Vital Centers for Concentration 199 



CONTROLLING NATURE, EXTERNAL AND IN- 

 TERNAL." 



This mischievous mind, which uncontrolled 

 turns many a paradise into purgatory, can be con- 

 trolled for good only through a soul-directed and 

 governed WILL, and nothing else so hastens the 

 attainment of this mental control the first step- 

 ping-stone towards the realization of soul-power 

 as the practice of Concentration. As you must 

 well understand now, it is the only method of rous- 

 ing the Kundalini; also called " The Tree of Know- 

 ledge," being the latent Prana, or stored-up resi- 

 dual sensations in the great root-receptacle, or basic 

 plexus. When this force, sleeping in every human 

 being, is awakened through concentration it ascends 

 the spinal canal by slow stages from one center to 

 another, gathering strength in every Padma, till it 

 rouses the potencies in the brain-centers of real il- 

 lumination. This effort brings us under the most 

 beneficent influence of Mercury, an influence that 

 is ever striving to purify us and lift us to higher 

 planes of living and thinking. 



Moreover, concentration is the only entrance to 

 the blessed realm of Silence; that wordless space 

 vibrant with peace; the peace of exquisitely subtle 

 spiritual force, where we come in touch with the 

 soul of things and thereby find our own souls. In 

 the unspeakable peace of this precious Silence, the 



