“So it is only necessary to nourish these inner divine forces in a perfect manner - which is achieved, as was demonstrated clearly to me, by attaining to higher states of consciousness - and then to skilfully coordinate these almighty forces - which is achieved by man through his perfectly developed intellect.

“The starting point for all success in these exercises lies obviously in the mastery of oneis own cosmic life-breath which is dwelling so deeply within man - and which is indeed at the basis of all outer breath and supports it so mightily from the cosmic depth.

“Localizing the cosmic life-breath thus leads with the greatest certainty through the outer breath to this almighty force.

At that holy place within me, where my inhalation and my exhalation meet like two mighty arms, I find the paramount body of the cosmic life-breath holding the two arms of my inhalation and exhalation and weighing them against each other like two mighty warriors,” thought Mani.

“But how do I get my inward and outward breath under control so that I can stay longer at the infinitely invigorating and restoring source of cosmic life-breath?
To do so I have to reduce the whole function of breathing in and breathing out.

“How about if I just stop breathing?
That would not be a natural process, and the goal would not be achieved.

“How then do I reach in a natural manner that state of breath standing still?
First I have to make the process of breathing in and out completely effortless.

“And how do I achieve that? Through my intellect, to which my breathing is bound - like the father is bound to his child.
Therefore I first of all bring my intellect, the child, to complete rest.

“And how? By bringing the two children of my intellect, my feeling and my understanding, to complete rest.
And how do I achieve that? By bringing the child of the two, my senses, to complete rest.

“And how do I bring my senses to rest? By bringing their toy, which their parents - my feeling and my understanding - have created for them, to complete rest: my mind.

“And how do I bring my mind to rest? By putting its main toy to rest: the thought.

And how do I bring the thought to rest? By telling it the story of its life, thus letting it trace its way back to its origin.

“And how do I accomplish that? By letting all its ancestors together lead it: through its very first ancestor - the cosmic life-breath -, through its ancestor - my intellect -, through its great-grandparents - my feeling in the role of the father and my understanding in the role of the mother -, through its five grandparents - my senses of perception -, and through its parents - my mind -, the substance of the mind assuming the role of the father, and the form of the mind - my thinking - assuming the role of the mother.