- andi. This unconscious soul, like a benevolent stranger. misr/ff. nds and lowlands of mind id makes provisions for our benefit, pouring atiure fruits into our laps.” M writer in an English magazine interestingly writes: Intimations reach our consciousness from unconscious¬ ness, that the mind is ready to work, is fresh, is full of ideas. The grounds of our judgment are often know¬ ledge 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 induc¬ tion in the discerning of it may well excite wonder.” Our behaviour is influenced by unconscious assump¬ tions 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 behaviour 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 environ¬ ments. Quite unconsciously we change our behaviour, 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 w'e reached it.” RA- T \ YOG* om says: “ It is i£f/S *ZOk6it bow premises a^Iow consciousness can sustain conclusions uf~6on- sciousness; how the mind can wittingly take up a mental movement at an advanced stage, havi.ng 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 repre¬ sents the conscious thought—the other stages in the unconscious mentation. Lewes, speaking of this illustra¬ tion, says: “ Something like this, Hamilton says, seems often to occur in a train of thought, one idea immediately suggesting another into consciousness—this suggestion passing through one or more ideas which do not them¬ selves 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 uncon¬ scious judgments, unconscious reasonings, and uncon¬ scious 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 pro¬ cess. 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, andwvhich 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.