THE POWER OF THOUGHT/PART 5

 

CHAPTER V MEMORY

THE NATURE OF MEMORY

WHEN a connection between a pleasure and a certain object is established, there arises the definite desire to again obtain that object, and so repeat the pleasure. Or, when a connection between a pain and a certain object is established, there arises a definite desire to avoid that object, and so escape the pain. On stimulation, the mental body readily repeats the image of the object; for, owing to the general law that energy flows in the direction of least resistance, the matter of the mental body is shaped most easily into the form already frequently taken; this tendency to repeat vibrations once started, when acted on by energy, is due to Tamas, to the inertia of matter, and is the germ of Memory. The molecules of matter, having been grouped together, fall slowly apart as other energies play on them, but retain for a considerable time the tendency to resume their mutual relation; if an impulse such as grouped them be given to them, they promptly                         

fall again into position.  Further, when the Knower has vibrated in any particular way, that power of vibration remains in him, and, in the case of the pleasure-giving, or pain-giving object, the desire for the object, or for avoiding the object, sets that power free, pushes it outwards, one might say, and thus gives the necessary stimulation to the mental body. The image thus produced is recognized by the Knower, and in the one case the attachment caused by pleasure makes him reproduce also the image of the pleasure.    In the other, the repulsion caused by pain equally causes the image of the pain.    The object and the pleasure, or the object and the pain, are connected together in experience, and when the set of vibrations that compose  the image of the object is made, the set of vibrations that make up the pleasure or the pain is also started, and the pleasure  or the pain is retasted in the absence of the object.    That is memory in its simplest form: a  self-initiated  vibration,   of the same  nature  as that   which   caused   the   feeling   of pleasure   or pain, again causing that feeling.   These images are less massive, and hence to the partially-developed Knower less vivid and living, than those caused by contact with an external object, heavy physical vibrations lending much energy to the mental and desire images, but fundamentally the vibrations are identical, and memory is the reproduction in mental matter by the Knower of objects previously contacted.    This reflection may be—and is—repeated over and over again, in subtler and subtler matter, without regard to any separated Knower, and these in their totality are the partial contents of the memory of the Logos, the Lord of a Universe. These images of images may be reached by any separated Knower in proportion as he has developed within himself the " power of vibration " above mentioned. As in wireless telegraphy, a series of vibrations composing a message may be caught by any suitable receiver—i.e., any receiver capable of reproducing them—so can a latent vibratory potency within a Knower be made active by a vibration similar to it in these kosmic images. These, on the akashic plane, form the "akashic records" often spoken of in Theosophical literature, and they last through the life of the system.

 

BAD MEMORY

In order that we may clearly understand what lies at the root of " bad memory", we must examine the mental processes which go to make up what is called memory. Although in many psychological books memory is spoken of as a mental faculty, there is really no one faculty to which that name should be given. The persistence of a mental image is not due to any special faculty, but belongs to the general quality of the mind; a feeble mind is feeble in persistence as in all else, and—like a substance too fluid to retain the shape of the mould into which it has been poured—falls quickly out of the form it has taken. Where the mental body is little organised, is a mere loose aggregate of the molecules of mind-stuff, a cloud-like mass without much coherence, memory will certainly be very weak. But this weakness is general, not special; it is common to the whole mind, and is due to its low stage of evolution.

As the mental body becomes organised and the powers of the Jiva work on it, we yet often find what is called " a bad memory". But if we observe this "bad memory", we shall find that it is not faulty in all respects, that there are some things which are well remembered, and which the mind retains without effort. If we then examine these remembered things, we shall find that they are things which greatly attract the mind, that the things that are much liked are not forgotten. I have known a woman complain of a bad memory with respect to matters that were being studied, while I have observed in her a very retentive memory with regard to the details of a dress that she admired. Her mental body was not lacking in a fair amount of retentiveness, and when she observed carefully and attentively, producing a clear mental image, the image was fairly long-lived. Here we have the key to " bad memory ". It is due to lack of attention, to lack of accurate observation, and therefore to confused thought. Confused thought is the blurred impression caused by careless observation and lack of attention, while clear thought is the sharply-cut impression due to concentrated attention and careful, accurate observation. We do not remember the things to which we pay little heed, but we remember well the things that keenly interest us.

How, then, should a " bad memory " be treated? First, the things should be noticed with regard to which it is bad and with regard to which it is good, so as to estimate the general quality of adhesiveness. Then the things with regard to which it is bad should be scrutinised, in order to see if they are worth remembering, and if they are things for which we do not care. If we find that we care little for them, but that in our best moments we feel we ought to care for them, then we should say to ourselves: " I will pay attention to them, will observe them accurately, and will think carefully and steadily on them." Doing this, we shall find our memory improve. For, as said above, memory is really dependent on attention, accurate observation, and clear thought; the element of attraction is valuable as fixing the attention, but if that be not present, its place must be taken by the will.

Now, it is just here that a very definite and widely-felt difficulty arises. How can " the will " take the place of the attraction? What is to move the will itself? Attraction arouses desire, and desire impels the moving towards the attractive object, This is, in the case supposed, absent. How is this absence of desire to be made good by the will? The will is the force prompting action when that force is determined in its direction by the deliberate Reason, and not by the influence of external objects felt as attractive. When the impulse to action, that which I have often called the outgoing energy of the Self, is motived by external objects, is drawn forth, we call the impulse desire; when it is motived by the Pure Reason, is sent forth, we call it will. What is needed then, in the absence of felt attraction from without, is illumination from within, and the motive for the will must be obtained by an intellectual survey of the field, and an exercise of the judgment as to the highest good, the goal of effort. That which the Reason selects as the thing most conducive to the good of the Self, serves as motive to the will. And when this has once been definitely done, then in moments of lassitude, of weakness, the recalling of the train of thought which led to the choice, again stimulates the will. Such a thing, deliberately chosen, may then be rendered attractive, i.e., an object of desire, by setting the imagination to picture its pleasing qualities, the beneficial—happiness-giving—effects of its possession. But as he who wills an object wills the means, we become able to overcome the natural shrinking from effort and unpleasant discipline, by an exercise, thus motived, of the will. In the case under consideration, having determined that certain objects are eminently desir able as conducive to prolonged happiness, we set the will to work to carry out the activities which will lead to their obtaining.

In cultivating the power of observation, as in everything- else, a little practice repeated daily is much more effective than a great effort followed by a period of inaction. We should set ourselves a little daily task of observing a thing carefully, imagining it in the mind in all its details, keeping the mind fixed on it for a short time, as the physical eye might be fixed on an object. On the following day we should call up the image, reproducing it as accurately as we can, and should then compare it with the object, and observe any inaccuracies. If we gave five minutes a day to this practice, alternately observing an object and picturing it in the mind, and recalling the previous day's image, and comparing our picture with the object, we should " improve our memory" very rapidly, and we should really be improving our powers of observation, of attention, of imagination, of concentration; in fact, we should be organising the mental body, and fitting it, far more rapidly than nature will fit it without assistance, to discharge its functions effectively and usefully. No man can take up such a practice as this, and remain unaffected by it; and he will soon have the satisfaction of knowing that his powers have increased, and that they have come much more under the control of the will.

The artificial ways of improving the memory present things to the mind in an attractive form, or associate with such a form the things to be remembered. If a person visualises easily, he will aid a bad memory by constructing a picture, and attaching to points in that picture the things he wants to remember; then the calling up of the picture brings up also the things that were to be remembered. Other people, in whom the auditory power is dominant, remember by the jingle of rhymes, and, for instance, weave a series of dates, or other unattractive facts, into verses that " stick in the mind ". But far better than any of these ways is the rational method detailed above, by the use of which the mind-body becomes better organised, more coherent as to its materials.

 

MEMORY AND ANTICIPATION

Let us return to our undeveloped Knower.

When memory begins to function anticipation quickly follows, for anticipation is only memory thrown forwards. When memory gives the retasting of a pleasure experienced in the past, desire seeks to again grasp the object which gave the pleasure, and when this retasting is thought of as the result of finding that object in the outer world and enjoying it, we have anticipation. The image of the object and the image of the pleasure are dwelt on by the Knower in relation to each other; if he adds to this contemplation the element of time, of past and future, two names are given to such contemplation: the  contemplation plus  the  idea   of the   past  is memory, plus the idea of the future it is anticipation. As we study these images, we begin to understand the full force of the aphorism of Patanjali, that for the practice of Yoga a man must stop the " modifications of the thinking principle ".   Looked at from the standpoint of occult science, every contact with the Not-Self modifies the mental body. Part of the stuff of which that body is composed is re-arranged as a picture or image of the external object. When relations are established between these images, that is thinking, as seen on the form side. Correspondent with this are vibrations in the Knower himself, and these modifications within himself are thinking as seen on the life-side. It must not be forgotten that the establishing of these relations is the peculiar work of the Knower, his addition to the images, and that this addition changes the images into thoughts. The pictures in the mental body very much resemble in their character the impressions made on a sensitive plate by the etheric waves which lie beyond the light spectrum and which act chemically on the silver salts, re-arranging the matter on the sensitive plate, so that pictures are formed on it of the objects to which it has been exposed. So on  the sensitive plate that we call the mental body, the materials are re-arranged as a picture  of the objects that have been contacted. The Knower perceives these pictures by his own responsive vibrations, studies them, and after a while begins to arrange them and Thought Power to modify them by the vibrations he sends out on them from himself. By the law already spoken of, that energy follows the line of least resistance; he re-forms over and over again the same images, makes images of images; so long as he confines himself to this simple reproduction, with the sole addition of the time-element, we have, as said, memory and anticipation.

Concrete thinking is, after all, only a repetition in subtler matter of every-day experiences, with this difference, that the Knower can stop and change their sequence, repeat them, hurry or slacken them as he will. He can delay on any image, brood over it, dwell on it, and can thus gain from his leisurely re-examination of experiences much that had escaped him as he passed through them, bound to the unresting, unhasting wheel of time. Within his own domain, he can make his own time, so far as its measures are concerned, as does the Logos for His worlds; only he cannot escape from the essence of time, succession, until he can touch the Logoic consciousness, freeing himself from the bonds of the world-matter; and then, even, only so far as this system is concerned.