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A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga584
General Rules of Perception.
The first thing to remember in acquiring the art of Perception is that one
should not attempt to perceive the whole of a complex thing or object at
the same time, or at once. One should consider the object in detail, and
then, by grouping the details, he will find that he has considered the whole.
Let us take the face of a person as a familiar object. If one tries to perceive
a face as a whole, he will find that he will meet with a certain degree of
failure, the impression being indistinct and cloudy, it following, also, that the
memory of that face will correspond with the original perception.
But let the observer consider the face in detail, first the eyes, then the
nose, then the mouth, then the chin, then the hair, then the outline of the
face, the complexion, etc., and he will find that he will have acquired a clear
and distinct impression or perception of the whole face.
The same rule may be applied to any subject or object. Let us take
another familiar illustration. You wish to observe a building. If you simply
get a general perception of the building as a whole, you will be able to
remember very little about it, except its general outlines, shape, size, color,
etc. And a description will prove to be very disappointing. But if you have
noted, in detail, the material used, the shape of the doors, chimney, roof,
porches, decorations, trimmings, ornamentation, size and number of the
window-panes etc., etc., the shape and angles of the roof, etc., you will have
an intelligent idea of the building, in the place of a mere general outline or
impression of such as might be acquired by an animal in passing.
We will conclude this lesson with an anecdote of the methods of that
famous naturalist Agassiz, in his training of his pupils. His pupils became
renowned for their close powers of observation and perception, and their
consequent ability to “think” about the things they had seen. Many of them
rose to eminent positions, and claimed that this was largely by reason of
their careful training.
The tale runs that a new student presented himself to Agassiz one day,
asking to be set to work. The naturalist took a fish from a jar in which it had