gives rise to erroneous thought, words, and action. They are not harm
less. Often, when we correct our misperceptions, we look back and say,
"I shouldn't have said that," or "I shouldn't have done this." We feel
guilt and regret. Yet in the practical world, we put a lot of effort into
avoiding this situation. If we are buying a house, we employ a surveyor
to check its structure, the safety of the land, and the supply of water,
and we hire a title company to verify the legal deeds, and we ask a
bank to carry out the financial transaction correctly. We check avail
ability of schools and transport. We don't want to make a mistake. Yet
most people, looking back on their lives, see them as being littered with
mistakes.
We say, "If only I'd known then what I know now." But what we
know now does not seem to stop us from making more mistakes. The
yogic blueprint says that right knowledge and erroneous knowledge
are two modifications, or states, of consciousness. By the practice of
yoga, we can lessen and eradicate misperception and wrong knowledge
and gain accurate perception and right knowledge. I am not talking
about changing our opinions, although this may happen, but rather
about abandoning them altogether. An opinion is yesterday's right or
wrong knowledge warmed up and re-served for today's situation. So
opinions are rooted in the past, and our examination of memory has
shown us that the past can be a minefield. The practitioner of yoga is
always trying to be in the present, which is where reality is, and so per
fect present awareness in a given situation is his goal. This is not to be
reached in one bound. So one of the things we may notice about our
selves on the Inward Journey is that opinions based on wrong percep
tion and information are gradually replaced by those with a more
accurate foundation. This is akin to a situation when we changed bad
habits into good ones prior to reaching an unconditioned freedom. Let
us look at an example.
Thirty or forty years ago, most people held the view that women
were not able to do men's jobs, that they were more suited to sub-
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