MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING BY ERNEST E. WOOD FORMER PRINCIPAL OF THE D. G. SIND NATIONAL COLLEGE, HYDERABAD, SIND THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE, LTD., 68 Great Russell Street, W.C.1 ADYAR - MADRAS - INDIA WHEATON - ILL. - U.S.A.
First Edition. 1936 Second Edition. 1939 Reprinted.. 1945 Revised Reprint. 1947 Reprinted.. 1956 Reprinted.. 1961 Reprinted.. 1974 7229 5126 4 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY FLETCHER AND SON LTD, NORWICH
PREFACE CONTENTS PAGE V CHAP. SECTION I THE MIND AND ITS MANAGEMENT I. THE MAGIC BOX 3 II. THE ROADS OF THOUGHT.... 6 III. CONCENTRATION OF MIND....11 IV. AIDS TO CONCENTRATION.... 16 SECTION II IMAGINATION AND ITS USES V. MENTAL IMAGES 23 VI. FAMILIARIZATION 29 VII. FAMILIARIZATION OF FORMS... - 3 9 VIII. FAMILIARIZATION OF WORDS... - 5 0 IX. PROJECTION OF THE MEMORY... - 57 X. SIMPLIFICATION AND SYMBOLIZATION.. 65 SECTION III THE ART OF THINKING XI. MODES OF COMPARISON 73 XII. A LOGICAL SERIES...... 8l XIII. FOOTSTEPS OF THOUGHT.... 89 XIV. THE POWER OF A MOOD.... 94 XV. EXPANSION OF IDEAS 100
viii CONTENTS SECTION IV A BAG OF TRICKS PAGE XVI. NUMBER ARGUMENTS AND DIAGRAMS.. 105 XVII. NUMBER-WORDS 111 XVIII. PLACING THE MEMORY..... 120 XIX. MEMORY-MEN OF INDIA 128 SECTION V THE MIND AT WORK XX. READING AND STUDY 137 XXI. WRITING AND SPEECH-MAKING... 148 XXII. MORE CONCENTRATION 151 XXIII. MEDITATION 158 SECTION VI SOME PARTING ADVICE XXIV. USES OF THE WILL 171 XXV. BODILY AIDS l80 INDEX 187
MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING CHAPTER I THE MAGIC BOX IMAGINE yourself to be standing with a party of friends in some Oriental market-place, or in a palace garden. Enter, a conjurer with a magic box. The strange man spreads a square of cloth upon the ground, then reverently places upon it a coloured box of basket-work, perhaps eight inches square. He gazes at it steadily, mutters a little, removes the lid, and takes out of it, one by one, with exquisite care, nine more boxes, which seem to be of the same size as the original one, but are of different colours. You think that the trick is now finished. But no; he opens one of the new boxes and takes out nine more; he opens the other eight and takes nine more out of each all with Oriental deliberation. And still he has not done; he begins to open up what we may call the third generation of boxes, until before long the ground is strewn with piles of them as far as he can reach. The nine boxes of the first generation and the eighty-one boxes of the second generation have disappeared from sight beneath the heaps. You begin to think that this conjurer is perhaps able to go on for ever and then you call a halt, and open your purse right liberally. I am taking this imaginary conjuring entertainment as a simile to show what happens in our own minds. Something in us which is able to observe what goes on in the mind is the spectator. The field of imagination in the mind itself may be compared to the spread cloth. Each idea that rises in the 3
i88 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING OBSERVATION, 14 Olcott, Colonel H. S., 128 PADEREWSKI, 177 Parts, law of, 7, 77 Phreno-Mnemotechny, 117 Pick, Dr., 55, 112, 120 Pitman's shorthand, 41 Poetry, the learning of, 150 Pratyahara, 184 Proximity, law of, 8, 80 QUALITY, law of, 8, 79 Quintilian, 121 READING and study, 137-47 Reason, 73 Reflection, voluntary, 158 Roads of Thought, the, 7, 9, 53, 76, 100, 149 Roman alphabet, 42 SANSKRIT, 91, 112, 128 alphabet, 41, 113 Schenckel, Lambert, 126 Simple abstract ideas, 24 concrete ideas, 24 Simplification and symbolization, 65-9 Simonides, 65, 120 Sommer, 126 Speech-making and writing, 148-50 Stillness exercises, 180 Study and reading, 137-47 Success, elements of, 173 THINKING, 23, 90, 162 Thought and walking, 89 process of, 90, 94 Roads of, the four, 7,9, 53, 76, 100, 149 Thoughts, chain of, 94 VOLUNTARY decision, 171 reflection, 158 WILL, the, 00, uses of, 171-79 Willing and wishing, 175 WillU, John, 65 Wishing and willing, 175 Work and play, 177 Writing and speech-making, 148-50
SUGGESTED READING THOUGHT POWER, ITS CONTROL AND CULTURE Annie Besant CONCENTRATION, A PRACTICAL COURSE With Supplement on Meditation Ernest Wood MEDITATION, A PRACTICAL STUDY With Exercises MEDITATION FOR BEGINNERS MEDITATION, ITS PRACTICE AND RESULTS ADELAIDE GARDNER J. I. Wedgwood Clara M. Codd THOUGHT FORMS (The effects of sound, feeling and thought in the invisible realms of Nature. Illus. coloured plates). THE MENTAL BODY (A Compilation) THE ASTRAL BODY (A Compilation) AN INTRODUCTION TO YOGA Besant and Leadbeater A. E. Powell A. E. Powell Annie Besant Obtainable from The Theosophical Publishing House London, Ltd. 68, Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I