English
It is only by the mind that the teachings we are now giving you may be grasped and understood, and used to your advantage and benefit. We are talking direct to your mind now, and are making appeals to it, that it may be interested and may open itself to what is ready to come into it from its own higher regions. We are appealing to the Intellect to direct its attention to this great matter, that it may interpose less resistance to the truths that are waiting to be projected from the Spiritual Mind, which knows the Truth. Mental Drill Place yourself in a calm, restful condition, that you may be able to meditate upon the matters that we shall place before you for consideration. Allow the matters pre¬ sented to meet with a hospitable reception from you, and hold a mental attitude of willingness to receive what THE EGO'S MENTAL TOOLS waiting for you in the higher regions o ^35 *SL wish to call your attention to several mental impressions or conditions, one after another, in order that you may realize that they are merely something incident to you, and not YOU yourself—that you may - set them aside and consider them, just as you might any- thing that you have been using. You cannot set the ^ .. so consider it, but the various forms of the “ not I ” may be so set aside and considered. t * ie . F * rst Lesson you gained the perception of the I as independent from the body, the latter merely being an instrument for use. You have now arrived at the stage when the “ 1 ” appears to you to be a mental creature—a bundle of thoughts, feelings, moods, etc. But y°u must go farther. You must be able to distinguish the I ” from these mental conditions, which are as much tools as is the body and its parts. Let us begin by considering the thoughts more closely connected with the body, and then work up to the higher mental states. The sensations of the body, such as hunger, thirst, pain, pleasurable sensations, physical desires, etc., etc., are not apt to be mistaken for essential qualities of the “ I ” by many of the Candidates, for they have passed beyond this stage, and have learned to set aside these sensations, to a greater or lesser extent, by an effort of the Will, and are no longer slaves to them. Not that they do not experience these sensations, but they have grown to regard them as incidents of the physical life- good in their place—but useful to the advanced man only when he has mastered them to the extent that he no Snger regards them as close to the “ I.” And yet, to some people, these sensations are so closely identified RAJA YOGA ;heir conception of the “ I ” that when the; „, v „.emselves they think merely of a bundle of , ' S - - - * • i „Jnsations. They are not able to set them aside and consider them as things apart, to be used when necessary and proper, but as things not fastened to the “ I.” The more advanced a man becomes the farther off seem these sensations. Not that he does not feel hungry, for instance. Not at all, for he recognizes hunger, and satisfies it within reason, knowing that his physical body is making demands for attention, and that these demands should be heeded. But—mark the difference—instead of feeling that the “ I ” is hungry the man feels that “ my body ” is hungry, just as he might become conscious that his horse or dog was crying for food insistently. Do you see what we mean? It is that the man no longer identifies himself—the “ I ’’—with the body, consequently the thoughts which are most closely allied to the physical life seem comparatively “ separate ” from his “ I ” con¬ ception. Such a man thinks “ my stomach, this,” or “ my leg, that,” or “ my body, thus,” instead of “ ‘ I,’ this,” or “ ‘ I,’ that.” He is able, almost automatically, to think of the body and its sensations as things of him, and belonging to him, which require attention and care, rather than as real parts of the “ I.” He is able to form a con¬ ception of the “ I ” as existing without any of these things —without the body and its sensations—and so he has taken the first step in the realization of the “ I.” Before going on, we ask the students to stop a few moments, and mentally run over these sensations of the body. Form a mental image of them, and realize that they are merely incidents to the present stage of growth and experience of the “ I,” and that they form no real part of it. They may, and will, be left behind in the Ego’s higher planes of advancement. You may have attr : ed this mental conception perfectly, long since, but we ask WNISTfiy. THE EGO'S MENTAL TOOLS ’U give yourself the mental drill at this tinffcSj •° fasten upon your mind this first step, realizing that you are able to set aside, mentally, these sensations—that you are able to hold them out at arm’s length and “consider" them as an “outside” thing, you mentally determine that they are “ not I ” things, and you set them down in the “ not I ” collection —the first to be placed there. Let us try to make this still plainer, even at the risk of wearying you by repeti¬ tions (for you must get this idea firmly fixed in your mind). To be able to say that a thing is “ not I,” you must realize that there are two things in question: (1) the n °* * „ and (2) the “ I ” who is regarding the not I thing just as the “ I ” regards a lump of sugar, or a mountain. Do you see what we mean? Keep at it until you do. Next, consider some of the emotions, such as anger, nate, love in its ordinary forms, jealousy, ambition, and t ie hundred-and-one other emotions that sweep through our brains. You will find that you are able to set each one of these emotions or feelings aside and study it, dissect it, analyse it, consider it. You will be able to understand the rise, progress and end of each of these reelings, as they have come to you, and as you recall them in your memory or imagination, just as readily as you would were you observing their occurrence in the mmd of a friend. You will find them all stored away in some parts of your mental make-up, and you may (to use a modern American slang phrase) “ make them trot before you, and show their paces.” Don’t you see : lt the y are not You ’ —that they arc merelv some- tnmg taat you carry around with you in a mental bag? . < ? u can imagine yourself as living without them, and still being “ I,” can you not? And the very fact that you are able to set them aside miSffiy RAJA YOGA dyl examine and consider them is a proof that li I ” things—for there are two things in the niat! You who are examining and considering them, and (2) the thing itself which is the object of the examination and consideration at mental arm’s length. So into the “ not I ” collection go these emotions, desirable and undesirable. The collection is steadily growing, and will attain quite formidable proportions after a while. Now, do not imagine that this is a lesson designed to teach you how to discard these emotions, although if it enables you to get rid of the undesirable ones, so much the better. This is not our object, for we bid you place the desirable (at this time) ones in with the opposite kind, the idea being to bring you to a realization that the “ I ” is higher, above and independent of these mental somethings, and then when you have realized the nature of the “ I,” you may return and use (as a Master) the things that have been using you as a slave. So do not be afraid to throw these emotions (good and bad) into the “not 1” collection You may go back to them, and use the good ones, after the Mental Drill is over. No matter how much you may think that you are bound by any of these emotions, you will realize, by careful analysis, that it is of the “ not 1 ” kind, for the “ 1 ” existed before the emotion came into active play, and it will live long after the emotion has faded away. The principal proof is that you are able to hold it out at arm’s length and examine it—a proof that it is “ not I.” Run through the entire list of your feelings, emotions, moods, and what not, just as you would those of a well- known friend or relative, and you will see that each one —every one—is a “ not I ” thing, and you will lay it aside for the time, for the purpose of the scientific experiment, at least. Then passing on to the Intellect, you will be able to THE EGO’S MENTAL TOOLS tut for examination each mental process and^ _ You don't believe it, you may say. Then read and study some good work on Psychology, and you will learn to dissect and analyse every intellectual process—and to classify it and place it in the proper pigeon-hole. Study Psychology by means of some good text-book, and you will find that one by one every intellectual process is classified, and talked about and labelled, just as you would a collection of flowers. If that does not satisfy you, turn the leaves of some work on Logic, and you will admit that you may hold these intellectual processes at arm’s length and examine them, and talk about them to others. So that these wonderful tools of Man —the Intellectual powers may be placed in the “ not 1 ” col¬ lection, for the “ 1 ” is capable of standing aside and viewing them —it is able to detach them from itself. The most remarkable thing about this is that in admitting this fact, you realize that the “ I ” is using these very intellectual faculties to pass upon themselves. Who is the Master that compels* these faculties to do this to themselves? The Master of the Mind—the “ I.” And reaching the higher regions of the mind - -even the Spiritual Mind, you will be compelled to admit that the things that have come into consciousness from that region may be considered and studied, just as may be any other mental thing, and so even these high things must be placed in the “ not I ” collection.