Yogic methods dissolve illusions

It is easier to get rid of a burglar than a ghost. You hear a suspicious creak in the middle of the night, so you ring up your muscular neighbour, and with him make a thorough search of the house. You then know for sure that if there ever was a burglar he has made off and is not there now.

But with a ghost it is different. You have been reading a well-written ghost story before you fell asleep. Then you hear the mysterious creak in the night and you get the idea that the ghost is there in the house with you. You call the neighbour and make the search, nothing there, and you go back to bed. But then you hear a board creak and you realize the ghost is still there walking about. You lie there in fear.

The application of this to life is that actual dangers can be confronted, and one can ultimately become free of them. But illusory dangers cannot be so confronted; they are always just round the corner. If you go around that corner you find nothing but they are now round the next corner.

The yogic methods do not seek to confront illusions, they dissolve them. As the house cools in the night furniture may creak but the house is at peace.

© Trevor Leggett