Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Silent Reach

“The consensus of studied opinion is always wrong.”

This statement was made by Charles F. Kettering on the occasion of his receiving an award of merit from the American Alumni Council in July 1948. Charles Kettering was one of our most remarkable inventors, the kind, it is said, who made America. So the Council of Alumni from our universities conveyed upon him this honor and he used the occasion to speak, as follows, on the education which these well-intentioned donors had pursued:

“The kid, from the time he enters kindergarten or maybe a little farther up is examined two or three times a year and, of course, if he flunks, that’s awful. An inventor flunks all the time and if he succeeds once, he’s in.”

Mr. Kettering concludes that our education builds on fear – the fear of failure, and chokes creative faculties. Today the most striking proof of this contention is the thunderous barrage from all news media about our “inflation” and the commiserations about “the mess of the nation’s economy,” that we have “overstepped our potentials” and have to “slow down or become ruined.”

Actually, the U.S. economy has never been better. In addition, we could, at this time, have a considerably higher standard of living and general economic activity, and without any inflation, if we so choose. The experts and non-experts who realize this are the few who ignored the fear that Education tried to instill, those who conform to the “inventor mind” which Charles Kettering wrote about. They have that inborn “Silent Reach” which was once deemed as an exclusive achievement by religion. If it ever was, it isn’t now, except that a few clerics have it along with some inventors. Currently, it is claimed by psychiatry. which does not have it yet in any broad sense, though t few individual psychiatrists do.

A San Franciscan learned about it through his stomach, the reason being that while his midsection was sore, his mind was clear. So his doctor told him that with such. a mind he should be able to do his own thing, dispense with dreary drugs and pills. The doctor couldn’t offer him professional aid of the kind he was contemplating but asked if he didn’t know somebody who had fooled around with Yoga. The San Franciscan looked up a friend who knew him well and also had traveled in the deep spaces where Yoga and similar arts are found. The San Franciscan was taught the attitudes, practices and subtleties that in a few weeks overcame the rebellion of his stomach.

What is this silent reach? Charles Kettering probably did not even know the word yoga. This is just one among many names. Every known civilization had a try at it, though the art has never been fully mastered. Many practitioners feel the art has been slowly declining during the past millenniums, and that it is now gradually picking up again, but hasn’t yet reached the level of a few thousand years ago. Some speculate that the future apex of yoga will be in California!

Any book about improvements, in relationships, in economics would be woefully incomplete without touching this age-old human talent of SILENT REACH. This may be summarized without detailing any one school or approach. The basic principles are simple, practical and may guide the practitioner further than the often cumbersome methods of traditional schools.

The child who roams forests, beaches and mountains and learns of the way of wild animals, birds, plants and trees has his first lesson in the art of life and of his own mind. He may roam alone, or with good friends who help him in his quest, or again with playmates who hamper his progress by throwing at him uncouth ingredients of our now-side-tracked society.

Then, at six, when he may be at the threshold of achievement, when he begins to glimpse the magnificence of the subtler world, he is yanked out of his woods and meadows and put through a school that teaches him the tricks of civilization, but along with that task, also, often crushes what is most promising in him and wastes his time with memory games and the unpromising history of human follies.

The most important cause now for the preservation of the race is to bend the schools in the direction that some foundation-sponsored experimental schools and some Montessori schools have already begun. In these schools the child is listened to, his special talents are drawn out and he is encouraged to follow and develop these talents almost exclusively. The school is built around the pupil and not devoted to filling young minds with trivia.

As that San Franciscan with his once-sore stomach showed us, even people who have passed through the ordeal of our schools may still develop awareness and “Union” or “Yoga”. It may be best to begin at the age of eight as the Yogis recommend, or even before birth as the Sufis prefer, but if you haven’t started that early, just begin any time!

Like a selected astronaut, you step out from your narrow mind, your feelings and your body-out into the wide open space. From out there you look in at what you may call your personality. This stepping outside may be a revelation in itself. You see, at once, that you are none of these things; they are your possessions and you can make of them what you want. They are your servants. If at any moment any of these servants try to give the idea he is not a servant, you better make him realize that he is!

As you step outside, some shortcomings immediately show up. Certain thoughts or worries come drifting into your mind and you greet them — you, their master — though not a brutal master. You ask what they want and if their explanation is not too clear, you dismiss them. You may also watch your body, its posture, its muscles or fat and decide on a few corrections and then undertake to make those corrections, though this may take weeks or months. Sooner or later, you may be aware of your breathing. In the forests or meadows you may have acquired the habit of breathing noiselessly, smoothly, in order not to scare little animals. Noiseless breathing is usually good breathing. You may also be aware of the rhythm breathing gives to your system. Breathing is not just shoving out polluted air and pulling in the fresh variety. Breathing is the rhythm that connects you with the vast breathing universe, the Creator and His Creation.

Breathing synchronously with another person may at a certain stage in your development and in his, help both of you to think synchronously, facilitating thought-communication without words or physical signs. Similarly, breathing may strengthen and clarify your link to the all-soul which some of us call God and which others would say is just an aspect of God.

These things are taught and practiced at certain stages by Yogis, Sufis and other groups.

Yogis specialize. A Hatha Yogi teaches postures of the body and the influence of these postures on gland secretion and other bodily functions. He may give a schizophrenic a straining bend that will release juices that may gradually heal. He gives his pupils exercises in postures and breathing that eventually may develop trends and powers for which western science has, so far, no explanation. Through this one system, Hatha Yoga, a student may rise all the way to states usually connected with other branches of yoga, for the different approaches lead to the same general achievements. Hatha Yoga progressively affects the mind, while Gnana Yoga is the name of a system dealing more directly with the mind, a “scientist’s yoga”. For a person of devotion or deep feeling “Bhakti yoga” is a more likely system; while for a man or woman of action, a soldier, business woman or statesman, “Karma yoga” is the thing, the “yoga of action”. The karma yogi develops and achieves through his action. The “mantram” yogi achieves through repetition of sacred phrases, “mantrams”. “Raya Yoga”, “Kriya Yoga” are based on meditation and breath control and are, in a sense, a blending of the other systems. There are other yoga practices taught by Buddha and by the Chinese and Japanese sages.

The sufis are mostly grouped, not according to purpose or system; simply by origin, like the previously mentioned Mevlevis. There are others, such as the Nakshibandis, the Tasawufs and the Chishti Order, established by the Hindu musician and mystic Moinuddin Chishti. This was brought to America and later to Europe by the Hindu musician and mystic Inayat Khan, who gradually developed a unique “Sufi Message”, embracing all religious and mystical endeavor and firmly planted in our modern world.

The sufi aspirant does not need to make up his mind in advance whether he should walk the Hatha, Gnana, Bhakti or Karma path, as most yogi aspirants do. A sufi teacher chooses for him, guides him, until he knows. Sometimes this procedure is also employed among yogis.

Through any proper sufi or yoga training one becomes more keenly aware of one’s own mind, feelings, body functions. One senses and develops man’s innate power, one senses the limitations, the interconnections between all these parts of oneself. One begins to know one’s own being, becomes happier, more well-balanced and efficient. One may or may not increase one’s income and rank. A rise or fall in the social and business world is illusive, a phantom, never under organized control from anywhere. The trained persons take all that with a knowing smile. Worldly success, while appreciated, does not mean so much to them any more. It is the inner stature that matters. It is understanding that matters, understanding of others, of one’s self.

Occasionally a Sufi or Yoga student may develop communication of thought and feeling from himself to others or from others to himself without recourse to words It is doubtful whether this is due to training or to natural talents. There may even be communication with what is called “spirits”. This is always discouraged by genuine yoga or sufi teachers because of unreliability of the spirit world and because of the danger. The danger is that spirits may so dominate a communicator that he loses control of his own mind and heart, temporary at first, though permanent damage may well develop.

Even the simple practice of emptying your mind of all thought may lead to spirit entry and later domination. The emptying of the mind is a practice often prescribed by a teacher who, if he considers himself “competent”, then believes he can gauge any pupil’s capability and properly determine the duration of his meditation or practices.

Who is a competent teacher? Why is he competent?

Before a lawyer or an engineer or doctor is permitted to practice he has to be given a license by an authority who tests his ability. This test does not really guarantee performance. With yogi and sufi teachers similar credentials exist, provided by some school or group. The basis of these credentials are less known. Even the best-informed can only guess. Therefore, the only criterion here is the faith of the individual who subjects himself to being taught.

Most modern pupils of this sort of teacher end up vacillating between sky-high faith and the darkest doubts, dutifully hiding their vacillations under a mantle of firm assurances. The doubts fester into suspicion; balance and tranquility are lost; the very basis for sound advancement is shattered.

The answer in most cases is: Teach yourself, at least in the beginning. The need for teachers is greatly exaggerated in any and all fields today. Many have gone all the way and fully realized their potentials without the aid of any direct teacher. In the beginning, at least, train on your own. If you haven’t the strength to teach yourself, it is a fair bet you won’t do well with a teacher either. Often the teacher becomes a substitute for effort; in other words, he becomes a substitute for achievement.

Have you already set aside a few moments — no more than five minutes at first — at the beginning of your day, or at the end, or preferably both? Are you really ambitious, wanting to set that first period at about three in the morning, such an atrocious time of night that you feel you deserve a whopping inspiration? At that time, say the pundits, magnetic currents are auspicious.

Do you sit in bed or on a chair, back straight, head well back; breathing rhythmically and with as little noise as comfortably possible? Do you like to begin with a prayer to tune in, one of those in a previous chapter, for example? Are you looking at your thoughts and feelings now, greeting them, playing with them, pondering their origin? Then throwing them out? As they come sneaking back, do you greet them again without rancor and ask your mind if this is the best it can do, or if it would try to control and sort that flow?

Do you feel improvement? Then, do you concentrate for a few moments on objects or ideas that appeal to you? Do you allow your mind to run around their surfaces or main concepts? Do you exclude, for the time being, objects or ideas that are repellant or indifferent to you? Later, you may consider such subjects; not in the beginning.

Is the alluring prospect of mastery shimmering before you? Then, do you pass in review before you persons you wish to get along with; business connections, family, social friends? Do you present vivid pictures of these persons in your mind and think through likely meetings and talks with them? Through these contacts with people in your visions, in your day-dreaming, do you prepare and improve knowledge of them, your attitude to them, your attitude in general?

If you have acquired a new, more enjoyable attitude to people, do you begin to feel and reach the Creator of the people? Do you sense that the path to this Creator goes through His Creation, Man?

A venerable saint put it this way,

“My action toward any man I think of as my action toward the Maker of men and any man’s action toward me I consider that Maker’s action.”

The same Saint said,

“He who worships the Creator and despises His creation worships in vain.”

Striving alone along this path of achievement, many a time you may pray and hope for a personal teacher. But if you do not find one you may have a greater satisfaction: You may find an intuition developing in you that makes you more efficiently your own teacher. Don’t spoil it by naming this intuition a “spirit”, which really would be an intruder. You may call it God or your inner self. But if you call it a “spirit” you may end up getting just that and become completely side-tracked.

On the other hand, you may avail yourself of many little tricks to hasten your advance and develop your intuition head-rolling for example. Coming out from a head-rolling session in a little garden bungalow in Suresnes, a working man’s suburb of Paris, I noted to my companion — a hardworking chemical engineer —

“If someone had looked in the window he would have thought we were crazy.

His reply, “We are.”

Why, oh why, do busy men spend minutes of their precious working day rolling their heads around on the necks like some machine part out of kilter?

Well, neck muscles are among the least used in our daily routine so exercising them is meritorious. A part from that, some “competents” tell us the circling of the head creates a strong magnetic space current sucking superfluous ideas from us out into space and permitting essential, undogmatic life-and-energy currents to enter our little systems. Reassuring, isn’t it?

While embarrassed Westerners perform these exercises within closed bungalows or bedrooms, curtains drawn, insouciant Easterners — sufis, yogis and many others — sit shamelessly out on the sidewalks and let their heads circle boldly. Some Africans even circle their entire torsos.

With the movements there are thoughts,

This unworthy gadget under my head (and including it) is not ‘my’ body. It is (or will promptly become) the Temple of God! (Nod, nod, nod, affirmative).

and:

“These thoughts criss-crossing my humble gray matter are not my thoughts. They are the thoughts of God. (Or will soon be.)”

and,

“This heart I feel within my chest, a seat of feelings, is not my heart. It is the shrine of God.”

What can you expect after a lifetime of such affirmations, confirmed by a whirling and nodding head?

As it is said, so be it.

If you are an active person and don’t like to sit while you think and affirm, you may do it walking. You may walk between skyscrapers or among trees, dedicating your body, mind and heart — and the skyscrapers or the trees — to that creator of skyscrapers or at least of trees, and of us. You breathe rhythmically, creatively while so walking. That’s what those ancient warriors did in Jericho. Blowing on horns was just a feint. The power that made the walls fall was this silent, sacred dedication.

What has been achieved through the thousands of years yogis and sufis developed and studied the results of their movements, head-rollings, postures, breathings and mantrams? We don’t know at all. Any one may call himself a yogi, sufi or avatar. That does not mean that he has any information on the real achievements in these fields. But MDs of many nations are now eagerly checking, and not only pompous doctors looking down their noses but vigorous, vital men and women who accepted discipleship in order to receive pertinent information. Some even ventured neck-breaking excursions into wild mountain regions where knowledgeable hermits dwell.

What is the purpose of this many-splendoured effort? To reach further into the dark recesses of our thoughts and emotions — that super-computer-plus — where dwell the solutions to all our social, economic, international and personal problems and ambitions.