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of breathing can be considered an ideal object of perception to train the mind. This is called SVĀS PREKŞĀ. As is well-known, breathing is normally automatic, that is, it does not need attention but is also amenable to mental control. If one so desires, one can, even without much practice, change and modify the rate, duration and depth of breathing. At the same time breathing is a reality i.e. neither a memory nor an imagination. The practice of concentration starts by focussing the mind's eye on the ingress and exit of each breath. Once the mind, which was until now wandering and engaged in the observation of external objects and phenomena, is made to contemplate this internal function, it would control the rate of breathing by gaining some mastery over the autonomous nervous system. Simultaneously the efficiency of the mind would be systematically increased and it would be ready to pass into the stage of meditation.
Sharīra-Prekshã : This is perception of the activities of the different parts and the organs of the body. It is another technique of Prekshā-meditation. In this, the mind is slowly taken over from the top of the head, to the toes of the feet, steadying it on each of the different parts of the organs for a few moments. Our body is a vast complex of factories in which various complicated, chemical, mechanical and electro-magnetic processes are constantly going on. Our heart pumps the blood making it reach the remotest corner of the body; the gastro-intestinal tract digests the food and delivers nutrition to millions of cells through the blood stream ; our 'nervous system connecting various organs of the body to the brain is always active. These and many other physiological and biological functions, produce a large variety of sensations and emotions. . Now, there is a remarkable distinction between sensation and perception. Sense organs and other sensory out-posts, send, millions of separate sensation signals --coded messages-to the brain every second. These messages are the raw materials-the unprocessed input-of awareness. How the brain processes these raw sensations, interpreting them in the light of mood, expectations, and many other variations, is known as perception. A familiar illustration of the distinction between sensation and perception is pain. The same sensation signals, from a tooth-ache, for example, affects each person differently. His suffering is perception. The process by which the mind converts raw sensations into perception is complicated. While the sensation varies according to the power of the stimuli, perception varies by an infinity of factors, some within the body and the others
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