as we instinctively feel that its ugliness lies closer to the Soul.
Most of us, at least in maturity, with or without yoga, fall into a
dutiful routine, a comprehensive conduct of trying to "be good" and
fearing the consequences if we are not. This is neither solution nor res
olution, but it is a livable cease fire, or decency by dint of moderation.
Controlling our desires is a continual pruning process, rather than a
Damascene conversion.
Yama and niyama (the ethical code) assist us in this reasoned re
straint, acting as a firebreak for our behavior. Asana is a cleansing
agent and pranayama begins to tug our consciousness (citta) away
from desires and toward judicious awareness (prajna). Pratyahara is
the stage at which we learn to reverse the current that flows from
mind to senses, so that mind can bend its energies inward. Dharana
(concentration) brings purity to intelligence (buddhi), and dhyana
(meditation) expunges the stains of ego.
Concentration brings "purity" to intelligence. You must be pro
testing that throughout this book intelligence has been presented as an
unalloyed good. It has received no bad press at all. This is fair enough
when you are laboring up the lower slopes of the mountain of yoga.
The ascension to lofty intelligence is ardently to be desired. But now
we are in the sheath of intelligence itself, the vijnanamaya kosa, and
we have to remind ourselves that the five afflictions (klesa) taint every
level of our being, except the pristine Soul itself.
We have honed, cultured, and refined our intelligence. We have re
alized its power to discriminate and choose and its capacity to move us
incrementally toward freedom. It is reflexive, so that we can witness
ourselves. Exalted, unconditional, pure intelligence is a close and near
neighbor to the soul. So why am I sounding a warning that "As the hot
coal is covered by smoke, mirror by dust, embryo by the amnion, so
the intoxicated intelligence covers the Self" (Bhagavad Gita 3.38), sug
gesting that even here its imperfections have to be sifted and only the
diamonds retained?
II K � I Y I' N 1; fill