The basic purpose of a yoga practice is to restrain mental modifications in order to evolve through the five planes of mind. The intent of a yoga practice is the achievement of a steadiness of mind, or mental steadiness.
What is the nature of a steady mind?
The word steadiness indicates that our quality of thought, and therefore our emotion, is free from wavering and indecision regardless of the situations and circumstances we find ourselves in. In this sense, our minds are securely and immovably fixed in place.
There are nine obstacles to mental steadiness: disease, languor, indecision, carelessness, sloth, sensuality, mistaken notion, failure, and inability to maintain. There are four effects on our mind created by these nine obstacles: mental and/or physical pain; sadness or dejection; restlessness and anxiety; and irregularities in breathing. Under the influence of the nine obstacles and their effects our thought patterns remain disturbed and our attention remains fragmented. These obstacles to mental steadiness are a natural and predictable challenge in a yoga practice.
Habituation to the contrary is the method to remove the nine obstacles and their effects. As we develop our power of concentration and become more aware of the presence of the nine obstacles within they immediately begin to lose their effect on us. The act of bringing something into clear focus and attention is a powerful means to reduce its impact. We come know the obstacle more intimately and can then begin to habituate the mind to the contrary [of the nine obstacles]:
For their [the nine obstacles] prevention, habituation to one truth.
By cultivating habits of friendliness, compassion, goodwill, and indifference towards happiness, misery, virtue and vice, respectively, the mind becomes pure.
(Yoga Sutra: 1.32-33)
Mental steadiness is the habituation to one truth (also described as one-pointedness) and is the foundation for meditation. There are two key strategies involved.
The first stage is the development of awareness. Through concentration we learn to observe the presence of the nine obstacles and their four effects without becoming attached or subservient to them. When we are aware of them we sense their presence within, but we choose to remain detached from them. Awareness is achieved when we feel as though we are an outside observer of our own experiences. By deepening our capacity for awareness we learn to witness our thoughts and feelings without becoming influenced by them.
The second stage, and the key to habituation to the truth, is to interrupt the presence of an obstacle by focusing on a new intent. The nine obstacles and their four effects are not something we set out to repress, attack or destroy – we simply allow them to be without becoming them. We do, however, interrupt them through intention. When we sense an obstacle within, we choose to focus on its solution. For example, if we are tormented by a sense of failure in our lives, then we choose to habituate ourselves to the contrary and create the intention of complete acceptance.
Mental steadiness is achieved by deepening our sense of awareness so that we can witness mental obstacles and their effects as an impartial observer, and then in the presence of an obstacle we consciously choose to focus on an intention that cultivates friendliness, compassion, goodwill, and indifference to transitory states of being. Learning this form of concentration is the first stage in the development of the mind in yoga and is foundation for transforming out thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. These are the basic asanas of the mind that provide a foundation for the development of mental flexibility and clarity.
… the mind acquires the power of thought-transformation
(Yoga Sutra: 1.41)
