Sutra 1.30: Vyādhi styāna saṁśaya pramāda-alasya-avirati bhrānti-darśana-alabdhabhūmikatva-anavasthitatva-ani citta-vikṣepāḥ-te-antarāyāḥ

     “[1] Being ill,
       [2] feeling dense,
       [3] indecision,
       [4] dilution of interest,
       [5] idleness/not shining,
       [6] pursuit of sensual pleasures,
       [7] overblown notions,
       [8] not developing good yoga habits,
       [9] restlessness
–all mental whirlpools these: throwaways”

Meaning: “[1] Sickness,
      [2] languor,
      [3] doubt,
      [4] no excitement,
      [5] laziness/lethargy
      [6] excessive attention to sensuality/worldly desires,
      [7] wandering into illusions or false identities,
      [8] not establishing a good grounding in yoga meditation practices, and
      [9] unsteadiness in yoga meditation practices
are, all of them, just swirling energy forms. They are obstacles.”

A chant: “Om and breathing may dissolve your internal obstacles.”
Or: “Sick or heavy? Doubtful? Bored? Lazy or restless? Trapped in desires, illusions, routines? All are just eddies that breathing well may help you dissolve.”

Definition: You are completely normal in experiencing the barriers to having the crystal-clear mind that are listed in this sutra. These obstacles are normal human hurdles to overcome. They are not required, fated, or destined. Patanjali says you can overcome these hurdles if you choose to gradually clear your mind and body of them, first in meditation, and then in daily life, step by step. For example, just the simple practice of chanting a resonant phrase or sound and/or using slow, deep breaths can create wonders of focus temporarily. Patanjali also offers other solutions that follow, here, in Sutras 30-40.

Comment: It is important to understand that in meditation and in regular life, most of us have accepted the emotional and mental walls that close us off from wider, deeper, or more sensitive awareness. Psychologically, each of us sees them as insurmountable. You do this so naturally that often you don’t even think of these blocks or stopping points as walls that can be broken down. Instead of letting these barriers confine you, you can concentrate on them and wash or break them away. Once you have melted one of them, or made it begin to crumble, you realize that you also can tear it down completely and dissipate others.

We all have a number of obstacles or walls like these with which we have grown up. Which ones should you concentrate on first? The order is up to you. If you have a simple or seemingly lightweight burden, try that, first. Or if you come across a relatively gentle or new burden, try staring it down by focusing on it, and see what happens. Bigger, harder, heavier, and more long-established barriers or walls may look or feel much harder; however, even some of the apparently more difficult ones are moveable–can be dissipated–with sufficient concentration and time. Try whichever ones you like, in any order you prefer, and if one doesn’t appear to change, try another, and yet one more. Working on such clumps and masses of unwanted negative physical feelings can take time, but they do break down.

Many meditators rank them according to difficulty. You can use your own ranking or the rankings of others. For example, B.K.S. Iyengar, a modern yoga expert regarding Patanjali, classifies this sutra’s nine obstacles as follows: “1”-“2,” he says, are physical; “3”-“7” are mental; and “8”-“9” are spiritual.

Yet another way to look at this sutra is its similarity to Buddhism’s “Five Hindrances.” According to Buddha, the “Eightfold Path is to be developed for direct knowledge of these hindrances,...for their utter destruction, for their abandoning.” The Five Hindrances weave in and out of Patanjali’s list of “obstacles” above and can be used in combination with this sutra or separately:

1. “Sensual desire”: Letting desire control you too much
(However, actual enjoyment of the senses is not forbidden.)

2. “Ill will”: Hate, resentment, hostility
(But feeling a positive empowerment of willpower is necessary.)

3. “Sloth and torpor”: Half-hearted action, little effort
(However, regular sleep and rest are necessities.)

5. “Doubt”: Indecision, insecurity, confusion
(But maintaining basic caution and discernment is needed.)

Similar to Patanjali, Buddha enjoyed teaching by natural metaphor to explain what you see and feel in deep meditation. Buddha says that, as an extreme, “when one dwells with a mind obsessed by [each hindrance], overwhelmed by [it], and one does not understand...the escape from” it, then it is one of the following “bowls of water”:

1. Sensual desire: “a bowl of water mixed with...turmeric, blue dye, or crimson dye”

2. Ill will: “a bowl of water being heated over a fire, bubbling and boiling”

3. Sloth and torpor: “a bowl of water covered over with water plants and algae”

4. Restlessness and remorse: “a bowl of water stirred by the wind, rippling, swirling, churned into wavelets”

5. Doubt: “a bowl of water...turbid, unsettled, muddy, placed in the dark”

Buddha says about each bowl, “If a man with good sight were to examine his own facial reflection in [it], he would neither know nor see it as it really is.” This also occurs in looking at each hindrance in meditating.

Sutra 1.31: Duḥkha daurmanasya-aṅgam-ejayatva śvāsa praśvāsā vikṣepa saha-bhuvaḥ

Literal translation: “[1] Physical pain (‘bad axle hole’)
      [2] mental pain (‘bad thinking’)
      [3] bodily unsteadiness (‘limb/body stirring tremor’)
      [4] bad panting in, bad panting out
–throwaways, together becoming”

Meaning: “[1] Physical discomfort (e.g., an uncomfortable ride or grinding joint),
      [2] mental anguish/depression,
      [3] a shaky body, and
      [4] poor or disturbed breathing
–these may come side-by-side with the obstacles in the previous sutra.”

A chant: “Pain, despair, bad breathing, shaky body and mind may join the previous obstacles and barriers.”

Definition: The nine difficulties in the previous sutra may become repeated enough, or extreme enough, to create physical and mental pain and unsteadiness, along with poor breathing habits. Patanjali is suggesting that such side effects are not permanent and should be stopped. Meditation can help heal them, whether mental or as meditation breathing. For example, both physical and mental stress, especially over a long period of time, can lead to heart problems and other diseases. The recommended mental activities in these sutras, as well as the breathing exercises, can help alleviate them. You may need a doctor to find immediate relief; do not avoid doctors when they are necessary. However, over a longer period of time, you also can find relief through meditation mentally and/or through breath.

Comment: The first word of this sutra, duḥkha (also spelled dukkha), is another example of Patanjali’s use of agricultural metaphors. In the root language of Sanskrit, which is ancient Indo-European, the word literally means a “bad axle hole.” This was a very serious problem in old India. People–especially farmers and merchants–often traveled the roads by wagon. This was how goods were moved from place to place. For riders, a bad axle hole meant either a poorly centered hole, creating a very bumpy ride, or an axle hole in disrepair, leading to a loudly creaking or squealing hole joint and the possibility of the wheel or axle breaking down. Such problems could range from regular small annoyances in travel to major disruptions.

Duḥkha also is famous as the key word in Buddha’s “Four Noble Truths.” In the Four Noble Truths, duḥkha may be translated as “suffering,” “pains,” “distress,” “sorrows,” or “troubles”:

That “path” in Buddhism is the famous “Eightfold Path” that ends in nirvana, or what Patanjali calls samadhi. As a result, experiencing duḥkha, or a “bad axle hole,” not only is a concept important in Hindu yoga meditation, but also one that is central to Buddhism. In neither religion does the word mean that all of life is endless suffering: that is a very limited view of what they are expressing. Instead, both Patanjali and Buddha are noting that life is, too often, a series of “bad axle holes”–from petty annoyances to major suffering–jolting us and hindering our journey forward. Both Patanjali and Buddha are saying you can bring such duhkha to an end.

Another important element in this sutra is Patanjali’s reference to “poor breathing. Why would he bother to talk about breath when it may seem a minor concern compared to the other problems he mentions like “depression” and “tremors”? It is because difficulty with breathing is a clear symptom of deeper physical and psychological problems that need fixing or healing. Ancient yoga practices–and similar practices in other ancient cultures–exist because ancient experts consistently observed that physical problems can be improved, sometimes dramatically, by gradually learning ever better breathing. To breathe well is, says ancient yoga–not to mention other ancient health systems and modern science–as important as exercise and maintaining a positive attitude.

Literal translation: “Their countering, to do it: one ‘That-ness’ practice”

Meaning: “To ward off the obstacles listed in the previous two sutras, apply yourself [consistently] to one chosen form of meditation on Being.”

Definition: In Sanskrit, the word tattva means “that-ness.” A similar word in Sanskrit, tathātā, has a similar meaning, as does the Sanskrit phrase Tat tvam asi–“That Thou Art.” Together with abhyāsaḥ, tattva means “that-ness practice.” The word “that-ness” has been made famous in the West especially by Zen expert and Protestant minister Alan Watts:

In the Sanskrit saying tat tvam asi, “that art thou,” Zen is concerned with ‘that.’ “That,” of course, is the word which is used for “Brahman,” the absolute reality in Hindu philosophy. And you’re it—only in disguise, and disguised so well that you’ve forgotten it. But unfortunately, ideas like the Ultimate Ground of Being, the Self, Brahman, Ultimate Reality, the Great Void—all that is very, very abstract talk, and Zen is concerned with a much more direct way of coming to an understanding of “that.” Or “thatness,” as it’s called; tathātā in Sanskrit.

Watts is referring to the idea that, according to Hinduism, ultimate Being is divided into two ways humans can perceive it: “Brahman” is the experience of God-everywhere, and “Atman” is the experience of the spark or point of God within each person. In this Sutra, Patanjali is saying, simply, choose a single practice that takes you close to –or into –the state of ultimate being. Then use that practice consistently to counter or ward off the obstacles listed in the previous two sutras, 1.30-1.31.

Patanjali’s use of tattva or “that-ness” in this sutra means that where there is something higher or deeper, there It is: That is Being. This is similar to American yoga master and Harvard psychologist Ram Dass’ phrase “Be Here Now.” Part of the value of this saying is that it can be restated as “Now Be Here” or “Here Be Now,” and even with the different emphasis of each version, it has the same basic meaning.

This Sanskrit word, tattva, also occurs as tattvam in a famous Hindu saying from an ancient Upanishad used by many yoga meditation practitioners. Sometimes it even is made into a mantra: Tat Tvam Asi. Like “Be Here Now,” you can translate Tat Tvam Asi in several ways: the primary meaning is “That Art Thou” (God-ness is in You), as discussed above by Watts. But like the saying “Be Here Now,” this Sanskrit saying also can be reversed to show different emphases: “Thou Art That” and That Thou Art.” In whatever order you say it, it means your own awareness, itself, is a spark of ultimate Being.

Other ancient and modern spiritual systems and religions have very similar phrases. All of them are sayings meant to stop you from thinking of “Being” as an abstract concept, category, or thing, and start considering it a living actuality. Fifteenth-century Indian Sufi mystic poet Kabir says, “If you want to find the Lord, please forget about abstract nouns.” These phrases about Being mean that it is more than an object or concept. Rather, it is a verb, activity, and event–an experience. Patanjali is saying in this sutra, “Choose your approach to Being and use that approach regularly.”

What method or practice should you choose? In the next several sutras, Patanjali names a number of ways. They can work for almost anyone who wants to search for “That-ness.”

Sutra 1.33: Maitrī karuṇā mudito-pekṣāṇām sukha duḥkha puṇya-apuṇya viṣaya-aṇāṁ bhāvanātaś citta prasādanam

Literal translation: “Empathy, compassion, rejoicing, seeing all sides: applying these to pleasures or physical pains, doing good or bad. Radiating-whirlpools settling”

Meaning: “Loving kindness, no-matter-what caring, gladness, and equanimity, all of them–when applied to life’s ups and downs, and its virtues and vices–will calm your swirling energy forms.”

A chant: “Give kindness, mercy, joy, and balance to clear your mind in life’s ups and downs, good deeds and bad.”

Definition: Patanjali is saying that as you move through your world, there are certain guidelines for acting that can help you gain greater calmness and clarity of mind, especially if you practice these guides regularly. They are not rigid rules, and you generously are allowed accidental forgetfulness. You are not at all expected to be perfect at all times. But learning to practice them ever better can help you considerably. They are practices for a lifetime. They not only help you gain a clearer mind but also maintain it better and longer.

For example, if you say a harsh word to someone or carelessly hurt his or her feelings, your words not only might trouble that person at the time, but may also bother you later. As such, it becomes another thought or feeling that may prevent a calm, clear mind. If you apologize–or if you practice loving kindness toward that person in the first place–then this gives both of you more peace within your hearts and minds.

Comment: Sutra 1.33 represents what might be called “The Way of Joy.” It is a devotion to giving, spreading, and receiving love, joy, and peace that is at the heart of every major religion and people-centered ethical system.

The very first word, maître, has itself become a school or type of meditation called “maître yoga.” The word maître means “loving kindness.” It is practiced by millions of followers Western and Eastern.

The practices of being at peace and having a quiet mind also are popular. Thich Nhat Hanh, a modern master of Zen Buddhism, echoes this when he says, “To realize a tranquil heart and clear mind is to have gone far on the path of meditation.” Desmond Tutu, the revolutionary Anglican Archbishop of South Africa, says your goal should be to make of yourself “a reservoir of joy, an oasis of peace, a pool of serenity that can ripple out to all those around you.”

Vyasa, Patanjali’s first editor and commentator, emphasizes the practice of happiness, joy, and loving kindness. He says that you “should foster friendship among all beings (who have) gained the enjoyment of happiness, compassion among the afflicted, joy among (those) whose character is virtue, (and) neutrality....”

“Compassion” or, as translated here, “no-matter-what caring” is of great importance in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Buddha himself taught that compassion alone can be enough to take you to life in a heavenly abode after you die. In the ancient “Karaniya Metta Sutta,” he says you should offer compassion to “all living beings; / Radiating kindness over the entire world: / This is said to be the sublime abiding.... / The pure-hearted one... / Is not born again into this world.” He is saying that compassion leads to the ultimate release into Being.

In Hinduism, specific devotions in the Way of Joy come under the heading of love devotion, or bhakti. In India and elsewhere in places of Hindu worship, many households and businesses have small home displays that are like mini-temples, a majority of them celebrating bhakti worship, often of a particular incarnation of God and/or of a beloved great master, past or present. The idea of them is not to treat the person or incarnation as a god, but rather to celebrate the ultimate pure Being-Love that is channeled through that celebrated person.

In the West, the Abrahamic religions celebrate love in their scriptures as a primary force coming from God. The Bible’s Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) is entirely devoted to love as a mark of loving and being loved by God. And Judaism has the “Ahava raba” (prayer and blessing of abundant love).

Among Muslims, the Sufi sect in particular practices tolerance and special dances as “whirling dervishes” who turn love into ecstasy through dance. In Christianity, The Way of Joy sometimes is called “the way of the sacred heart” (especially as related to Mary, mother of Jesus), the “via positiva” (spiritual path of positive feelings such as ecstasy; see Endnote). And Christianity also states in its New Testament that “God is love” and teaches Jesus of Nazareth’s “Golden Rule” to love God and each other as the highest of commandments.

In addition, there is science. Hundreds of scientific studies in both West and East show how the practice of all of these traits of the Way of Joy improve physical, emotional, and mental health.

The Way of Joy is not just for yourself. Patanjali recognizes that such traits and the feelings they produce radiate outward to people around you when he writes, “Empathy, sympathy,... seeing all sides.” Archbishop Tutu says, “[U]ltimately our greatest joy is when we seek to do good for others.... It’s how we are made. We’re wired to be compassionate.” This particular saying of Patanjali might also be called the Sutra of Compassion.

American poet Robert Bly offers a final phrasing, with a tongue-in-cheek wryness, to describe the joy, love, and compassion embodied in this sutra:

Literal translation: “Throwing out and then holding, also, breath energy”

Definition: In addition to the previous real-world activities that help you gain calm mental clarity, you can use a breathing technique recommended here by Patanjali. Such breathing is not something to do casually and then forget about it. Rather, Patanjali intends good breathing to be a gradually built, lifelong activity, just as he expects a lifelong commitment to The Way of Joy in the previous sutra.

Here in this sutra, he describes his most basic type of good breathing for calming the mind. First, firmly and deeply exhale all of your breath; next, at the bottom of this exhale, pause for several beats; finally, inhale deeply and then repeat. The number of beats for your pause will depend on the intensity level of your physical activity: you’ll be able to pause longer when you are at rest. Practice such breathing at least several minutes each day to expand your lung capacity, especially by learning to take deeper breaths, so you can take more oxygen into your body. Doing so clears your lungs and other air passages of old air and its sediments, and also can aid health and physical energy substantially. See also Sutras II.50-51.

Comment: Patanjali has been describing breathing increasingly beginning with Sutra 1.23 in which he recommends “breathing as one with Isvara [Being].” Here in Sutra 1.34, he provides his first specific lesson in using breath. He lists it as yet one more way you can meditate. Breathing has a long and highly respectful heritage among most world cultures as a meditation method. Roman Catholic meditation master Thomas Keating, for example, calls it “following the breath as a sacred experience.”

It is interesting and helpful that Patanjali describes the two steps of yogic breathing as exhaling and then pausing (rather than inhaling and then pausing). In part, his choice of instructions are simply mechanical: if you exhale and then pause or hold your breath first, then you may be more likely to take a deeper breath when you inhale.

Patanjali’s recommendation to exhale first, then pause, also may be an ancient Hindu tradition. There is a saying in India that in the pause between inhale and exhale is Being. Whether or not you actually find God in that pause, especially after an exhale the pause may offer the quietest seconds in the breathing cycle for concentrating on your chosen point or method of meditation. You exhale, pause and concentrate on your point, then let your inhale happen automatically and deeply.

Filling your lungs more deeply is one of the specific recommendations by James Nestor in his science-oriented, self-journey book called Breath. He describes as exemplary the fact that deep-sea divers can train themselves to hold their breath much longer than normal, even up to ten minutes–when they are underwater. Nestor says learning such lung expansion offers many health advantages. He also points out that it is a long-used technique by yogis.

For more on the science of meditative breathing, see “Appendix C: How to Breathe.”

Sutra 1.35: Viṣayavatī vā pravr̥tti-rutpannā manasaḥ sthiti-nibandhanī

Literal translation: “Sensory experiences, also, evolving rising up mental steadiness–binding on original basis”

Meaning: “Focusing on a sensory object is another method to bring mental calm if concentrating in this way helps you.”

A chant: “What object of great presence do you sense? It can be your focus.”

Definition: The meaning of this sutra has many different interpretations by translators. One older tradition suggests that if you focus on certain parts of your body, you’ll gain supersensory awareness (of the sense on which you are focusing). For example, if you spend months or years focusing on your nose, you will gain super-smell of the smallest or most distant scents.

However, another interpretation suggests that Patanjali appears to be offering a series of several sutras in a row, here, about using clearly physical, external methods of concentration. In this interpretation, Sutra 1.35 may mean that if you focus on something external using one of the five senses as a method of bringing calmness to yourself, then that may help you clear your mind.

If, for example, you focus on a candle for perhaps ten to thirty minutes, that singular focus may help clear your mental space. Patanjali’s first interpreter, Vyasa, suggests that this interpretation (in addition to the earlier version about supersensory powers) is correct. He even names examples of objects on which to focus: “the moon, the sun, a planet, a crystal, a lamp, a jewel, and so on....”

Comment: Maybe supersensory powers do exist, as many stories from ancient times tell us. But it is more likely that Patanjali, being such a practical master of meditation, is simply describing one of the most simple and basic methods of meditation natural for people around the world: if you focus on something that grabs your attention long enough, it can elicit a calm, slower breathing pattern and a deeper stillness of the body and mind. This interpretation appears particularly appropriate because in this smaller group of sutras, Patanjali suggests a variety of one-pointed physical methods to create a clearer mind. In addition, other traditions, especially Zen Buddhism, recommend this type of meditation on the objects in one’s life to improve mindfulness.

Some people use a lit candle, others a spiritual symbol or icon, or even the scent or sight of a flower, a favorite song replayed, or a sunset every evening. Choosing an object like this is similar to using a mantra–a repeated word or phrase. Any such powerful aesthetic-sensory experience can work. It is a key, a door, or a stairway to finding Being, just as is a traditional prayer, a bow of reverence, or a spiritual song.

Meaning: “You also can find your mental calm when you are pregnant with light that does not burn you.”

Definition: The “light” referenced here is, in ancient yoga tradition and in many others, the “inner light” you might find within. It is not a real, physical light, though sometimes it may seem so because of its intensity. Rather it is a light viewed by the inner mind space. Some traditions, for example, describe it as a luminous heart, others a radiant shining, still others a figure or symbol surrounded by bright light.

Comment: The point Patanjali makes in this sutra is, simply, that this is yet one more practical way to find your one-pointed method of meditating. He is aware that this light can grow and strengthen for you, if this is your chosen way; and he understands that this light is a beam, spark, or shaft from the greater light, love, and strength of Being from which it comes. In the Hindu division of all the world’s forces into three–sattva (creative energy), rajas (power/strength), and tamas (inertia)–this light is a pure, radiant version of sattva.

Hanson and Mendius note in Buddha’s Brain that such “‘brightening’ likely involves a surge of norepinephrine throughout the brain; that neurotransmitter...is a general orienting signal that fosters alertness.” In addition, they say, “Some parts of the brain are linked by reciprocal inhibition: when one part activates, it suppresses another one. To some extent, the left and right hemispheres have this relationship; thus, when you stimulate the right [visual] hemisphere,...the verbal centers of the left hemisphere are effectively shushed.” Thus this light, when it appears to many people, may also be accompanied by a surrounding silence.

Literal translation: “Without excitation, sensuous objects, also in mind space”

Meaning: “You also can find mental calm with real objects in mind space for which you hold no passionate attachment.”

Definition: Patanjali appears to be clarifying that you can choose a sensory object to hold in your mind space, too. Here he means the object is not real, or at least not there with you at present. Rather, it is an object in your memory or in your creative imagination. However, he specifies that you cannot be attached to the object, real or imagined, by human desire. Rather, it must be pure to you.

For example, imagining a candle or flower might bring you to a calmer state of peace, love, or joy; however, if you choose your favorite food or memory of physical pleasure that makes you “excited,” this thought instead may just stir a host of associated thoughts, memories, emotions that take you away from calmness and clarity of mind.

Comment: A fine line sometimes exists between what makes you calm and clear as opposed to what makes you overly excited. Traditional translators of Patanjali often convert his recommendations to a more severe, ascetic meaning, which is that anything leading to physical pleasure–food, drink, or sex–is forbidden.

However, some translators say, instead, that this is too extreme, that under some conditions, certainly physical pleasures are allowed as long as you do not become attached/addicted to them. Some Buddhists point out that Buddha’s “Middle Path” recommendation means precisely this, that nothing need be taken to an excessive extreme. Buddha himself ate and drank with others and did not say you must forbid yourself from feeling pleasure in these.

Most yoga masters do not forbid the great physical feelings that come from successful stretching and breathing. Jesus of Nazareth even was criticized by other rabbis and priests of his time for enjoying eating and drinking with others. Some Zen Buddhist masters might say, “Eat, drink, go hungry, go thirsty, all is the same in satori.” Some physical pleasures, in fact, can be useful to meditating: pleasure itself creates a type of mindfulness, a concentrating upon the pleasure, that is good practice of mindfulness. And intense physical pleasure sometimes can lead to intense spiritual pleasure, especially in the arts or in appreciation of nature, where intense enjoyment of a painting, a sunset, a musical composition, a statue, a piece of stonework or driftwood, etc. –can lead from physical appreciation to an experience of wonder, beauty, or the joy of creation itself. All of these can help one reach enlightenment.

Whatever helps you develop greater concentration and deeper calm is helpful. One translator even says that a master meditator who does not live in “excitation” can be your chosen object. This, too, is fine. If your “objects of the senses”–persons, things, events, or acts–help you arrive at greater peace, then they can be good for you.

Literal translation: “Dream or deepest sleep–wakeful knowing–deriving from, too”

Meaning: “You might use a dream or a deep, dreamless sleep, and when you wake up and concentrate on it, you can clear your mind, too.”

A chant: “Awake from sleep and wrap yourself around the good that was in it to clear your mind.”

Definition: A dream of the right kind, or remembering your state of awareness from a dreamless, very deep state of sleep, also can help you clear your mind space. This is not a recommendation to remember all your dreams or try to return to sleep. Rather, it is a selective method of using any dream or dreamless state that might help you clear your mind when you wake up. For example, if you have dreamed a powerful experience of love, peace, joy, or some other deep or high state, you can use it whenever you meditate to clear your mind. Recalling dreamless sleep–the deepest state–can calm and clear you, too. You don’t have to re-dream it, just recall it as best you can, then think of it anytime.

Comment: Western psychology sometimes values dreams as a pipeline for discovering your unconscious or subconscious motives, feelings, and desires. Dreams (even the deepest state of theta dreamless sleep) also can give you spiritual or clear-mind experiences. Joel Morwood, spiritual director for the Center for Sacred Sciences in Oregon, says, “St. Augustine...divided dreams into two main categories, those that are true and those that are false, while Tibetan Buddhists distinguish between clarity dreams and dreams that are merely karmic or (as we might say) egoic in nature.”

These divisions are not complex: if you have a dream that gives you greater clarity, then it may be useful for meditation, just as recommended in Sutras 35 and 37. However, if remembering the dream takes you “down the rabbit hole,” as it were, into swirling, Alice-in-Wonderland distractions, realistic or fantastic, then these whirlpools of memory would be what St. Augustine and the Tibetan Buddhists above would call “false,” or merely “karmic” and “egoic.” And the blank of dreamless sleep (in Hinduism, it is called nidrā), if you can recall it, can be very soothing and calming, too.

Another interesting aspect of this sutra is that you can use dreams purposely to expand the range of your meditation practice–not just an observer or interpreter of them. You can, in fact, go one step further: sometimes you can create dreams. If you try this, then before sleeping, simply instruct yourself to dream of love, peace, or joy in any way, shape, or manner of your choice. Or tell yourself to remember your dreamless sleep (called “theta” sleep by scientists). Then remember either one on waking and use that memory for meditation.

Literal translation: “As desired from personal religious practices, meditating, too”

Meaning: “You can use what you desire from your own spiritual practices, too.”

Definition: Once again, Patanjali is saying that you may use one of many methods. He now has mentioned some of the common successful ones of which he is aware. He is not saying that anything is okay. Rather, he is defining what works by the result you get: whatever gives you a clear mind–anything that is a one-pointed method that you can use repeatedly–may be acceptable. For example, if you think of a relative or friend who has died, of a perfect painting or song, or of a particular dance, and it works to help you meditate, then fine: use it.

Comment: Vivekananda, author of one of the most all-embracing translations of the Yoga Sutras, says of this sutra, “Anything that will concentrate the mind” can work. In this regard, Vivekananda’s–and Patanjali’s–recommendation of a broad number of methods for discovering spirituality is similar to Jesus of Nazareth’s dictum that “whoever is not against us is for us.”

However, it is clear that Patanjali, like Jesus and the vast majority of other spiritual teachers, does limit “anything that works” to what also is ethical. He does not believe you should choose activities that are immoral in the world. He believes, if you read all of his sutras, that meditation leads to greater ethical behavior, and stronger morality can help better establish a good meditation practice.

On the other hand, “good morality” does not mean that you must live like an ascetic hermit. Rather, Patanjali’s repeated insistence on the value of a wide variety of practices suggests that he takes a more Buddhist position regarding how you act in the world: the Middle Way or the Middle Path of behavior often is best: halfway between ascetism and luxury. Buddha lived somewhat before the time of Patanjali, and so Buddha probably had a significant affect, directly or indirectly, on Patanjali’s sutras about meditation.

Literal translation: “Smallest particle to greatest, extending your mastery”

Meaning: “From the smallest particle to the greatest expanse, using Sutras 33-39 will extend your mastery of consciousness.”

A chant: “Awareness lives from the smallest particle to the infinite.”

OR “The smallest atom to the universe itself can raise you up in meditation.”

Definition: Two reasonable meanings exist for this sutra. The first is that as you learn to meditate better, your ability to understand or perceive smaller and greater parts of the universe will increase. The second is that you can use anything from the smallest to the largest element in the universe upon which to meditate, if it helps you. This sutra does not mean that you become a “master of the universe” who rules the cosmos. Rather, it simply means that nature can be helpful in meditating: it can be supportive or even directly useful as a one-pointed object of meditation.

For example, you might discover, after months or years of meditation, that you more deeply appreciating the smallest details in nature, or perhaps the entire cosmos and its workings. Or you might find that when you choose a flower or bee, or the constellations of the stars in the sky–their special beauty or meaning to you–that focusing on any of these may help you gain greater clarity of mind and body. Whichever you choose, your choice does not mean you are worshipping these elements. Rather, they are convenient objects to reach a deeper or higher goal, just as for some people a religious symbol, statue, prayer, or image aids them.

Comment: Unfortunately, many translators interpret this sutra as having a supernatural meaning: Patanjali, they tell us, is saying the you will become a master of the universe over nature.

However, this interpretation is unlikely. Georg Feuerstein, an eminent scholar, meditator, and translator of Patanjali, says of this sutra that “mastery” means, simply, you gradually learn “to hold [your] mind stable in relation to any object irrespective of its size or type. In other words, those who are skilled in the art of concentration can achieve [one-pointedness] with regard to any of the myriads of cosmic forms.” Plainly stated, the presence of an atom or of an entire universe in your awareness will not surprise or disrupt your meditative calm.

Feuerstein’s simpler and more elegant interpretation is likely for two reasons: historical analysis and textual analysis. First is historical analysis. Throughout his sutras, Patanjali is a “nature writer.” In his ancient lifetime, he was surrounded by natural objects. He–like many of the earliest Hindu authors–demonstrates an obvious and deep affection for nature, calling it to attention often in his sutras by word and metaphor. Historically, he is a type of “nature writer.”

Second, textual analysis of Yoga Sutras also suggests Feuerstein’s interpretation. Much of Patanjali’s writings are based on the ancient Hindu Vedas, written before Patanjali’s time, and possibly some of the similarly old Upanishads. These writings consistently support the belief that seeking power is an obstacle to true meditation. Textually, Patanjali repeats this argument time and again in his own sutras: seeking power for its own sake is unethical, anti-spiritual, and thus destructive of meditation. He more likely echoes this moral viewpoint here in Sutra 1.39, as well: an advanced meditator is not one seeking to become “master of the universe” but rather a person comfortable with nature, be it infinitesimal or universal.

Sanskrit Text: Patanjali, c. 400 BCE-400 CE

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See also Meditationary, a Meditation Dictionary.

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