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THE MYSTERIES OF MIND
The third stage consists in the use to which the aroused energy is put. The aroused energy produces several consequences. Sometimes the achievements lead the practitioner astray. He becomes enamoured of the miracles of sadhanā and forgets his aim. Sometimes he becomes ambivalent because of his strange experiences and loses inspiration and enthusiasm. People often ask the practitioners about the miracles they had seen during their exercises. I would like to warn you that there is nothing like a miracle. To speak of miracles is a complete fraud. Whatever happens during sadhana happens according to the laws of nature. Those who are ignorant of the workings of nature attribute such happenings to mysterious powers who are supposed to produce miracles. As a matter of fact whatever happens during sadhanā happens in a natural way and according to the laws of nature.
We believe that our bodies are solid. Every solid object, if it rises above the ground, makes us wonder-struck. But if we examined the so-called solid objects, we will find that they are not solid. Cold and heat will not penetrate into a body which is solid. A solid body does not sweat. The entire universe, not to speak of the human body, can be hammered into a small ball. There are very few solid things in the world. Our bodies are composed of innumerable atoms. There is empty space between every two atoms. We experience this in the course of perceptive meditation. Once the gains of our meditative exercises have been consolidated, we would come to know that the human body is not solid. It is like a mass of cotton or like a mass of sea-foam. The idea that our body is solid will appear to be false if in our perceptive meditation we have begun to concentrate only once on a single cell of the body. The concepts of the solidness and identity of the body break down as soon as we have achieved substantial progress in our exercises. These exercises make the body light, so much so that it becomes capable of lifting itself above the ground on which we are sitting. Here there is no miracle.
There are eight kinds of touch: cold-warm, smooth-rough, light-heavy and hard-soft. Out of these, smooth-rough and cold-warm are basic touches. The remaining four are produced by combinations. Lightness and heaviness are not the
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