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to control the movement of air in and out of our lungs. The three stages of breath - inhalation, retention and exhalation - are scrupulously controlled, and this control, when used unconsciously as we go about our daily lives, improves our energy levels and is useful in calming our emotions, an invaluable tool in this world of stress and provocation. Yogis believe that by controlling the breath, they control 'prana', the vital force in every living thing.

* The mental benefits of yoga

Yoga meditation (thought control) involves three stages: concentration, meditation itself and contemplation. We concentrate on an object (a physical object or an idea); we think all the thoughts we can think about that object; then when the flow of thoughts dries up, any new thought that rises to fill the momentary vacuum will be an illumination, something that adds to our understanding of the object of meditation. The process is actually a deal more complicated than that, but the basic process just described suggests a series of benefits that we could make use of.

The ability to concentrate is a skill that allows us to function efficiently in life yet it is a skill that has long been neglected. Our yoga meditations will develop our powers of concentration and allow us to focus more intently on specifics, both large and small, significant and insignificant. To bring these powers of concentration to most of what we do in our lives not only allows us to derive more meaning from the business of living but also to live more in the here and now and be less prone to bouts of fantasizing or wish-fulfillment, actions that by their very futility are more likely to dampen the spirits rather than brighten them.

Yoga allows us to think more efficiently and productively. We learn to measure our thoughts and to analyze them, their meaning and their worth. And as most of the thoughts that drift in and out of our minds are mere flotsam and jetsam that owe their existence solely to previous thoughts just as irrelevant, an ability to sweep them aside and leave space for more pertinent thoughts that can enrich and help develop our lives is one to be desired.

* The moral benefits of yoga

This last segment of potential benefits we might derive from yoga is more subjective than the previous two, and as these benefits pertain to our actions in the world at large, we might regard them as moral benefits. The first two yoga 'limbs' (stages) of the eight described in yoga's most central and venerable

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