When the pull comes
Sit · find it in the body
Sit down where you are. The eyes open or closed, whichever is easier.
Find where it is in the body: a tightness in the chest, the mouth wet, restless hands, something in the belly. Only know it; do not push it.
Nothing on this list can be done wrongly.
Yogic breathing · the out-breath long
The complete breath, the first level: four in, six out. Fill from the bottom, empty from the top. Hold nowhere.
If counting is not easy, simply let the out-breath be a little longer than the in-breath. For as long as the wave lasts.
OpenIf the body will not sit · Hṛd-gati
Phase one's engine run, on the toes, for a few minutes; or a brisk walk outside. Not slowly: craving fell more with moderate and hard movement.
When the legs settle, sit, and the long out-breath again.
OpenIf a picture is in front of you · the eyes of trāṭaka
Let the picture come; let it be as clear as it is.
The head still, only the eyes, slowly, the picture held in mind: up and down, a few times; right and left, a few times; then both diagonals, corner to corner.
Then the palms over the eyes, warm. Then one look at the picture: as bright? As near? The pull?
Then the eyes closed, and the flame's after-image at the brow; if a lamp is near, look at it a little first, if not, the remembered flame of the last trāṭaka. Then the long out-breath. All of it under five minutes.
Only for a craving that has already come; never call one up to practise. This is what we infer, and it is still to be measured: if you like, two numbers in a notebook, 0 to 10, how bright and how strong, before and after.
Morning
The five of phase one
From line walking to Sarvāṅga-puṣṭi, in order. The day begins with the body moving.
OpenThe second group · The Wave, in laya
One movement to one breath. The group rises, goes to one crest, and comes home by the same steps: the shape a craving has, done with the body.
Begin the group · LayaYogic breathing · the first of the day
The complete breath, at the level that is easy. The first of four in the day.
OpenBy day
MSRT · before the midday meal, and in the afternoon
Seated, the eyes closed: A, U, M and the whole AUM, aloud, their resonance felt in the body; then the same in the mind. Taught in the camp; its guidance will be added later.
taught in the camp · its guidance is comingEvening
Yogic breathing · evening
The third time. Keep for it the hour of the evening when you used to go.
OpenAt night, before sleep
The complete breath, in śavāsana
On the back, one hand on the belly, one on the chest.
Fill from the bottom: belly, chest, collarbones. Empty from the top, and let the out-breath be longer. Hold nowhere.
Ten breaths, then simply lie there.
At home
At home
Learn your signs: which smell, which place, which hour. Keep the breath ready for that hour.
Tell one person at home what it is when you suddenly sit down and move your eyes. They need do nothing; only know.
If the craving comes with thoughts of harming yourself, go to someone that same day: a companion from the camp, or a doctor.
Why this order
A craving begins as a thought and grows into pictures, held in a small room of the mind; a task for the eyes takes space in that room, and the picture's brightness and its pull fell. A long out-breath and yogic breathing lowered craving, and so did movement, more when moderate or hard. That the movements of trāṭaka do the same is what we infer, until it is measured.
Before you begin
Stay well within what is comfortable. If anything hurts, stop. This supports treatment and does not replace it; anybody on buprenorphine or methadone stays on it.
While opium is still being taken, keep every breath hold short.
पत्र · a letter of Sri Aurobindo
To a disciple; the letter does not say who.
The habit in the physical is obstinate and seems unchangeable because it always recurs — even when one thinks it is gone. But it is not really unchangeable; if the physical mind detaches itself, stands separate, refuses to accept it, then the habit in the physical begins to lose its force of repetition. Sometimes it goes slowly, sometimes (but this is less frequent) it stops suddenly and recurs no more.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga IV (Complete Works, vol. 31), p. 404
Why it is here
This page lets the picture come and gives the eyes other work, so that he stands apart from it. The letter says what that does: the habit begins to lose its force of repetition. And it says the habit comes back even when one thinks it is gone, so a return is not a verdict. That reading is ours.