If you cannot control your ordinary, earthly, human nature, you are not going to realize the spirit. Control the tongue, control the eye, control the flesh, control the food. Why? Because we are rising above nature so that we will not be controlled by it. It should be under our control. Every discipline in life ultimately gives you strength to transcend the limitations of the senses.

A stone easily roles down hill. Anything can roll down; but to bring something up is a difficult task. We are trying to raise ourselves up. If you throw something up it comes back down. Why should it come back? Because the natural gravitation pulls it down. In the same way out minds and bodies are constantly being pulled down toward the earth and we are trying to change that. We want to get the help of a rocket to go past the gravitational pull.

That is why we have all the disciplines. Without discipline, this ascent would not be possible at all, even if one wire is loose or one conductor is weak, a rocket launch is postponed. We are all trying to launch our rockets. The mind is a rocket. The body is a launch pad. Your mind must be well-fueled and well-tuned, and then you must set fire. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero! Launch yourself. One you go beyond the gravitational pull, you transcend the mind. Realization comes only when you have a proper launching pad (body) and proper rocket (mind) to help push you beyond the gravitational pull.

At this point, the analogy ends, because you are not really launching yourself from here to somewhere else. Everything happens right where you are. Right here you can master the forces that pull you down. You don’t have to shoot off somewhere, but you do have to discipline the mind and body. Only then can you command nature.