Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Building Character by Meditation
To take a single chosen virtue (purity, courage, compassion), make it the subject of daily meditation until the mind takes its form, and then express it in the day’s conduct — building the quality into character, one virtue at a time.
Pick one virtue. Each morning, dwell on it — what it is, what it would be to be it — because “the man becomes that upon which he reflects.” Carry it into the day and seize chances to act it; meditation and practice “must go together.” Build virtues “one by one,” steadily, over weeks. Then take the next.
What it is
This is Besant’s most distinctive practice: using meditation to build a chosen virtue into character. It rests on her creative principle of mind — “the man becomes that upon which he reflects.” So you take one quality (purity, courage, compassion), make it the subject of the daily morning meditation, dwell on it until the mind is shaped to it, and then carry it out into conduct — and you take the virtues “one by one”, not all at once.
It is meditation aimed not at stillness for its own sake but at becoming — identity reshaping circumstance (The Inner Creates the Outer), installed by daily repetition (The Inner Creates the Outer) and trained attention (The Inner Creates the Outer), re-impressing the deeper self (The Inner Creates the Outer).
Crucially, Besant insists the inner work alone is not enough: “Meditation alone or practice alone is insufficient for the building of the character. Both must go together.”
The Method
From Besant’s Meditation (“Control of Mind. Meditation. Building of Character”):
- Choose one virtue. Take a single quality you mean to build. Besant’s worked example is purity; courage, compassion, patience serve equally. Work on one at a time: “Take them one by one, and build them into your character.”
- Make it the morning meditation’s subject. “In his morning meditation, taking purity as part of the subject on which he thinks, realizing what it means.” — you dwell on the quality: what it is, what it looks like in action, what it would mean to be it.
- Let reflection mould the mind. This is the active mechanism in her teaching: “That is one of the creative powers of the mind — the man becomes that upon which he reflects.” Sustained dwelling shapes the self toward the quality.
- Carry it into the day. Having meditated the virtue at morning, “when he goes out into the world he carries the memory of his meditation with him” — and looks for the day’s chances to act it.
- Pair meditation with practice. Non-negotiable in her scheme: “Meditation alone or practice alone is insufficient for the building of the character. Both must go together.” The morning’s reflection and the day’s deeds are two halves of one act of building.
- Work steadily, give it time. “Work on steadily: do not be afraid of giving time to it.” A virtue is built over weeks of this paired rehearsal-and-enactment, then you move to the next. (Sourcing: “the man becomes that upon which he reflects”, “Take them one by one, and build them into your character”, “In his morning meditation, taking purity.”, “carries the memory of his meditation with him”, “Meditation alone or practice alone is insufficient. Both must go together”, and “Work on steadily: do not be afraid of giving time to it” are verbatim from Besant’s Meditation.)*
Source & Lineage
The practice is stated in The Path of Discipleship (1896), in the lecture “Control of Mind. Meditation. Building of Character.” It fuses the yogic “man becomes what he dwells on” with a practical Victorian programme of character-formation, set inside Besant’s Theosophy of the soul gradually moulding its own vehicles.
Common refinements
Meditation without enactment. Her cardinal rule: reflection alone won’t do it — look for and take the day’s chances to act the virtue.
- Too many virtues at once. “One by one.” Spreading effort across many qualities dilutes all of them.
- Impatience. “Work on steadily: do not be afraid of giving time to it.” Weeks, not days, per quality.
- Self-flagellation. Dwell on the virtue (what it is, what it would be to embody it), not on shame at lacking it; the tone is aspirational, not punitive.