pelling energy spins out of control. Military training works in the same
way, which is why soldiers on leave and sailors on shore so often get
into trouble. Military discipline and honor are their safeguards. De
tachment is the disciplinary safeguard of the yoga practitioner. It is a
centripetal force that reinvests, with unswerving purpose, the strengths
and abilities we have gained toward the search for the core of being.
This voluntary self-discipline is the role of pratyahara. Without it, the
yoga practitioner, whose body and spirit are strengthened, will waste
his or her efforts and become enamored with the greater attention or
attraction they receive from the world.
In Sanskrit, pratyahara literally means "to draw toward the op
posite." The normal movement of the senses is to flow outward where
they encounter the objects of the world and name and interpret them
with the aid of thought. These thoughts will probably be of acquisition
(I want), rejection (I don't want), or resignation (there's nothing I can
do about it). Rain, for example, will on diff erent occasions elicit all
three responses. Pratyahara, then, implies going against the grain, a dif
ficult retraction, which is why it is often compared to a tortoise
drawing his head, tail, and four limbs back inside his shell. The yogi
simply observes the fact. "It is raining," he may think or say, without
desire or judgment.
You can see how difficult this is by the simple exercise of going for
a walk and at the same time trying not to comment on, judge, or even
name, what you see, hear, or smell. If you see a motor car, you might
find the words "new," "beautiful," "expensive," or "ostentatious"
jumping unbidden into your mind. Even on a country walk, though
you might be able to stop yourself from saying "beautiful" or "lovely"
as a commentary, it will be almost impossible not to let yourself name
the objects-teak tree, cherry tree, violet, hibiscus, thorn bush, etc.
This almost unstoppable taxonomical impulse demonstrates how we
always go out to meet things. We are not naturally receptive and po
lite. We do not let the sunset come to us and greet it with soft, rcccp-
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