consciously to the process of thought. We have seen that thought cannot 
exist without continual change; all that we have to do is to prevent 
change occurring. All change is conditioned by time and space and other 
categories; any existing object must be susceptible of description by 
means of a system of coordinate axes. 
     On the terrasse of the Cafe des Deux Magots it was once necessary to 
proclaim the entire doctrine of Yoga in the fewest possible words 'with a 
shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.' 
St. Paul's First Epistle to the Thessalonians, the Fourth Chapter and the 
Sixteenth Verse. I did so. 
     "Sit still. Stop thinking. Shut up. Get out!" 
     The first two of these instructions comprise the whole of the technique 
of Yoga. The last two are of a sublimity which it would be improper to 
expound in this present elementary stage. 
     The injunction 'Sit still' is intended to include the inhibition of all bodily 
stimuli capable of creating movement in consciousness. The injunction 
'Stop thinking' is the extension of this to all mental stimuli. It is 
unnecessary to discuss here whether the latter can exist apart from the 
former. It is at least evident that many mental processes arise from 
physical processes; and so we shall at least be getting a certain distance 
along the road if we have checked the body. 
     3. 
Let 
me 
digress 
for 
a 
moment, 
and 
brush 
away 
one 
misunderstanding which is certain to occur to every Anglo-Saxon mind. 
About the worst inheritance of the emasculate school of mystics is the 
abominable confusion of thought which arises from the idea that bodily 
functions and appetites have some moral implications. This is a confusion 
of the planes. There is no true discrimination between good and evil. The 
only question that arises is that of convenience in respect of any proposed 
operation. The whole of the moral and religious lumber of the ages must 
be discarded for ever before attempting Yoga. You will find out only too 
soon what it means to do wrong; by our very thesis itself all action is 
wrong. Any action is only relatively right in so far as it may help us to put 
an end to the entire process of action. 
     These relatively useful actions are therefore those which make for 
control, or 'virtue.' They have been classified, entirely regardless of 
trouble and expense, in enormous volume, and with the utmost 
complexity; to such a point, in fact, that merely to permit oneself to study 
the nomenclature of the various systems can have but one result: to 
fuddle your brain for the rest of your incarnation. 
     4. I am going to try to simplify. The main headings are: 
          (a) Asana, usually translated 'posture,' and 
          (b) Pranayama, usually translated 'control of breath.' 
     These translations, as usual, are perfectly wrong and inadequate. The 
real object of Asana is control of the muscular system, conscious and 
unconscious, so that no messages from the body can reach the mind. 
Asana is concerned with the static aspect of the body. Pranayama is really 
the control of the dynamic aspect of the body.