1OM: Here follows Instruction in Union.

2Union, spiritual consciousness, is gained through control of the versatile psychic nature.

3Then the Seer comes to consciousness in his proper nature.

4Heretofore the Seer has been enmeshed in the activities of the psychic nature.

5The psychic activities are five; they are either subject or not subject to the five hindrances (Book II, 3).

6These activities are: Sound intellection, unsound intellection, predication, sleep, memory.

7The elements of sound intellection are: direct observation, inductive reason, and trustworthy testimony.

8Unsound intellection is false understanding, not resting on a perception of the true nature of things.

9Predication is carried on through words or thoughts not resting on an object perceived.

10Sleep is the psychic condition which rests on mind states, all material things being absent.

11Memory is holding to mind-images of things perceived, without modifying them.

12The control of these psychic activities comes through the right use of the will, and through ceasing from self-indulgence.

13The right use of the will is the steady, effort to stand in spiritual being.

14This becomes a firm resting-place, when followed long, persistently, with earnestness.

15Ceasing from self-indulgence is conscious mastery over the thirst for sensuous pleasure here or hereafter.

16The consummation of this is freedom from thirst for any mode of psychical activity, through the establishment of the spiritual man.

17Meditation with an object follows these stages: first, exterior examining, then interior judicial action, then joy, then realization of individual being.

18After the exercise of the will has stilled the psychic activities, meditation rests only on the fruit of former meditations.

19Subjective consciousness arising from a natural cause is possessed by those who have laid aside their bodies and been absorbed into subjective nature.

20For the others, there is spiritual consciousness, led up to by faith, valour, right mindfulness, one-pointedness, perception.

21Spiritual consciousness is nearest to those of keen, intense will.

22The will may be weak, or of middle strength, or intense.

23Or spiritual consciousness may be gained by ardent service of the Master.

24The Master is the spiritual man, who is free from hindrances, bondage to works, and the fruition and seed of works.

25In the Master is the perfect seed of Omniscience.

26He is the Teacher of all who have gone before, since he is not limited by Time.

27His word is OM.

28Let there be soundless repetition of OM and meditation thereon.

29Thence come the awakening of interior consciousness, and the removal of barriers.

30The barriers to interior consciousness, which drive the psychic nature this way and that, are these: sickness, inertia, doubt, lightmindedness, laziness, intemperance, false notions, inability to reach a stage of meditation, or to hold it when reached.

31Grieving, despondency, bodily restlessness, the drawing in and sending forth of the life-breath also contribute to drive the psychic nature to and fro.

32Steady application to a principle is the way to put a stop to these.

33By sympathy with the happy, compassion for the sorrowful, delight in the holy, disregard of the unholy, the psychic nature moves to gracious peace.

34Or peace may be reached by the even sending forth and control of the life-breath.

35Faithful, persistent application to any object, if completely attained, will bind the mind to steadiness.

36As also will a joyful, radiant spirit.

37Or the purging of self-indulgence from the psychic nature.

38Or a pondering on the perceptions gained in dreams and dreamless sleep.

39Or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the heart.

40Thus he masters all, from the atom to the Infinite.

41When the perturbations of the psychic nature have all been stilled, then the consciousness, like a pure crystal, takes the colour of what it rests on, whether that be the perceiver, perceiving, or the thing perceived.

42When the consciousness, poised in perceiving, blends together the name, the object dwelt on and the idea, this is perception with exterior consideration.

43When the object dwells in the mind, clear of memory-pictures, uncoloured by the mind, as a pure luminous idea, this is perception without exterior or consideration.

44The same two steps, when referring to things of finer substance, are said to be with, or without, judicial action of the mind.

45Subtle substance rises in ascending degrees, to that pure nature which has no distinguishing mark.

46The above are the degrees of limited and conditioned spiritual consciousness, still containing the seed of separateness.

47When pure perception without judicial action of the mind is reached, there follows the gracious peace of the inner self.

48In that peace, perception is unfailingly true.

49The object of this perception is other than what is learned from the sacred books, or by sound inference, since this perception is particular.

50The impress on the consciousness springing from this perception supersedes all previous impressions.

51When this impression ceases, then, since all impressions have ceased, there arises pure spiritual consciousness, with no seed of separateness left.