Man is now using but the lower and inferior parts of his mind, and he has within his mental world great unexplored regions that far surpass anything of which the human mind has dreamed.  In fact, it is part of the business of “Raja Yoga” to aid in unfolding these higher faculties and mental regions.  And so far from decrying the Mind, the “Raja Yoga” teachers are chiefly concerned in recognizing the Mind’s power and possibilities, and directing the student to avail himself of the latent powers that are inherent in his soul.

It is only by the mind that the teachings we are now giving you may be grasped and understood, and used to your advantage and benefit.  We are talking direct to your mind now, and are making appeals to it, that it may be interested and may open itself to what is ready to come into it from its own higher regions.  We are appealing to the Intellect to direct its attention to this great matter, that it may interpose less resistance to the truths that are waiting to be projected from the Spiritual Mind, which knows the Truth.

MENTAL DRILL.

Place yourself in a calm, restful condition, that you may be able to meditate upon the matters that we shall place before you for consideration.  Allow the matters presented to meet with a hospitable reception from you, and hold a mental attitude of willingness to receive what may be waiting for you in the higher regions of your mind.

We wish to call your attention to several mental impressions or conditions, one after another, in order that you may realize that they are merely something incident to you, and not YOU yourself—­that you may set them aside and consider them, just as you might anything that you have been using.  You cannot set the “I” aside and so consider it, but the various forms of the “not I” may be so set aside and considered.

In the First Lesson you gained the perception of the “I” as independent from the body, the latter merely being an instrument for use.  You have now arrived at the stage when the “I” appears to you to be a mental creature—­a bundle of thoughts, feelings, moods, etc.  But you must go farther.  You must be able to distinguish the “I” from these mental conditions, which are as much tools as is the body and its parts.

Let us begin by considering the thoughts more closely connected with the body, and then work up to the higher mental states.

The sensations of the body, such as hunger; thirst; pain; pleasurable sensations; physical desires, etc., etc., are not apt to be mistaken for essential qualities of the “I” by many of the Candidates, for they have passed beyond this stage, and have learned to set aside these sensations, to a greater or lesser extent, by an effort of the Will, and are no longer slaves to them.  Not that they do not experience these sensations, but they have grown to regard them