Obstacles to Yoga
Before considering the capacities needed for this definite
practice, let us run over the obstacles to Yoga as laid down by
Patanjali.
The obstacles to Yoga are very inclusive. First, disease: if you
are diseased you cannot practice Yoga; it demands sound health, for
the physical strain entailed by it is great. Then languor of mind: you
must be alert, energetic, in your thought. Then doubt: you must have
decision of will, must be able to make up your mind. Then
carelessness: this is one of the greatest difficulties with beginners;
they read a thing carelessly, they are inaccurate. Sloth: a lazy man
cannot be a Yogi; one who is inert, who lacks the power and the will
to exert himself; how shall he make the desperate exertions wanted
along this line? The next, worldly-mindedness, is obviously an
obstacle. Mistaken ideas is another great obstacle, thinking wrongly
about things. One of the great qualifications for Yoga is "right
notion" "Right notion" means that the thought shall correspond with
the outside truth; that a man shall he fundamentally true, so that his
thought corresponds to fact; unless there is truth in a man, Yoga is
for him impossible. Missing the point, illogical, stupid, making the
important, unimportant and vice versa. Lastly, instability: which
makes Yoga impossible, and even a small amount of which makes Yoga
futile; the unstable man cannot be a yogi.
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