Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

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Meaning: “These swirling energy-forms that you assume are “me” appear at other times (than in Sutra 3).”

A chant: “When you’re not clear, your thoughts swirl round and seem like you.”

Definition: In this sutra, Patanjali defines how normal, everyday mental impressions act. Patanjali’s definition of mental impressions contains what were labelled the “Big Four” in Sutra 1.2. He will go into much more detail about the Big Four starting in Sutra 1.6, where he names what he considers the five main types of whirlpools; and then he names two additional groups of them and their results later in Sutras 1.30-1.31.

Patanjali describes these impressions as swirling about your inner core, creating your small self, what can be called your personality. They enter you like whirlpools circling into points within yourself. They are not permanently stored as a necessary and indivisible part of your deepest core of real selfhood, which is your central Awareness. Instead, they come from outside that core Awareness.

Patanjali suggests, in this sutra, that you can sense them entering your central core of self like swirling forms. The real you is not these mental impressions; they are exterior to it. One example that perhaps most people can relate to is sleep. Patanjali considers it a mental impression coming from beyond your deepest core of self. And, in fact, you perhaps can remember how sleep sometimes seems to come in waves, gradually approaching and becoming increasingly stronger until you finally must give in to it. Likewise, sometimes when you wake, the sleep waves seem slowly, gradually, to recede from the core of your self until you are fully awake.

Comment: When you reach the point at which you have calmed your mind space in meditation, in going into or coming out of sleep, or sometimes in other states, you can literally see and feel mental impressions coming into you. They may appear as independent, floating energy-forms or shapes beyond you, like little bundles of energy. In a perfectly calm state, you can ignore them or push them away. But if you are curious and concentrate on them, that very focus on them will pull them into you like, as Patanjali says, a whirlpool with its point somewhere in your head or body.

Imagining this concept of mental impressions coming into your center from the outside might be easier if you remember the ancient Hindu explanation called the koshas listed in Sutra 1.2–the onion-like layers of self with a center of pure self or Awareness and, around it, from inside to outside, a wisdom-knowing layer; a layer of normal thoughts and memories; and a heavier layer of emotions, desires, sleep, and physical sensations. Finally, the outermost layer is your physical body: bones, tissue, and blood. Patanjali is saying that your mental impressions are outside your core, and these impressions whirlpool into your center, where you become aware of them.

Another way of understanding the small self is the forms in which Western psychology labels it. For example, Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius in Buddha’s Brain list five “selves”:

- [t]he autobiographical self [that] provides the sense of “I” having a unique past and future [I did/will work hard.]

- [t]he self-as-object...when you deliberately think about yourself [in the abstract–"My 'self' is friendly."]

- the self-as-subject [that] is the elemental sense of being a person [living your] experiences ["Now I am walking."]

“In the brain,” Hanson and Mendius add, “every manifestation of self is impermanent. The self is continually constructed, deconstructed, and constructed again” [italics theirs]. These small selves, says Patanjali, however much they may help you through life (or impede your life), are just outer swirls and whirlpools around the true Self–the Awareness–that lies at the heart of them.

Meaning: “The primary mental impressions are five types of energy-forms [listed in the next sutra], each of which can be helpful or hurtful.”

Definition: Patanjali classifies the whirlpools, or mental impressions, into five main categories, which he explains in the next sutras. He does not say these are the only kinds of mental impressions or energy-forms, just that they are the most common or important. While there are literally thousands of other classification systems for mental impressions, ancient to modern in both West and East, Patanjali’s five types are very practical. They are simple to understand and common in human experience. For example, one type of thought he classifies is sleep; it can be a deep, restorative rest, or it can be a shallow restlessness troubled by discomfort and nightmares.

Comment: Each type of thinking that Patanjali is about to list is neutral. That means each one, in and of itself, is neither innately good or bad. This is important to remember: thinking itself is not bad. Though the goal of yoga, says Patanjali, is to develop a clear mind space, you still may have good and useful thoughts. Patanjali clarifies that the good versions of these five types of thought help you grow closer to having a clear mind space. And he implies (much later, at the very end of his fourth and final chapter) that you can use good thoughts even after you have achieved a perfectly clear mind.

The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) have a similar concept. Some thoughts (and actions) are called justified or righteous (“righteous” in Hebrew literally means “in right ways”), or gifts of the spirit. However, others are considered unjustified, “in wrong ways,” or–to use a similar word–“sinful.” Unfortunately, now in Western culture, the word “sinful” implies committing evil. Originally, the word meant, simply, “in wrong ways to God” or, more in modern wording, “out of sync with God.” “Sinful” means, basically, “imperfect.”

Generally, whether in East or West, it is not thinking itself that is good or bad, but rather whether the thoughts help an enlightened process or, instead, prevent such enlightenment. Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, says “there are so many...diverse thoughts and emotions we experience on a daily basis. Some of these thoughts and emotions are harmful, even toxic, while others are healthy and healing. The former disturb your mind space and cause much mental pain. The latter bring you true joyfulness.”

If, for example, you talk to a friend, is your talking hurtful to you or your friend? Or is it, instead, positive for you or the other person, tending toward a wider, greater sense of being, love, or peace?

Literal translation: “Measured logic, false logic, verbalizing imaginings, deep sleep, recollecting”

A chant: “Your whirlpool thoughts are reason, illusion, creativity, inner voice, deep sleep, or memory.”

Definition: This sutra divides the whirlpools, also called mental impressions or energy-forms, into five major types. Patanjali describes all five in more detail in the sutras following this one, so here is just a brief definition of each one for now:

a. The first of the five is logical reasoning based on facts. Such thinking does not use guesses, just clear reality. For example, the existence of a chair is a fact, and a series of facts, added logically, show it can be used for sitting.

b. The second is reasoning based on non-facts: in other words, fantasizing or illogical reasoning. For example, if you say that the chair, above, floats on air every Friday, that would be a fantasy or illogical thought.

c. About the third energy-form, translators have some disagreement. A modern view is that Patanjali may have meant creative thinking–what now is called storytelling. By “verbalizing imagining” he may have meant the kind of talking that you do within yourself: your silent inner voice. Though what he meant is not completely clear, it is not simply unreal logic but rather something more complex and richer, such as might occur if you were to make up a story about the chair, above: how it becomes a flying chair whenever the moon is out, enabling you to break through evil air spirits to travel to other planets.

d. The fourth type of mental impression is the blankness or “blank page” you remember that you had in deep sleep if you are awakened from it. This state is not normal dreaming, which he probably included in the first three categories, above. Instead, the blank-page state during sleep is the seeming absence of dreams (which he will explain in a sutra below).

e. The fifth swirling or whirlpool is memories: basic, simple remembering of something you experienced in real life. It is not fantasy about these memories, nor is it logical (or illogical) thinking about a single memory. Rather, it is just a memory or series of them in pure form, just as you remember them happening, such as you might recal a pleasant meeting with a friend or an unpleasant accident you once had.

Comment: Patanjali clarifies, later, that if knowing these types of whirlpools helps you identify and quiet or calm them, then the description of each may be helpful. However, he points out, if you have found other ways to quiet all such energy-forms, then you do not need to worry about identifying these five by type.

How does Patanjali classify emotion, desire, and other partly-physical feelings or expressions? This is an open question. However, you will find, if you read the sutras to the end, that he obviously believes in the existence, value, and even importance of higher, deeper feelings that a person might call spiritual such as profound states of love, peace, joy, and others. You’ll also discover, in the “Comment” section of sutras yet to come, that translators and commentators for the past two thousand years have disagreed about the value of desire, such as desire for food or sex, in the Yoga Sutras. Some say all desires must be stricken. Others say that, like these five types of mental impressions, some desires can be good or useful, and some bad or troubling.

Literal translation: “Direct experience, close logic, scripture: measured logic”

Meaning: “First-hand experience, finely-measured inference, and words of an expert: these are sources of verifiable logic.”

A chant: “Search the reality of your senses, raw logic, and true reports.”

Definition: The first one of the five types of whirlpools, or energy-forms listed in Sutra 6 is measured by verifiable logic. It comes, says Patanjali, from any of three sources: your direct sensory experiences, your direct logical connections, and highly competent testimony from trusted sources. Such logic does not stem from wishful thinking or from your own feelings or opinions and those of others. Instead, they are evidenced by what your or others’ senses report, or from direct, simple, logical reasoning thereof.

For example, if the evidence of your senses tells you that a fruit has given you an upset stomach every time you’ve eaten it, then you logically may assume it will continue to do so. However, you cannot logically say that the same will happen to others without further external evidence. Even then, you must consider that your connection between the fruit and your own indigestion may be a qualified truth based on other factors you haven’t examined, such as the time of day you eat it or the foods with which you have eaten it.

Comment: Why is Patanjali bothering to offer so much detail about these five types of mental impressions? He hopes to help you answer three questions:

(1) “How can I better identify the different patterns in my own mind?” Recognizing them is one way to slow them down and eventually clear them.

(2) “How can I make use of a pattern to help me meditate?” If you understand a pattern, you can better use it to take you closer to good meditation, or you can more easily see how it takes you away from useful meditation.

(3) “How can I make use of a pattern as I become more enlightened?” For example, if you realize you have a purpose in life, then some readings may help you to help others.

All three of Patanjali’s categories for logical thinking also are understood as logical and factual mental processing in modern times. It is worth noting that his third item, “words of experts,” was always called, in Patanjali’s time, “scripture.” “Scripture” two thousand years ago meant “accurate descriptions of spiritual or mystical experiences by experts.” Because scriptures were just beginning, then, to be placed in written form, many of them were the actual words of mystics passed down through many centuries. It wasn’t until after these early ancient scriptures were written that commentaries–sometimes written by people who were more philosophical than mystical–began to be written.

Also noteworthy is that we now think of the early scriptures of Hinduism–stories and anecdotes of the activities of different gods–as myths. However, those early scriptures, perhaps primarily in the Vedas and the earliest Upanishads, had esoteric (spiritual-symbolic) meanings. They actually were descriptions of meditators and mystics’ experiences. Therefore, to Patanjali and other ancient writers, they were “truth” just as much so as first-person newspaper accounts are supposed to be today.

Thus in modern times, this second item in the list–close logic or finely-measured reasoning–means accurate deduction (and perhaps carefully used induction). The steps of deductive (and inductive) reasoning must be based, according to Patanjali, on real, verifiable experiences you or others have had, using facts on which most people can agree.

Literal translation: “False logic: conflicting knowledge–not appearance based”

Meaning: “Inverted or illusory logic is false knowledge, not standing on what true observation brings forth.”

Definition: The second of the whirlpools or energy-forms that was listed in Sutra 6 is unreal or fake logic. Patanjali is not talking about creative storytelling or creative imagination here: that is a different category. Rather, he means that illusory knowledge is defined by its not being based on actual observed nature. The classic example given by many translators is that from a distance, observed too quickly or at night, a person might see a snake. Upon closer examination, however, the person might realize the “snake” is really a rope

Comment: Throughout the sutras, Patanjali clearly demonstrates that he believes in a “real” reality. In other words, he does not take the position, as some in Hinduism and Buddhism do, that all of reality is just an illusion. Patanjali believes that the world really exists. However, he stipulates in this sutra that illusory thinking also can happen: it is what you or others talk or write about as if it were true, but it is not based on observing what is real.

Is this kind of thinking bad? Patanjali doesn’t have much that is positive to say about it. However, he already has stated in Sutra 6 that each of the five basic types of mental impressions can be used for good or bad.

Thus it is good, perhaps, to remember that such illusory thinking, as in this sutra, does include illogical rhetorical devices like satire, irony, sarcasm, and other “illusory” or reversed logical forms. The purpose of such turns of language often is either to emphasize what is not true, or to entertain. Patanjali already has made it clear, if indirectly so, that you are using good thinking when you learn what is not true. In addition, entertainment is not bad. Laughter and humor are acceptable–not everything need be serious–if they take you closer to a lightness, joy, or peace that is compatible with meditation. For these two reasons, this sutra’s “illusory thinking” has both good and bad uses as a method of thinking.

Literal translation: “Verbal knowledge in sequence with perceivable objects unoccupied = creative thoughts”

Meaning: “Normal thinking in your head using verbal word sounds, not referring to real objects, is ‘creative mixed thoughts.’”

OR (alternative): “Verbal thinking in your head mixed with fantasy-swollen images is ‘creative mixed thoughts.’”

Definition: For Patanjali, this third type of energy-form or “mind swirling” is a type of internal verbal thinking that makes connections without referring regularly to real objects. In other words, it is jumping to conclusions without careful reference to reality.

Psychologist Lev Vygotsky suggests that many or most of us have an “inner speech” or silent voice within. Psychologists also call it our “stream of consciousness.” It is a series of internal word-sounds or sensory images in your head, often a mixture of both, along with intermixed feelings. In other words, it is what we call inner “normal thinking.” It flows ever on with its own mix of logic, memories, and imaginings, somewhat different for each of us.

Patanjali appears to be referring to this general word-image-memory-feeling flow, especially when it is allowed free reign without any kind of reality check. For example, if you see someone in a mask outside on a dark night, your stream of consciousness might begin flowing with thoughts and feelings about robbery or worse and then consider whether–and how–you might go outside or, instead, call calling the police. However, when the figure walks under a street lamp, you see that mask is part of a costume (and you remember it is Halloween).

Another example is more positive. Perhaps a friend says to you, after you gently have explained to your child why he or she cannot run blindly across the street, “You might make a good counselor or teacher.” Your mind then becomes filled with ideas, memories, and images of other events that might be related, and you begin to ask yourself, “Should I become a teacher, or maybe a counselor?” This stream of consciousness, too, is not entirely reality based, especially if you haven’t yet analyzed the real possibilities and problems of making such a change. However, your thinking, at least, is creating a new and positive possibility. In this sense, such thinking is creative and sometimes quite useful.

Comment: Many translations tend to make this thought-form, like the previous one, merely a negative activity. They do so by interpreting it a form of lying or of creating a technically false statement: for example, “all cows are like cattle” (which is, in the discipline of logic, false: cows are not “like” cattle–they are cattle).

However, Patanjali’s definition of this form of thinking appears to go far beyond mere illogical statements. In fact, he has told us in Sutra 6 that each of these five thought forms can be positive or negative, depending on their use. Well respected scholar and meditation expert Georg Feuerstein says in his translation of the Yoga Sutras that such creative thinking, though it sometimes can mislead us or be distracting, at other times can be helpful: for example, he says, it can help us gain “a concept of a ‘higher Self’ or a ‘path’” so that we can “exercise our will to overcome...limitations...and...break through to the level of the transcendental Self.”

One other intriguing possibility exists in translating “perceivable objects voided” (vastu śūnyo.” The root of śūnyo is śvi, or “to swell.” Thus it may be that Patanjali is talking about “perceivable objects swelling,” which could mean that this type of thinking clearly is creative imagination that swells or inflates perceivable objects into imaginary objects that are interesting and different. This creative process could involve the arts, imagination attached to nature, or other acts of imagining.

Literal translation: “Voidness, notion of–resting in: whirlpools/swirls of deep sleep”

Meaning: “Being ‘empty of mind’ is a feeling in which you rest when you experience the thought-form of deep sleep.”

Definition: “Deep sleep” in this sutra actually is a form of thought, says Patanjali. It may seem like unconsciousness; however, experienced meditators can access this blankness of deep sleep in a conscious way, too. There even is a specific school of meditation–Nidra Yoga–that works on accessing this type of consciousness. In a state of nidra, for example, everything slows down: you have no thoughts, memories, or emotions, and few or no physical sensations; you experience a very slow heartbeat and sense of timelessness; and, afterward, you gain a feeling of refreshment as if from a deep sleep.

Comment: Nidra or blank sleep is, according to the scientific journal Neuroscience, “the deepest level,...stage IV sleep,” considered so because it is the most difficult sleep from which to rouse someone. In stage IV, your brain’s “predominant EEG activity consists of low frequency (1–4 Hz), high-amplitude fluctuations called delta waves....”

When you fall asleep, says, Neuroscience, you move through sleep stages I-IV, with IV being the lowest or deepest, in about an hour. As you come out of this cycle, you move backward and upward through stages III, II, and then I, and then into “REM” (“rapid eye movement”) sleep. The full cycle of I-IV and back again tends to be repeated, but only once. After that, your mind space tends to cycle through I, II, and III, skipping four, and then backwards from III and II to I again.

Each time you return closer to wakefulness in stage I, you then enter an even higher or closer-to-wakefulness level called “REM” (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is most similar to normal waking awareness. Then you cycle back downward through I, II, and III again. You repeat this full down and up cycle several more times through the night, skipping IV, with the REM level lasting a little longer each time.

Because the deepest sleep, delta, occurs early in the sleep cycle, meditators who seek nidra consciousness may best look for it there, and not at the end of a night’s sleep, when it is unlikely to occur. And they may need to pass through only an hour or less of meditating to find it if they search at the beginning of what normally would be a night of sleep. How likely are you to find it? In most people, most of the time, sleepiness does lead to sleep. But meditators who do not fall asleep easily may find themselves slipping into ever-slowing brainwaves and then reaching the “blank-slate” delta waves while remaining conscious.

However, nidra consciousness, says Patanjali, still is one of the five vrittis: whirlpools or swirling energy-forms of thought that he defines in Sutra 1.5 and lists in Sutra 1.6. In other words, the blank slate is, itself, actually a “thing”: a blank slate. He says that its emptiness is only an illusion. It is like looking at a blue wall and thinking we’re seeing empty sky.

And as Patanjali says, these five thought-forms can be useful for a clear mind space, or they can be obstacles. If nidra consciousness comes to you as you meditate, you may be able to mark it as an interesting experience–or perhaps even, if it regularly deepens your meditations, a temporary goal. It certainly is considered restorative, whether you have it in sleep or in meditation. There even is a type of meditation system called Nidra Yoga. It is helpful to remember, though, that it is only one type of swirling energy-form. And the eventual goal is to be able to still, or clear, all energy forms in the deepest crystal-clear mind meditation.

Literal translation: “Experienced-in-the-world, going-active-again, not stolen: memory”

Meaning: “A worldly or natural experience, happening again in your mind space, not whisked away by time: this is remembering.”

Definition: A recollection or memory, the fifth whirlpool listed in Sutra 6, is an energy-form not forgotten, but rather reoccurring in your mind space. It is not logic, imagination, or sleep, though it can occur with these. Instead, it is a recall of something you perceived or felt. For example, if you recall your meditation experience from the previous day, you may be able to use this memory to begin your meditation faster or better. On the other hand, if you can’t clear a string of bad memories from your head, memory is not helping you but rather hurting.

Comment: Memories are thoughts, too. This may seem obvious, but in the context of meditating, they are like other mind forms: something to clear away, often, when you meditate. Sometimes people worry that clearing away thoughts will mean you cannot get them back. Usually, if they are strongly imprinted in you, that doesn’t happen. However, if you consider the memories important, then go ahead: remember them. But doing so a few times, or at most once a day, usually is more than enough to recall them at a future time. If you consider them extremely important, write them down, or take notes about them enough to recall them again.

If a memory is especially valuable to you, incorporate it as an object of meditation. You can do this with other thoughts, too. Using any kind of thought as an object of meditation is called jnana or “mind” yoga. Typically, you choose a verbal thought, image, or single memory, and you hold it in your mind as if you might focus on the flame of a candle or a beautiful sunset. You then let is sit or rest there, watching it, waiting to see what might spring from it. What does it make you think of or feel? Let it unreel or move forward (or backward) one step: what happens, what do you feel, or what pattern, if any, do you sense?

If your thought object takes you more deeply into meditation, it may be a starting point well worth using. Memories especially–of particularly strong or pure meditative experiences–can be helpful beginnings in meditation: let the memory of something beautiful, strong, and pure wash over you, let it fully possess you, and you may find your way to the experience once again.

Practicing jnana on a deeply troubling memory sometimes is helpful, as well. As you focus on it, letting it rest at the front of your mind space, also become aware of its disturbing nature: why does it bother you, and what part of you is bothered and how? And finally, can you switch your focus ever so slightly to the feeling of being troubled, as if you were facing it. Doing so is an ancient yoga technique that modern psychology now calls “accepting” or “managing” your negative emotions. Doing this does not mean you have chosen to remember bad feelings repeatedly; rather, the purpose is to disassemble a bad feeling by facing and examining it, either on your own or with a therapist.

The more purely you can experience the bad feeling itself, especially when you can cut it away from your mental thoughts and images that you normally attach to it, then the more easily you may be able to control or even dissipate it. Buddhist psychiatrist Mark Epstein says in Psychology Today that you “need a state of reverie in order to know [y]our emotions. Whether...through meditation or the quiet holding space of therapy, it is always necessary.” You need, says, Epstein, “acceptance of feelings rather than talking and analyzing.”

Occasionally, bad feelings are a warning of someone or something about to approach. However, a regular bad feeling usually is just another whirlpool swirling in or around you. Usually you can dive into it, watch it, or let it envelop you, if necessary, without reacting to it, and it will go away. Strong or stubborn feelings may need several meditation sessions–and renewal meditations in future times–but usually, with such meditative focus, a bad feeling gradually dissolves or melts away.

Those who practice this also learn to have a lifebuoy or life preserver on hand to rescue them if observing a feeling becomes too overwhelming. Those in therapy have their therapist. Those who practice the Way of Waiting as explained in Sutra 1 often have a meditation master. Those who practice alone choose a high or deep experience to “rescue” them: a point or object of meditation, whether within or without, to which they always can turn–as Patanjali will discuss in Sutra 23.

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

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See also Meditationary.org, a Meditation Dictionary; and BodyMeditation.org, Introducing Yoga Meditation.

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