Page 31 - All India Magazine Mar-2025

towards the Divine, and to call down into it all that is above. It
brings the consciousness of the Presence, the dedication of the
being to the Highest and invites the descent into our nature of
a greater Force and Consciousness which is waiting above us. To
concentrate in the heart centre with the offering of oneself to the
Divine and the aspiration for this inward opening and for the Pres-
ence in the heart is the first way and, if it can be done, the natural
beginning; for its result once obtained makes the spiritual path far
more easy and safe than if one begins the other way.

That other way is the concentration in the head, in the men-
tal centre. This, if it brings about the silence of the surface mind,
opens up an inner, larger, deeper mind within which is more ca-
pable of receiving spiritual experience and spiritual knowledge.
But once concentrated here one must open the silent mental
consciousness upward to all that is above mind. After a time one
feels the consciousness rising upward and in the end it rises be-
yond the lid which has so long kept it tied in the body and finds a
centre above the head where it is liberated into the Infinite. There
it begins to come into contact with the universal Self, the Divine
Peace, Light, Power, Knowledge, Bliss, to enter into that and be-
come that, to feel the descent of these things into the nature. To
concentrate in the head with the aspiration for quietude in the
mind and the realisation of the Self and Divine above is the sec-
ond way of concentration. It is important, however, to remember
that the concentration of the consciousness in the head is only a
preparation for its rising to the centre above; otherwise one may
get shut up in one’s own mind and its experiences or at best attain
only to a reflection of the Truth above instead of rising into the
spiritual transcendence to live there. For some the mental concen-
tration is easier, for some the concentration in the heart centre;
some are capable of doing both alternately — but to begin with

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