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INTROVERT-CONCENTRATION The mind is thus in a continuous ripple, like the surface of a pond beneath a brecze, shimniering with broken, ever-changing, self-scattering reflections. Left to itself it would never stand like a perfect mirror, crystal clear, in its own state," unruflled and reflecting the inner man; for, in order that this should take place, all the sense impressions coming from without (which are like the waters of entering rivulets, turbulent and disturbing to the trauslucent substance) would have to be stoppai, as well as the impulses from within: memories, emotional pressures, and the incitements of the imagination (which are like internal springs). Yoga, however, stills the mind. And the moment this quieting is accomplished, the inner man, the lifemonad, stands revealed-like a jewel at the bottom of a quieted
pond.
According to the Sārkhya (and the vicw of Yoga is the same) the life-monad (called puruşa, "man," ātman, "self," or purs, "man”) is the living entity concealed behind and within all the metamorphoses of our life in bondage. Just as in Jainism, so also here, the number of the life-monads in the universe is supposed to be infinite, and their "proper nature" (svarūpa) is regarded as totally different from that of the lifeless “matter" (prakrti) in which they are engulfed. They are termed "spiritual" (cit, citi, cetana, caitanya), and are said to be "of the nature of sheer, self-effulgent light" (prabhāsa). Within each individual, the self-luminous puruşa, ātman, or pums illuminates all the processes of gross and subtle matter-the processes, that is to say, of both life and consciousness—as these develop within the organism; yet this life-monad itself is without form or content. It is devoid of qualities and peculiarities, such specifications being but properties of the masking realm of matter. It is without beginning, without end, cternal and everlasting, and without parts or divisions; for what is compounded is subject to destruction. It was regarded originally as of atomic size, but later as all-pervading and infinite, without activity, changeless,
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |