William Walker Atkinson

The teaching

Taught from his own books and those he signed Yogi Ramacharaka, above all the Fourteen Lessons (1903) and The Science of Breath.

Two books taught elsewhere

Two of his books are taught in full elsewhere in the house. The seven principles of The Kybalion, that the All is Mind, that as above so below, and that everything vibrates and has its poles, its rhythm, its causes and its gender, are given in the branch The seven principles of The Hermetic principles. The law of attraction of Thought Vibration, that thoughts go out as waves and draw their like, and that fear is cut out by dwelling on its opposite, is given in the branch Where it comes from of Imagination and intention. What follows is the rest of his teaching, above all the lessons he signed as Yogi Ramacharaka.

The sevenfold man

The Fourteen Lessons, addressed to a class of 1904, teach that a person is made of seven principles. From the lowest they are the physical body; the astral body, its finer counterpart; prana, the vital force; the instinctive mind; the intellect; the spiritual mind; and spirit. The spirit is the real self, and the rest are sheaths that confine it; most people of this age live in the first five, a few have reached the sixth, and practically none the seventh. The body is not to be despised but tended as the temple of the living Spirit, trained to obey the mind rather than rule it; its cells, he teaches, each have a small life of their own, which obeys the central mind.

The instinctive mind is the mind we share with the animals: it first dawns in crystals and plants, grows through the animal world, and in a person runs the body and holds the passions and habits. The intellect reasons. The spiritual mind, which some writers call the superconscious, is the source of all that is good, noble and great in human thought, a higher something within that leads a person toward nobler aims, and the race unfolds it slowly as it discards sheath after sheath.

The aura and the I AM

Around every person, the lessons teach, is an aura, an emanation seen by those with psychic sight and coloured by the states of the mind. Black is hatred, malice and revenge; a grey almost the colour of a corpse is fear; dark grey is depression; a dirty green is jealousy; bright red flashes are anger. Crimson is love, rising toward rose as love grows higher; orange is pride and ambition; yellow is intellect, golden at its height; dark blue is religious feeling, deepening to violet; and a clear, luminous light blue, sometimes starred with bright points, is spirituality.

For the weak and fearful he gives one affirmation above all others, I AM, held until it becomes a settled attitude. It surrounds a person with a thought aura that shields them from the suggestions of others, until they come to know that the I they speak of has behind it the strength of the Spirit, and so cannot know fear.

Prana and the complete breath

Prana, in this teaching, is the force in all things, taken in chiefly with the air, and the first lesson of the breath is to breathe through the nose and not the mouth. He names three partial ways of breathing: high breathing, which lifts the collarbones and shoulders and fills only the top of the lungs; mid breathing, with the ribs; and low breathing, with the diaphragm. The Yogi Complete Breath joins the three. Sitting or standing upright, breathe in through the nose, filling first the lowest part of the lungs as the diaphragm moves down and the front of the belly gently out, then the middle as the lower ribs and breastbone move out, then the top as the upper chest rises, all in one smooth, continuous breath; then breathe out slowly, the chest held firm and the belly drawn a little in.

He sets a rhythm by the heartbeat, the in-breath and the out-breath lasting the same number of pulse beats, and adds short holds between them. The house leaves the holds out, keeps the breath slow and easy, and stops at any dizziness or strain; anyone with a heart or lung condition asks a doctor first.

The threefold path

The last lesson teaches the threefold path: Raja Yoga, the mastery of the mind and the will; Karma Yoga, the yoga of work and action; and Gnani Yoga, the yoga of wisdom. Each leads to the same great road, and each student takes the one that suits their temperament. Bhakti Yoga, the way of devotion, he treats not as a separate path but as part of all three: the love and worship of God through whatever creed a person already holds, which none of the paths asks them to give up.

Concentration

In The Power of Concentration, signed Theron Q. Dumont, he likens attention to the sun's rays gathered by a burning glass, and his first exercises bring the body under control. Sit in a comfortable chair and see how still you can keep, at first for five minutes and in time for fifteen, relaxed and never straining. Raise one arm to the level of the shoulder, turn the head and fix the eyes on the fingertips, and hold the arm perfectly still for a minute, then longer, with each arm in turn. Hold a small glass full of water at arm's length and keep it so steady that no movement shows.

Through the day, watch for useless gestures and twitches and stop them; take the slam of a door or a sudden noise as an exercise in self-control; and cultivate a poised manner in place of a strained one. The aim, he says, is to bring the involuntary movements under control, so that every action becomes voluntary.