Some thoughts are outcomes of sensations; some thoughts are associated with those thoughts. Some are memories of times and places. These are all "particle-like thoughts," dependent on a time, place, and person. As you continue the Air Breath, more of your thoughts will be wave-like thoughts, that are independent of immediate sensation, impersonal and independent of space-time. Many of these are "beliefs."

For example, "Success comes from being in the right place at the right time." "Success requires sacrificing what you want second-most for what you want most." "Success comes to me when I am patient." "Hard work is a precursor to success." These are all beliefs, some of them contradictory. They can't be argued. They can change, but only by experience. They underlie many of the thoughts one has during the day, yet they remain invisible, buried in the unconscious. You can see them now because you've used your exhalation to scatter them into space.

Now switch from emphasizing your exhalation to emphasizing your inhalation. Keep your head level, but cast your closed eyes downward. Pick a belief and, as you breathe in, draw it into your depth. Allow it to be impressed upon your heart and fill your mind as your only thought. Hold your breath and feel the sensations coming from your chest and stomach area. Then use your exhalation to discard the belief and clense your heart. Consider what is the opposite belief to this belief. On your next inhaltion, repeat as above, but with the opposite belief to your own belief.

A further step is to hold the idea as you hold your inhalation and consider, as you hold your breath, "Why do I believe that? Is that belief obscuring my own experience? Do I need that belief or can I discard it?" Then notice the feeling you have as you try to discard the belief as you breathe out. Can you discard it? Does that make you feel more free?

The fewer beliefs, the more you are open to experimentation and discovery. As you question and discard beliefs, you will encounter beliefs that are convictions, that you're not able to discarded. This is your faith, the convictions that you are sure about in your heart. By discarding your beliefs you uncover your faith: what you know beyond reason and without ever being told. This is what your heart knows. It isn't much in quantity, but it is so powerful that you build your whole life upon it. This is what you want to bring to consciousness, flooding your mind with it and discounting the rest.

In "Autobiography of a Yogi," Yogananda tells the story of a woman saint who he asked, "What do you know for certain, that no one has ever told you?" She reflected for a moment, and said, "Well, I know that I have a heart center, and that everyone else has one too." Yogananda was amazed at how simple her statement was, and yet how completely that statement had formed her life. It was all she needed; everything else she thought, and all that she did, came from that.

Your heart has a simple faith composed of a few convictions. It doesn't hold a complicated, intellectual idea. It's so essential that it has become simple. Others may easily say what you know, without understanding it in their depth and without feeling its power. What you know in your heart is the basis for the way you live. You want to find what that is, and then embrace it fully.