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The Art of Cleansing 109 relationships. When you see what kinds of thoughts come to you, you see why they come. What is their connection with you? Thoughts don't come unless there is a connection. If you haven't seen or heard something in relation to those kinds of thoughts, they won't occur in the mind. They arise because of the connection.
The next step comes: you see unwanted thoughts as invaders. You are sure that you don't want them, so you ask yourself, “Why do I allow them? Can I not exert my energy to stop them? Can I not bring out my willpower, my Atma-virya ? Do I not have this soul power?” You become aware of your power. You exert your will, saying, “What I don't want must not come in.”
When you take time to stop the intrusion of unwanted elements, your practice is born from inner awareness of your own power and of the direction you want to take in life. What you do is the result of a natural flow, not outside compulsion.
In samvara, you are with yourself. If new commitments or new relationships are continually coming, you are not able to see your thoughts, your emotions, your life. When you stop, you are in a position to watch. Then you ascertain which are the thoughts you do not want. “Let them not come,” you assert. If the thoughts continue to bombard you, you realize you have some weakness inside. Because of the weakness, although you don't want those thoughts, you allow them to come. Stopping to observe yourself, you discover the addictions which are binding or conditioning you.
Bandha means to bind. When you look at your addictions from the point of view of the law of karma, you see that those inner weaknesses are binding you to matter. When you are in a state of either infatuation or hatred, you are not in your own nature. Your energy flow is
ocked. Your soul is not free to move toward its destina
