I: Samadhi Pada

I-1  atha yoganushasanam:
Now begin the teachings of Yoga

Now, where the world of time and space emerges from the infinite
Now, the holy moment, the only moment
Now, at this time of tremendous climatic and social change
Now, with the emerging revolutionary breakthroughs in science and spirituality
Now, with the guidance of a yoga master (Patanjali)
Now, as we are ready to be initiated into spiritual adulthood,

begin the teachings, passed on from teacher to student,
begin the teachings, preserved in the sacred texts,
begin the teachings, revealed moment by moment in Consciousness
begin the teachings, revealed moment by moment in the radiant expression of the natural world,
begin the teachings, as revealed in the infinite wisdom of the body/mind,

of Yoga, the knowing of Unity,
of Yoga, the disciplined practices of integration

Welcome to Yoga! In the following four chapters and 195 sutras, we are going on a spiritual quest to discover the holy grail of spirituality, the awakenened heart/mind, also known in other contexts as enlightenment, liberation, freedom from suffering, oneness with God, Divine Presence, the Great Perfection, and more. This same journey has been wonderfully articulated by many saints and sages and we will borrow from a few to help in unfolding Patanjalis words, including the The Bhagavad Gita of Vedanta and insights from Buddhism.

But the spiritual journey is ultimately a very personal one. It is about the nature of the self, and the accuracy of the sense of “I” we all have. This interpretation of Patanjali is a personal one as it flows from my own direct experience and reflects my own interests and passions, especially of Vedanta, Buddhism, hatha yoga and neuroscience. This is not a scholarly treatise, but an investigation into putting the key principles of Yoga into practice in the 21st century, observing the results, and jumping back in for more.

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Before we dive into the specifics of the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, it is important to have a perspective on the universal aspects of human spiritual journey as it has appeared across time and cultures. Yoga articulates one version of this journey, but there are many more equally valid presentations. By seeing the universality, our exploration of the Yoga Sutras will be much richer and more fulfilling.

The key unifying factor of both individual spiritual pursuit and organized religion is the acknowledgement that  human experience encompasses two fundamental levels, or perspectives of reality, each radically different and totally opposite to each other. The first is the constantly changing ‘seen’ or manifest creation which we encounter through our senses and mental activity. The second is the unchanging and  ‘unseen’ Mystery of wholeness or fullness that we may intuit but never grasp. The ideas and beliefs about just what these two levels are, how they relate to each other and how the human relates to each of them, vary tremendously across time and cultures. As these two perspectives are key components of  the Yoga Sutras, a brief history and summary will provide a useful  context for our practice and study.

Twentieth century religious scholar Mircea Eliade’s names these two perspectives ‘The Sacred and the Profane’, in the title of his cross cultural historical study of religions and spiritual practices. The Sacred is everything connected to Divinity and the ‘profane includes everything that has no or a diminished association with Divinity. The study of religions demonstrates the massive struggle across history for humans to make sense of their relationship to the Sacred and the Profane. Are humans of the sacred dimension? Are they of the profane dimension? Is Creation Sacred? If God represents the sacred, what is God?  In a famous quotation, Jesus acknowledged this dilemma when he said: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar, (the profane) and unto God the things that are God.” (the sacred). But who decides?

In the early days of the human, Mother Nature was the Sacred and the Human was the Profane. She demonstrated awesome powers and presented untold dangers to human survival, and yet she also offered the possibility food and shelter.  The Sacred was something they had to relate to for survival. Feeling separated from this immensity, humans imagined numerous Divine beings as gods and spirits in the form of the forces of Nature such as wind, rain, thunder. Places in Nature such as sacred rivers and mountains were recognized. Prayers, rituals and sacrifices were devised and practiced to communicate to, and get in the ‘good graces’ of, The Sacred.

In time, specialized humans known as medicine women, medicine men and shamans learned to communicate and intercede with the Sacred for their fellow people.  We may call this long span of time the age of Feminine or Nature spirituality. Historically, all cultures up to the modern human have striven to find ways to be in harmony with the larger rhythms of Mother Nature.

Later in human development, the Sacred became abstracted from Nature into the concept of a single Powerful Father figure, Almighty God, aka the Father in Heaven, Allah, Yahweh etc., who lived not here on Earth, but in the place of ultimate mystery known as Heaven. Prayers and rituals were articulated, consolidated and controlled by a select group of males, usually known as priests. Ideas and beliefs of how to behave and who had the power to intercede with the Sacred, or God emerged as organized religions. The ‘Sacred’, associated with the masculine, became a conceptual patriarchal ‘God’ and the feminine ‘Creation’ lost its ‘Sacredness, becoming profane and diminished in status and importance.

There were attempts to preserve the ‘Ultimate Mystery of the Sacred. In the Jewish religion, the name of God was to never be spoken, following in the tradition of Lao T’se. But in general, the human became a pawn in the ‘religion game’. God became a series of ideas and beliefs controlled by the few. Humans were not Sacred, but Profane. If they obeyed the rules, they just might be allowed to experience the Divinity of God by joining Him in Heaven. In this is the age of Patriarchal religions, still alive and well today, the feminine perspective became threatening, women in particular became second class citizens, and Mother Nature become an endless array of ‘objects’ for humans to consume and discard. Sadly, in the modern post industrial era, we have taken relentless corporate greed and personal consumerism to a whole new level of insanity.

Around the same as the emergence of the Patriarchal religions, a whole new approach to the solving the dilemma of the human’s relationships to the ‘Sacred and the Profane’ arose in India and China. Here, dedicated humans discovered a way to directly connect to the Sacred through their own experience of the ‘Profane’, thus uniting them in a common vision known by the term non-dualism. Creation, and the infinite Mystery that is the source of creation make up a unified sacred Unity.

In a non-dual view, the Sacredness of Creation is experienced moment to moment as a world of continuous aliveness, vitality and change. The Universe at every level, from the sub atomic, to the realm of stars and galaxies, to cells and living beings, is organized and intelligent non-stop activity. This is the realm of the feminine, of science and Nature, of seasons and transformation, of birth, growth, death and decay, and renewal. Our Sacred holidays, even in modern times, still celebrate the cardinal points of seasonal change: planting, harvesting, midwinter and midsummer.

The inner realms of human experience are also in continuous movement. Our sense organs track change, our minds are in constant flux, our breathing, circulation and digestion are all in constant movement. Wherever we turn we see movement and change.

But that is not all. What others have discovered before, and what we can discover on our own, is that this continuous movement is riding on and has its origins in the infinite depths of stillness and mystery. This ‘Ground of Being’ or True Nature, is common to all of creation and can be ‘known immediately and intimately through prayer or meditation, as you will discover in the depths of your meditation practice when you dive into the depths of the Yoga Sutras.

A heartfelt and sincere meditative practice can however reveal them to actually be two complementary perspectives of a unified Wholeness known as the ‘non-dual view, or advaita in Sanskrit. This mature expression of spirituality and beginning of the next phase of human evolution is the ‘goal-less’ goal of our practice and study. To be successful as spiritual practitioners, it is crucial to know where we are in the present moment, and how we arrived here, as a foundation to our practice. Otherwise we can easily fall into the trap of confusing thoughts and imaginal projectionas about spirituality with the direct revelation of Spirit. As we work with our personal practice, Patanjali and other sources, we will continually return to the present moment, observe what is arising and integrate our revelations into our life activities.

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Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are primarily based upon the dualist view of the Samkhya philosophical school, one of six in classical Indian thought. Here ‘seen’ or creation, known as Prakriti is said to be eternally separate from the formless ‘Mystery’ of Consciousness known as Purusha. Liberation, or kaivalya as it is called in the Sutras, is when the individual being, as Purusa, totally withdraws from any and all association with Prakriti and rests in isolation.

Some other examples of how these two realms are named include:

Christianity:                                       God and Creation
Modern Philosophy:                       The Absolute and the Relative
Buddhism:                                     Dharmakaya and Impermanence
Vedanta:                                        Nirguna Brahman and Saguna Brahman

Beginning with Eliade’s terminology, the ‘Sacred’ points to Ultimate Mystery. Humans all intuit something far greater than their minds can imagine, something infinitely more powerful than themselves. Common vernacular often employs the terms God, and the Divine to point to this realm, but the Sacred does not exist within the realm of thought. As we will see later, humans can, through meditative practice and prayer, can immediately experience and know this unbounded, timeless and unchanging infinity as their own True Nature. But communicating this revelation to others is nearly impossible.

As the Lao T’se states in the opening line to his Taoist masterpiece of spiritual insight, the Tao Te Ching, ‘The tao that can be spoken is not the True Tao.’ The True Tao, the True Sacred, Ultimate Mystery, exists beyond all possible concepts, ideas and imaginings. Because this cannot be articulated or expressed in words, or understood in any normal way, inevitable confusion and misunderstandings arise when religion leaders or spiritual teachers speak or write about Ultimate Mystery.  We can use a more mundane example to show what this might mean.

Words, being abstract mental constructs, are limited even in describing simple things like the taste of a mango or the smell of jasmine. A mango can be tasted and a jasmine flower can be smelled, so there is an immediate and direct knowing available. You just have to have the experience to truly know. All the ideas, beliefs, theories and words in the world will never give you the immediacy of the taste or smell. In the same way it is impossible to verbally capture ‘The Absolute’, no matter how sophisticated your concepts and ideas.  This is what Lao T’se was referring to.

Words can be used as pointers. ‘Go to the local market when mangoes are in season, feel for your self, or have someone find you a ripe one. Take it home, peel, slice and put a piece into your mouth.’ Then you will know about the taste of a mango. The same works with spiritual texts. The Tao Te Ching or Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras cannot give you a direct experience of the infinite, but can point out ways to have an immediate, direct and personal connection to the Tao. But it took the human many thousands of generations of evolution to discover how to come to this revelation.

The Profane refers to ‘ordinary reality’; what we can see, hear, taste touch and smell, including our bodies, thoughts and beliefs. It is the realm studied by all aspects of science.

Patanjali says:

I-2  yogash citta vrtti nirodhah:
Yoga is the resolution of the (dysfunctional) mind states.

I-3  tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam:
Then the identity of the Self (I am) with pure Awareness becomes and remains stable.

I-4  vrtti sarupyam itaratra:
(At other times, i.e., in dysfunctional mind states) mind activity is mistaken for the Self.

To see the universality, we might imagine a Buddhist translation reading like this:

Yoga is the cessation of suffering. Then the realization of Buddha-Nature remains as a stable Presence. When there is suffering, it is because of ignorance and attachment to transient phenomena, including the notion of a fixated self.

Modern spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle might translate it this way:

Yoga is the transformation of the energy of the ‘pain body’ into Presence. Then Presence remains unbroken and undisturbed as your life story unfolds. In the absence of presence, there is the identity with the ‘pain body’ and suffering arises.

A Vedantin might say:

Yoga is a dispelling of ignorance about the True Nature of the Self. Then inadequacy vanishes and the knowing that ‘I am Wholeness’, Atman is Brahman, remains stable. Ignorance is caused by identifying with smallness and limitation.

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What I love about Patanjali is that in just three sutras, Sutras I-2, I-3 and I-4, he offers a concise articulation of the essence of the spiritual process which parallels Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. Unlike Buddha however, Patanjali begins with the goal solution and then invokes the challenge of resolution. When the mind is at rest, your infinte True Nature reveals itselfPractically speaking, Buddhas approach makes more sense because it is crucial to understand where we are as we begin and not try to fantasize a finish line.

1: At the core of the human condition is a deep, abiding, painful recognition of the heart/mind, not always conscious, but always operative, that my self-sense, my sense of I or me, is highly flawed and needs resolution. This inner personal turmoil is found to be unresolvable to ordinary means, such as acquiring wealth or power, or escaping into transient pleasure.

In Buddhism, the first of the Four Noble Truths reduces this to a simple phrase ‘the reality of ‘suffering’, or dukha in Sanskrit. In Christianity, it is known as the “Fall from Grace”. Vedanta refers to our innate sense of inadequacy. In the modern world, unworthiness, or its more toxic cousin, shame, is common form of this suffering. This unworthiness can manifest in an infinite number of ways that, if we are paying attention, we all can recognize. But at the core, for the majority of Westerners, it is a deep sence of emptiness and relentless longing for some unnameable fulfillment. Patanjali waits until sutra I-4 to mention suffering. Referring back to I-3, he begins with ‘at other times’ implying that suffering is when we are not in the state of Yoga.

This recognition of ‘not being in the state of yoga’, of not being at home with oneself at the deepest possible level, often begins the spiritual quest. In the Bhagavad Gita, at the end of chapter one and the beginning of chapter two, Arjuna articulates his own inner suffering and confusion to Krishna. The teachings of the Gita, Krishna’s words to Arjuna, actually begin in verse 11 of chapter 2.  In Patanjali’s opening sutra, I-1,  he states ‘now begins the study of Yoga’.

2: There is a very clear and specific cause of this suffering that can be recognized. This is Buddha’s ‘Second Noble Truth’ and the second half of Patanjali’s sutra I-4. Patanjali’s source of suffering is identification with thought. We will dive into this fascinating notion of ‘self identification’ a bit later.

3: There is the possibility of resolution for everyone that brings an end to our flawed and unworthy self sense. This is Buddha’s ‘Third Noble Truth’ and Patanjali’s sutra I-2, yogash citta vrrti nirodha, which might be loosely translated as ‘yoga is the dissolution of all sense of separation and unworthiness. Here ‘Yoga’ is the goal, not in the sense of a finish line, but as an Awakening or re-birth that begins a whole new way of Being Human. This is known in Mahayana Buddhism as the bodhisattva stage.

There is a more literal and equally necessary translation, ‘yoga is bringing the mind to a state of stillness’. In this version, “Yoga’ is the path to the goal, which will be articulated throughout the 194 sutras to follow. Yoga as the path, the series of practices to reach the goal, parallels Buddha’s Fouth Noble Truth, the efficacy of the Eight Fold Path. The irony of the mind is that ‘stillness’ is everpresent, but our attention struggles to just rest. Even when we finally ‘realize’ the everpresent stillness’, we do not remain grounded there. The habits of the wandering mind are challenging to overcome, as the ‘universal student’ Arjuna tells Krishna in Chapter 6, verses 33 and 34 of the Gita:

33. “Thou has told me of a Yoga of constant oneness, O Krishna, of a communionwhich is ever one. But Krishna, the mind is inconstant. In its restlessness I cannot find rest.
34. The mind is restless Krishna, impetuous. self willed, hard to train; to master the mind seems as difficult as to master the mighty winds.”

4: There is total freedom available for everyone at the end of this path; Buddha’s third Noble Truth and Patanjali’s sutra I-3. Among the many terms used to describe this freedom include: “True Nature recognizing Itself’ residing in ‘Pure Consciousness’, ‘Enlightenment’, Self-Realization, ‘Becoming One with God” or ‘Entering the Kingdom of Heaven’ and Moksha.

Sutras I-2, I-3 and I-4 offer many very important clues to the challenges, practices and Realization, the process we call Spiritual Awakening, and all of the subsequent 192 sutras offer further elaboration and refinement on the basic principles stated here. Lets take a detailed look at them.

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In I-2, Patanjali succinctly summarizes in three words, citta, vrtti and nirodhah, both the essence of yoga practice and a description of the Awakening that accompanies the maturing of the practice.  Citta is the term for mind in its largest, most general sense, and encompasses three specific functions of mind, known in Sanskrit as manas, ahamkara and buddhi,.

Manas refers to several dimensions of mind activity. First, it receives and organizes the flow of information coming through the five senses: seeing, hearing tasting, touching and smelling. Secondly, it stores selected parts of this information as memory, and thirdly, through embodied memory, carries out unconsciously, patterns of learned behavior. The expression ‘being on autopilot’ refers to the ability to function almost unconsciously through these learned patterns. This is far more prevalent in adulthood, as most children still see and act with a ‘beginners mind’. “Manas” appears in three of Patanjali’s sutras: I-35, II-53 and III-48.

Ahamkara is a unique word that literally means ‘the I maker’. It is a mental process of picking and choosing through the whole spectrum of life memories and experiences to build a self identity. George Harrison, in his early days of meditation practice, wrote the song “I Me Mine” to describe the relentlessness of this inner voice . In modern spiritual teachings ‘ego’ is used as a general term for the ahamkara. (This is not the more specific ‘ego’ of Freud.) In sutra I-4, Patanjali is referring to the ahamkara when he states that suffering comes from ‘identifying’ with our thinking. Spiritual Awakening is when the ahamkara finally recognizes the True Self, drashtuh svarupe in I-3, as I.

Buddhi is the term that describes the fundamental intelligence of an individual human being, in relationship with ‘Mahat’, the Sanskrit word for the fundamental intelligence of the whole Universe. Buddhi functions by being alert, open hearted and in the present moment, as opposed to the ‘autopilot’ functioning of manas. The buddhi functions in ‘mindfulness’ rather than ‘mindlessness’. It is open,curious, alert, and non-judgmental, making decisions within the largest possible context of its on-going development. The Buddha is one who’s buddhi has fully awakened. However, the buddhi is a vehicle of True Nature, not True Nature itself, so it can change and evolve. Buddhi is mentioned in sutras IV-21 and IV-22.

The mind is a busy energetic process with multiple skills and and many layers of activity and yoga is an inquiry into its functioning. ( see the Neuroscience appendix for more info.)

Vrtti comes from the Sanskrit root vrt meaning to move, to turn over. The same root appears in the English words revolve and revolution. So we can see citta vrtti as the turning over of the mind, or in more modern terminology, mind activity or organized bundles of mind activity known as mind states. Vritti refers to the energetic nature of mind. It is always moving.

A common mis-translation of vrtti is ‘thought’. Vrtti refers to all mental activity, mental processes, and mental states, not just thinking and thoughts. Thoughts are vrttis, but so are perceptions, emotions, memory and imagination.  This is explained further in I-5, – I-11. And as we shall see in the coming sutras, most of the samadhi practices articulated here in the samadhi pada require mind activity. Patanjali is definitely not stating here that yoga is the ending of mind activity, but as we will see, the ending of confusion about the nature of the Self, the “I Am”. This confusion leads to specific patterns of mind activity that lead to suffering.

Nirodhah implies restraining, eliminating, dissolving or resolving. Citta vritti nirodhah is thus describes a specific type of transformation that resolves some aspects of mind activity. Not all mind activity. The word ‘all’ is consciously left out of the sutra. As will be revealed in the next two sutras, what is to be resolved is mind activity that is not ‘yoga’, or yogic in nature, but mind activity that will be seen as ‘suffering’, or dukha, to use a lovely Sanskrit word we will meet again. A modern term used here is dysfunctional.  We find similar observations in Zen Buddhism. James Austin, in “Zen Brain Reflections” offers “No-mind does not mean a coma. It means that no self-centered thoughts interrupt the flow.”

The word resolved is the ‘clue word’ here and carefully chosen to indicate the alchemical transmutation of the mental energies through yogic practices. For this to happen, it is important to realize from the beginning that all thoughts, sensations and emotions are welcome to arise in the mind field. The poem ‘the Guest House’ by the 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi captures this beautifully.

This human being is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

— Jalaluddin Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks (The Essential Rumi)

Beginners in yoga are more than likely to have suppressed or repressed painful or traumatic memories. Although repressed into the unconscious, they still have a huge huge effect on our behavior. This repression, as we have come to understand in modern psychotherapy, is an unhealthy strategy that ultimately strengthens the traumatic energy patterns. The terms ‘spiritual by-pass” or pre-mature transcendence’ describe the modern attempts to avoid dealing with our own painful memories which are the roots of suffering, while doing ‘spiritual practice. Jack Kornfield quotes Ajahn Chah; “If you haven’t cried deeply an number of times, your meditation hasn’t really begun” (PWH pg 42). But as we will see, those painful energies can be transformed and used for awakening the yogic mind.

As we look more deeply into the mature of mind activity though somatic or embodied meditation, we begin to discover impulsiveness as a primary root of suffering and the mental habit to which we apply nirodha.

In the process, the causes and manifestations of the inner turmoil are encountered and studied and glimpses of wholeness arise. No longer crystallized out as stuckness or aimlessly going in circles, the psychic energy of unhealthy patterns can dissolve back into the on-going flow of the moment in an more integrated mind. But these glimpses are fleeting and confusion and doubt return.The yogic process is not linear, but more spiralic. We discover dysfunctional activty, transform it through practice and stabilize for a while with some spiritual clarity shining through. But then we stumble unto some more powerfully repressed suffering and are knocked back into confusion, and we take the practice to the next level.

Yoga, also known as ‘the end of suffering’, as described by Patanjali, is when the Truth of Seer, drashtuh svarupe, is realized and stabilized. The spiritual paradox is that the Seer, also known as True Nature, Buddha Nature, or Ground of Being, is always and already present. The end of suffering is not something to be acquired or accomplished in time, but just ‘realized’. This is the meaning of ‘Self Realization’ or Awakening. Our Transcendent True Nature, the True Nature of all,  is already whole and complete. And yet the vehicle through which it functions, the human body/mind, forgets and becomes confused and deluded. This delusion is the suffering.

Suffering is not to be confused with pain. The human condition is subject to pain at all levels or reality. From a simple irritating itch, to intense pain of some cancers, the physical body feels pain. With the death of a relationship, or a loved one, the emotional body feels deep pain. These are real human experiences and Awakening does not eliminate them. What it does do is change the story around them. It changes the thinking, as it is in the realm of thoughts, ideas and beliefs that suffering arises. This is described in sutra I-4: suffering, or not being in ‘Yoga’, comes from identifying with the citta vrttis, which include the whole spectrum of thoughts, imaginings, ideas and beliefs.

This confusion can be transformed through yoga practice and Self Realization arises. Continuous practice stabilizes the Self Realization, but Self Realization is actually the beginning of the next level, as the creativity of the Universe is infinite in possibilities. Awakening, or enlightenment is not a goal line to be crossed, but an entry point into endless Divine Creativity

We are already Whole, and yet, we have a lot of work to do both before and after we realize this. Penetrate to the heart of this paradox and your spiritual journey truly begins. Spiritual awakening is your life journey that will continue to unfold in space and time as a divine expression of light and love. But easier said than done!

In the subsequent sutras of the first chapter, Patanjali dives into the details of the practice ‘citta vrtti nirodha’, given in Sutra I-2. Known as the Samadhi Pada, is addressed to mature students who have attained a certain level of maturity and mental and emotional tranquility, and the practices offered here are more advanced. In chapter 2, Patanjali goes back to the beginning for newer students to give background and preliminary practices he calls kriya yoga and ashtanga yoga.

However with a very dedicated practice, (to be further elaborated from sutras I-12 onward, the Awakening can become stable, as Patanjali describes in sutra I-3. Then, feeling healed, feeling ‘whole’, knowing the truth of “I am Whole”, one settles into being a beacon of light and love for all of creation and participates in the evolutionary unfolding of the moment. Even here, life continues to throw challenges in our way, as this is the driving process of evolution, and as we shift to a collective awakening, the complications multiply. One must continue to practice as the stable grounded awakening must become continue to be embodied in the world.

Awakening is not necessarily a comfortable experience! There is no guarantee that all of your unconscious confusion has miraculously dropped away and will never appear again. The fascinating reality is that these three stages are often unfolding at the same time, which means that you can go from being absolutely awake and clear to being a whiny adolescent in the wink of an eye. It is not a linear process by any means, but if you can ride the waves of spiritual paradox, that you are always perfect and whole, but life will continuously challenge you, you will be able to accept life as it is with peace and gratitude.

Let’s look more closely at how Patanjali uses his Sanskrit terminology. In I-2, Patanjali succinctly summarizes the essence of yoga practice with three words, citta, vrtti and nirodhah. Citta is the term for mind in its largest, most general sense, as opposed to manas, ahamkara and buddhi, words which refer to specific functions of mind.

Manas refers to several dimensions of mind activity. First, it receives and organizes the flow of information coming through the five senses: seeing, hearing tasting, touching ans smelling. Secondly, it stores parts of this information as memory, and thirdly, it carries out unconsciously patterns of learned behavior. The expression ‘being on autopilot’ refers to the ability to function almost unconsciously through these learned patterns. This is far more prevalent in adulthood, as most children still see and act witha ‘beginners mind’.

Buddhi is the term that describes the intelligence of Presence, of being in the present moment and not being on ‘autopilot’. The buddhi functions in ‘mindfulness’ rather than ‘mindlessness’. It is open,curious, alert, and non-judgmental. The Buddha is one who’s buddhi has fully awakened. However, the buddhi is a vehicle of True Nature, not True Nature itself.

The mind is a busy energetic process with multiple skills and and many layers of activity and yoga is an inquiry into its functioning. ( see the Neuroscience appendix for more info.)

Vrtti comes from the Sanskrit root vrt meaning to move, to turn over. The same root appears in the English words revolve and revolution. So we can see citta vrtti as the turning over of the mind, or in more modern terminology, mind activity or organized bundles of mind activity known as mind states. Vritti refers to the energetic nature of mind. It is always moving.

A common mis-translation of vrtti is ‘thought’. Vrtti refers to all mental activity, mental processes, and mental states, not just thinking and thoughts. Thoughts are vrttis, but so are perceptions, emotions, memory and imagination.  This is explained further in I-5, – I-11. And as we shall see in the coming sutras, most of the samadhi practices articulated here in the samadhi pada require mind activity. Patanjali is definitely not stating here that yoga is the ending of mind activity, but as we will see, the ending of confusion about the nature of the Self, the “I Am”. This confusion leads to specific patterns of mind activity that lead to suffering.

Nirodhah implies restraining, eliminating, dissolving or resolving. Citta vritti nirodhah is thus describes a specific type of transformation that resolves some aspects of mind activity. Not all mind activity. The word ‘all’ is consciously left out of the sutra. As will be revealed in the next two sutras, what is to be resolved is mind activity that is not ‘yoga’, or yogic in nature, but mind activity that will be seen as ‘suffering’, or dukha, to use a lovely Sanskrit word we will meet again. A modern term used here is dysfunctional.  We find similar observations in Zen Buddhism. James Austin, in “Zen Brain Reflections” offers “No-mind does not mean a coma. It means that no self-centered thoughts interrupt the flow.”

Drashtuh svarupe, our Pure Awareness, is ever-present as infinite time or eternity and unbounded space or infinity out of which flows a continuous, tumultuous outpouring of energy into time and space. Physicists might call this energetic emergence the quantum foam or quantum field. This is our Soma, our Divine  embodiment. But, as we humans have inherited a nervous system that has evolved through hundreds of millions of years of challenges to survival, fear and or anxiety react and a separate self of ego arises to assess likes, dislikes and create ‘appropriate’ responses.

What are the means and methods of this ‘resolving? This will be taken up in subsequent sutras. But next Patanjali describes what happens when the energies of suffering have been transmuted.

I – 3, Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam, tada, then, in the fruition of this practice, with the accomplishment of the practices of yoga, when the negative or self-destructive energies have been transformed, drashtuh, the Seer, Awareness, “I am”, Purusha;
svarupe: the truth of, the true nature of; avasthanam: stable abiding.

With the fruition of the yoga practices, the yogi realizes ‘I am Light and Love’ and remains grounded in her own infinite wisdom and compassion. The key word here is stable, from the Sanskrit root stha. In verse 2-54 of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna to describe a person with ‘stable wisdom” sthitaprajna. Throughout the rest of the second chapter, the key one in the Gita, Krishna goes on to explain that Awakening or Self-knowledge goes hand in hand with mastery of the mind, and this is the yoga of the Gita. The Hsin Hsin Ming, “Verses on the Faith Mind” attributed to the 6th century Chinese Zen master Seng Ts’an, also offers an eloquent and beautiful unfolding of this key sutra.

Ironically, all of us have tasted the infinite self without necessarily recognizing so. We have all had moments of total inner peace, of the dropping away of conflict and struggle and resting in the ever-present joy, light and love. Because there is no meta-recognition here, that is, we don’t ‘know that we know’ it is not technically yoga. And these states are certainly not stable. But we can use these experiences as guideposts to help us relax and see yoga practice not as a struggle to acquire something ‘other’, but the opportunity to rest in this moment as it is.

Also, there can be spontaneous revelatory awakening, known as satori in Japanese Zen, where delusion drops away and the Self as unbounded luminous awareness shines forth, and bingo, there is recognition or jnanam, knowing. This is often preceeded by some type of spiritual practice, but not always. But usually this awakening is unstable and eventually the previous confusions return.

As we will see in Chapter 2, Patanjali frequently uses the language of the Sankhya School of Indian philosophy. This sutra will be further explained later on as the resolution of the mind’s confusion of the Seer, Purusha, and creation, what is seen, or Prakriti. Then deep spacious unbounded openness remains present as life unfolds through space and time. Luminous Emptiness is a lovely term used by the Tibetan Buddhist teacher, the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa. There are many more Sanskrit and English words that are used interchangably to point to this ‘beyond words’ we awaken to. Purusha is the term Patanjali will use the most and he will contrast this with Prakriti, creation, the world of form. There is no fear, no resistance; only open spacious silence from which one can listen deeply to the emerging moment.

Now, and this is a crucial point which will be further unfolded in I-4, Self Identity is the key. I can be deeply grounded in the luminous emptiness, And, the world of form I am immersed in can be turbulent or chaotic. In Non -dual awakening, (and Patanjali does not develop this at all, as he uses the dualistic philosophy, Sankhya as his primary model,)  I am in the chaotic and turbulent world, moving through it, making choices, decisions and acting, like Arjuna in the Gita; and still rooted in timeless presence. It is not one or the other. This is a major challenge and the razor’s edge of a dynamic spiritual life.

Modern spiritual teacher Adyashanti  has produced an extraordinary cd, “The Phases of Awakening” where he unfolds several of the key stages and transitions that are often experienced on the journey of spiritual awakening that is described by Patanjali in these three sutras. As we are all unique individuals, there are an infinite number of ways in which the process evolves, but, none the less, there is also much commonality across time and culture. I highly recommend this for all on the amazing journey of awakening.

Finally, I-4, vrrti svarupyam itaratra. (At other times, that is, when not in the state of yoga), the negative mental patterns, the dysfunctional mind states predominate. A dysfunctional mind state is one that inhibits rather than promotes or sustains healthy growth, learning, integration, and well being. The thoughts and emotions are pushing and pulling the mind in all different directions and the innate tranquility of the mind is continually disturbed. This is the opposite state to yoga, known as suffering or dukha. The dysfunction can be mild moderate or intense; active, latent or dissolved. When active and intense, violence can often arise, to oneself or others. When mild or moderate there is still suffering and unhappiness. In the collective awakening, social groups and communities can express this dysfunctionality and pull others along into the suffering.

When latent, there is a break in the suffering and one can consider the implications of our suffering. This is the state of the seeker, the student, of Arjuna in the Gita and the beginning of the Buddhist teachings. All recognize that these enduring pathological patterns of energy can be redirected into healthy expression through diligent practice. The nature of these practices is the on-going subject of the Yoga Sutras. Buddha, a yogi in his own unique way, taught the path to the end of suffering, as does Patanjali.

With I-4, we are back to the beginning of the spiritual quest. For the average person, there is a seemingly non-stop dialogue on going in the mind, commenting, comparing, criticizing and often just babbling, often accompanied by emotional upheavals. Beginners in yoga and meditation struggle with attempts to stop this process, but the mind seems to have a mind of its own. It is easy to become totally lost inside the mind. Who am I? How can I find myself? We seek something stable to grasp onto amidst the teeming flow of ideas sensations emotions. We often settle for a false stability by holding onto a conglomeration of likes dislikes and desires and call this ‘Me’. But we eventually see that these are unstable. There may actually be several ‘me’s inside the mind, often in conflict. These are the citta vrittis that need some nirodhah.

The first step in the process of transformation is recognizing the ability to just notice the mind activity, like you would observe a conversation between two people. You may notice many different voices contributing to the dialogue, but as a witness to it, you no longer need to resist it. This witnessing mind doesn’t criticize or praise, like or dislike. It just sees what is, objectively. One type of mind activity objectively observes another. In the next set of sutras, I-5 through I-11 Patanjali will describe various types of mind activity. This witnessing awareness is silent, open. As this type of mind activity becomes stronger and more stable, the ‘monkey mind’ loses much of its fuel and may occasionally just stop, leaving bare awareness or stillness.

This is the first stage of nirodha. As we look more deeply into the neuroscience of mind activity, we see this as an alchemical transformation of the patterns of energy. Witnessing awareness is a healing type of mind activity. As we will see in subsequent sutras, loving kindness, compassion, friendliness and equanimity are all types of mind activity that promote deep healing and further unfolding of the infinite possibilities of human potential.

“Science is now revealing how the flow of thoughts actually sculpt the brain.” (Buddha’s Brain”, back cover). Modern neurobiology refers to this process directing energy flow into patterns of health and wholeness as integration and the capacity for change and growth as neuroplasticity. We could thus call yoga the science of integration. “Neural integration is fundamental to self-organization, and indeed to the capacity of the brain to create a sense of self. Tucker and colleagues further suggest that integration within the brain may consist of at least three forms, which focus on particular aspects of anatomic circuits: “vertical,” “dorsal – ventral,” and “lateral.”  (TDM-302)

Those of us in hatha yoga explorations will recognize this as a huge clue as to why postures can be effective tools for integration. Also, in neurobiology we discover that mind, for survival purposes, is inherently biased toward fear and anxiety, so it requires a serious effort to overcome this.

Patanjali now begins to describe the variety of mind activity included in the word vrtti.

I-5  vrttaya panchatayyah klishta aklishtah:
Mind activity has five basic categories and can perpetuate delusion, or not.

Sutra I-5 opens the door into the nature of the mind. Patanjali introduces the term klishta, referring to the five kleshas (kilesas in Pali), the major impediments to a healthy mind he will further describe at the beginning of the second chapter. Patanjali not only articulates the nature of mental health and the possible evolution to spiritual awakening and spiritual stability, but also how the mind can become stuck in patterns of activity and belief that inhibit awakening.

Modern neuroscience and the emerging field of interpersonal neurobiology offer us a language and an understanding of the dynamics of mind activity that is very helpful in navigating Patanjali’s instructions. What might Patanjali be referring to when he uses the expression citta vrtti?

Mind activity involves changing patterns of neuronal firing known as states of mind. What is a mind state? According to neurobiologist Dan Siegel, a ‘state of mind’ is ‘a clustering or a profile of activation within the brain’s neural network.’ Or, ” a ‘state of mind’ can be defined as the total pattern of activations in the brain at a particular moment in time.” (TDM – 208). Also, a state of mind is “a pattern of activation of recruited systems within the brain responsible for (1) perceptual bias, (2) emotional tone and regulation, (3) memory processes, (4) mental models, and (5) behavioral response patterns.” And finally ” a state of mind does two fundamental things: It coordinates activity in the moment, and it creates a pattern of brain activation that can become more likely in the future.” (TDM – 210) These ‘ patterns of brain activation that can become more likely in the future’ are known in Sanskrit as samskaras. (see I-50)

Patanjali describes these states as being painful (dysfunctional or traumatic) or not painful (not dysfunctional). (Later on we will see the dysfunctional vrttis come in two basic categories, tamasic and rajasic.) In neuroscience, tamas is the stuckness of rigidity, the inability to change or adapt even when the situation requires it. Rajas is chaos, the inability to stabilize the mind to function normally (serious chaos) or the inability to settle the mind for meditation. As mentioned in the commentary to I-2, integration is a type of mind activity, a process where different systems of organizing and processing information can be linked together to create a new set of possibilities.

With the kelp of neuroscience, we can now say that traumatic or dysfunctional states inhibit integration, and healthy mind states enhance integration. Dysfunctional states create the illusion of a self that is false, a self that is based on mind activity, which we can call ‘I” thoughts. I am unhappy, I am angry, I am … fill in the blank. I want…, I need…, if I only could…, then I would be happy, whole free. Yoga involves resolving those patterns, alchemically integrating them into pre-existing states where stability and flexibility are already in balance.

Mind activity is to be recognized for what it is. This brings us to another way to look at the samadhi process. Samadhi is about the process of paying attention. What does it mean to pay attention to something? What determines which objects/sensations/thoughts attract my attention? Who is paying attention? Patanjali will spend the rest of the sutras unfolding the answers to these questions. We will see that sustained attention on the various aspects of mind activity gradually strengthens and focuses the capacity to pay attention. Sustained attention on awareness itself eventually dissolves into Pure Awareness, the Seer.

Yoga is healing (making whole) the self sense suffering from confusion and misunderstanding. Yoga is integration, the natural process of the nervous system when in a healthy environment.

Why do we suffer? And by suffering, its important to carefully differentiate physical and physiological pain from psychological and emotional pain. A tooth ache or a broken bone, influenza or any of a number of unpleasant diseases and conditions are painful, miserable experiences. Experiencing the death of a loved one, or recognizing the amazing amount of suffering humans inflict upon each other can be heart-breakingly painful. Intelligent living and life style choices can eliminate some types of pain (see Yoga Sutras, Chapter II), but various types of pain and disease are an inevitable aspect of the human condition.

However, thoughts also have an amazing capacity to inflict pain and suffering and this is the realm addressed in these sutras. How do some thoughts come to be self destructive, or dysfunctional? Why do some people seem immune to mental anguish while other seem totally imprisoned by it. Most of us lie somewhere in between, moving in and out of suffering like the sun moving in and out of the clouds.

The Sanskrit word for suffering is dukha and literally means to be stuck. It comes from the root kha meaning axle and refers to a wheel that is either no longer turning, or wobbling and off center giving a bumpy unpleasant ride. It complements the Sanskrit word sukha which means free or flowing, or easy as a well greased, well centered wheel flows smoothly over the road. When the mental suffering becomes great enough there is often the incentive to take action. Yoga practice can be seen as helping the healthy, integrated components of mind learn how to heal and integrate the dysfunctional ones.

Dan Siegel, in his book “The Mindful Brain”, describes 9 distinct domains of neural integration. Neural integration is “the linkage of anatomically or functionally differentiated neural regions into an interconnection of widely distributed areas of the brain and body proper. These interconnections take the form synaptic linkages structurally, and create a form of coordination and balance functionally.”In the developing of the nervous system in infancy, integration is a natural process when the infant is surrounded by mature, integrated adults. But as we all know, we are all a work in progress, with more than a few regions of dysfunctionality floating around in our mind fields.

Sutras I-6 – I-11 offer further elaboration on these five categories. Dan Siegel offers a useful definition of mind as ” a process that regulates the flow of energy and information”, and we can use this to consider the term vrtti as a particular pattern of energy and information flow.

I-6 pramana, viparyaya, vikalpa. nidra, smrtayah
(the 5 basic categories of mind activity are) correct or valid knowledge, incorrect knowledge, imagination, sleep and memory

Patanjali classifies all vrttis into five possible categories further unfolded in the next few sutras.

I-7 pratyaksha anumaanaagamah pramaanaani
correct or valid knowledge (arises through) direct perception, inference, and testimony

How do we know something is true, is correct? What really happened? There is a perception, an interpretation and a correct conclusion drawn. This is a neuro-biologically complex process, not a simple one, where at least these three layers are involved. Patanjali includes three variations on this process.
1. In direct perception an object is perceived and correctly recognized. I see the apple. I hear a Beatles song. I smell the coffee brewing.
2. In inference, there is no direct perception. I see smoke rising in the distance. Although I do not see fire, I can infer its existence from the smoke. I see foot prints in the sand. Although I do not see a dog, I can infer that a dog was walking here. Good trackers are masters of subtle inference.
3. My son told me about seeing a rabbit in the back yard. I did not see it, cannot infer this from any evidence, but trust his word. Reliable testimony is the third form of uncovering correct knowledge. Our judicial system is quite dependent upon this form of knowing

I-8 viparyayah mithyajnanam atadrupa pratistham
wrong understanding arises through misperception, misconception, (or some combination of both)

As in I-7, there is a perception, interpretation and a conclusion. But here, the conclusion is wrong or false. We make a mistake. The form perceived is misinterpreted, but the truth of the form is available to correct. I see a coil of rope in a corner, but mistake it for a snake. In better light, I recognize the rope. Sometimes our senses fail us. In low light, we don’t see as well. There are times when we do not hear clearly, etc. Also, our senses may be reporting accurately, but because of previous conditioning, known as ‘priming’ in neuro-science, we draw the wrong conclusion by confusing the past and present. The extreme version of this is known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

I-9  shabdajnana anupati vastushunyah vikalpah
imagination is when conception is not based on the perception of a real object

We can combine memories and experiences from the past, combine them in new and unusual ways, and create images the mind ‘sees’. This can be a very positive and creative process, neutral, or a very dysfunctional process.

I-10  abhava pratyaya alambana vrttih nidra
sleep is a state of mind activity accompanied by the absence of cognition

Here Patanjali is referring to the dreamlessness of deep sleep. In dream sleep, there is mental activity, with cognitions, but the outer world plays a minimal role. This is a form of imagination. In deep sleep, the mind continues to operate in the background, but in the foreground is emptiness, the absence of activity normally associated with being alive and present in the world.

I-11  anubhuta visaya asampramosah smrtih
memory is the retention of experience
We now know that memory is a highly complex, multi-modal experience that changes with every recall. Autobiographical memory, the experience of ” I am remembering” is but one type of memory. The body also holds memory, like the ability to tie ones shoes, or to play a piece of music. In our neuroscience section, we will look at memory in a bit more detail.

The next 4 sutras discuss the first two upayas or spiritual practices that are used to reduce the dysfunctional mind states and increase integration. They are the alpha and omega, the yin and yang foundational practices of samadhi.

I-12  abhyasa vairagyabhyam tan nirodhah
Practice and dispassion lead to the resolution (of the dysfunctional mind states).

Patanjali now introduces the two fundamental practices of life that lead to greater health, well-being and deeper spiritual awakening. Do not be intimidated by the Sanskrit words, as abhyasa and vairagya are very familiar experiences involving the two basic choices we make in all of our life activities; what do we choose to encourage and nurture, and what do we choose to drop or let go.

Abhyasa begins with the choices we make in how we invest our vital energies in thought, word and deed. We are asked to consciously and continuously choose behaviors and actions that create, sustain, and stabilize a grounded, compassionate and wise state of being. This is a simultaneously disciplined and relaxed state of the mind where we are aligned with the healing powers of the body/mind and the Cosmos at large, creating specific neuronal pathways of action and perception that become deeply wired into the brain. The second and key part is to then stabilize these patterns so they become integrated into our moment to moment behavior. This is not a simple process, as sutra I-14 explains further.

Vairagya can be conversely seen as a state of consciously choosing to let go of thoughts, habits and patterns of behavior that perpetuate suffering, in ourselves and others. From a neuroscience perspective, we are inhibiting specific neuronal pathways through our use of will power, in refusing to react to the habits and patterns that are perpetuating fear, anxiety and confusion. Craving, and constantly responding to this, is a classic category here. Vairagya also has levels of depth.

As Patanjali introduces these practices in the Samadhi Pada, he is referring to the advanced level of their expression, but even as beginners on the spiritual path, we can see them as expressions of growing maturity. Behaviors that may have seemed cool as an adolescent are naturally dropped as we become adults. We somehow decide that it would be wise to try yoga or meditation and become invested in growing our practice. Patanjali takes these choices and dives into the moment to moment unfolding our our minds to give birth to a new spiritual being, ourselves.

I-13  tatra sthitau yatno’bhyasah
Practice leads to stable healthy mind states and stillness.

I-14 sa tu dirgha-kala-nairantarya-satkarasevito drdha-bhumih
That (stability of mind) however, requires continuous practice, over a long period of time, without interruption, and with an attitude of devotion and love.

Deeply ingrained habits do not go away overnight, whether in an individual or a society. The neuronal connections and cultural fields can be strongly wired, especially if they have been repeated over and over. To lay down new neural pathways and weaken the old ones takes time and patience. Devotion and love are required to make sure the new pathways are healthy and not dysfunctional. It is quite easy to react to an unhealthy pattern by creating another unhealthy one. “”I hate myself for having all this judgment,” is a common thought/vrtti. Learning to gently and compassionately see the thought and recognize it for what it is requires discipline and patience. Meditation practice allows us to see these thought and behavior patterns from a distance, as a witness to them, which is the first step in transforming them.

What we pay attention to receives our energy. By choosing to not react to our thoughts, but just let them come and go, we are withdrawing from them. We are letting them go. This is vairagyam, described in the next sutra. There are many vrttis floating about the mind field that are triggers for suffering, and they keep returning, even if we let them go, if they have strong roots. That is why patience and persistence are the two key supports. Vairagyam is sustaining a healthy and alert immune system for the mind.

I-15 drshtanushravika-vishaya-vitrshnasya vashikara-sanjna vairagyam
The control over craving after any experience, whether sensual, psychological or spiritual, is known as dispassion.

The root of dysfunctionality is craving, the intense desire to acquire or get rid of ‘something’, to create a temporary feeling of wholeness or relaxation. These are emotional or limbic responses, that evoke a threat to our existence. To a self-sense that feels inadequate, there is always something that is threatening, that needs changing. Craving, as we soon find out in life, is a self-perpetuating path of inadequacy and subsequent suffering. Life is what it is happening moment by moment and true happiness is not dependent upon the constantly changing circumstances of life. If I believe that my happiness depends upon this moment being different from what it actually is, I will suffer. Seeing through this delusion is a crucial component of yoga. The true nature of the Self, the unchanging limitless existence and consciousness, (sat – chit – ananda) is undisturbed by any and all possibilities life throws our way.

With the discipline of vairagya we stop believing the craving thoughts, even if they keep arising. No, my happiness is actually not dependent upon getting rid of Donald Trump! This eventually leads to dispassion towards most craving. The subtle forms are dealt with in the next sutra.

The neuroscientific perspective on inhibition offers tremendous insight for yoga students. In Buddha’s Brain” authors Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius  describe the capacity to “simply not respond” to limbic (emotional) activity. There is not the inhibiting of the emotional activation which manifests as physiological sensation, but rather inhibiting the next level of neural activity, the story I tell myself that perpetuates the suffering. Repressing emotional content is not healthy on any level, but recognizing it as it arises, positive, negative or neutral, awakens a meta level of awareness. Then I can use skillful means to help the emotional energies move to a more integrated state.

Important note! Vairagyam is not the absence of passion! An integrated self is highly passionate, just not insecure and needy.

I-16  tat param purusha-khyater guna vaitrshnyam
The more advanced form of dispassion involves the full realization of self as the absolute and the dropping away of the most subtle forms of craving and attachment.

see also sutras II – 26, III – 5, IV-29 – 31

In I-16, Patanjali restates I-3, the knower/seer resting in its own nature, as an example of the culmination of refined discipline/dispassion. My mind may generate wants, needs and desires, but I can see their origin and not turn them into issues of survival. I may want an ice cream cone, but getting one, or not getting one is not a big deal in the overall scheme of things. Or, I have been diagnosed with cancer, which is the last thing I want, and the mind wants to rebel. At some point in time, I will face the reality of this and do whatever I can, in the world of form to help heal. But in any case, I recognize the undying Nature of the Self, and take refuge there.

In I-17, Now that we have abhyasa and vairagyam in out tool box, and this being the Samadhi Pada, Patanjali introduces us to more details on refining our capacity to pay attention to what is arising, using the Sanskrit term samadhi.

I-17  vitarka-vichaara-ananda-asmita-ruupa-anugamaat samprajnaatah
In samadhi with wisdom, refined focal attention (samadhi) can be sustained on the forms of gross level of reality, forms of the subtle level, the sense of limitlessness, and the sense of “I-am-ness”.

Samadhi is a flowing and focused mind state balancing alertness and relaxation, abhyasa and vairagyam. Like a microscope, the samadhi state can be focused on different levels of reality/experience and the possible confusion and dysfunctional habits that may exist in each. In these four stages, a support or seed is used to focus the attention, as the samadhi process of abhyasa/vairagyam seeks out confusion and dysfunctionality through observing the qualities of the gunas. Aggression or overworking as rajas, and dullness or collapse as tamas and slowly transformed into sattva, balance/harmony/transparency. In
I – 18, seedless samadhi is introduced where awareness no longer needs anything, any form, to sustain itself.

The first stage of the samadhi with support, savitarka, requires attention on the gross or most tangible aspect of the world of form or prakriti. In hatha yoga we use the felt sense of weight, through bone, fluids and gravity, and its complement, the felt sense of lightness, to access this level. Confusion here is directly felt as tension or collapse, at first, in the muscles, connective tissues and joint, and then in the organs and spaces inside the torso. When this dynamic balance arises, the body feels light, alive and relaxed. Asana practice begins here as we begin to understand sutra II-46, sthira sukham asanam, posture is both stable and fluid.

The second stage, savichara, involves the subtle body including the breath, aka prana or qi, and all energetic interactions of aliveness.  These can be the physiological processes, lower mind activity such as perception and memory, and higher cognitive functioning such as abstract thought and analysis. Confusion here begins as physiological tension, restricted breathing, digestive tension, and can soon be seen as emotional, in the form of fear, anxiety or anger; or psychological, as belief systems and wrong assumptions about life and the nature of the world around us. Our emotions reflect the state of the subtle body as they link all of the layers of the body/mind. Emotional harmony is fundamental to mental health and well being.

As somatic explorers, the fluid body is our like from satiarka to savichara. Water has weight, so it engages the gross body. But water also carries energy in the forms of heat and movement. Flowing sequences of yoga poses engage the fluid body and prepare the student to find stillness in the restprative and meditative poses. Qi Gong and dance also engage the fluid body and are very valid practices. When we can fell the fluid/energetic balance when staying in a pose, we can begin the practice of pranayama.

The third level steps back from specific aspects of gross and subtle body activity all together and feels/discovers the pure vibration of the atoms, molecules and cells and the larger organizing principles of the cosmos such as gravity and electro-magnetism. There is a natural harmony in the fundamental functioning of the universe here experienced as pure pleasure or bliss. Even at this level we are still in the world of form, the seen (prakriti) and not the Seer (Purusha), and the ‘I sense’ (ahamkara) can land here and claim the territory for itself. The samadhi scanner seeks out such confusion and brings vairgayam to help in the resolution.

Finally, in the 4th level, the I-am-ness itself is explored. In the Samkhya model of creation, this realm is the intelligence underlying the universe, mahat or the higher buddhi, and thus is more subtle, more primal than even the vibration of the bliss level. This is the first emergence of form from the primal void/Seer, but is still not the Seer. The samadhi uses this as its last support before finally resolving the need for any support. This leads to the seedless samadhi of I – 18.

I-18 viraama-pratyayaabhyaasa-puurvah samskaara-shesho’nyah
In the other samadhi focal attention is on the radical emptiness or absence of mind activity, with only unconscious traces remaining.

Here the I-am-ness disappears and what remains is the radical emptiness of the quantum field, where time, space, and creation appear and disappear instantaneously. ‘Luminous Emptiness’ is a lovely term pointing to this I learned from His Holiness, the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa is his visit to Cambridge a few years ago.

See sutras III-10 – III-14

I-19 bhava-pratyayo videha-prakrti-layaanaam
Samadhi can occur spontaneously at rebirth to those who have in previous lives been practicing samadhi at death.

Here Patanjali offers a brief acknowledgement of incarnation and the developmental nature of spiritual practice. Thus some may move right into the state of samadhi seemingly without having done the preliminary work. The work just happened to be done in previous lives. Or it may arise in adolesence, seemingly out of nowhere, like the experience of Ramana Maharshi.

See sutra III-43

I-20 shraddhaa-viirya-smrti-samaadhi-prajnaa-puuvaka itareshaam
The samadhi of others (one’s who achieve samadhi in this life) is accompanied by faith, strength, memory, meditation and wisdom.

These five spiritual capacities are to be cultivated through practice as they help create, nurture and support a state conducive for awakening.

Shraddha, loosely translated as faith, is the full clarity and pleasantness of the mind field. Like a benevolent mother, she protects the yogi, says Vyassa. It is an inner confidence that it is in fact possible to awaken and move out of suffering and confusion. Spending time in the company of those who radiate love, compassion and wisdom nurtures this. It builds enthusiasm which leads to virya.

Virya, strength, energy, vitality, accumulates with the inner confidence of shraddha and the results of practice. Virya can also be seen as creativity, the power to create, and has traditionally been associated with celibacy. The tantrikas have a different point of view about this.

Smrti or memory, mentioned previously in I-6 and I-11, is recalling states of deep inner peace and clarity as a way to re-stimulate the neuronal circuitry associated with these states and strengthen them. Smrti is also the seventh step of Buddha’s Eight Fold Path, and is often translated as mindfulness. Smrti is remebering to stay present and grounded as the world passes through the mindfield. It is remembering True Nature as the truth of ‘I am’.

The practice of samadhi deepens and further wires the circuitry of the samadhi state. The more time spent here, the easier it becomes to sustain as a natural state. This is Hebb’s axiom applied to yoga.

Prajna or wisdom arises through samadhi practice and reinforces our capacity to make intelligent decisions as we go through our daily activities. Intelligent decisions do not lead to negative mind states and further suffering

I-21 tiivra-samvegaanaam aasannah
Awakening is near for those whose practice and desire for liberation is intense.

Abhyasa is mentioned again as intense practice. When accompanied by passion, focused emotional energy, the being is ripe and ready to pop open like a flower bud about to bloom

I-22 mrdu-madhyaadhimaatratvaat tato’pi visheshah
Even in the serious students there are mild, moderate and intense levels of practice

The emotional energies available for practice vary from student to student. It is important to be true to one’s own capacities and not try to force the process. Balance is always a smart path.

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Now Patanjali introduces the practice of direct experience of the Divine as a means to samadhi. Ishvara in Vedanta is what we might call the ‘Laws of the Universe” in manifestation. Or the underlying intelligence and on-going expression of the creation/universe. In Indian theology, there is the recognition that the divine as the attribute-less, unchanging, unbounded Absolute is too challenging to handle for many, so a “Divinity with attributes” is presented as a more graspable concept. This the divine as an alambana or support is seen as the seed of sabija samadhi of sutra I-46.

In Vedanta you find Nirguna Brahman (attributeless, no gunas) and also Saguna (with attributes) Brahman.  It is complicated, trying to evoke the infinite while still defining something to grasp. Such is Patanjali’s challenge here. Let’s see what he does.

I-23 ishvara pranidhaanaad va
or by practicing the presence of God

Isvara pranidhana will show up again as one of the three practices of Kriya Yoga in sutra II-1, and as one of the niyamas of the eight limb ashtanga yoga. In sutra II – 45 Patanjali repeats that surrender to God leads to perfection in samadhi. The fact that there are six sutras devoted to Ishvara right here in the Samadhi pada indicates how important this is as an aspect of yoga practice.

Praying to a personal divinity contrasts strongly with the Buddhists who stay away from ‘Divinity’, probably to avoid the inevitable contradictions that arise when trying to describe the undescribable, but the intention is to evoke the heart and not the brain. This is the practice known as bhakti or devotional yoga.

I-24 kleshaa-karma-vipaakaashayair a-para mrshtah purusha-vishesha ishvarah
Isvara is a special ‘purusha’, untouched by the afflictions, actions and the results of actions, or previous impressions.

Samkhya gets a bit convoluted here as the term purusha now has another connotation. Here pursusha refers the divine aspect of an ordinary individual, a person. Thus, from the Sankhya perspective, there are multiple purushas, some enlightened, some not. Your typical mortal human type has had to work through doubt, confusion and plain wrong thinking to ‘discover his innate divinity’. The Christians might call this human karma ‘original sin’, our inheritance from Adam and Eve. But Ishvara is a special purusha, Divinity in form, without the limitations usually associated with the world of form.

I-25 tatra nir-atishayam sarvajna-biijam
In him, the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed.

He/she is all knowing. The seeds of all possible knowledge are contained in his/her being.

I-26 puurveshaam api gurah kaalena an- avachchedaat
(Ishvara) is also the teacher of the ancients, because he is unlimited by time.

Ishvara is unlimited in time as well as in knowledge. Patanjali is building the case for the infinite.

I-27 tasya vaachakah pranavah
He is designated by Om

Pranavah means the sacred mantra Om, the sound that contains all sounds, the form that contains all forms.

1-28 taj japas tad artha-bhavanam
Repeating (OM) and contemplating the meaning

1-29 tatah pratyak-chetanaadhigamo’py antaraayaabhaavash cha
From this comes freedom from obstacles and an inward directing of awareness.

The practice of japa, silently repeating a mantra, in this case Om, is introduced as a way to develop powers of concentration and to help transform distracted and dull mental states into samadhi states of deep clarity and wisdom. The main types of distracted states are described next.

I-30  vyaadhi-styaana-samshaya-pramaadaalasyaavirati-bhraantidarshanaalabdhabhuumikatvaanavasthitatvaani chitta-vikshepaas te’ntaraayaah
The obstacles are disease, mental laziness, doubt, carelessness, laziness, attachment, mistaken perception, failure to reach stability, failure to sustain stability. They are distractions to the mind.

Patanjali lists 9 fundamental obstacles to the state of relaxed focal awareness we call samadhi. Here he describes the psychological and physical aspects. In I-31 he will add the emotional piece.

1. disease: when the physiology is disturbed and out of balance, the mind has trouble remaining clear and present.
2. mental paralysis: the mind just will not cooperate in sustaining a concentration practice.
3. doubt: can be a positive component to advanced practice as it prevents the mind from holding on to subtle beliefs thinking they are absolute truth. But for the beginner doubt prevents a commitment to serious practice. Maybe it will work, maybe it’s a waste of time. Who knows? Sraddha, faith, given in I-20 is the antidote to doubt.
4. carelessness: not practicing, or living your life with full mindful awareness. Once one has tasted awakening, it requires a powerful sustained effort to sustain. It is easy to feel that one has already accomplished something and thus slack off, distracted by the trivia of daily life.
5. laziness; I want to practice but, you know, maybe tomorrow I’ll get back to it. Not today. I’m a little tired. A physical and mental heaviness.
6. attachment: Craving for sensory satisfaction. Vairagyam, introduced in I-15 and I-16, addresses ways to address this obstacle. In sutra II-4 when Patanjali introduces the kleshas, or impediments, we will find raga – attachment, and dvesha – aversion, variations on this theme.
7. mistaken perception; related to I-8, viparyaya. Unlike in doubt, there is no oscillation. As this relates to yoga practice, it involves wrong notions about practice. ‘The pain in my back is good for me”. “I have to eliminate all thoughts for my mind to meditate”. There are many more.
8. failure to experience the samadhi state: In spite of diligent effort, the mind is still stuck in dullness and aggression. The harder you try, the worse it gets.
9. failure to sustain the samadhi state. In the beginning, samadhi is often neurologically unstable. Abhyasa and vairagya, as mentioned in I-12 – 1-17, and Ishvara Pranidhana, are the practices to stabilize the wisdom. Also, in the Vibhuti Pada, Patanjali recognizes this challenge and describes how dharana and dhyana are accompanying practices to samadhi, in what is called samyama.

I-31 duhkha-daurmanasyaangamejayatva-shvaasa-prashvaasaa vikshepa-saha-bhuvaha
Suffering, sour-mindedness, unsteadiness, (incorrect) inhalation and (incorrect) exhalation acompany the distractions.

How do we recognize the distracted state? Patanjali now lists the emotional components, the energetic expressions, of distraction.

1. Duhkha, suffering, is a very useful Sanskrit word. The Sanskrit root ‘kha’ means ‘axle hole’ and refers to the way a wheel and the axle interact in a cart or chariot. A well drilled axle hole gives you a smooth ride, sukha. A poorly drilled one, a dukkha’, leads to a bumpy ride or even being stuck. Duhkha has come to mean suffering and all Buddhist teachings begin here. Not gliding through life effortlessly, but being tossed and turned and banged around emotionally. The word sukha will appear when Patanjali describes the nature of a yogic posture in II – 43.
2. Sour-mindedness. I love this word, probably because this state is very familiar to me. Unfulfilled desires, large and small can lead to this pissy, whiny feeling.
3. Wiggly limbs: the body expresses mental restlessness by fidgeting. This will definitely interfere with seated meditation. Asana practice can help integrate the body/mind to overcome this tendency.
4. (disturbed) inhalation
5. (disturbed) exhalation: when the mind is distracted the breath is also affected and this can be felt directly. Asana and pranayama practice, introduced in the next chapter, help liberate the breath into an effortless flow conducive to samadhi/meditation

I-32 tat-pratishedhaartham eka-tattvaabhyaasah
Constantly creating one-point attention will eliminate these disturbances.

Patanjali again uses the term abhyasa, (sutras I-13 – I-14), to indicate long dedicated uninterrupted practice of eka-tattva, one pointedness of mind. This is also known as concentration practice, dharana/dhyana, to be introduced in chapter 3 as part of the 8 limbs of astanga yoga. Vyasa discusses ekagra citta in his commentary to sutra I-1. Patanjali returns to this again in III-12 as ekagrata parinama.

I-33  Maitri karuna mudita upekshanam sukha dukha punya apunya vishayanam bhavanatash citta prasadanam.
(The mind becomes purified by) friendliness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and indifference (equanimity) (respectively) towards those who are successful, suffering, virtuous and unvirtuous.

Patanjali continue the discussion of eliminating the distractions to samadhi consciousness by addressing the emotions. Because the emotions are so crucial to bringing stability to the mind, this is one of the most important sutras. This sutra also is recapitulated in sutra II-33 where pratipaksha bhavanam, cultivating the opposite mind state, is reintroduced as a means to overcoming negative emotions. These are practices of the heart and are very important in the Buddhist teachings as well.

Friendliness or loving kindness (maitri) is the easiest and most natural positive emotion to cultivate. We all know what it is like to have a friend, to feel the warmth and openness that comes when we are with a friend. But also, it is not uncommon to feel envious or jealous over other people’s success or good luck. Practicing amity, friendliness or loving kindness, and by remembering and recreating these feelings when feeling jealous or disappointed, helps to keep the mind calm and the heart open. Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg has been instrumental in promoting ‘metta practice’, metta being the Pali term for maitri, Pali being the language of the Buddha. Her book, ‘Loving Kindness offers a wealth of wisdom and many specific practices to more deeply embody this heart opening sentiment

Compassion goes right to the heart. When we see others suffering we may either turn away to avoid the depths of feeling, or perhaps take some cruel delight if it happens to be an enemy that is suffering. Choosing to remain compassionate (karuna) in the face of suffering keeps us in our hearts and grounded in being. Being compassionate towards ourselves is also an important and challenging practice.

Sympatheic joy is the sharing of each others expression of heart opening delight. When others hearts are radiant, we can feed on that to nurture our own hearts. The unconditional joyous love offered by many pets, especially dogs, is why many people have them. Weddings, graduations and births are ways in which cultures share joyous celebrations, but we can also find joy in the simplest things in a life; a flower, the song of a bird, the shape of a cloud, a sunset or sunrise.

At times other’s joy can actually make us jealous or insecure, perhaps because we have forgotten or lost touch with our own inner joy. Mudita is a reminder to open ourselves to the joy around us and use it as a healing gift from the universe.

Seeing injustice can easily evoke anger and fear. The Sanskrit word upeksha literally means indifference. Here, indifference to injustice does not mean inactivity (See Bhagavad Gita) but a state of non reactivity so that anger and fear do not arise to disturb the mind field with a torrent of negative emotional energy. The Buddhists translate upeksha (upekka in Pali) as equanimity. Again the point is to be present to injustice without falling into emotional turmoil. Then appropriate action (dharma) can be taken with a clear mind and open heart.

I-34 pracchhardana-vidhaaranaabhyaam vaa praanasya
Or by sustaining the state experienced during soft relaxed exhalation and the natural pause after exhalation has finished.

Here begins the ‘or’ section. Patanjali is discussing ways to stabilize and relax the mind and he lists several options. In I-34, the breath is used. There are two natural pauses in the breathing cycle; one after inbreath and before outbreath, and one after outbreath and before inbreath. These may or may not be conscious and relaxed. Opening and releasing the exhalation relaxes the mind and after a relaxed exhalation, the following pause is also relaxed and open. Patanjali says to discover and nurture this sensation/feeling of calmness and ease and the stability of the mind will increase. This is directly tied in with the emotions as they determine the flow of the breath. (See I-32 above)

I-35 vishayavatii vaa pravrttir utpannaa manasah sthiti-nibandhanii
Or, focusing on a subtle sensation brings steadiness of the mind

Patanjali uses the term manas rather than citta as manas is where the information from the senses first appears. Modern neurobiology recognizes that differing regions of the brain and sets of neural circuits govern different types of brain function and Patanjali concurs. Manas refers to the part of the brain that is always comparing, contrasting, labeling and thus it can get very busy. To notice subtlety requires slowing down, quieting down, allowing space. To attend at this level of sensitivity requires patience and persistence and thus naturally cultivates a relaxed, one pointed mind state. Notice the root stha, stable or steady, is used again, as sthiti

see II-53 and III-48

I-36 vishokaa vaa jyotishmatii
Or, (by focusing on) the sorrowless luminous (sattvic qualities of mind)

Sattva is the dynamic balanced integration of relaxtion and arousal in the nervous system/organism. It is described as joyful and luminous. It is the beginning of recognizing the realm of light, more subtle than that of fluid flow.

I-37  viita raaga-vishayam vaa chittam
Or, (by contemplating) one who is beyond worldly desires

“What is this person like?,” asks Arjuna of Krishna. For Krishna’s reply see Bhagavd Gita, II- 55 through II- 72.

I- 38 svapna-nidraa-jnaanaalambanam vaa
Or (the mind acquires stability by) taking support from knowlege arising in sleep and dreams.

As sensitivity awakens, information from the higher planes of consciousness begin to appear in the dreams. As the cells become energized by practice, their capacity to communicate often first emerges in the dream state and thus clues to deepen the practice appear here.

I-39 yathaabhimata-dhyaanaad vaa
Or (the mind acquires stability by) meditating on anything that works for you.

This is Patanjali at his most open minded and a great sutra. There are many ways to bring clarity and stability to the mind. He gives permission to use your own temperment, wisdom and experience to come up with a practice that works for you.

I-40 paramaanu-parama-mahattvaanto’sya vashikaarah
Mastery (of one who has refined the mind) extends from the smallest particle to the totality of creation

Patanjali the physicist descibes how the mind of one who is fully stabilized extends from the sub-atomic realms of the quantum field all the way to the galaxies and beyond. The universe is the mahat, the great mind that is the mind of the yogi.

I-41  kshiina-vrtter abhijaatasyevamaner grahitr-grahana-graahyeshu tat-stha-tad anjanataa samaapattih
Absorption of the mind that is free of the fluctuation is like a transparent jewel reflecting the object before it, whether that object be the knower, the instruments of knowing, or the object to be known.

Patanjali now begins a more detailed  description of the nature and process of samadhi introduced in I-17. The main metaphor is that the purified mind is like a clear crystal that reflects the objects placed in its vicinity. The term samapatti is introduced, offering a more nuanced definition of an aspect of the samadhi process. Here samapatti refers to the coalescence of mind with the object of contemplation, where the mind totally takes on the form of the object to know it more completely. The object of contemplation can be any gross form, or the any of the instruments of knowing such as the sense organs and lower mind, or the intelligence (buddhi) itself. From a neurobiological perspective, all unnecessary neurological activity has been inhibited/eliminated and the mind state that remains is stable and undistracted. But, as we shall see, there is still much more refinement available to the yogi.

Samadhi refers to the generalized process of transmuting the vrttis to reveal the luminous Self. Samapatti is a specialized version of this process. Notice that samapatti is a vrttti itself, as it is a state of mind. More variations on samadhi will be introduced next.

In the following sutras, Patanjali uses the metaphysics of Sankhya to articulate the levels of reality penetrated by the deepening lens of samadhi. We can use the metaphor of a microscope to help make sense of the 24 point structure the Sankhyans have created to explain the manifest world.

Prakriti refers to the first emergence, the fundamental essence of all forms. It is completely undifferentiated and cannot be reduced any further. Mahat or Buddhi, primordial intelligence, is the emergence of the laws of the universe, the organizing principles that underlie all forms. Ahamkara is the principe of self-identification. It is where individual forms begin to distinguish themselves from all other forms and in the humans , the emergent self sense.

I-42 tatra shabdaartha-jnaana-vikalpaih sankiirnaa sa-vitarkaa samaapattih
Sa-vitarka samapatti (Samadhi of gross forms) intermingles words, meanings and concepts.

Savitarka accompanied samadhi, introduced in I – 17, is now further divided into two separate, more nuanced categories as described here and in I-43. In this first level of samadhi, savitarka samadhi, although absorbed, the mind unconsciously intermingles three levels of reality. If I were contemplating a rose, for example, the mind would rotate amongst the actual word ‘rose’, its sound, its shape, the memories and thoughts about ‘rose’ that I have accumulated over the years and lifetimes, and the actual rose itself. Thus the absorption is less than clear as conceptualizations are entangled with the actual perception of the rose.

I-43  smrti-parishuddhau svaruupa-shunyevaartha-maatra-nirbhaasaa nir-vitarkaa
Emptying of the mind of concepts and memory and leaving only the object shining forth is called nirvitarka samapatti

In nirvitarka samapatti, the conceptualizations have been eliminated and only the pure perception of the object remains. This is the highest form of correct direct perception, pratyaksha, introduced in I-7, and is likely the perceptual state the animal world experiences. We are still at the gross level of reality, the material realm, the most obvious and tangible, but are seeing this level with total clarity.

I-44  etayaiva savichaaraa nirvichaaraa cha suukshma-vishayaa vyaakhyaataa
Samadhi of subtle forms is explained in a similar manner.

Savichara accompanied samadhi, like savitarka, is divided linto two levels. Here we are engaged with the subtle realms, the energy underlying the material level. Modern science, Einstein specifically, has shown that matter is actually a dense form of energy. In savichara samadhi the energy of an object, or any form, as it appears in time and space, is felt directly. In nirvichara, the universal energy of all forms, unlimited by time and space is the seed of absorption.

I-45  suukshma-vishayatvam chaalinga-paryavasaanam
The subtle levels, the layers of creation (explored in the levels of samadhi) extend to unmodified prakriti itself, (the substratum of all forms, before disticnt forms emerge.)

In Sankyha metaphysics, the most suble evolute, the level beyond which you can no longer find something still more subtle, is known as prakriti, here noted as ‘a-linga’, without a sign. This sutra indicates that the previous samadhis can continue to be refined all the way to prakriti. In sutras II-19 – II – 28, Patanjali will return to the sankhya metaphysics.

I-46 taa eva sa-bhiijah samaadhih
They (the four levels of samadhi just discussed) are known as “samadhi with seed”

The ‘seeds’ are any form, any evolute of prakriti, that the mind uses as an anchor to stabilize, or seed to “crystallize” the mind field and inhibit the emergence of the dysfunctional patterns, the rajasic and tamasic vrttis.

I-47 nirvichaara-vaishaaradye’dhyaatma-prasaadah
As nirvichara samadhi becomes clarified, spiritual clarity or lucidity arises.

As the most refined samadhi with seed deepens, the rajasic and tamasic vrttis, (the dysfunction mind states,) have been transformed and all that remains in the mind, as mind activity, is sattva, illumination, the inner light.

I-48 rtambharaa tatra prajna
There (in the state of nirvichara samapatti) is truth bearing wisdom

Rta is the ancient Vedic root for the wisdom of the universe, the underlying harmony of the whole. This is pure sattva and from this vantage there is direct realization of the nature of suffering and the freedom. This is pointed out in the next sutra.

I-49 shrutaanumaana-prajnaabhyam anya-vishayaa visheshaarthatvaat
(Truth bearing wisdom) is different from wisdom gained through scriptures or logic and inference because it deals with specifics.

More yoga metaphysics underlies this sutra. The term ‘vishesha’ refers to a specific object or form. Truth bearing wisdom here is the mind knowing the nature of the world of forms ‘from the inside out’. The fundamental nature of mind, being at its essence the same as the nature of all forms, knows all forms as itself. This is unity consciousness. In Inference and testimony, (mentioned in Sutra I-7) words are needed to convey information, and words are totally inadequate to fully capture all the ‘specifics’ that are the ‘truth’ of an object. Only this luminous state allows this.

I-50  taj-jah samskaaro’nya-samskaara-pratibandhi
Samskaras produced by that (truth bearing wisdom, rtam-bhara-prajna) inhibit other samskaras from emerging.

The dysfunctional samskaras (latent patterns of possibility still lurking in the unconscious) are inhibited by these new patterns of energy created by the wisdom. When in the state of ‘knowing wholeness’, ideas and beliefs of separateness that arise begin to loose there momentum and energy.

I-51  tasyaapi nirodhe sarva-nirodhaan nir-biijah samaadhih
Upon the cessation of even those (truth-bearing samskaras) seedless samadhi is attained.

Patanjali returns to I-3. No seed, no form, nothing is needed for the mind. It rests in (dissolves into) absolute stillness, the truth of the Self. Notice the return of nirodhe at a new level. Now mind activity dissolves into the living presence of life, the vibration of the organs and cells. Consciousness is not dependent upon vrttis but is the source of the vrttis.

Now there is no guarantee that once attained, the seedless samadhi will remain forever. Actually, the practice of samyama, to be introduced in the 3rd chapter (Vibhuti Pada), recognizes that samadhi cycles among dharana ( the reining in of wandering attention to achive a sattvic mind state), dhyana, (sustaining that attention through the effort of restraining the rajas and tamaic tendencies), and samadhi or effortless absorption. For the overwhelming majority of practitioners, the awakening of seedless samadhi is unstable. This is why Patanjali, in sutra I-3, uses the term avasthanam, stabilized. The human body/mind, especially in the modern world of complex global relationships, is constanly challenged to stay in the state of yoga, and remain ebgaged in healing the planet. Many teachers and gurus can have profound spiritual experiences and yet still become entangled in the unconscious forces alive in the relational world.