An ax lifted high with two strong arms has a certain undeniable power to it. You have ability to put your mind on a single point and to keep it there unwavering for an hour or more. At the same time, you totally understand where the thing you're focused on is really coming from—and not coming from. These three together—focus, fixation, and wisdom—represent a kind of teamwork or combined effort that will literally save your life, and the lives of many others.

Now you possess a truly powerful weapon, the one and only weapon that can destroy the pain of our world. This is the eye of wisdom—a metaphorical third eye—the light of knowledge within our deepest mind.

The three begin as an intellectual experience, and then a direct one, of ultimate reality. They combine with ultimate love and lead us through progressively higher levels of giving, ethical living, patience, effort, concentration, and understanding.

Compared to all that we have ever been—compared even to the first five practices of yoga—the combination of these three limbs is literally the most precious thing in the world. But even they are as the mind of a child compared to where they will take us.