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A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga660
their students and pupils. The Yogis have long taught that a man’s character
was, practically, the crude character-stuff possessed by him at his birth,
modified and shaped by outside influences in the case of the ordinary man,
and by deliberate self-training and shaping by the wise man. Their pupils
are examined regarding their characteristics, and then directed to repress
the undesirable traits, and to cultivate the desirable ones.
The Yogi practice of Character Building is based upon the knowledge of
the wonderful powers of the sub-conscious plane of the mind. The pupil is
not required to pursue strenuous methods of repression or cultivation, but,
on the contrary, is taught that such methods are opposed to nature’s plans,
and that the best way is to imitate nature and to gradually unfold the desired
characteristics by means of focusing the will-power and attention upon
them. The weeding out of undesirable characteristics is accomplished by
the pupil cultivating the characteristics directly opposed to the undesirable
ones. For instance, if the pupil desires to overcome Fear, he is not instructed
to concentrate on Fear with the idea of killing it out, but, instead, is taught to
mentally deny that he has Fear, and then to concentrate his attention upon
the ideal of Courage. When Courage is developed, Fear is found to have
faded away. The positive always overpowers the negative.
In the word “ideal” is found the secret of the Yogi method of subconscious
character building. The teachings are to the effect that “ideals”
may be built up by the bestowal of attention upon them. The student is
given the example of a rose bush. He is taught that the plant will grow and
flourish in the measure that care and attention is bestowed upon it and vice
versa. He is taught that the ideal of some desired characteristic is a mental
rosebush, and that by careful attention it will grow and put forth leaves and
flowers. He is then given some minor mental trait to develop, and is taught
to dwell upon it in thought—to exercise his imagination and to mentally “see”
himself attaining the desired quality. He is given mantrams or affirmation to
repeat, for the purpose of giving him a mental center around which to build
an ideal. There is a mighty power in words, used in this way, providing that