The Library
Ordinary meditation is still preoccupied with his own ego and therefore is still barred from ascending to the Himalayan peaks where alone God is to be felt and found. The meditator is still too wrapped up in his own development, his own problems, his own aspirations. Advanced nondual meditation forgets all that in order to remember and identify itself solely with God.
15.23.6.2Listen Grace is of two kinds. The ordinary, better known, and inferior kind is that which is found on the Long Path. It flows from the Overself in automatic response to intense faith or devotion, expressed during a time of need. It is a reaction to seeking for help. The rarer and superior kind is found on the Short Path. It arises from self-identification with the Overself or constant recollection of it. There is no ego here to seek help or to call for a Grace which is necessarily ever present in the Overself.
15.23.6.7The glimpse is to be welcomed as a relief from the unsatisfactory limitations of ordinary existence. But because it gives enlightenment only temporarily, it is not enough. It is necessary to seek out the way of getting a permanent result…
15.23.6.17,Listen Books and discussions can, at best, serve only as guides for the individual inward search. This search for the True Self should be accompanied by efforts to impartially observe, improve, and develop that personal self which is ordinarily accepted as the be-all and end-all of existence. Constant attempts to cultivate and maintain awareness of the True Self - the Overself - together with making it the object of his deepest love and humble worship, are among the qualifications essential to progress.
15.23.6.18The grand illumination itself is sudden but the process of achieving it is a task so complex that it can be carried through only by successive stages. For the obstructions to be cleared on the way are heavy and numerous…
15.23.6.20,Listen Only by a personal discovery of the soul, and consequently only by going inside himself to discover it, can a man know himself.
15.23.6.23Listen It refreshes the heart and renews the will in the most extraordinary way if we sit with hands crossed in the lap or open on the knees and with mind surrendered, quiet, empty.
15.23.6.25Listen Do not let the mind occupy itself with any thoughts whenever there is no actual matter needing attention.
15.23.6.26Listen In the advanced practice of meditation it is not only required that the body shall be utterly relaxed but also that it shall be without the slightest movement from head to foot.
15.23.6.27Listen The advanced form of meditation merges into contemplation. Here there is no special need to adopt any one posture or to sit in any one way. It is then a practice done in a more inwardly absorbed condition; the physical body and surroundings are less present or quite ignored.
15.23.6.34Listen When he has reached the stage of advancement the rules prescribed for beginners and intermediates do not necessarily apply to him. He can now meditate whether sitting upright, as the prescription usually counsels, or lying limp on his back. His mind is not now so bound by these external conditions.
15.23.6.37Listen When Jesus invites men to ”cast all burdens upon me” and when Krishna invites them to ”cast off all works on me” both are suggesting that we should imagine all our troubles being borne and all our actions as being done by the higher self, if we have not yet found it, and should actually let it displace the personal ego in practical life, if we have.
15.23.6.44Listen The method of meditation appropriate to this class of seekers is to transfer self-identity to the Overself in, and by, constantly repeated declarations of the truth.
15.23.6.47Listen His dependence on self-effort must be balanced by his dependence on Grace. If he relies solely on his own endeavours to better his character and develop his intuition, he may find himself frustrated and unhappy with the result. Grace is to be invoked by making contact through prayer and meditation with his Overself. But the meditation should be of a special kind--what may be called the practice of nonduality. In it he should seek to identify himself with the universal and infinite power, to forget that he is an individual.
15.23.6.49Listen A valuable practice of the Short Path is to see himself already enjoying the realization of its goal, already partaking of its glorious rewards. This is a visualizing exercise in which his own face confronts him, a smiling triumphant face, a calm peaceful face. It is to be done as many times every day as he can remember to do it.
15.23.6.50Listen By combining deep breathing with gentle smiling, both acts being done quite slowly, and by keeping the mind solely attentive to the body’s condition, a relaxed half-drowsy state will develop. No other thoughts should be allowed to enter; the whole of his being should lie completely reposed in the rhythmic breathing and happily hypnotized by the lazy smile. Everything should be light and effortless. This is the Yoga of the Liberating Smile.
15.23.6.51Listen The Yoga of the Liberating Smile is to be practised at two special times—when he is falling into sleep at night and when he is waking from sleep in the morning.
15.23.6.52Listen Because the Short Path is an attempt to withdraw from the ego's shade and to stand in the Overself's sunshine, it must be accompanied by the deliberate cultivation of a joyous attitude. And because it is so largely a withdrawal from the Long Path's disciplines, it must also be accompanied by a sense of freedom...
15.23.6.55,Listen ... All meditations conducted on the philosophic ideal should end with the thoughts of others, with remembrance of their spiritual need, and with a sending-out of the light and grace received to bless individuals who need such help...
15.23.6.58,Listen The practice of extending love towards all living creatures brings on ecstatic states of cosmic joy.
15.23.6.60Listen He will help others more by holding them mentally in this inner peace than by falling into a state of nervous anxiety about them.
15.23.6.62Listen Would you have your friend live a better life? Picture only that better life in your thoughts of him.
15.23.6.63Listen If, in the act of falling asleep, he invites the higher self through aspiration, he may one day find that in the act of waking up an inner voice begins to speak to him of high and holy things. And with the voice comes the inspiration, the strength, and the desire to live up to them.
15.23.6.71Listen It is a valuable exercise to review at night the events of the past day or to review in the morning those which can be expected in the coming day.
15.23.6.72Listen There is a verse of the Koran which says: “Arise in the midst of the night and commune with thy God. Thy ego will be crushed and things will be revealed to thee thou didst not know before and thy path in life will be made smooth.”
15.23.6.75Listen In those delicious moments where sleep trembles into waking, there is some sort of a beginning Glimpse but alas, it vanishes without fulfilling its promise as soon as the world of objects comes more fully into the circle of attention. And this is precisely where the value of such a state lies, both for the ordinary man and for the would-be yogi. It has no objects. It is “I” without a world. It is awareness-in-itself. True, it is fleeting and does not last, but a man can learn to practise holding himself to it.
15.23.6.77Listen In those first moments when awakening from the nightly sleep we may enter a heavenly thought-free state. Or, if we cannot reach so high, we may receive thoughts which give guidance, tell us what to do, warn us against wrong decisions, or foretell the future.
15.23.6.78Listen To play the role of an observer of life, his own life, is to assist the process of inwardly detaching himself from it. And the field of observation must include the mental events, the thought-happenings, also…
15.23.6.82,Listen The student has to stand aside from the thought-forms, which means that he must stand aside from the person and look at it as something external to himself. If and when he succeeds in getting behind it, he automatically adopts the standpoint of the Overself. He must make the person an object and the Overself its observer…
15.23.6.83,Listen The position of the impersonal observer is only a tentative one, assumed because it is a practical help perhaps midway toward the goal. For when it is well-established in understanding, outlook, and practice, something happens by itself: the observer and the observed ego with its body and world become swallowed up in the undivided Mind.
15.23.6.84Listen Scott in his search for the South Pole amid ice-bound Antarctic wastes and Smythe in his quest for the summit of Mount Everest amid terrible avalanches of stone and snow, reported in their written accounts the sense of not being alone, of being companioned by a mystic unseen presence which bestowed a strange calm… What was the mystic presence which walked beside these men..? That power was nothing less than the Grace of the Overself…
15.23.6.86,Listen … Whoever successfully practises the Hidden Observer meditation will experience the sense of not being alone, of being companioned by a mystic presence which brings with it a benign sense of assurance and security. He will, however, experience much more than that.
15.23.6.86,Listen … The banishment of thoughts reveals the inner self…
15.23.6.88,Listen When a man has practised the witness exercise for some time and to some competency, he will become repeatedly aware of a curious experience. For a few minutes at most and often only for a few moments, he will seem to have stepped outside his body and to be confronting himself, looking at his own face as though it were someone else's. Or he will seem to be standing behind his own body and seeing his face from a side angle. This is an important and significant experience.
15.23.6.91Listen He feels that he is gazing down at himself from a height, seeing his personal ego for the trivial thing that it is.
15.23.6.93Listen One special exercise of the Short Path is easily done by some persons and gives them excellent results, although it is hard to do by others. It consists in refusing to let remain any particular mental registration of the surrounding place or people, or of any physical experience being undergone. Instead the mental image is to be firmly dismissed with the thought, ”This too is like a dream,” and then immediately forgotten. The exercise may be kept up for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time. The practical benefit it yields is to give improved self-control; the metaphysical benefit is to weaken the sway of illusion; the mystical benefit is to enable him to take the stand of the Witness-attitude more easily; and the personal benefit is to make him a freer and happier man.
15.23.6.95Listen He has to learn a new art--that of remaining relaxed and at ease, almost an impassive observer, while his body or his intellect does its work in the world, performs in the role set for it.
15.23.6.96Listen His role is to play witness of what he is, how he behaves, the thoughts he admits, just as if he were witnessing someone else....
15.23.6.97,... He must begin by putting the ego, his own ego, forward as an object of observation... With time and practice, study and reflection, help and sincerity, some sort of impersonality and neutrality can be established. When inner stillness is fully reached, the work becomes much easier until it is completed by the grace of the higher Self, Overself…
15.23.6.97,Listen … He is conscious of his commonplace body; but he is also conscious of his awe-inspiring Overself. He sees the first as part of a passing show, himself as an uninvolved observer, and behind both the eternal Overself.
15.23.6.97,Listen The first important need is to separate himself in thought and outlook from the animal side of his nature--not for any moral reasons but for metaphysical ones--and part of the inner work which this calls for is to take up the observer role. He is to look at the body (and its actions, desires, and passions) as if it were apart from himself--in short, to gain a detached view…
15.23.6.98,Listen He participates in every action not only as the performer doing it but also as the audience seeing it.
15.23.6.99Listen Let him play the part of a witness to his own ego, through all its experiences and vicissitudes. In that way he will be emulating by effort those enlightened men to whom the part comes easily and naturally by their own development.
15.23.6.100Listen His role in everyday life is a double one: that of being both the world's actor and a spectator.
15.23.6.102Listen The attitude of detached and impartial observer helps to protect him, to diminish his animality, and to correct his egoism…
15.23.6.103,Listen As meditation is practised, further indrawing takes place and the apparatus for thinking is repudiated in turn. ”I am not this mind.” The process continues further; as the self ever draws inward he casts off, one by one, all that he once held to be himself.
15.23.6.104Listen The question Who am I? is asked somewhere in that monumental ancient book The Yoga Vasistha. It was often included centuries later by Saint Francis in his prayers. But Sri Ramana Maharshi gave it central importance in his advice to spiritual seekers and meditators.
15.23.6.106Listen Not only all other men's bodies but also his own must be regarded as objects to Consciousness…
15.23.6.107,Listen What is the practical use of enquiring, ”To whom is this experience happening? To whom this pain, this joy, this distress, or this good fortune?” First, it makes him remember the quest upon which he is embarked by reminding him that it is the ego which is feeling these changes and that he is not to identify himself with it and thus limit his possibilities if he really seeks the higher self behind it. Second, it suggests that he look for the root of his ego and with it his hidden ”I” instead of merely being swept away by what is happening within the ego itself.
15.23.6.108Listen ... He pretends to be what he aims to become: thinks, speaks, acts, behaves as a master of emotion, desire, ego because he would be one. But he should play this game for, and to, himself alone, not to enlarge himself in others' eyes, lest he sow the seed of a great vanity.
15.23.6.109,Listen ... He accepts the truth, passed down to him by the Enlightened Ones, that in his inmost essence he is Reality. This leads to the logical consequence that he should disregard personal feelings which continue from past tendencies, habits, attitudes, and think and act as if he were himself an enlightened one…
15.23.6.109,Listen On this Short Path he searches into the meaning of Being, of being himself and of being-in-itself, until he finds its finality…
15.23.6.109,Listen … For now he knows by evidence, study, and reflection that the Overself is behind, and is the very source of, his ego, just as he knows by the experience of feeling during his brief Glimpses. Bringing this strong conviction into thought and act and attitude is the Heavenly Way [or As If] exercise, a principal one on the Short Path…
15.23.6.109,Listen ... Through the understanding of the Short Path he searches knowingly, not wanting another experience since both wanting and experiencing put him out of the essential Self. He thinks and acts as if he is that Self, which puts him back into It…
15.23.6.110,Listen It is objected, why search at all if one really is the Overself? Yes, there comes a time when the deliberate purposeful search for the Overself has to be abandoned for this reason. Paradoxically, it is given up many times, whenever he has a Glimpse, for at such moments he knows that he always was, is, and will be the Real, that there is nothing new to be gained or searched for…
15.23.6.110,Listen … the fact remains that past tendencies of thought rise up after every Glimpse and overpower the mind, causing it to lose this insight and putting it back on the quest again. While this happens he must continue the search, with this difference, that he no longer searches blindly, as in earlier days, believing that he is an ego trying to transform itself into the Overself, trying to reach a new attainment in time by evolutionary stages…
15.23.6.110,Listen Practice of the As If exercise is like being spiritually reborn and finding a new way of life. It gives courage to those who feel grievously inadequate, hope to those who feel hooked by their past failures.
15.23.6.111Listen ... He is to see himself doing successfully what he seeks to do, and the sight is to be accompanied by intense faith and firm conviction. The desirable qualities of character are to be thought of as already existing and possessed, already expressing themselves in action and living. Furthermore they are to be pictured vividly and clearly; they must be understood without any uncertainty, dimness, or hesitation.
15.23.6.112,Listen The ”As If” exercise is not merely pretense or make-believe. It requires penetrative study and sufficient understanding of the high character and spiritual consciousness in the part to be played, the role to be enacted, the auto-suggestion to be realized.
15.23.6.113Listen When the assaults of man's animal nature, the instincts of his body, have to be dealt with, a swift assumption of the AS IF attitude is necessary.
15.23.6.114Listen A part of the practical technique for attaining the inner awareness of this timeless reality is the practice of the AS IF exercise... The practitioner regards himself no longer from the standpoint of the quester, but from that of the Realized Man. He assumes, in thought and action, that he has nothing to attain…
15.23.6.115,Listen The self-identification with the Overself should be as perfect as he can make it. He is to be it, and not merely the student meditating on it.
15.23.6.116Listen ”As If” exercise. He must sink himself in the imagined character of the ideal with intense feeling until he becomes the image itself.
15.23.6.117Listen This practice in the Short Path of self-identification with the Overself is to be done both casually at odd moments and deliberately at daily contacts in meditation. It is through them--whenever the identification is effectual--that Grace gets some of its chance to work its transformation upon him.
15.23.6.118Listen Whatever name be given to this exercise, whether ”As If” or another, its essence is to consider the goal as already reached, to convert the end of the quest into the beginning…
15.23.6.120,Listen Even if he has no spiritual experience at all but only complete faith in it, even if he cannot live the role of the illumined fulfilled man, then let him act it. This is an exercise to be practised. Let him try to think and behave as if his quest is successful, let him copy the fulfilled philosopher.
15.23.6.121Listen This practice of picturing oneself as one ought to be, of visualizing the man free from negative qualities and radiant with positive ones that are part of the Quest's ideal, has near-magical results.
15.23.6.123Listen The As If exercise: It is as if the Overself were hypnotizing him out of his lower nature.
15.23.6.124Listen Let him picture his own self as if it were at the end of its quest. Let him see it enthroned on the summit of power and engaged in tranquil meditation for his own joy and for mankind's welfare.
15.23.6.125Listen The ”As If am enlightened” practice aims at saturating the mind with this idea of true Identity.
15.23.6.127Listen He learns that he may set his own limits, that so long as he thinks all day that he is only this person, doing and speaking in the ordinary way what men usually do, then he is certainly nothing more. But if he starts the day on a higher level, thinking that he is divine in his inmost being, and keeps on that level as the hours pass, then he will feel closer to it. This is a practical procedure, one which has its effect on consciousness, on character, and on events.
15.23.6.128Listen The method of the Short Path is to affirm that in the heavenly consciousness of the Overself there is no evil, no wrong-doing, no sinfulness, and no faultiness; and that because the true being of man is there the aspirant should identify himself with it...
15.23.6.129,Listen … he sees himself dwelling and acting in the Overself, and therefore without his specific sins and faults. He regards them as non-existent and drops anxiety or concern about them. He does this as much as he can from morning to night and this fulfils Jesus’ injunction to “pray without ceasing” in a deeper and philosophical sense.
15.23.6.129,Listen He will not have to struggle as on the Long Path. There will no more be irksome effort. The mind will be glad to rest in this positive state, if he holds from the very beginning the faith that it already is accomplished, that the aspiration toward it is being fulfilled now, not at some unknown distant time. Such an attitude engenders something more than pleasant feelings of hope and optimism: it engenders subconscious power.
15.23.6.131It is now and not in some future time of achievement that he should, in this exercise, regard only his best self as his Identity.
15.23.6.132Listen The old trouble-bringing attitudes and self-frustrating ways are the ego's. At the appearance of irritating circumstances, go into reverse by practising the ”As If” exercise and thus lift up consciousness here and now.
15.23.6.133Listen If a man has acting talent, let him try it on this visualization exercise: let him copy the characteristics of illumination. It will be immensely more profitable to him than copying those of some worldly role on a stage. The latter may gain him a livelihood; the former will gain him LIFE.
15.23.6.134Listen ... The divinity is there, within you; have faith that it is so and entrust yourself to it.
15.23.6.138,Listen … The divinity is there, within you; have faith that it is so and entrust yourself to it.
15.23.6.138,Listen He cannot be a philosopher part of the time and an unawakened unenlightened person the remainder (or most) of the time: but he can, for the sake of this exercise, imaginatively think that he is one. In the light of his antecedent personal history, the attempt may be an audacious one; but if his present longing, determination, and self-discipline are large enough, it may become a magical transforming one.
15.23.6.141Listen … The “As if I am enlightened” exercise is a changeover from humbly aspiring to a higher level to creatively imagining oneself as being there already …
15.23.6.142,Listen He shapes himself into another person in imagination, in faith, and in will. For a while he creates the illusion of a new destiny accompanying this new person. Is this not a veritable rebirth? Does he not get away from the old everyday person and forget him utterly through this miraculous transformation? He lives so completely in this visualized ideal self that there is no space left for the old faults, the old weaknesses to creep in.
15.23.6.144Listen See yourself as you ought to be. Try to act accordingly.
15.23.6.145Listen Even if it only be a pose that is cultivated, it still remains a valuable discipline and exercise which gives good results. For it has much suggestive power, this ”As If” method, and is an essential part of the Short Path.
15.23.6.147Listen The “The As If I am enlightened” attitude pays well, provided it is maintained rigidly after having been assumed.
15.23.6.148Listen Why should the Short Path be a better means of getting Grace than the Long one? There is not only the reason that it is not occupied with the ego but also that it continually keeps up remembrance of the Overself. It does this with a heart that gives, and is open to receive, love. It thinks of the Overself throughout the day. Thus, it not only comes closer to the source from which Grace is being perpetually radiated, but it also is repeatedly inviting Grace with each loving remembrance.
15.23.6.149Listen Any action must be properly timed if it is to give its best return, but the remembrance exercise is the only kind which can be done at any time--now--and in any place--here. This simple movement of the mind in remembrance is easy enough for anyone at any stage of evolution to perform yet important enough for the wisest of us.
15.23.6.150Listen To acknowledge this Presence and this Power within him as continually or as often as he can, is a practice whose results are larger than its simplicity suggests.
15.23.6.151Listen The basis of this exercise is that the remembering of the Overself leads in time to the forgetting of the ego…
15.23.6.152,Listen To keep the Overself constantly in our thoughts is one of the easiest ways to become worthy of its grace.
15.23.6.153… ”I look after the interests and safety of those who are perpetually engaged on My service, and whose thoughts are always about Me and Me alone.” The Overself speaking through Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita…
15.23.6.154,Listen How long should a man practise this remembrance of the Overself? He will need to practise it so long as he needs to struggle with his ego.
15.23.6.155Listen No amount of exaggerated homage to a guru can take the place of remembering the Real.
15.23.6.156Listen Emerson knew this practice. By His remembrance, life becomes pervaded with nectarine bliss, he said.
15.23.6.157Listen If the past is unredeemable, and the future unpredictable, what more practical course is open than to safeguard the present by constant remembrance of the divine?
15.23.6.158Listen The practice of recollection was, and still is, used by the Sufis, Muhammedan mystics, to draw the feelings more and more away from the earthly things to the divine.
15.23.6.159Listen … The door upon which you may have been knocking a long time in vain will open to your frequent loving remembrances.
15.23.6.160,Listen The Vedas tell us that the constant remembrance and thinking of oneself as pure Spirit makes one overcome delusion and obtain Truth.
15.23.6.162Listen Constant remembrance of the Overself's presence becomes a way to counter the much more evident presence of the body and the world--that is, the illusion of matter.
15.23.6.163Listen His awareness is still only a babe; it needs to grow and growth calls for nourishment. This he is to give by the simple act of remembering and attending to it.
15.23.6.164Listen Fix the attention undividedly upon the Overself which is anchored in your heart-centre. Then everything you do during the day will naturally be divinely inspired action and true service. The Overself is your true source of power: turn towards it and receive its constructive guidance for your task of daily living.
15.23.6.165Listen By reorienting thought toward Overself, forgetfulness sets in for the little self: the measure of one is the measure of the other.
15.23.6.166Listen It is needful to reserve a part of one's being, consciousness, or thought, for this unique remembrance, which is of a value set apart from all others.
15.23.6.167Listen By keeping close to the Overself he can gain its protective guiding or helpful influence. No day should pass without its remembrance, no enterprise should be begun without its invocation.
15.23.6.169Listen Shams Tabriz: Keep God in remembrance until the self is forgotten. Here is a whole yoga path in one short, simple sentence.
15.23.6.171Listen The best way to honour this immense truth of the ever-present reality of the Overself is to remember it--as often, as continuously, and as determinedly as possible. It is not only the best way but also the most rewarding one. For then its saving grace may bestow great blessing.
15.23.6.172To put oneself regularly into the practice of this remembrance is to come within the cheering warmth of these higher truths.
15.23.6.174Listen Better than any long-drawn yoga discipline is the effort to rivet one's hold on the here-and-now of one's divinity.
15.23.6.175Listen ... The Overself Remembrance Exercise is to be practised at all times, in all places and under all bodily conditions. It consists of the constant loving recall to mind of the existence of, and his inner identity with, the Overself. It involves the repeated and devoted recollection that there is this other and greater self, a warm, felt, living thing, overshadowing and watching over him. It should be continued until he is able to keep the thought of the Overself as a kind of setting for all his other thoughts...
15.23.6.176,Listen ... If he has ever had a glimpse of a supersensuous higher existence which profoundly impressed him and perhaps led him to take to the quest, it is most important that he should also insert the remembrance of this experience into his exercise. He should try to bring as vividly as possible to his mind the sense of peace and exaltation which he then felt.
15.23.6.176,Listen ... When the remembrance becomes ceaseless flow, the Overself will bring him a remarkable fruitage of grace. When he turns habitually inwards toward the Overself, grace can operate more readily in all matters.When the grace starts working, this is likely to remove a number of internal and external obstacles in his path--sometimes in a seemingly miraculous manner--and eventually bring him to a truer self-awareness.
15.23.6.176,Listen The Overself Remembrance Exercise: Though the foreground of his consciousness is busy attending to the affairs of daily living, its background abides in a kind of sacred emptiness wherein no other thought may intrude than this thought of the Overself…
15.23.6.176,Listen ... The Overself remembrance should be held in the back of the mind, even though he may appear to be properly attentive to external matters...
15.23.6.176,Listen ... The Overself remembrance exercise has a peculiar potency of its own despite its informal and unprogrammed character...
15.23.6.176,Listen He should train himself in the Overself remembrance exercise (1) until it becomes quite easy and effortless, (2) until this inward concentration has been set in habitual motion, (3) until the remembrance continues of its own accord and (4) until its practice has become firmly and successfully established as ceaseless flow...
15.23.6.176,Listen … The remembrance exercise must be a warm, felt, living thing if the spirit of the exercise is to be retained and not lost.
15.23.6.176,Listen … the remembrance should become the unmoved pivot upon which the pendulum of external activity swings perpetually to and fro …
15.23.6.176,Listen The Overself Remembrance Exercise is so simple that it is called an exercise only for name’s sake. In the beginning it requires effort just like any other practice …
15.23.6.176,Listen The Overself is a term of which past experience may furnish no meaning. But perhaps you have had strangely beautiful moments when everything seemed to be still, when an ethereal world of being seemed very near to you. Well, in those moments you were lifted up to the Overself…
15.23.6.177,Listen Seize the odd moments for Remembrance practice, escaping from the web of self-thoughts into the Void of Being.
15.23.6.178Listen His practice of constantly bringing the Overself to mind is a valuable part of the aspirant's equipment. Each remembrance has a twofold value: first, as a mystical exercise to cultivate concentration, and second, as a recurrent turning-away from worldly thoughts to spiritual ones.
15.23.6.179Listen There are leisure moments or unoccupied minutes during the day which could profitably be used for The Overself Remembrance exercise.
15.23.6.180Listen If he can lovingly recall those moments when thought became incandescently bright and feeling was lifted high above its ordinary self, meditation upon them will be especially fruitful and profitable.
15.23.6.181Listen At odd moments in the very midst of worldly activity he is to recall what his mental and emotional state was like when he reached peak heights during formal meditation in seclusion. And for the brief space of those moments he is to try by creative imagination to feel that he is back on those heights.
15.23.6.182Listen In this meditation he reproduces the conditions which surrounded him at the time the Glimpse came. He fills in every tiny detail of the picture--the furnishings of a room perhaps, the faces and voices of other persons who were present, and especially how he became aware of the first onset of the Glimpse.
15.23.6.183Listen It could well be said that the essence of the Short Path is remembering who he is, what he is, and then attending to this memory as often as possible.
15.23.6.184Listen Concentrate on reliving in intense memorized detail former moments of egoless illumination.
15.23.6.185Listen ... If the effort to remember the Overself is kept up again and again, it attenuates the materialistic mental tendencies inherited from former lives and arrests the natural restlessness of attention. It eventually achieves a mystical concentration of thoughts akin in character to that reached during set periods of meditation, but with the added advantage of not stopping the transaction of worldly activity…
15.23.6.186,Listen … Moments of utter inward stillness may come to him. The ordinary familiar ego will then desert him with a lightning-like suddenness and with hardly less brevity. Let him fix these moments firmly in his memory. They are to be used in the ensuing years as themes for meditation and goals for striving.
15.23.6.186,Listen A useful method is to stop whatever he is doing, remain still, and let his mind fly back to the thought of the Overself. He is to make this break several times a day, the more often the better, but he may find it easier to begin with only two or three times a day and gradually to extend the number over a few months.
15.23.6.187Those moments when the feeling of something beyond his present existence comes to him are precious indeed. They must be eagerly welcomed and constantly nourished by dwelling upon them again and again, both in remembrance and in meditation. The loving recollection of those beautiful inspired moments and the intense concentration upon them is in itself a mystical exercise of special importance. This exercise is designed to help the learner transcend his attachment to externality, his tendency to live in the senses as though they alone reported reality.
15.23.6.188Listen It is not only needful to practise this remembrance as often as convenient or even possible, but also for as long as convenient or possible.
15.23.6.189Listen There is one method whereby the treasures found in meditation may be brought, little by little, into the active state. This is to try to recollect, at odd times during the day, the peace, bliss, strength, or truth, or any messages gleaned during the best moments of the preceding meditation. The more often this is done, the sooner will the gap between meditation and activity be bridged.
15.23.6.191Listen What Confucius called the Superior Man will constantly keep his mind on superior topics and not waste its energy on trivialities. And the best of all these topics is the Overself--the glimpses of its nature, the remembrance of its being his essential selfhood.
15.23.6.192Listen Let him immerse himself in that feeling and little by little a powerful sense of well-being will penetrate his heart.
15.23.6.196Listen The effort at this higher stage (Short Path) is not to follow fixed schedules for mental quiet but constantly to remember Overself…
15.23.6.198,Listen … When feeling a descent of the stillness the aspirant is told to drop whatever he is doing and to hold himself in the stillness as long as he can or as long as it is there…
15.23.6.200,Listen He should try to remember the inner and outer conditions under which the glimpse came to him and, temporarily, try to make them again part of himself and his surroundings. He is to do so as if he were an actor appearing in this part on a stage. For the time being, he must think, feel, and live as if the experience is really happening, the glimpse really recurring…
15.23.6.201,Listen Recall the glimpse as vividly as possible …
15.23.6.202,Listen In this matter the words of the Koran must be taken literally: “Believers hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off all business.”
15.23.6.203Listen When this stage is attained, the work he has to do in reorienting attention toward the Overself-thought is not any more for the particular sessions of meditation practice alone, but also to be kept up during the day's activities. Attention will have to be returned again and again…
15.23.6.204,Listen There is no moment when this work of inner remembrance may stop. It ought to start at the time of rising from bed in the morning and continue to the time of retiring to bed at night.
15.23.6.205Listen It is possible that he may fall into the mistaken belief that because he has relieved himself of the duties and toils of the Long Path, he has little else to do than give himself up to idle dreaming and lazy optimism. No--he has taken on himself fresh duties and other toils, even though they are of a different kind. He has to learn the true meaning of pray without ceasing as well as to practise it. He has to meditate twenty times a day, even though each session will not be longer than a minute or two. He has to recollect himself, his essential divinity, a hundred times a day…
15.23.6.206,Listen This work of constant remembrance is one of self-training. The mind is accustomed by habit and nature to stay in the ego. It has to be pulled out and placed in the thought of the higher self, and kept there.
15.23.6.208Listen You should imaginatively recapture it as if its benign presence comes over you, its goodwill pervades you, its guidance helps you, and its peace enfolds you.
15.23.6.209Listen Continuous remembrance of the Stillness, accompanied by automatic entry into it, is the sum and substance of the Short Path, the key practice to success. At all times, under all circumstances, this is to be done. That is to say, it really belongs to and is part of the daily and ordinary routine existence. Consequently, whenever it is forgotten, the practitioner must note his failure and make instant correction. The inner work is kept up until it goes on by itself.
15.23.6.210The essence of the matter is that he should be constantly attentive to the intuitive feeling in the heart and not let himself be diverted from it by selfishness, emotion, cunning, or passion.
15.23.6.211Listen One of the most valuable forms of yoga is the yoga of constant remembrance. Its subject may be a mystical experience, intuition, or idea. In essence it is really an endeavour to insert the transcendental atmosphere into the mundane life.
15.23.6.212Listen The method of this exercise is to maintain uninterruptedly and unbrokenly the remembrance of the soul's nearness, the soul's reality, the soul's transcendence. The goal of this exercise is to become wholly possessed by the soul itself.
15.23.6.213Listen This constant remembrance of the higher self becomes in time like a kind of holy communion.
15.23.6.214Listen Stick to the remembrance of the Overself with dogged persistence wherever you are and whatever you are doing. This is one of the easiest, the simplest, and the safest of all yoga paths to reach the goal effectively…
15.23.6.216,Listen He must think as often and as intently of the Overself as an infatuated girl thinks of the next appointed meeting with her lover. His whole heart must be held captive, as it were, by this aspiration. This is to be practised not only at set formal times but also constantly throughout the day as an exercise in recollection. This yoga, done at all times and in all places, becomes a permanent life and not merely a transient exercise. This practice of constant remembrance of the Overself purifies the mind and gradually renders it naturally introverted, concentrates and eventually illumines it.
15.23.6.217Take it with you wherever you go--first, in remembrance as Idea, then, as you develop, in actuality as Presence.
15.23.6.218Listen Whether he is leisurely at ease or actively at work, the practice of Remembrance can go on—the only difference between the two states being a difference of its intensity and vividness.
15.23.6.220Listen The practice of Remembrance begins with an act of choice, since it throws out of the mind all that it conveniently can without interfering with the work or matter in hand.
15.23.6.221Listen He is to keep the mind concentrated inwardly on the real self every wakeful moment until it will stay by itself in the real self. The aim is not to entertain a passing idea but to surrender to a habit which remains.
15.23.6.222Listen The woman far advanced in pregnancy may be attending to household duties—may cook, sew, or wash most of the day—yet not at any moment will her mind be completely carried away from the infant she is bearing inside.
15.23.6.223Listen With his mind constantly reverting to the Overself (like a silent mantram) as the Reality to which he aspires, the inner work goes on.
15.23.6.224Listen It comes with time and practice, this ability to move at will from activity to meditation, from working or walking to stillness or worship.
15.23.6.225Listen How can he adjust his vision of eternity to living prosaically in the here and now? It is hard and, like many others, he will fail. But repeated effort, undaunted practice, comprehension of the Short Path may enable him to do so at last.
15.23.6.226Listen Once you have caught this inner note in your experience of your own self-existence, try to adhere firmly to the listening attitude which catches it.
15.23.6.228Listen Reminiscence--recollection by the mind of its own identity--is itself equal to a meditation.
15.23.6.232Listen Every time he departs from the stillness there is needed a warning awareness. This does not easily or normally come by itself but by self-training, self-observation--mindfulness, the Buddha called it…
15.23.6.234,Listen The Short Path not only requires him to turn his attention in the Overself's direction but also to maintain it there.
15.23.6.235Listen Be present at your thinking and breathing and feeling and doing. This is what the Buddha called ”mindfulness.” But the highest possible form of mindfulness is to be present with the Overself for, after all, the other four are concerned with the ego, even though they are attempts to free yourself from it; but here it concerns that which completely transcends the ego.
15.23.6.236Listen The loving, adoring recollection of the Overself, the constant return to memory of it amid the world's distractions, the reiteration of this divine thought as a permanent background to all other thinking, is itself a yoga path. Indeed it is the same as that taught by Saint Paul when he wrote, ”Pray without ceasing” and ”Bring every thought into captivity to Jesus Christ.”
15.23.6.237Listen The immediate task is to become increasingly aware of the Overself's presence…
15.23.6.238,Listen When the naturalness of living fully in the Divine Presence while working in the world becomes a daily experience, the man will be living and existing at one and the same time on different levels.
15.23.6.240Listen The successful philosopher is no dreamer: he keeps his practicality, his interest in world affairs, his willingness to accept responsibility, thus remaining an effective servant of mankind. But all this is done within the Remembrance.
15.23.6.242Listen When activity of any kind, in work or in leisure, takes place in this atmosphere of remembrance, it becomes sacramental even though the ordinary observer may not know it.
15.23.6.243Listen The continuous remembrance of the Overself as the unseen background upon which the personal panorama unfolds itself enables us to keep a proper perspective upon events and affords us the final cure of troublesome ills.
15.23.6.248Listen Meditation should so develop that it becomes a constant attitude of recollectedness. The set exercises in concentration for short periods belong to the earlier stages and are intended simply to obtain mental control.
15.23.6.249Listen The goal is to remember the Overself without interruption and at all times.
15.23.6.251He learns to look away from the ego and turn to the Overself. He keeps his thoughts as often as possible on the remembrance of the latter's infinite ever-presence. He keeps his heart occupied with the feelings of peace, faith, harmony, and freedom that this remembrance generates.
15.23.6.254This act of recollection requires no effort, no exercise of the power of will. It is an act of turning in, through and by the power of love, toward the source of being. Love redirects the attention and love keeps it concentrated, sustained, obedient.
15.23.6.255Listen
19 Mar 2020
14 Dec 2010
7 May 2012
22 Feb 2011
28 Mar 2012
28 Feb 2014
25 Jan 2021
18 Jan 2016
3 Mar 2020
10 Mar 2020
4 Mar 2023
30 Aug 2016
28 Apr 2014
13 Apr 2014
4 Jan 2012
29 Nov 2022
30 Nov 2022
19 Sep 2016
16 Aug 2016
24 Aug 2013
26 Jan 2021
23 Aug 2019
7 Feb 2018
8 Aug 2020
28 Dec 2022
3 Oct 2022
15 Jul 2017
4 May 2013
31 May 2013
1 Jul 2018
8 Apr 2019
25 May 2019
16 Jun 2018
30 Jun 2015
22 Aug 2016
10 Feb 2015
22 Mar 2013
11 Mar 2011
17 Mar 2014
27 Mar 2020
29 Mar 2014
9 Oct 2019
7 Sep 2011
29 Jul 2018
22 Aug 2018
5 Dec 2018
23 Nov 2017
7 Jun 2018
24 Sep 2011
20 Sep 2011
8 Mar 2012
1 Dec 2018
4 Jan 2019
26 Aug 2013
7 Feb 2014
16 Aug 2020
3 Aug 2013
11 Sep 2013
27 Jan 2020
6 Mar 2020
18 Jun 2014
29 Oct 2014
28 Feb 2022
22 Mar 2012
17 Aug 2015
30 Oct 2013
2 Sep 2013
11 Feb 2022
2 Oct 2013
12 Jan 2022
3 Jul 2013
14 Mar 2016
16 Jun 2021
3 Feb 2011
13 Sep 2023
25 Oct 2019
27 Sep 2023
11 May 2015
23 Mar 2018
10 Jan 2020
16 Aug 2021
13 Feb 2020
1 Jul 2021
17 Jan 2020
21 Dec 2021
9 Jun 2014
12 Nov 2016
22 Jul 2016
26 Oct 2017
6 Mar 2011
6 Oct 2019
18 Jan 2012
26 May 2020
3 Apr 2020
13 Mar 2016
14 Jul 2019
1 Oct 2017
3 May 2017
2 Sep 2016
30 Jul 2019
4 Feb 2012
1 Dec 2019
25 Apr 2020
14 Jul 2015
30 May 2020
13 Nov 2010
13 Mar 2018
1 Jul 2013
15 Jul 2011
3 Jan 2012
13 Oct 2012
24 May 2014
19 Mar 2016
23 Mar 2016
31 Jul 2016
20 Mar 2020
12 Mar 2021
22 Sep 2023
28 May 2012
1 Aug 2022
14 Sep 2015
4 Dec 2021
13 Aug 2024
11 Sep 2023
2 Jan 2021
16 Jan 2012
23 Aug 2020
12 Jan 2015
11 Apr 2020
18 Jan 2011
8 Apr 2020
16 Apr 2020
28 Jul 2020
28 Apr 2016
12 Jun 2024
27 Aug 2012
24 Jun 2019
12 Nov 2017
25 Jan 2022
8 May 2017
3 Jun 2018
30 Aug 2011
20 Aug 2013
26 Jul 2013
27 Sep 2013
10 May 2011
19 Oct 2019
15 Jul 2013
15 Feb 2014
1 Jan 2012
17 Feb 2014
1 May 2011
18 Jan 2019
22 Aug 2021
24 Sep 2021
8 Oct 2021
13 Mar 2024
4 Oct 2016
23 Jul 2022
14 Mar 2024
30 Nov 2011
17 Jun 2014
2 Jul 2013
11 Jul 2020
23 Jan 2012
26 Dec 2017
5 Nov 2015
10 Jan 2022
11 Mar 2024
16 Jun 2015
31 Mar 2021
16 Jan 2022
25 Mar 2011
24 Jan 2011
17 Jan 2015
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