A Series of Lessons in Raja YogaAtkinson, William Walker
Religion
A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga
Atkinson, William Walker
Yoga; Yoga, Raja
In 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 repetitions (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 "not I"
thing, 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; hate; love, in its
ordinary forms; jealousy; ambition; and the 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; analyze it; consider it. You will be able to understand the rise,
progress and end of each of these feelings, 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 mind 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 that they are not "You"--that
they are merely something that you carry around with you in a mental bag.
You 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 and examine and
consider them is a proof that they are "not I" things--for there are two
things in the matter (1) _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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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