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THE SCIENCE OF BREATHING
that also, we must take the same time, as we did while we breathed in, and then we must take the same time before breathing in, as we did while retaining the breath, that is, two moments. There are other exercises, of course, for a person affected by certain diseases. The rules in that case would be different. In our temples we make different movements of the body which also have different meanings and are done for a certain purpose. We join our hands before the face or otherwise, but all these motions, and keeping the arms in different positions, are used only to assist the idea which is supposed to be in our minds at that time. The hands crossed before the face show a reverential mood, and a negative or receptive condition, in which we are ready to receive something from a divine source, and if we are in this mood, we are in a fit condition to receive this. In the same way, when we wish to be in a perfectly natural state, we stand in another posture. The will is the great mainspring of human action, and however will is concentrated on some special part, that part will be influenced, and this is not an imaginary condition; the imagination itself is not an imaginary thing. If I concentrate my attention on the feet or on the brain, and think that they are receiving something from without, they will receive the magnetism which is attracted by the power of the will.
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