Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00254)

March 16 2005




MEDITATION, CONCENTRATION, WILL


THESE three, meditation, concentration, will, have engaged the attention of
Theosophists perhaps more than any other three subjects. 

A canvass of opinions would probably show that the majority of our reading
and thinking members would rather hear these subjects discussed and read
definite directions about them than any others in the entire field. 

They say they must meditate, they declare a wish for concentration, they
would like a powerful will, and they sigh for strict directions, readable by
the most foolish theosophist. 

It is a western cry for a curriculum, a course, a staked path, a line and
rule by inches and links.

Yet the path has long been outlined and described, so that any one could
read the directions whose mind had not been half-ruined by modem false
education, and memory rotted by the superficial methods of a superficial
literature and a wholly vain modern life.


MEDITATION


Let us divide Meditation into two sorts. 

First is the meditation practiced at a set time, or an occasional one,
whether by design or from physiological idiosyncrasy. 

Second is the meditation of an entire lifetime, that single thread of
intention, intentness, and desire running through the years stretching
between the cradle and the grave. 

For the first, in Patanjali's Aphorisms will be found all needful rules and
particularity. If these are studied and not forgotten, then practice must
give results. How many of those who reiterate the call for instruction on
this head have read that book, only to turn it down and never again consider
it? Far too many.

The mysterious subtle thread of a life meditation is that which is practiced
every hour by philosopher, mystic, saint, criminal, artist, artisan, and
merchant. 

It is pursued in respect to that on which the heart is set; it rarely
languishes; at times the meditating one greedily running after money, fame,
and power looks up briefly and sighs for a better life during a brief
interval, but the passing flash of a dollar or a sovereign recalls him to
his modern senses, and the old meditation begins again. 

Since all theosophists are here in the social whirl I refer to, they can
every one take these words to themselves as they please. Very certainly, if
their life meditation is fixed low down near the ground, the results flowing
to them from it will be strong, very lasting, and related to the low level
on which they work. 

Their semi-occasional meditations will give precisely semi-occasional
results in the long string of recurring births.


CONCENTRATION


"But then," says another, "what of concentration? We must have it. We wish
it; we lack it." Is it a piece of goods that you can buy it, do you think,
or something that will come to you just for the wishing? 

Hardly. In the way we divided meditation into two great sorts, so we can
divide concentration. 

One is the use of an already acquired power on a fixed occasion, the other
the deep and constant practice of a power that has been made a possession. 

Concentration is not memory, since the latter is known to act without our
concentrating on anything, and we know that centuries ago the old thinkers
very justly called memory a phantasy. But by reason of a peculiarity of the
human mind the associative part of memory is waked up the very instant
concentration is attempted. It is this that makes students weary and at last
drives them away from the pursuit of concentration. 

A man sits down to concentrate on the highest idea he can formulate, and
like a flash troops of recollections of all sorts of affairs, old thoughts
and impressions come before his mind, driving away the great object he first
selected, and concentration is at an end.

This trouble is only to be corrected by practice, by assiduity, by
continuance. No strange and complicated directions are needed. All we have
to do is to try and to keep on trying.



WILL


The subject of the Will has not been treated of much in theosophical works,
old or new. Patanjali does not go into it at all. It seems to be inferred by
him through his aphorisms. Will is universal, and belongs to not only man
and animals, but also to every other natural kingdom. The good and bad man
alike have will, the child and the aged, the wise and the lunatic. It is
therefore a power devoid in itself of moral quality. That quality must be
added by man.

So the truth must be that will acts according to desire, or, as the older
thinkers used to put it, "behind will stands desire." 

This is why the child, the savage, the lunatic, and the wicked man so often
exhibit a stronger will than others. The wicked man has intensified his
desires, and with that his will. The lunatic has but few desires, and draws
all his will force into these; the savage is free from convention, from the
various ideas, laws, rules, and suppositions to which the civilized person
is subject, and has nothing to distract his will. So to make our will strong
we must have fewer desires. Let those be high, pure, and altruistic; they
will give us strong will.

No mere practice will develop will per se, for it exists forever, fully
developed in itself. But practice will develop in us the power to call on
that will which is ours. 

Will and Desire lie at the doors of Meditation and Concentration. 

If we desire truth with the same intensity that we had formerly wished for
success, money, or gratification, we will speedily acquire meditation and
possess concentration. If we do all our acts, small and great, every moment,
for the sake of the whole human race, as representing the Supreme Self, then
every cell and fibre of the body and inner man will be turned in one
direction, resulting in perfect concentration. 

This is expressed in the New Testament in the statement that if the eye is
single the whole body will be full of light, and in the Bhagavad Gita it is
still more clearly and comprehensively given through the different chapters.


In one it is beautifully put as the lighting up in us of the Supreme One,
who then becomes visible. 

Let us meditate on that which is in us as the Highest Self, concentrate upon
it, and will to work for it as dwelling in every human heart.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE	Irish Theosophist, July 15, 1893

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Best wishes,


Dallas