Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Mental Travels
Build the capacity for sharp, gap-free mental imagery by walking a short route in full attention, then re-walking it exactly in the mind’s eye.
Warm-up before the numbered course: (1) Calmly memorise a room in ≤5 min — pictures only, no naming.
(2) Walk a short route in full attention; return.
(3) Eyes closed, re-walk it in imagery with zero gaps.
(4) Repeat for sharpness; one travel per session.
(5) Extend the route gradually (larger objects only, no upper windows, no gardens), real walk ≤15 min, finishing with eyes open. Fight every distraction.
What it is
Before the numbered exercises begin, Sadhu gives a “general training of the mind” he calls mental travels — a preliminary, less abstract drill meant as an “introduction to the exercises proper.” You observe a real space (a room, then a short walk) in total, wordless attention, then sit, close your eyes, and reconstruct the whole journey in imagery with no “foggy spots” or gaps.
He notes the method “belongs rather to the Western tradition” and appears as a main exercise in older concentration manuals — but here it is deliberately demoted to a warm-up that builds the visualization muscle the later exercises depend on.
Its signature demand is mute visualization: “this exercise does not allow for any talks with oneself: only the images which appear before your mind’s eye.”
The Method
- Memorise the room. Sit as in Ch. XV. Look slowly and calmly around the room and register as many objects as you can — but for no more than five minutes. Crucially, “do not name any of the objects”; operate only with “the mute process of visualization.”
- Take a short real walk. Rise and walk slowly to another room or building, looking with “the utmost concentration” right and left. On arrival, immediately return the same way to your chair.
- Replay it inwardly. Sit, close the eyes (and, if you wish, plug the ears). Now “again perform the same activities, but this time only in your mind” — imagine rising, walking out, and on the way “visualize everything you saw.” The key rule: no gaps. “It is most essential that you do not have any ‘foggy spots’. If you omit one [object] now, you will miss hundreds later.”
- Repeat for sharpness, not length. Early attempts will be defective; “repeat the exercise again, trying every time to perform it better. The key to success lies only in your endurance.” Only one travel per session.
- Extend gradually. As the imagery becomes gap-free, lengthen the route — to the front door, the gate, the street corner, the bus stop. On the street, memorise only larger objects (over a foot: fences, trees, benches, doors), and explicitly not windows above ground level (“excessive turning of your head upwards is not desirable”). Avoid gardens — trees and flowers “do not provide us with sharp enough pictures.”
- The cap. The real observation walk “should not exceed 15 minutes,” because longer travels “become too misty.” Finally, perform the mental replay with eyes open and ears unplugged. Throughout, “any distraction should be pitilessly fought, and no other thoughts allowed to enter your mind.”
Source & Lineage
Chapter XV of Concentration (Allen & Unwin, 1959), given as the bridge into Exercises Nos. 1 and 1A. Sadhu credits the form to the Western concentration tradition and to manuals he studied (he elsewhere names the German occultist Dr.
Brandler-Pracht). Mouni Sadhu (1897-1971), a pupil of Paul Brunton and visitor to Ramana Maharshi, recasts these inherited drills in pared-down practical form. → (sadhu mouni).
Common refinements
Naming objects. The commonest error — silently saying “chair, lamp” — defeats the mute-visualization aim. Hold only the picture.
- Travelling too far too soon. Misty, gap-ridden replays come from over-long routes; start very short and extend only when the imagery is clean.
- Tolerating gaps. A missed object now multiplies later; insist on completeness over distance.
- More than one travel per session. Sadhu limits it to one.
- Choosing a garden/scenic route. Soft natural shapes don’t give sharp enough images; pick streets with hard, distinct objects.