Even in dealing with scientific subjects
Even in dealing with scientific subjects, which have not a quality of appeal to high emotion, the same operation appears. Many of the greatest discoveries in science have come in moments of inspiration, when their authors have thought long and deeply on the subject and then given up the effort as a failure, at least for the time being.
In any systematic attempt at contemplation three stages should be followed—
(1) the attention must be centred on the object;
(2) thought must be active with reference to that object alone;
(3) the mind must remain actively centred on the object while its ordinary activities cease.
In the last stage we stop all comparing and reasoning and remain with the attention fixed actively upon the object, trying to penetrate the indefiniteness which for us then appears to surround it.
It will be seen that in contemplation there is nothing in the nature of sleep or mental inactivity, but an intense search; you make an effort to see in the indefiniteness something definite, and refuse for the time being to descend to the ordinary regions of conscious activity in which your sight is normally clear and precise. You concentrate again, but this
time at the top end of your line of thought.
Taken From: MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING
