Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Solving Problems on the Empty Screen
Put trained concentration to practical use: clear the mind, let one problem appear alone on the ‘empty screen’, examine it from all sides, then stop thinking and let the solution come.
Applied concentration for any problem: (1) sit and empty the mind completely; (2) let the one problem appear alone on the empty screen; (3) examine it from all sides until you truly know it; (4) stop thinking — hold only the wordless desire to see the solution; (5) let the answer come. Requires the prior concentration exercises; verify the result against ordinary reasoning.
What it is
After the Fourth Series, Sadhu pauses the mystical ascent to answer a practical question: “How can we use the newly-won ability of concentration in our everyday life, in business and the solving of problems?” His method turns the empty black screen of passive concentration into a working surface.
You clear the mind completely, allow one problem to appear alone “on the empty screen of your consciousness,” examine it “from all sides” (the same all-sided seeing trained on the pin-head) “until you really know it” — then deliberately stop thinking, holding only the wordless desire to see the solution, and let the answer come.
It is a disciplined focus-then-incubate routine, and Sadhu is explicit that it presupposes the training: “Do not attempt this method until you have at least the six double exercises to your credit. it will not work otherwise.”
The Method
- Empty the screen. “Sit quietly and exclude all thoughts from your mind.” (This requires the passive-concentration ability of Nos. 5-6.)
- Admit the problem alone. “When this is achieved, allow the problem alone to appear on the empty screen of your consciousness.”
- Examine it from all sides. “Look at it from all sides, until you really know it” — bringing to bear the all-sided, undistracted vision trained earlier, “with the complete exclusion of all troublesome and unwanted currents from your mind.” Sadhu notes this yields “a much better and more efficient understanding of various matters and problems,” and the basis for “right and quick decisions.”
- Stop thinking; hold only the desire to know. “Then again stop thinking, being aware (without any words) merely of your desire to see the solution, to know what you have to do, and which activities you have to perform in order to carry out things successfully.”
- Let the answer come. “If you do everything exactly as advised, the answer will most certainly come.”
- Prerequisite, restated. “Do not attempt this method until you have at least the six double exercises to your credit, simply because it will not work otherwise. Just as you cannot have any hope of beating a sprint record until you have been well trained in running.”
Source & Lineage
Chapter XIX, “Fourth Series,” of Concentration (Allen & Unwin, 1959), in the passage on applying concentration to “the so-called ‘battle for existence’.” Sadhu offers it for students “who might not be too interested in concentration as a means for spiritual advancement; but who principally want to achieve control of their minds for utilitarian purposes.” It is the everyday-life payoff of his contemplative training, resting on the same empty-screen and all-sided-vision skills built in Nos.
2-6. Mouni Sadhu (1897-1971). → (sadhu mouni).
Common refinements
Skipping the training. Sadhu is blunt that without the prior six double exercises the method “will not work” — you cannot empty the screen or hold all-sided vision on demand.
- Crowding the screen. Admit one problem only; competing concerns sabotage it.
- Forcing the answer. The yield comes from stopping directed thought after thorough study, not from grinding harder.
- Verbalising the desire. Hold the wish to know wordlessly; narrating it pulls you back into ordinary churn.
- Over-trusting the output. Treat what arrives as a strong candidate to verify, not an oracle — especially for high-stakes choices.