Question--In practicing the Silence, the mind seems to flutter all about and there is great nervous
tension. What is wrong?
Answer--Lack of concentration. This person ought to
follow some simple exercise of concentration, such as
given below, until the mind has control over the body.
By practicing a few of the simple exercises given below,
fifteen minutes a day, and then taking the Silence a
few hours after these exercises have been practiced, the
mind will begin to be under control.
The nervous tension is caused because of this lack of control, and in the effort to bring the
scattering mind into one focus the reaction comes upon the nervous system which, in turn, reacts
upon the body.
Practice and exercises for lack of concentration follow.
1. Select some part of the body, a foot or hand, with the idea of HEAT. While holding the
mind in this attitude, breathe deeply and steadily, and, in from one to four minutes, you
will feel the warm glow coming to the foot. In this way, you can soon master the entire
body. Begin with the sense of feeling. If there is an itching of the body, make it stop by
the force of your will. In from three days to three weeks, you can stop the itching
sensation at will. Then try the habit of sneezing; stubbornly resist the inclination to
sneeze, and you will soon have the mastery. Now try your will on coughing. When the
tickling sensation comes, stop it by the exercise of your will. You can soon master it.
Next try it on pain. When you feel a pain in the body, instead of rubbing on liniment, rub
in a little will power; soon it will ease your pain as if by magic. With the fingers of one
hand rub the skin on the back of the other hand, stroking toward the elbow, and will that
all feeling shall disappear. In from one to three minutes, take a needle, and you can stick
it through the skin on the back of the hand without pain. You may have to try it a dozen
times, but persistence will bring success. Having mastered the sense of feeling, take up
that of hearing.
2. It may seem impossible at first thought, but you have seen people so absorbed in what
they were reading or thinking that they heard nothing, although you addressed them
directly. They are simply abstracted from all else, and are thinking of one thing--to the
exclusion of everything else. They entered this state of abstractedness unconsciously. To
do so intentionally, you go by the law of indirectness. For instance, take sight;
concentrate your vision and your whole attention upon some object, real or imaginary,
