| It is in the last three of the eight limbs of yoga | | | | described in the aphorisms: |
| presented in the Saga Ultras that we find the | | | | The binding of the mind (chitta) to one place is |
| training and use of the mind. In this there are | | | | concentration (dharana). |
| three clearly defined stages. These three may be | | | | Continuity of ideation there is meditation (dhyana). |
| translated as: | | | | The same, but with the shining of the mere |
| Concentration | | | | object, as though with a part of ones own |
| Meditation | | | | nature, is contemplation (Samadhi) |
| Contemplation | | | | In the last of the three the reader may recognize |
| In this first of these there is the application of the | | | | the chief characteristic of ecstasy or rapture. In |
| attention of the mind, to a particular thing or idea, | | | | that one forgets oneself, is taken out of oneself, |
| without wandering away from it. This not | | | | and yet is intensely conscious. The quality of |
| wandering away, constitutes what is called control | | | | consciousness is, in fact, at its best. This is not an |
| (nirodha). | | | | emotional state, but an operation of seeing or |
| In the second of the three, namely meditation, | | | | knowing, in which there is nothing partial and |
| there is a play of thought upon the object. While | | | | nothing brought to the picture from memory, or |
| this is going on the concentration is still in | | | | from the past, to colour the present experience |
| operation, but the play of thought goes on with | | | | with any comparison or classification. If you were |
| reference to the object of attention without | | | | looking at a picture, and saying, 'How nice it is. See |
| passing away to other things. Thus, for example, | | | | this group of trees here, and that little stream |
| if the object is a flower there will be every | | | | there, and that light on the hillside...', you would be |
| possible thought about the flower. Usually in | | | | experiencing the delight of meditative examination, |
| looking at things we are content to note a few | | | | which would gradually build the picture into one |
| outstanding features and the same is true also m | | | | unit, as you grasped these various interesting |
| our thinking about them, but in meditation there | | | | items clearly and then combined them into one |
| should be complete thinking, if possible. | | | | and discovered the unity of the whole. |
| A and B were at a party last night. Today A says | | | | But if you 'took in' the whole picture at once, |
| to B. Do you remember Mrs. Whelkson, who was | | | | missing nothing, not flitting among the parts from |
| there? B replies, Yes, I remember her very | | | | one to another, you would undergo ecstatic |
| clearly. She was the lady with the big nose.' A | | | | discovery and experience of the unity. For this, |
| then asks, What was the colour of her eyes and | | | | the picture must of course be good; that is, there |
| her hair and dress? B cab only reply that he has | | | | must be no slightest mark on the canvas which is |
| not even the foggiest notion. | | | | not necessary, just as, for example, in an |
| The usual thinking of most people is based upon | | | | excellent human body all the parts must be there, |
| data almost as bad as this. In matters philosophical | | | | but there must be no redundancy, such as an |
| or devotional, with which yoga is very much | | | | extra thumb growing on the side of the proper |
| concerned, this will not do. Hence the need for the | | | | one. |
| three processes already named, which are thus | | | | |