Lesson Summaries (by P.Yogananda)
Lesson No.12
Look at life unmasked. Observe the perpetual current of emotions and thoughts that arise within you. Examine the heart of your aspirations, ideals, hopes, and despairs. Analyze the root of your cravings. Life manifests itself through these channels, and so it is that these fundamentals demand understanding, through intelligence, wisdom, and love.
From the emotions, the feeling in your heart, arise both thought and action. Quicker that thought is the action that springs from feeling. But the mind must view this as a spectator, and retain control.
Sorrow has no objective existence, no being of its own. It does not arise out of the conditions of life; it is not inherent in conditions. It is born of spiritual ignorance and the infirmities of the mind. Essentially, conditions are neither good nor bad; they are always neutral, seeming to be depressing or encouraging, according to the understanding attitude of mind of the individual.
Duty is not imposed upon man by some superior power. It is the inherent urge of life toward progression; therefore, duty calls for attention and intelligent action. Every problem that waits for a solution at your hand is a solemn duty imposed upon you by life itself. Any escape from problems, physical or mental, is not an escape from life, but only delays your progress and is a source of further discomfort and evil.
Anger defeats its own purpose. It usually arises out of a feeling of ineffectualness, inability to impose one's own will, or selfishness of one form or another. It is a poison both physical and mental. Its method is that of fools, for it is a destroyer of peace and harmony, and arouses wrath, resistance, and resentment in others. When you recognize anger coming over you, know it instantly for what it is - that is half the battle won. Control your speech, saying nothing. Be alone for a few minutes if possible. Think of the offender as your brother who has acted in ignorance and whom in your heart you really love. Protect your peace by calmness. Destroy anger by metaphysical reason, for ignorance is the mother of anger. It is also helpful to take a cold shower, or apply ice or cold water to the medulla oblongata, temples, between the eyebrows, and on top of the head.
Knowledge and training can be imparted from one person to another through the subconsciousness during sleep state. It can be imparted to an unborn baby through the subconsciousness of the mother. In the wakeful conscious state, people learn and absorb the vibrations through the specific company they keep and through conscious will. Spiritually developed parents could bring about heaven on earth by bringing into the world only spiritual children. That is a personal responsibility.
Lesson No. 13
Rules for acquiring prosperity:
1. Cut down luxuries.
2. Think of yourself and, by meditation, know yourself as a child of God.
3. Think of all nationalities as your brothers.
4. Most important of all, seek prosperity for others and they will seek prosperity for you.
Lesson No.15
Do not use your body, mind, or soul for perishable joys of Spirit. Repeat to yourself the prayer at... Always affirm any prayer understandingly, with ever increasing devotion at each repetition. Your soul should approach nearer to God with each thoughtful repetition of a prayer of affirmation.
Remember, you often do not do what you wish to do, but what your habits compel you to do. Good habits are automatic psychological machines, which do not require the effort of will in performing specific actions; they help to make easy the performance of these actions. Bad habits that compel you to do evil should be destroyed.
Though habits are compelling, yet you must remember that it is YOU who create them. If you create bad habits, you can dislodge them by creating good habits. A habit grows from the repetition of an inner though or in response to some outward company. Therefore, if you want to break an evil habit, change your bad company to good company, and substitute good thoughts for evil thoughts. You can never break a bad habit if you keep feeding it by bad company, wrong thoughts, and evil actions. Remember the temptation of bodily pleasures - - never fed, they are ever satisfied, and ever fed, they are never satisfied.
THE POWER OF HABIT - A specific type of company, or a specific thought repeatedly presented to the mind, influences the will, feeling, brain, and muscular mechanism of the body. Record like grooves are formed in the subconscious mind, which by memory and the medium of attention repeats the playing of the record of a mental habit. To yield to your bad habits is to make your enemies stronger. To yield to good habits is to strengthen your friendly forces, which help you to do good without effort.
Cultivate the spiritual habit of meditating with zeal, and you will reach God easily. Remember, you are the sole creator of your good or bad habits. Till the soil of your mind with discipline.
Above all, remember:
1. Form the habit of deep meditation.
2. Form the habit of doing good to others.
3. Form the habit of being moderate in everything. Cultivate a good character.
4. Form the habit of eating properly; taking enough exercise; and planning healthy, wholesome undertakings.
5. Form the habit of making practical, creative efforts that produce the necessary prosperity.
Remember the spiritual law of habit, and do not let material habits crowd out spiritual habits. Good habits must work in harmony, so that they cooperate to work with your highest good. Never neglect the most important habit of meditating for a less important habit of eating, or doing something unimportant.
Lesson No.16
Concentration is the power to focus the mind on any desired line of thought.
Meditation is the concentration used only to know God.
Concentrate and meditate early upon waking and before going to bed, or anytime you are free. Fill in the gaps of leisure hours with meditation. If you can be quiet anywhere, meditate anywhere; but if noises disturb you, try to select a quiet place, or wait for the silence of the night, for meditation. Or create your own silence by closing the ears when meditating. Act ambitiously, discharging your necessary duties with your mind constantly meditating upon God. Select a little room, or a screened-off corner with harmonious vibrations, for your meditations. Sit on a woolen blanket spread over an armless chair, facing the east, when meditating.
METHODS OF CONTROLLING THE SEX FORCE
1. Keep the mind busy with good activities and meditation.
2. Keep the vital fluid transmuted into muscular and brain energy. Don't waste it in bad company.
3. Keep the breath calm by eating less carbon-producing food, and by entirely abstaining from beef, veal and pork products.
If the mind is calm, sex and breath will be under control. If character is good, breath and mind will be calm. If you have breath control by the technique we shall teach, then mind and sex will be under control. If you disturb any one of the three, you will disturb the others. Disturb sex control, and mind and breathe will be restless.
Lesson No. 17
While in church, do not concentrate upon the social making a disturbance, but concentrate upon inner peace and on the sermon being preached. God talks to you through the voice of silence and peace in meditation, if you don't drown out His voice by the noise of your passions. With the whip of intuition, drive away the money-changers of material desires and restlessness from the temple of meditation, which is the real house of God.
Whatever your vocation may be - that of a businessman, a spiritual aspirant, a housekeeper, an artist - you can increase your efficiency of hundred percent by the regular, deep practice of meditation. Don't let anything interfere.
Life force in the nerves keeps the soul entangled with the messages of the sensations in eyes, ears, hands, and so forth. When life force is plucked from the eyes and cut off from the hands the consciousness of the body, then its direction is reversed and it becomes focused on the omnipresent God. Concentration means freeing the attention from sensations, present thoughts, and memory thoughts by consciously switching off the life force from the sensory-motor nerves, thus preventing thought-rousing sensations from reaching the brain. This detachment of the mind from body consciousness is similar to that experienced in sleep, except that one remains consciously aware.
Lesson No. 18
Read again and again the explanation of concentration. When you try to concentrate upon one thing, you usually find that soon you have forgotten all about it and are thinking about everything else but the original object of your concentration. This is often experienced when you are thinking of a domestic problem at home or a business problem at the office, or a spiritual problem in the church. Forget the old method of concentration by diversion, and learn the scientific method of concentration. Remove the causes of disturbances that affect your concentration and apply the scientifically freed attention on anything you wish - - material or divine.
Lesson No. 19
God reveals Himself to those who develop their inner powers and use the laws of concentration and meditation. By using the law of thermal-control, heating systems have been invented. By controlling life force and the power of concentration, God can be discovered. But remember, though God can be approached through law only, still He, being above law, cannot be compelled to reveal Himself to the true seeker by the mere force of the law of concentration. Devotion or surrender of the Son-Soul to the Father- Spirit is necessary for the devotee demanding absolute surrender of God. God can escape the small nets of discrimination, pure activity, or concentration but He cannot escape the net of devotion. When the devotee completely gives himself to God, then God has to do likewise. God is very exacting when divine laws are concerned, but he is forgetful and becomes intoxicated and relaxed when He is given the nectar-wine of devotion. God loves to drink devotion from the secret winepress of the devotee's heart.
Approach God with the song of smiles. Silence signifies the silencing of one 's thoughts as well as one's tongue. That is really possible during sleep; therefore it can done during wakefulness also, by practice of higher methods of concentration. There are threefold of disturbances:
1) sensations;
2) thoughts aroused by sensations;
3) past memory thoughts roused by present thoughts.
