The man who has a keen perception can win the hearts of both the foolish and the wise, because he understands them both. The wise man looks for someone who will understand his wisdom, but the foolish man is also longing to meet someone who will listen to his story and who will understand him. For the foolish person is always rejected; everybody gets tired of listening to his stories and tries to avoid him. The wise man, with his rare thoughts of wisdom, is always disappointed in people, and when he meets someone who can perceive his ideas this gives him a joy beyond words. It is because of this that a perceptive faculty in a person makes him loved by all.

Creativity

The next aspect of mind is creative. It may manifest in the form of an invention or in a work of art; it may manifest in the form of composing music, writing poetry, and in many other forms. This aspect shows a most wonderful quality of God, namely creation. The creative genius has always the sword of victory in his hand, and all he does will bring him success and give his personality that magnetism which attracts everyone who understands his merit.

Reasoning

The third aspect of the mind is reasoning, judging. The man who has the faculty of reasoning and of justice is sought by everyone. He is the one to depend upon and to accept advice from. This faculty will show in all he says and does, and it will win for him many who are attracted by it.

Memory

The fourth aspect of the mind is memory. A man who can remember verses, songs, words, or ideas collects knowledge within himself. It is he who may be called learned, who has within him a storehouse of all he has studied, experienced, and seen, and this gives him a magnetic influence which attracts those who value learning.

Sometimes people, wishing to improve a weak memory, attempt to memorize more and more, but it is not always by trying to use a particular faculty that the faculty develops. Very often we remember things which are useless. There are many things which it is not necessary to remember, and in trying to do so we make our memory tired with those thoughts; consequently, it is not free to remember other, more important things. It is no longer open; it becomes limited; it closes itself with the thoughts it has in it, and this may even develop insanity. The best advice in regard to memory is to forget all the disagreeable things of the past, and only to remember the most beautiful ones.

Feeling

The fifth aspect of the mind is feeling. The mind that has a touch of feeling is brilliant like a diamond. It has a liquid quality, for the warmth of feeling liquefies the crystal-like mind. A man with such a mind shows this quality in what we call wit, and also in tact. Wit is a play of delicate feelings, of humor or joy, and the thought which it forms manifests in speech or action. It has a cunning way of winning those who have subtle perception. When three or four people are sitting together, and a serious person comes and sits down among them like a rock, hard and stiff and devoid of any sense of humor, he kills even the atmosphere of the place; but when someone, even if he is a stranger, joins them and shows that he possesses the quality of wit, he wins them all in a few moments. The mentality of the witty person can be called a dancing mind, and to have a witty mind is a wonderful manifestation of nature; it is a great quality. A witty person can make words dance; his phrases can give us the joy of a symphony.

The serious manifestation of this quality is tact. It is essentially the same as wit; when wit is developed and centralized it becomes tact. Everyone can feel, think, speak, and act, but not everyone is always tactful. It takes lifelong study and practice to be tactful, and even if a person becomes tactful at the last moment of his life it is worth while. The magnetism of a tactful person is beyond words. Every word and movement, every action of his, will have an influence on those whom he meets, for he is not only a considerate person; he is consideration itself. It is not that all sympathetic people are always tactful. There are people who are most loving and yet tactless; the more they want to please their friends, the more they displease them. Their loving words can become stones instead of flowers. This does not mean that they have no love, that they have no sympathy; it only means that they do not possess this great wealth of mind which is tact.

Three Degrees of Rhythm

There is a mind which creates slowly and perceives slowly,

there is a mind which creates gently and perceives gently,

and the third degree is the mind which perceives quickly and creates thoughts quickly.

There is a particular phenomenon that manifests from these three rhythms of the mind, which each has its particular influence. The three qualities of the mind--slow, gentle, and quick--are the outcome of the three Gunas, as they are called in Sanskrit: Satva, Rajas, and Tarnas.

There is one person to whom we may say something and he answers, "Will you give me time to think it over? May I tell you about it tomorrow?" The answer that he will give us will surely be of some worth. There is another person who has heard us say something and he says, "And then, what then?" and then we go on speaking, and while we are saying something else he is thinking about what has struck his mind. By the time we have finished our conversation he has found a proper answer to what we said first. And there is a third man who answers us even before we have finished our sentence; far from thinking about what we have said, he has not even heard it. He has at once formed an opinion on it and promptly gives an answer. Such a man may easily make a mistake.

Five Aspects

In conclusion we might say that there are two principal mentalities, of which one may be called a living mind and the other a dead mind. A living mind will show its life by its creative and perceptive quality, whereas a dead mind is recognized by the absence of this quality. The pleasure that a man derives from a clear mind and a living mentality is a pleasure that cannot be compared with the pleasures that belong to this earth. A brilliant intellectuality imparts the pleasure of flying in the air, it lifts one above the earth. The thinker is like a bird that flies in the air compared with the man who is like an animal that stands on its four legs; and the joy of the bird that flies in the air is beyond comparison with the pleasure of the animal that walks on the earth.

Vol. 11, Psychology

11. The Magnetism of the Mind

-ALL-

Vol. 11, Psychology

11. The Magnetism of the Mind

Five Aspects

Keen Perception

Creativity

Reasoning

Memory

Feeling

Three Degrees of Rhythm

Five Aspects