Also by the deliberate practice of such attitudes of mind as sympathy, compassion, cheerfulness. Or by the practice of pranayama, the science of breath. Or by meditation upon any engrossing sensory experience, or upon an impersonal subject such as the quality of peace, or upon some divinely perfected being, or upon the experience obtained in dream and in sleep, or upon any deeply congenial subject. The preliminary exercises for those who wish to practise yoga include discipline or relaxation of tension, study or aspiration, and resignation to God. Five obstacles stand in the way of attainment, viz.
Ignorance is the cause of the other four.
Ignorance is a mental state in which the illusory is mistaken for reality, that which is apparent for the real. The moral law includes abstention from killing, lying, stealing, incontinence, and covetousness or greed. The spiritual discipline consists of purification, contentment, mortification or discipline, study and resignation to God. An easy and steady body position is necessary for prolonged meditation. The fruit of right poise is the capacity to remain balanced between the pairs of opposites.