Yoga, Vedanta, Karma, and more
Regarding the yama of asteya, non-coveting: why does one brood on objects? The tendency starts in one's mind.  It is there first, and then it manifests outwardly.  Curb it in the mind.

When you have the thorn of knowledge and the thorn of ignorance together, removed from your flesh, then toss them both away – that's Bliss, (the realization of nondual Reality).
Vedanta wants you to renounce everything.  Tantra wants you to purify everything.

Vedanta starts at the level of the mind when it teaches people, as opposed to starting with the body or the prana.

The fourfold mind (antahkarana) divides everything into twos.  The wisdom teachings of our tradition places them into threes (triputis).  The foundation for understanding this is to take stock of everything by fives (pancha, or quintuplication processes).

The brain is not the seat of Intelligence, mind is.  Mind is the Kingdoms of Heaven within us.  Brain is a mere noodle that decays with the body.

Neutralizing karma – it is not enough to shift a weight from one shoulder to the other; that shoulder will just get sore in turn.  You need to distribute the weight evenly.  In other words, do not try to carry karma, neutralize it.

If we are indivisible, why do we break up into separate units?  This is where some philosophical systems talk about the desire for sport, or lila.

Live in truth – God's, Nature's, or Maya's.  God's Truth is transcendence.  Nature's truth is birth, growth, disease, and death.  Maya's truth is covering and distorting.  There is nothing evil there, only a lot of limitations.  So why not live as a yogi in the world if you can?  It is only by transcending the level of problems and limits that one gets free.

Find a favorite perspective – tattvas, akashas, worlds – this will help you shed dense baggage in the mind.  Knowledge gives you this immediately, whether spiritual or secular.  So, one says, "I just want secular knowledge and I am not interested in God.  I am not going to go 'there.'"  Even so, one will get concentration and give up dense baggage.  What is this dense baggage?  Brooding, worry, etc. But see here, the book you are concentrating on came out of you, both its form and its knowledge.  And now you are studying it like both are separate from you.

Enlightenment destroys the karma of wealth, power, and pleasure by destroying the desire to seek after them.

It is Mother who bestows the "cloth" of a Teacher, but the teacher is ready to hand it back when She wishes so.  She may put us out to pasture, but we will not "moo" like the cows.  We'll turn it around and "Om" like the seers.