Question and answer 20

And why does the mind lack that strength in the first place?

If you have already trained yourself, step by step and in due measure, in disciplines like meditation and yoga that fit you for this enquiry, and if your mind has matured through that training into an unbroken current of like-natured thought, then the moment you hear this teaching of enquiry, you will know your own real nature directly, and, never leaving your own place, you will shine in the deepest peace. But for a mind not yet ripened this way, it would be rare indeed for direct knowledge and inward peace to come at once, just from hearing the teaching. Even so — practise for a while the disciplines suited to stilling the mind, and in time that stillness will surely come.

What is the cause of the lack of mental strength?

If one has previously practised, in due measure and in proper order, the disciplines — such as meditation and yoga — that make oneself fit for enquiry into the Self, and if, through that, one's mind has become mature, having naturally acquired an unbroken flow of homogeneous modification, then, as soon as one hears this enquiry taught, one will know one's own real nature directly and, never departing from one's own state, will shine in supreme peace. For a mind that has not become mature in this way, it is rare indeed that direct knowledge and inner peace should be granted immediately merely from hearing the enquiry taught; even so, if one practises for some time the disciplines proper to the subsiding of the mind, then, in the course of time, the stilling of the mind will be accomplished.