off balance. Take the standing pose Ardha Chandrasana (half-moon
asana), balancing on one leg, the other horizontal, arm extended up
ward. We get the balance, but the moment the thought arises, "Oh,
wonderful, I'm doing it!" we wobble or topple. Only in stillness of
mind can it be successfully maintained. Similarly in pranayama, we see
how breath and consciousness interact. A disturbance or irregularity
in one creates its counterpart in the other. When breath is calmed and
attention focused on its inward movement, then consciousness is no
longer jerked by outer stimuli. Similarly, if the consciousness is steady
and stable, the breath moves with rhythm. Either way it is receptive
and passive, no more hungrily seeking distraction or entertainment.
This frees it to let its attention gravitate toward the most profound
level of consciousness in the depths of the lake. Normally this level ap
pears as our unconscious as no light of awareness penetrates it. But if
the lake is clear, no rising wave can catch us by surprise. There is no
mystery here. It is about training, self-education. If we learn reflection
and correction in equipoise, where any movement or alteration is de
tectable and its source revealed, then we have acquired the sensitivity
that brings self-knowledge-the threshold of wisdom. We know when
we are reacting to an external challenge in a straightforward manner,
or when the hidden sandbanks of previous conditioning are trying to
influence and warp our response. We can now identify thought as a de
liberative, useful, and necessary process, a great gift and talent apart
from thought as meaningless disturbance, mindless chatter, a radio we
cannot switch off, and also from thought as a subtle form of interfer
ence from the past, a self-sabotaging mechanism lodged in our uncon
scious memory.
We have looked at the process of turning negative habits into pos
itive ones as a prelude to the larger freedom of unalloyed moment-to
moment perception and wisdom, but one might legitimately ask this
question. "What happens if a negative sandbank has been created in
unconscious memory by a single past event such as a traumatil· <ll'Ci-
I. I A ll I 'I Y Ill I·. M 1·. N 'I A I. II () ll \' ( M .1 N .1 .I 1