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sight of this for as long as you can. Try to make it grow and last longer every time. If you use an open window, try to also retain the afterimage of the scenario seen through the window and not just the light, using your imagination to re-create and hold it. Manipulating the focus of your eyes behind your closed eyelids will affect this afterimage. Play with this focus until you find what helps retain afterimages the longest. As an alternative, focus on the texture of an object. After memorizing the texture, hold the afterfeel perception in mind for as long as you can, holding your mind clear with breath awareness. Breath Awareness Please pay particular attention to this exercise, as the breath awareness technique is used extensively throughout this book. Just as we did earlier, breathe slowly, deeply, and regularly, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Focus your entire awareness on the action of breathing. Feel your breath entering and leaving your body. Feel the leading edge of the air entering your nose, moving in through your nasal passages, down your throat, and filling the inside of your lungs. Follow and sense and feel the air passing through the inner parts of your body. Hold your mind totally clear of all surface thoughts while doing this. Your mind must be held as a blank slate. Do not allow any surface thoughts to start up. Do not count your breaths or imagine anything with this exercise. Focus your entire attention solely on the flow of air into and out of your body. Time yourself and see how long you can keep this up without thinking any thoughts at all. Keep note of how long you can do this, as this will indicate how you are progressing with these exercises. Continue this exercise for three minutes, or for as long as you can. Once you reach the three-minute mark, you will be able to hold your mind totally clear for an indefinite period of time. The effort of doing this will progressively ease with regular practice until it becomes effortless. Color Breathing Start breath awareness, as above. Imagine your favorite bright color (anything but black, brown, or gray) entering your body with the leading edge of the air moving through your nose as you breathe IN. Imagine this color (in your mind's eye) as if the air you are breathing IN were a cloud of sparkling, colored vapor, full of life and energy. Imagine a murky cloud of discolored air leaving your body with the leading edge of your OUT breath as you breathe OUT — this being tension and waste energy. Concentrate solely on this and hold your mind totally clear of all thoughts. This particular exercise has the added advantage of causing a flow of atmospheric energy into the body and through the lungs, which is invigorating and invaluable for building both physical and mental vitality. Continue this for three minutes, or for as long as you can. As an alternative, or if you cannot imagine color, imagine your favorite scent instead, or use a real scent to focus on. Follow the leading edge of this scent as it is inhaled and exhaled. Practice Silencing the surface mind may sound very easy, but it is definitely not an easy thing to learn. It takes time and practice, but this is an absolute necessity for any kind of serious development. In the early stages of mental training, if you can silence your surface mind for more than ten seconds you are doing very well indeed. The ability to clear the surface mind is very progressive, however, and regular practice pays big dividends. Keep working on this ability regularly and your original ten seconds of mental silence will quickly grow into twenty, then thirty, then a minute, then two minutes, then more and more, getting easier all the time. Please, do not be discouraged if some of the exercises in this book seem difficult when you first try them. Learning anything new can be difficult, but everything gets easier with a Hide regular practice. Working on these skills individually will save you a great deal of time and effort in the long run. Remember, anything skipped or poorly done during the early stages of development will one day stop all forward progress. This will necessitate a return to basics in order to redo what has been skipped. Just do the very best you can with these exercises and practice regularly. You will soon find yourself making steady progress. 88