The work, building your inner power, Innerwealth, now becomes intensely interesting and fascinating.
This ancient Eastern practice of Observation, is the idea that by persistent practice the power of the eye as the source of energy and power could be developed to a degree that it made it a weapon to be feared.
What I am sharing is not by any means a new method. It has had uses in other developments of Self Leadership, notably in developing a wonderful memory, and in stimulating thought, creating fertility of ideas, building inventive powers and avoiding mental breakdown. None of these purposes will be measured in these lessons, although they will follow naturally.
The trouble with the minds of unsuccessful people is that they are dulled down to mass consciousness, not alert in a way that creates results. Most of them are sluggish except in pursuit of the needs of the Four Appetites which generally rule humanity. This lack of mental alertness results in placing people under the influence of craftier minds. (advertising, corporate trainers, religious groups and self help guru's). Then, the range of human activities in other time wasting, energy costing directions is almost unlimited, and in those, the powers of mental alertness and keenness are absent. This explains why most lives are failures.
This particular study, that of observation, was hardly worth the time required for it for people who had no ambition for usefulness in the world. They were not educated except in religious theories and therefore had no greater aim. They were engaged in survival and not too interested in anything really worth while in life that did not yield immediate survival benefit.
The more people we meet the better it is for us. Interests are interwoven everywhere. Duties involve home and social relations, as well as business, professional and productive activities ; and the practice indulged in by other people who are not so interbound in their duties, (yogi's, devotees and meditators for example) does not help us except in the very limited use we make of it.
However, any natural and highly beneficial practice that will stimulate the brain into its best uses, and start a new line of habits tending to establish great mental keenness and alertness, will at the same time develop collectively the latent power of energy where now it is diffused in the body. Thus the Eastern Practice of Observation, kept within such limits for real life, serves a double purpose:
1. It produces, so far as its influence reaches, what is called the Magnetic Eye.
2. It creates collectively a fund of energy from the diffused energy of the body.
Its direct result in accomplishing these two ends is found in developing the habit as a natural gift of separating details from masses, following the plan set forth in the Back on Track Programme; and based on the two following accepted facts:
1. Persons who do not possess, as a natural gift, the power of separating details from masses are never mentally magnetic.
2. As a natural gift, those who are exceedingly observant mentally, or, become more so as they put this power into daily and practical use, in dealing with other persons become powerfully influential.
Take a step to an open door leading to an adjoining room ; give one quick glance at the contents of that room ; then withdraw. While out of the range of vision of that room and its contents, mention one article that is in the room. This is the first unit. The same article may or may not be included in the next glance. Go again to the door, look into the room, and withdraw, mentioning two articles in the room. Repeat by taking a third glance, which must be as quickly done as the eye can look. Again repeat by taking a fourth glance, always going out of sight of the room, and name aloud the four articles that are seen in the fraction of a second. Try now to name five articles that are seen at a fifth glance after retiring from the sight of the contents. Then six, and so on until you are not able to add any more.
What is meant by cumulative will now be explained. After reaching your limit in the number of articles that can be seen in a fraction of a second, rest for any length of time that you may choose.
Progress and development take place during periods of rest, but following periods of activity of the mind. When you feel you are ready again, and interested in resuming the practice, start with one unit; not with the number following where you left off.
There are two kinds of mistakes that you can make at this stage.
1. The first mistake is to try to see how many articles you can take in at a glance, instead of beginning with one, and adding one at each trial.
2. The second mistake is in not going back over the same ground after taking a rest. A room in an ordinary house would not contain enough articles to reach a real test. Given that the mind, by the cumulative process, will soon be able to include from fifty to one hundred items in less than one
second of time.
The Chinese Dao teachings employ the shop-window system, but do not make it cumulative except in the early stages of the training. The plan is to walk along the street past a shop window and to note only one item at first. Then they walk past the window again, and note two items. Then three ; four, etc., and by actual test it was proved that the experimenter, in less than one second of time, could see more than five hundred details and could describe them accurately. Claims have been made that one person reached more than five thousand items. We are willing to stop at a much smaller number ; although what the human brain can be traced to do is unbelievable until known.
The principle involved in the method is all that interests us. It requires the growing use of the mind as the agent of separating details and we will eventually use it in separating the details of the human face, and of reading what is behind those details in the mind. For the purpose of highly developing this power, the Eastern practice is exceptionally valuable.
As personal energy (Innerwealth) is power, first over self, then over all human beings with whom you come in contact, it must follow that the ability to know what is in the mind and purposes of other persons is one of the most valuable and important adjuncts to this power.
This ancient Eastern practice of Observation, is the idea that by persistent practice the power of the eye as the source of energy and power could be developed to a degree that it made it a weapon to be feared.
What I am sharing is not by any means a new method. It has had uses in other developments of Self Leadership, notably in developing a wonderful memory, and in stimulating thought, creating fertility of ideas, building inventive powers and avoiding mental breakdown. None of these purposes will be measured in these lessons, although they will follow naturally.
The trouble with the minds of unsuccessful people is that they are dulled down to mass consciousness, not alert in a way that creates results. Most of them are sluggish except in pursuit of the needs of the Four Appetites which generally rule humanity. This lack of mental alertness results in placing people under the influence of craftier minds. (advertising, corporate trainers, religious groups and self help guru's). Then, the range of human activities in other time wasting, energy costing directions is almost unlimited, and in those, the powers of mental alertness and keenness are absent. This explains why most lives are failures.
This particular study, that of observation, was hardly worth the time required for it for people who had no ambition for usefulness in the world. They were not educated except in religious theories and therefore had no greater aim. They were engaged in survival and not too interested in anything really worth while in life that did not yield immediate survival benefit.
The more people we meet the better it is for us. Interests are interwoven everywhere. Duties involve home and social relations, as well as business, professional and productive activities ; and the practice indulged in by other people who are not so interbound in their duties, (yogi's, devotees and meditators for example) does not help us except in the very limited use we make of it.
However, any natural and highly beneficial practice that will stimulate the brain into its best uses, and start a new line of habits tending to establish great mental keenness and alertness, will at the same time develop collectively the latent power of energy where now it is diffused in the body. Thus the Eastern Practice of Observation, kept within such limits for real life, serves a double purpose:
1. It produces, so far as its influence reaches, what is called the Magnetic Eye.
2. It creates collectively a fund of energy from the diffused energy of the body.
Its direct result in accomplishing these two ends is found in developing the habit as a natural gift of separating details from masses, following the plan set forth in the Back on Track Programme; and based on the two following accepted facts:
1. Persons who do not possess, as a natural gift, the power of separating details from masses are never mentally magnetic.
2. As a natural gift, those who are exceedingly observant mentally, or, become more so as they put this power into daily and practical use, in dealing with other persons become powerfully influential.
Take a step to an open door leading to an adjoining room ; give one quick glance at the contents of that room ; then withdraw. While out of the range of vision of that room and its contents, mention one article that is in the room. This is the first unit. The same article may or may not be included in the next glance. Go again to the door, look into the room, and withdraw, mentioning two articles in the room. Repeat by taking a third glance, which must be as quickly done as the eye can look. Again repeat by taking a fourth glance, always going out of sight of the room, and name aloud the four articles that are seen in the fraction of a second. Try now to name five articles that are seen at a fifth glance after retiring from the sight of the contents. Then six, and so on until you are not able to add any more.
What is meant by cumulative will now be explained. After reaching your limit in the number of articles that can be seen in a fraction of a second, rest for any length of time that you may choose.
Progress and development take place during periods of rest, but following periods of activity of the mind. When you feel you are ready again, and interested in resuming the practice, start with one unit; not with the number following where you left off.
There are two kinds of mistakes that you can make at this stage.
1. The first mistake is to try to see how many articles you can take in at a glance, instead of beginning with one, and adding one at each trial.
2. The second mistake is in not going back over the same ground after taking a rest. A room in an ordinary house would not contain enough articles to reach a real test. Given that the mind, by the cumulative process, will soon be able to include from fifty to one hundred items in less than one
second of time.
The Chinese Dao teachings employ the shop-window system, but do not make it cumulative except in the early stages of the training. The plan is to walk along the street past a shop window and to note only one item at first. Then they walk past the window again, and note two items. Then three ; four, etc., and by actual test it was proved that the experimenter, in less than one second of time, could see more than five hundred details and could describe them accurately. Claims have been made that one person reached more than five thousand items. We are willing to stop at a much smaller number ; although what the human brain can be traced to do is unbelievable until known.
The principle involved in the method is all that interests us. It requires the growing use of the mind as the agent of separating details and we will eventually use it in separating the details of the human face, and of reading what is behind those details in the mind. For the purpose of highly developing this power, the Eastern practice is exceptionally valuable.
As personal energy (Innerwealth) is power, first over self, then over all human beings with whom you come in contact, it must follow that the ability to know what is in the mind and purposes of other persons is one of the most valuable and important adjuncts to this power.