Page:Hatha yoga - or the yogi philosophy of physical well-being, with numberous excercises.djvu/251

Rh best body possible, and gives the impulses toward right living, but if from causes not to be mentioned here, an imperfect body is provided for the soul, still the higher principles strive to adapt and accommodate themselves to it, and make the best of it.

This instinct of self-preservation—this urge behind all of life—is a manifestation of the Spirit. It works through the most rudimentary forms of the Instinctive Mind up through many stages until it reaches the highest manifestations of that mental principle. It also manifests through the Intellect, in the direction of causing the man to use his reasoning powers for the purpose of maintaining his physical soundness and life. But, alas! the Intellect does not keep to its own work, for as soon as it begins to be conscious of itself it begins to meddle with the duties of the Instinctive Mind, and overriding the instinct of the latter, it forces all sort of unnatural modes of living upon the body, and seems to try to get as far away from nature as possible. It is like a boy freed from the parental restraint, who goes as far contrary to the parents' example and advice as possible—just to show that he is independent. But the boy learns his folly, and retraces his steps—and so will the Intellect.

Man is beginning to see now, that there is something within him that attends to the wants of his body, and which knows its own business much better than he does. For man with all his Intellect is unable to duplicate the feats of the Instinctive Mind working through the body of the plant, animal or himself. And he learns to trust this mental principle as a friend, and to let it work out its own