The royal road or the knowledge of the mind.

Yoga destroys mental barriers, as it says at the beginning of that ancient manuscript, The Yoga Sutras, written by Rishi Patanjali over 2300 years ago.
When you work with the mind and understand its laws, when in meditation you use methods which break down blocks in the mind, when you control the mind’s various inclinations with steady, fixed concentration, then you are walking on the ‘royal’ road, you are practicing Raja Yoga, the ancient psychology.

Raja Yoga is a science. This science we can teach ourselves. Since you cannot lucidly see all at once into the depths of your own mind and see the different laws governing it, this knowledge has been preserved and handed down from generation to generation.

You can master an insane elephant; You can close the mouth of a bear or tiger; By alchemy you can earn your bread; You can wander incognito throughout the universe; Make the gods your slaves and preserve eternal youth ; You can walk on water and live in fire; But - to control your mind is better and more difficult, Raja Yoga mentions this effort, which must be without tension, otherwise it locks you up rather than opens you.

Raja Yoga defines the high states, the different possibilities and the many obstacles to be avoided. It surveys the human psyche and nature, defining three human temperaments:

(a) the intuitive, light and clear
(b) the active and passionate, and
(c) the inert and unaware of itself.

But Tantra says, ‘Raise yourself with the help of that which causes you to fall.’ If you can cause inertia in yourself, you can also master it and that is better than suppressing it. Then you can go further.

In Tantra, Raja Yoga is primarily of a practical nature. Concrete methods to trap the mind’s reactions. Cleverly worked out techniques capable of rousing and holding attention.
In practice not much distinction is made between the branches of Yoga; they are not kept separate but are thought of as a whole. And you will find Raja Yoga throughout this book - the entire course is based on it.

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