A Series of Lessons in Raja YogaAtkinson, William Walker
Religion
A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga
Atkinson, William Walker
Yoga; Yoga, Raja
While the majority of our students, who are more or less familiar with
the current material scientific conceptions, will readily accept the
above idea of the ocean of Matter, and Energy, and the fact that there
is a continual using up and replenishing of one's store of both, they may
have more or less trouble in accepting the idea that Mind is a substance
or principle amenable to the same general laws as are the other two
manifestations, or attributes of substance. One is so apt to think of his
Mind as "himself"--the "I." Notwithstanding the fact that in our Second
Lesson of this series we showed you that the "I" is superior to the
mental states, and that it can set them aside and regard and consider
them as "not-I" things, yet the force of the habit of thought is very
strong, and it may take some of you considerable time before you "get
into the way" of realizing that your Mind is "something that you use,"
instead of being You--yourself. And yet, you must persevere in attaining
this realization, for in the degree that you realize your dominance over
your mind, so will be your control of it, and its amenability to that
control. And, as is the degree of that dominance and control, so will
be the character, grade and extent of the work that your Mind will do for
you. So you see: _Realization brings Control_--_and Control brings
results_. This statement lies at the base of the science of _Raja Yoga_.
And many of its first exercises are designed to acquaint the student with
that realization, and to develop the realization and control by habit and
practice.
The Yogi Philosophy teaches that instead of Mind being the "I." it is
the thing through and by means of which the "I" _thinks_, at least so
far as is concerned the knowledge concerning the phenomenal or outward
Universe--that is the Universe of Name and Form. There is a higher
Knowledge locked up in the innermost part of the "I," that far transcends
any information that it may receive about or from the outer world, but
that is not before us for consideration at this time, and we must concern
ourselves with the "thinking" about the world of things.
Mind-substance in Sanscrit is called "_Chitta_," and a wave in the
_Chitta_ (which wave is the combination of Mind and Energy) is called
"_Vritta_," which is akin to what we call a "thought." In other words it
is "mind in action," whereas _Chitta_ is "mind in repose." _Vritta_, when
literally translated means "a whirlpool or eddy in the mind," which is
exactly what a thought really is.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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