Back in the second chapter, when we spoke about the physical yoga exercises, we mentioned three main channels where inner wind, or prana, travels through the body. It's crucial to understand these channels, because we can then control our very thoughts, which are linked to the winds. We actually work on the physical body to stop the Great Mistake of the mind.

The central channel follows the spine; slightly to our right of it runs the sun channel. Tied to the winds that flow in this channel travel our “hot” negative thoughts: anger, hatred, jealousy, all based on disliking objects, events, and people because we fail to understand how we ourselves have produced them.

Stilling the turbulence of inner winds within the sun channel has the effect of freeing us from misunderstanding our outer reality: the world, the earth. The beauty of yoga is that we work on this channel simply and effectively through selected physical yoga exercises.

Breath control, practiced with authentic guidance, further achieves this goal. And then finally we use the teamwork of the last three limbs of yoga—mental focus, fixation, and wisdom—to still the sun channel from the inside.