So self-control and commitments stop new bad seeds and plant new good seeds. But we must also deal with the old bad seeds, stocked in our mental storehouse. Otherwise they will create obstacles for the other six practices of yoga.

We may not be able to see what we originally did to plant the seeds we have now, but we can decide what we must have done, from how these seeds are sprouting and creating painful pictures in our current health and relationships. This knowledge allows us to actually go in and destroy those seeds, within our own mind.

Seeds are planted not only by what we ourselves do, but also when someone else acts on our behalf; or simply if we consciously approve of an action. If a person dies in a war, and we have willingly paid taxes for that war, then the seed is the same as if we ourselves had plunged a knife into the person's chest, with our own hands.

All seeds for suffering—whether outright pain or happiness that decays into pain—are planted through the Great Mistake, as we respond to the events and people around us with mistaken feelings of liking and disliking things that actually come from ourselves.