Things Seen in Symbols [2]   What is dhyana? Ordinarily, when a man is absorbed in thought and dead to all that is going on around him, he is supposed to be in dhyana. Or concentration of the whole thought on a single object to the exclusion of every other, is called dhyana. But neither of these ideas corresponds exactly with the whole truth; they represent only particular stages of the process of meditation. Dhyana is a wide term covering a number of processes which rise from ordinary attention to pa samadhi. __________   The distinguishing feature of dhyana is that it puts out

APPENDIX   ALTERNATIVE AND UNUSED PASSAGES AND FRAGMENTS   1   [An early fragment]   Kalidasa does best in more complicated & grandiose metres where his majesty of sound and subtle power of harmony have most opportunity; his treatment of the Anustubh is massive & noble, but compares unfavourably with the inexhaustible flexibility of Valmekie and the nervous ease of Vyasa.   2   [Alternative opening to "The Historical Method"]   Kalidasa   Of Kalidasa the

The Seasons   I   ITS AUTHENTICITY   THE "SEASONS" of Kalidasa is one of those early works of a great poet which are even more interesting to a student of his evolution than his later masterpieces. We see his characteristic gift even in the immature workmanship and uncertain touch and can distinguish the persistent personality in spite of the defective self-expression. Where external record is scanty, this interest is often disturbed by the question of authenticity, and where there is any excuse for the doubt, it has first to be removed. The impulse which leads us to deny authenticity to early and immature work, is natural and almost inevitable.

Hathayoga   The evolution of man has been upwards from the body to the spirit, and there are three stages in his progress. He bases himself upon body, rises through soul and culminates in spirit. And to each stage of his evolution belong certain kinds of sadhana, a particular type of Yoga, a characteristic fulfilment. There was no aeon in man's history, no kalpa, to use the Indian term, in which the Yoga was withheld from man or fulfilment denied to him. But the fulfilment corresponded to his stage of progress, and the Yoga corresponded to the fulfilment. In his earlier development he was realising himself in the body and the divinity of the

Education   Your Highness and Gentlemen, The subject on which I wish to address you this evening, and if you are sufficiently interested and have sufficient patience to pursue the subject farther with me, for perhaps another evening or two, is Education. Some of you may ask yourselves, why this subject rather than another? It is not a new subject but rather quite a threadbare one; you have already heard and read much about it and probably listened to much better lectures on the subject than any I can give you; it has besides been handled by a great many men in high places of auth

Section Two   The Concentric System:   Outer to Inner        Chapter One   The Outer Being and the Inner Being   The Outer and the Inner Being and Consciousness   There are always two different consciousnesses in the human being, one outward in which he ordinarily lives, the other in ward and concealed of which he knows nothing. When one does sadhana, the inner consciousness begins to open and one is able to go inside and have all kinds of experiences there. As the sadhana progresses, one begins to live more and more in this inner being and the outer becomes more and more superficial. At first the

Chapter Three   Morality and Yoga   The Spiritual Life and the Ordinary Life       The spiritual life (adhyatma jivana), the religious life (dharma   jivana) and the ordinary human life of which morality is a part are three quite different things and one must know which one desires and not confuse the three together. The ordinary life is that of the average human consciousness separated from its own true self and from the Divine and led by the common habits of the mind, life and body which are the laws of the Ignorance. The religious life is a movement of the same ignorant human consciousness, turning or trying to turn away from the earth toward

Chapter Three   Death   Death and Karma   It [death] is a universal force —the happening or change called death is simply one result of the working of the force.   *   Most people die before the vitality of the body is exhausted. It is due to many causes of which one is the destiny prepared by past lives; another the inner purpose or utility of the present life being completed —but these are subtle and secret reasons — others, accident, violence or other causes, are only an exterior machinery.   *   X had reached a stage of her development marked by a predominance of the sattwic nature, but not a strong vital (which work

Chapter Ten   The Subconscient and the Inconscient   The Subconscient in the Integral Yoga   In our Yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. For if these impressions rise up most in dream in an incoherent and disorganised manner, they can also and do rise up into our wa

Chapter Seven   The Vital Being and Vital Consciousness   The Vital   Mind and vital are two different processes of one consciousness.   *   It [vital] means prana —it is the life-force and desire-force in a man and the part of the being that responds to desire and is the instrument of the life-forces.   The True Vital Being and Consciousness   There is behind all the vital nature in man his true vital being concealed and immobile which is quite different from the surface vital nature. The surface vital is narrow, ignorant, limited, full of obscure desires, passions, cravings, revolts, pleasures and pains, transient j