# Class Eight **1) Master Swatmarama says that “the various physical postures” and other practices of hatha yoga “all work to awaken the magnificent feminine power,” or shakti.  “And with this,” he says, “the inner wind melts into emptiness.”  Explain what this last part means.** The “melting” here refers to the loosening of the inner winds, and their release into the central channel.  These winds carry our thoughts with them, and as these thoughts enter the central channel they transform into the direct perception of emptiness. **2) Swami Swatmarama says that, when a person is able to rouse the feminine power, or shakti, within themselves, then they can eliminate within themselves each and every karma.  Clarify how this occurs.** Seeing emptiness, which is what happens when we rouse the feminine power, is to see that nothing doesn’t come from ourselves, from how we have treated others.  Understanding this is to understand automatically that all things are coming from our karma.  This then automatically keeps us from committing negative actions towards others, and we avoid making new bad karma.  The clear understanding of how things are coming from us also has an effect of short-circuiting our past bad karma. **3) The yogi Swatmarama salutes “the deathless god: you who have defeated death itself—the death whose jaws await the entire world, all that moves, and all that stands still.”  Explain this last part about things that move and don’t; how they are subject to death; and how the practice of yoga can affect even these things.** By speaking of the entire world as all that moves and all that stands still, the yogi Swatmarama is referring to both animate life and inanimate objects.  The latter are subject to death in the sense that all things eventually wear out and fall apart.  A true yogi though understands the emptiness even of inanimate objects, thus understanding that objects in their outer world are not such that they are not coming from their own actions. Knowing this, they understand that the decay of objects and relationships for example is due to the wearing out of karma.  Knowing this, they then undertake to perpetuate good deeds which perpetuate beautiful objects and relationships around them.  An enlightened paradise or heaven is then consciously created, through perpetuating good deeds. **4) Master Swatmarama says that moving the winds into the central channel accomplishes the goals of the three “elixir” practices.  Name these three practices; state briefly what they involve; and how they relate to the three principal channels.** The three elixir practices are called the Immortal Quicksilver Elixir; the Diamond Elixir; and the Spontaneous Elixir.  They all involve yogic practices performed with a partner, with the goal of bringing about a union of the male and female energies—another method of causing the withdrawal of the side channels into the central channel, triggering the creation of an enlightened Angel’s body and mind. **5) Master Swatmarama says that “as long as the inner wind is alive in the body, then the mind cannot die.”  What does he mean, and how does this relate specifically to the two side channels** What Master Swatmarama is saying here is that—so long as inner wind or prana remains within the two side channels—then the natural tendency of our mind to see things as coming from their own side will never be overcome.  We tend to see both objects and the very people and states of mind which perceive these objects as coming from their own side, and not from how we have treated others in the past.  The tendency to see objects as coming from their own side is generally said to result from the flow of prana in the right-hand channel, or pingala, while the tendency to see subjects as coming from their own side is usually said to result from the flow of prana in the left-hand channel, or ida. **6) Swami Swatmarama says that “freedom comes” when “the wind and the mind dissolve.”  What does this mean?** Again, this is a reference to the dissolution of the two side channels into the central channel, which brings all our prana and thoughts into this middle channel.  We then achieve freedom on three progressive levels: freedom from seeing things as coming from their own side; followed by freedom from all our negative thoughts; followed by freedom from all limitations to serving the needs of others. **7) Master Swatmarama says that when we pierce the sunray channel, and the wind moves into the middle, we can stay in the “best of places,” meaning “in cessation.”  Explain what a “cessation” is. A “cessation” is the permanent ending of negative qualities in ourselves: again, this refers to three progressive levels of negative qualities—our very tendency to see things as coming from their own side; our negative thoughts; and our limitations towards serving others.**