The building is so absolutely impressive; The enormous reading room is as large as a football field, with way too high ceilings and beautiful paintings. It almost transports you to another time, when reading was a pleasure to be staged, and maybe even worshiped.
I was in search of Paul Brunton's books, specifically "A Search in Secret India" which has yet to be available in kindle version. The book arrived after a 30 minute wait, in a special carton box labeled for special protection. It was in very poor condition, with most pages ripped and comments written alongside the margins by someone who judged every other paragraph with words like: "delusion"," not true", and so on.
Brunton was a British philosopher, mystic, and traveler who left his westerner life to live among yogis, mystics, and holy men.
Unfortunately I did not have the luxury of a full library afternoon, and I was a bit disapointed in the condition of the book. Later on still curious about Brunton's writting I downloaded some samples into the kindle, my favorite so far it "Meditation: The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Volume 4".
The opening quotation is perhaps the most mind boggling definition of meditation I ever heard, yet it leaves me wondering
"Meditation is really the mind thinking of the Soul, just as Activity is the mind thinking of the World"Maybe what produces a clash in me is that it is using the concept of the mind "thinking" to define meditation, even if such thinking was to be directed at the soul. I thought meditation was not about thinking at all. Yet, somehow, viscerally it resonates.
Why is that?
I'd probably change the word thinking to something like, "is directed toward"..., but the gist of the original sentence makes sense.
ReplyDeletetotally B, "directed toward" is what I would say too...
ReplyDeleteThinking in the sense of engagement works, mind engaging the soul, activity engaging the world.
ReplyDelete....though of course I have issues with 'mind' and 'soul'.
ReplyDeleteYes G, engagement I suppose is a good word too, so why would he chose the word "think", I mean, he is a big prolific writer, not the kind that would use a word when he meant another... strange...
ReplyDelete電信 what you say translates as "autum and the winter, we should pay attention to the body" not quite sure what you mean...
I guess it's to do with how you intend thinking. The grammar is perhaps more interesting, 'of ' rather than 'about' and you could switch it around. Meditation as the soul's mind thinking and Activity as the Worlds mind thinking. reduce it and you have Soul mind(ing) through Meditation and World mind(ing) through activity.
ReplyDeleteIt is often a common mistake to think that meditation is about not thinking at all. Actually meditation is a conciouse act, maybe a form of focus in one single thing for as long as you can. Meditation is not nothing, it is something. I think thinking of the soul is a very short and good way to sum it up. We who live in the westworld has viewed on meditation in a certaine way for long now, its time to be open for a new way of looking at it. It is hard to explaine meditation in words... If I only could remember where I learned that meditation is not thinking about nothing, maybe it was in the book how to practice by HH dalai lama. I also thought not thinking of anything was the goal of meditation but believe me it is not and not untill you change that view, your meditation will improve.. at least it did for me, right away. good luck fellow yogis. /anna from sweden
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