Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

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Literal translation: “Reasoning, insight, joy, an ‘I-am-ness’ rising to a knowing-gnosis”

Meaning: “Analytical thinking, creative movement, bliss, and an awareness of one’s own Self–all four can take you to a crystal-clear mind or level of pure Awareness (samadhi with seed).”

A chant: “Logic, insight, joy, and knowing your Self can bring you perfect Awareness.”

Definition: These four types of experience, alone or together, can connect you to being aware of, and in tune with, your higher, purer Self, your pure Awareness that you already have and already are, beneath and behind all your thoughts, memories, emotions, and sensations.

Comment: Patanjali’s generosity of spirit here is unmistakable. His embrace of paths to the spiritual is so wide that it not only includes the many schools of Indian Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in his day, of which he was well aware, but also other religions. It is quite likely, given his erudite knowledge about different spiritual practices, that Patanjali also was aware of Judaism, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and other religions that stretched westward into the Middle East and north and east through China to Japan.

And in his knowledge, he recognized the core of all these and other world religions by saying that such qualities as reason, intuitive insight, joy, and higher sense of “I-am-ness” can lead to a gnosis or aware knowledge of spiritual states. Other spiritual systems that actually work to reveal inner, deeper states of being recognize some or all of the qualities as possible pathways to finding enlightenment or liberation.

Sutra 1.18: Virāma pratyaya-ābhyāsa pūrvaḥ saṁskāra-śeṣo-'nyaḥ

Literal translation: “Complete stopping of ongoing thoughts by practice–former echoes like burnt seeds: another”

Meaning: “Strong silencing of whirlpool energy-forms, through practice, leaves you seeing echoes of former energy-forms only as little bundles of leftover remnants outside of you: this is another kind of pure Awareness (samadhi without seed).”

A chant: “Sometimes in your pure Awareness you’ll see burnt seeds of thoughts.”

Definition: In meditation, when you silence your thoughts entirely, you will rest in another type of consciousness: pure Awareness. There, you may see shapes like burnt seeds, husks, or dust balls approaching you. They are not illusory or imagined. Rather, they are what many who enter deep meditation have seen. For example, if you are sitting in meditation and your mind space is completely clear with not a thought, you might see, in your mind’s eye, a seedlike image hovering around your awareness, but outside of it. If you let it–or make it–stay there, then you will know only that it is a thought-form without knowing specifically what the thought is. If, however, you concentrate on it even a second, it will suddenly form in your mind space as a specific thought.

Comment: In deep meditation, you actually sometimes can see thoughts, memories, emotions, and sensations coming toward your central awareness before they arrive. If you ignore or reject one of these seeds, it goes away, and the thought never forms. Sometimes the seed looks more like a hairy or bushy ball, like the tumbleweeds of the American West. Then it is more likely to be a darker thought or memory, or an emotion. Even thicker, denser, and larger balls are, once they blossom within, darker, stronger emotions or desires. Sometimes a series of thoughts or memories can appear as external whirlings like husks of leaves rattling around you in a whirlwind, waiting to get in.

These ways of seeing thoughts are part of Hindu yoga psychology. To understand them better, you may want to think once again of the ancient concept of the koshas listed in Sutra 1.2–the onion-like layers of the self with the pure Awareness at the center; thoughts, emotions, and physical feelings in succeeding outer layers; and the outermost layer of the material body. The center kosha of Awareness can see the “burnt seeds” of thoughts and feelings in the outer layers, swirling around the central layer before entering into it.

Literal translation: “In this pre-birth state of awareness, bodiless, or absorbed in nature”

Meaning: “In this state of awareness in Sutra 18, you may go outside of your body or become one with (something in) nature.”

A chant: “When you clear your mind, you might leave your body or merge with nature.”

Definition: As you learn to have a clear Awareness, you may find yourself leaving your body during meditation, or even at another time; or you may find yourself merging into one or another part of nature or natural material around you. Doing so does not mean you won’t go back into your normal self. In fact, most people return to their normal body and self very quickly.

For example, a typical first-time out-of-body experience is to rise above your body, sometimes only part way, sometimes so far up that you can look down and see yourself. Or, for example, a typical merging-with-nature experience is to suddenly see or feel like you are inside a flower you have stared at, or even inside a mate, friend, or pet, looking at yourself.

Comment: Another typical experience, especially in mating, is to feel like you have merged with the other person, however briefly. In the West, such experiences often are called out-of-body or astral-body events. They are so common that many dozens of books have been written about the phenomenon. Again, such experiences when caused by meditation or during a time period when you are first beginning to effectively clear your mind space almost always are brief, with a quick and natural return to life as normal.

Literal translation: “Assurance, eager energy, remembering, samadhi, and higher intuition: these leading to stilling, otherwise”

Meaning: “Confidence, strong effort, keen memory, Awareness, and gnosis: all can lead to stilling your whirlpool energy forms.”

A chant: “You also may clear your mind through faith, will, memory, finding your Self, and wise insight.”

Definition: This clear mind as discussed in Sutras 18-19 also can come, or is further developed by, (1) acts of faith (trust or assurance in someone or something), (2) strength of will beyond thought and feeling, (3) mindfully being aware of each instant, (4) insight that reaches ultimate meanings, and/or (5) absorption into or merging of your own awareness with universal Awareness (the experience of samadhi). It is not developed through normal thought processes. Rather, they need to be interrupted, paused, or cleared away.

Comment: Most of these mental activities or attitudes that Patanjali mentions in this sutra fall under the modern category of “mindfulness.” What is it?

Mindfulness expert Thich Nhat Hanh, a twenty-first century Zen Buddhist, defines it as “keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality.” He says, “In mindfulness, one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake,...a serene encounter with reality.” [K]eep your attention on the work. Be alert and ready to handle ably and intelligently any situation which may arise....” He adds that starting with daily meditation is good, but the ultimate goal is to gradually become mindful throughout each day.

Psychology offers a similar definition of mindfulness. It means you become more aware of thoughts, memories, impressions, and especially feelings–physical or emotional–without reacting to them. You do not ignore them; neither do you let them rule you or run away with your mind. You simply become aware of them, standing back from them as a watcher. You watch them one at a time as they develop or flow, neither grabbing them nor running away.

The Yoga Sutras version of “mindfulness” is dharana, or “concentration,” which means that you bind your attention to one thing. Dharana is the sixth of eight “limbs” in the Yoga Sutra’s of Ashtanga Yoga, here in “Chapter 2B: Ashtanga Yoga.” Similarly, in Buddha’s famous Eightfold Path, the seventh “fold” is smrti (Sanskrit) or sati (Pali), often translated as “mindfulness” or “alertness.”

Almost all spiritual systems throughout time and the world account for this concept in some way. Spiritual practices in Christianity, for example, often equate mindfulness with reminding yourself, each time you perceive an object or thought, “This is part of God’s universe,” “That is part of God’s universe,” and “So is this.” In Indigenous native spiritual practice, you learn to remember that each object you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch is a perceptible part of God because you live in–and you are part of–God’s body. Zen practitioners sometimes call mindfulness the ability to live in the Zen moment.” Taoists teach you to be aware of each experience in the flow.

Meaning: “With your strong cheerfulness, you will quickly have success.”

Definition: This sutra is about having an intense and highly positive attitude, in which case, says Patanjali, you are more likely to have immediate success. It does not guarantee success, and some people labor for months or even years, trying to clear their mind spaces. However, here Patanjali is saying that being extra calm, cool, and collected will not necessarily bring results faster than an intense, willful, cheer. That is, don’t sit in meditation and fall asleep. Choose a time when you are wide awake. Or get up and walk somewhere as you meditate.

Comment: The old thoughts hanging around outside of you–looking like burnt seeds, dust balls, tumbleweeds, thick clouds, or husks–completely disappear, at least for a time in meditation. Here Patanjali is encouraging active meditation (as opposed to passive meditation): the Way of Concentration (rather than the Way of Waiting), telling you that you are allowed to work hard at pushing and kicking thoughts out of your head. Having what amounts to a fiercely cheerful determination to clear them helps do so faster, if that is your goal.

Literal translation: “Soft, medium, excessive–after that, also quite distinct”

Meaning: “Whether your practice is modest, moderate, or intense, what comes next (in the sutras below) will yet again be quite different.”

A chant: “Move in Awareness from ‘seeded’ to ‘unseeded’ and see a big change.”

Definition: Patanjali is announcing that whatever the amount of your meditating, the next step, stage, or level–after clearing your mind space for periods of time–will be a significant change. He does not expect that you will successfully have a totally clear mind space all the time. Rather, he is saying that when you start experiencing periods of mental clearness, whether for ten seconds or ten minutes at a time, you will reach a new stage of possibility.

Comment: In this sutra, Patanjali is clarifying that whether you pursue your meditation practices at a desultory pace (such as meditating once a week), a medium pace (practicing perhaps ten or twenty minutes per day), or more intensely (such as meditating strongly and willfully for half an hour or hour or even more each day), the next event, step, or occurrence will be a big change. Other spiritual systems suggest the same. For most meditators, eventually they have some kind of “cosmic,” “enlightening,” or “union” experience that is higher, deeper, quite different.

And most spiritual systems say that not only can you purposely seek such an event but also, by your work, will, or practice, it likely will happen. ““Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you,” says the Christian New Testament. Buddhism says to follow the Middle Way and use the Eightfold Path to find enlightenment. “Look within,” say those two religions, along with Patanjali and many others, “and you will find what is higher, truer, in some way divine.” Almost all spiritual systems were created specifically so you can seek and find something greater.

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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