to drive locomotives. There is a saying that war is diplomacy con
ducted by other means. It would be truer to say that war is greed or
pride enacted on the stage of human history. So, since emotions are
part of the physiological interface between body and mind, let us look
at these six disturbances in greater detail.
Ninety-nine percent of all human communication is emotional, not
intellectual. Emotions, far more than thoughts, guide most behavior in
the world. Emotions relate not only to what we feel, but to the value
we place on things. Human life is concerned very much with ex
changes, and when we disagree about the value of what we are ex
changing, misunderstanding and disharmony can ensue. To understand
the emotions, we have to recognize the role the ego plays in them,
which I shall explain later. In these emotional disturbances most people
become stuck and find themselves bouncing from one to the other like
billiard balls. Yoga helps in allowing us to get off this emotional pool
table. It teaches us how to control our emotions so they do not control
us. In this way, we can sublimate them and become masters of our cir
cumstances and not slaves to them.
In our spiritual quest, it is required of us that we develop our body
in such a way that it is no longer a hindrance, a drag, but becomes our
friend and accomplice. Similarly, our emotions and intellect must be
developed for divine purposes. Since we all suffer from them, yoga
tends to see them as sicknesses of mind, inherent problems that devolve
from the human condition itself. After all, you do not blame someone
who lives in a tropical swamp when he catches malaria. You simply
look for ways to cure him. The man is not evil, the mosquito is only
doing what mosquitoes do, and the swamp is probably rich in food
and life or else no one would live there. So it is not a question of
looking for blame, but looking for a solution.
Suppose you own a car that has difficulty starting on cold morn
ings. You cannot afford a better car, but you do know that if you takl'
the trouble to spread a tarpaulin on the hood on cold nights, tlw car
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