In Master Patanjali's time, people didn't relate to books the way we do: to read once from cover to cover, put away, or toss out. A relationship with a really meaningful book was like a marriage. You sat down and read it, studied it—probably memorized most or all of it. You kept it with you, as a friend and help-mate, your entire life.

Now that you've read this book, you need to use it. You need to get through the five paths that every seeker must travel.

First you probably need a personal disaster—a divorce, or personal illness, or loss of a loved one—to get you asking questions, to pick the book up.

Second you need to study it carefully; seek out “live” guidance if you can. Spend a lot of time thinking about the seeds, and especially that idea of emptiness. You'll need to plant new seeds to grasp all this. Be good to people, dedicate it to understanding.

Third part: learn to meditate properly, work toward gaining ultimate love and seeing ultimate truth. About twenty minutes in this gets you to the fourth path, discriminating now between how things seem and how you know them to be different.