mind takes
advantage of a moment of slackened attention, and flits off from one
frivolous detail to another, till we suddenly come back to
consciousness after traversing leagues of space. We must learn to
conquer this, and to go back within ourselves into the beam of
perceiving consciousness itself, which is a beam of the Oversoul. This
is the true onepointedness, the bringing of our consciousness to a
focus in the Soul.

12. When, following this, the controlled manifold tendency and the
aroused one-pointedness are equally balanced parts of the perceiving
consciousness, his the development of one-pointedness.

This would seem to mean that the insight which is called
one-pointedness has two sides, equally balanced. There is, first, the
manifold aspect of any object, the sum of all its characteristics and
properties. This is to be held firmly in the mind. Then there is the
perception of the object as a unity, as a whole, the perception of its
essence. First, the details must be clearly perceived; then the essence
must be comprehended. When the two processes are equally balanced,
the true onepointedness is attained. Everything has these two sides,
the side of difference and the side of unity; there is the individual and
there is the genus; the pole of matter and diversity, and the pole of
oneness and spirit. To see the object truly, we must see both.

13. Through this, the inherent character, distinctive marks and
conditions of being and powers, according to their development, are
made clear.

By the power defined in the preceding sutra, the inherent character,
distinctive marks and conditions of beings and powers are made clear.
For through this power, as defined, we get a twofold view of each
object, seeing at once all its individual characteristics and its essential
character, species and genus; we see it in relation to itself, and in
relation to the Eternal. Thus we see a rose as that particular flower,
with its colour and scent, its peculiar fold of each petal; but we also
see in it the species, the family to which it belongs, with its relation to
all plants, to all life, to Life itself. So in any day, we see events and
circumstances; we also see in it the lesson set for the soul by the
Eternal.

14. Every object has its characteristics which are already quiescent,
those which are active, and those which are not yet definable.

Every object has characteristics belonging to its past, its present and
its future