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→Ascent and Decent
The practice of this yoga is double : one side is of an ascent of the consciousness to the higher planes, the other is that of a descent of the power of the higher planes into the earth-consciousness so as to drive out the Power of darkness and ignorance and transform the nature.
All the consciousness in the human being who is the mental embodied in living matter has to rise so as to meet the higher consciousness; the higher consciousness has also to descend into mind, into life, into matter.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/ascent-and-descent#p5,p6</ref>
==Asceticism==
After all real asceticism is hardly possible except in a hut or on the Himalayas. The heart of asceticism, besides, is having no desires or attachment, being indifferent, able to do without things, satisfied with whatever comes. If you asceticise outwardly it becomes a rule of life and you keep it up because it is a rule, for the principle of the thing or for the kudos of it or as a point of honour. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/asceticism-and-the-integral-yoga#p10</ref>
Asceticism for its own sake is not the ideal of this yoga, but self-control in the vital and right order in the material are a very important part of it—and even an ascetic discipline is better for our purpose than a loose absence of true control. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/sabcl/23/sadhana-through-work-ix#p2</ref>
==Ātman==