On the inner frontier of this fourth sheath lies the discovery of the
individual soul (jivatman), that spark of divinity that resides in all of
us in our Divine Body. In between these two borders of deepening self
knowledge and the culture of our higher intelligence, pure insight rests.
Here comes the culmination of the exploration of the whole of our
being as an individual.
This can only be accomplished by eliminating the impurities of in
telligence and increasing subjugation of the cunning super ego that re
mains always the insecure ego, or 1-Shape. The yogic tools that will
facilitate this leg of our journey are the sixth and seventh petals of
yoga, concentration (dharana) and meditation (dhyana). All the other
petals we have studied so far, from asana to pratyahara, will also al
ways be present, supporting the high achievements that to a great ex
tent depend on them. For example, if you want to meditate, you have
to sit in an asana. If you want to meditate, you have to be able to de
tach the mind and senses from the outer world and direct their ener
gies inward-pratyahara. If you neglect the base, you are like someone
sitting in a great tree, sawing off the branch he is sitting on.
The contents of this chapter are undoubtedly subtler, but not com
plicated. In fact, it is often more difficult to describe asana and
pranayama in words than such concepts as insight, ego, and duality.
The problem is rather that conscious awareness of these matters tends
to lie outside our day to day experience, so they may appear abstract.
They are not. They are very real. Nevertheless, an effort of imaginative
intelligence is necessary to track them down and confront them.
Let me offer an analogy. Air is the element that corresponds to the
sheath of intelligence, and touch is the subtle counterpart to air in our
system of evolutionary theory. Imaginatively, let us explore why and
how this makes sense. We bathe in air, all day and all night. Air is al
ways against our skin. With every breath, air permeates the interior of
our bodies, just as water does to a fish. Air always touches us, in-
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