Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We AwaitMcIvor-Tyndall, Alexander J. (Alexander James)
Religion
Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We Await
McIvor-Tyndall, Alexander J. (Alexander James)
Theosophy
_Raja Yoga_ is the way of the strongly individualized _will_. "_Knowledge
is power_" is the hope which encourages the disciple on the path of Raja
Yoga. He seeks to master the personal self by meditation, by concentration
of will; by self discipline and sacrifice. When the ego gains complete
control over the mental faculties, so that the mind may be directed as the
individual will suggests, the student has mastered the path of Raja Yoga.
If his mastery is complete, he finds himself regarding his body as the
instrument of the Self, and the body and its functions are under the
guidance of the ego; the mind is the lever with which this Self raises the
consciousness from the lower to the higher vibrations. The student who has
mastered Raja Yoga can induce the trance state; control his dreams as well
as his waking thoughts; he may learn to practice magic in its higher
aspects, but unless he is extremely careful this power will tempt him to
use his knowledge for selfish or unworthy purposes.
Let the student of Raja Yoga bear in mind the one great and high purpose of
his efforts, which should be: the realization of his spiritual nature, and
the development of his individual self, so that it finally merges into the
spiritual Self, thus gaining immortality "in the flesh."
Does this "flesh" mean the physical body? Not necessarily, because this
that we see and name "the physical body" is not the real body, any more
than the clothing that covers it, is the person, although frequently we
recognize acquaintances _by their clothing_. Immortality in the flesh
means cessation from further incarnations, the last and present personality
including all others in consciousness, until we can say, "I, manifesting in
the physical, as so-and-so, am now and forever immortal, remembering other
manifestations which were not sufficiently complete, but which added to the
sum of my consciousness until now I _know myself a deathless being_."
To those who seek the path of Raja Yoga, we recommend meditation upon
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, of which there are several translations, differing
slightly as to interpretation. We have selected some of the most important,
from the translations by Johnston. They are designed to make clear the
difference between the self of personality, and the Self, or _atman_ which
manifests in personality:
"The personal self seeks to feast upon life, through a failure to perceive
the distinction between the personal self and the spiritual man. All
personal experience really exists for the sake of another: namely, the
spiritual man. By perfectly concentrated meditation on experience for the
sake of the Self, comes a knowledge of the spiritual man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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