Chapter Two: Method (Sadhana)

Purificatory action [tapas], study, making God the motive of action, constitute the yoga of action.
(Yoga Sutra: 2.1)

The first line of Chapter Two: Method states that the essential action of a yoga practice is the burning of impurities, or purificatory action (i.e. – tapas) in the mind. Pantanjali’s method therefore originates in a psychological perspective that focuses on relieving our suffering by embracing it and making it the focus for the development of concentration (i.e. – Chapter One: Concentration).

Tapas, the burning of impurities in the mind, body and spirit, is therefore the foundation and essence of Pantanjali’s Yoga method. Tapas are the core action of Yoga, and therefore the core action of the mind, body and spirit. In the absence of tapas, we experience no durable growth or transformation of mind and therefore continue to experience the cycles of chronic reactivity and suffering. Our bodies may become more flexible through asanas and our breath more controlled through pranayama, but our mind remains mired in habitual response. In other words, we practice things that never leave the mat, and therefore we do not embrace the most basic purpose of Yoga.

Pantanjali describes five afflictions that we must learn to hold within the fire of tapas.

1. Dormancy: Laziness of mind;
2. Delusion: Mistaking the non-eternal, the impure and the painful to be the eternal, the pure and the pleasurable.
3. Egoism: The mistaken belief that we are our ego.
4. Attachment: The habitual attachment to that we inappropriately believe to be pleasurable;
5. Aversion: The habitual repulsion from that we inappropriately believe to be painful.

What is in our mind is the decisive factor in how we perceive and understand our own experience. In changing our mind (i.e. – the thoughts and beliefs we hold to be the truth) through tapas, we learn to perceive and understand our own experience in new ways.

The vehicle of actions has its origin in afflictions, and is experienced in visible and invisible births.

It ripens into life-state, life-time, and life-experience, if the root exists

(Yoga Sutra 2.12-13)

It may sound as if tapas are restraining and confining. They are. It is the restraint of harmful qualities of mind that creates the space for new possibilities of mind. To restrain that which is harmful cuts off the chronic cycles of reactivity that prevent us from being more open to the reality of life. We cannot avoid the anxiety caused by tapas since we are being asked to burn up and purify that which has been habitual and perhaps addictive. The mind and body are more comfortable when habits continue, even if those habits do not serve us well. But perhaps the most painful and potent change is that of becoming selfless, or seeing that the ego and therefore our own identity has been the ultimate source of our suffering and pain.

Tapas are an essential component of asana practice. Our thoughts, feelings and memories reside throughout the mind-body continuum. It is scientifically proven that thoughts, feelings and memories are found throughout the body, not merely in the brain. Concentration, and therefore tapas, is an energetic flow across the essential unity of mind-body-spirit. Asanas, physical postures, serve to increase the flow of energy in our mind and body by releasing thoughts, feelings and memories that are literally held in our tissues throughout the body. At the same time, it is important to recognize that asanas, in the absence of tapas, is mere exercise. Tapas is the core method that serves to engage the essential quality of concentration necessary to benefit from the asanas. Thus, asana is a direct extension of tapas that has its roots in concentration.

The fire of tapas is something that literally has felt-meaning throughout the mind, body and spirit. The presence of tapas is immediate and pervasive. Tapas embraces change from deep within, and this kind of change does not come without the presence of mental, emotional and physical discomfort. Those that pursue feelings of happiness and enjoyment in life are those in pursuit of impermanence and chain themselves to habitual cycles of disappointment. Thus, the Yogi learns to embrace their most painful and difficult moments in life in the presence of concentration and tapas, for these are the moments which offer us our greatest opportunity to grow and transform.

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)

Mental Modifications

Yoga is the restraint of mental modifications.
(Yoga Sutra 1-2, A Sourcebook in Indian Philosphy)

One of the things we immediately notice about Pantanjali’s definition of yoga above is that it is focused on restraining negative qualities of the mind. The purpose of concentration is the restraint of mental modifications. Thus one important purpose of yoga is to control, limit, restrict and suppress the thoughts and feelings we have that lead to pain and suffering.

Pantanjali describes five types of mental modifications:

1. Comprehension: The ways in which we perceive, talk and infer about our experiences;
2. Misapprenhension: The ways in which we apprehend beyond our senses (intuition, premonition, etc.);
3. Imagination: our interior thought world, mental self-talk;
4. Sleep: The ways which we connect to dreams and our subconscious being;
5. Memory: The ways in which past habits, conditioning, and knowledge influence our present experience.

If a mental process is truthful, it originates in the awareness of the impermanence of all life. If a  mental process is painful it is caused by one of the five afflictions (ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and fear of death) – or those things that cause us to believe we are separate and unique in life. The idea of restraining mental modifications means that we are engaging with our minds in way that is designed to free us from our addiction to suffering so that we may open ourselves to the truth of universal death.

Mental Modifications: Implications for Building a Yoga Practice

A basic goal for a yoga practice is to restrain mental modifications, in other words, to restrict the thoughts and feelings that are the root cause of suffering. Another way to describe this is that the purpose of a yoga practice is to secure steadiness of mind.

A mental modification for the yoga practitioner is not an abstract concept, but a thought-feeling experienced in the here and now. Therefore, unlike a school setting in which the content is predetermined and imposed on the student, the real content of yoga is the practitioner’s awareness and interaction with their own thoughts and feelings. The content of yoga is our own individual experience – the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that occupy our lives. In a vibrant yoga practice both the teacher and classroom are ultimately within.

…practice is the effort to secure steadiness. (Yoga Sutra, 1-13)

1. Wandering (ksipta): This is lowest state of mind, the person is highly agitated and unable to think, listen, or keep quiet. The term “monkey-mind” is often used to character this state and the person is trapped in addictive cycles of pain and suffering.
2. Dull (mudha): In this state of mind the person is forgetful and lacks awareness of their own thoughts and experiences. Their mind is in a state of somnambulism in which habit dominates.
3. Restless (vikspita): The mind has become more aware but is in a constant state of confusion and the individual has difficulty deciding what to do.
4. Focused (ekagra): The mind is both relaxed and aware. The internal chatter has subsided and the person is able to maintain their awareness of the present moment.
5. Mastered (nirodha): The mind is able to concentrate on a single focus for extended periods of time. The person is fully engaged in something and remains undistributed by the situations and circumstances of life.

The essence of yoga lies is the contemplation of the nature of our mind.

What is Mind?

Diane Ackerman provides a vibrant description of the mind:

… that fantasia of self-regard we call “the mind.” The brain is not the mind, the mind inhabits the brain. Like a ghost in a machine… Mind is the comforting mirage of the physical brain. An experience, not an entity… an emanation that’s not located in one place, or one form, but exists throughout the universe. An essence, not a substance. And, of course, the mind reflects what the body senses and feels, it’s influenced by a caravan of hormones and enzymes. each mind inhabits a private universe of its own devising that changes daily, depending on the vagaries of medication, intense emotions, pollution, genes, or countless other personal-size cataclysms.
(Dianne Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind)

The brain and mind are reflections of each other. Our state of mind determines the physiology of the brain. If our state of mind is characterized by wandering, then our thoughts, feelings and emotions churn chaotically. Further, the plasticity of the brain, as a reflection of the activities of the mind, physiologically mirrors the perpetuation of wandering. What we think and how we feel therefore has biological repercussions throughout our entire body. Our state of mind has a direct effect on the physiological structure of our brain and the distribution of chemicals that are the basis for feeling and emotion. In this way, the energetic realm of the mind literally becomes matter within the body.

The mind cannot be separated from the body, nor can the body be separated from the mind. They are part of a unified system and are completely interdependent.

Contemplation of the Five States of Mind

Understanding the five states of the mind and the interdependence of mind and body is the basis for contemplation. The five states are really dynamic realities to be explored within, not merely concepts committed to memory and habit. Yoga encourages us to perceive the truth of the wandering, dull, restless, focused, and mastered mind  within our own being.

The path of yoga leads us into an personal journey of mind, body and spirit. Learning yoga means that we turn our attention inward and train our concentration on the inner workings of our own mind. Yoga does not ask us to develop our conceptual understanding; yoga critically engages us in finding these states of mind within ourselves.

This inward concentration is perhaps one of the most foreign elements of yoga. We are used to seeking gratification from external sources. The underlying assumption of learning to the Western mind is the concept of the prerequisite, that is, that information has been predetermined and prepared for us – and we receive it. In traditional education we focus on the acquisition of abstract concepts; the yogi learns to perceive the operation of the mind and seeks to acquire the truth of experience.

The five states of mind are a strategy for developing awareness and perception. They offer a framework for contemplating the mind, its effects on our body, and our interpretation of experience. To enter yoga technique deeply, we must first build the psychological foundation for a practice.

The Yoga Sutras written by Pantanjali in the 2nd century B.C. is the foundational text of yoga. They have been enormously influential on the development of the principles and practice of yoga and are considered to be a primary resource for yoga.

Yoga: A common translation of the word “yoga” is derived from Sanskrit root yujir meaning to join or to unite. Another important translation of the word “yoga” comes from the root yuj meaning to contemplate.

Sutra: A common translation of the word “sutra” is thread. A sutra is an aphorism, or a brief statement designed to contain a deep insight, powerful observation or an important truth about life.

The Yoga Sutras are the threads of union, or the threads of contemplation. Basically it is a collection of 196 aphorisms divided into four chapters:

1. Concentration (51 sutras);
2. Methods (55 sutras);
3. Power (54 sutras); and
4. Absolute Independence (34 sutras).

Interpreting the Yoga Sutras

There are various translations of the Yoga Sutras available. I am using A Source Book In Indian Philosophy (Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli and Charles A. Moore Ed., Princeton University Press, 1957) as my basic source. One advantage of this publication is that it offers numerous commentaries on the Yoga Sutras that help the reader to develop perspective. This source book also contains numerous other source materials that are essential to Yoga covering some four thousands years of Indian philosophy.

Various online translations are also available:

1) Yoga Sutras – BonGiovanni;
2) Yoga Sutras – Gutenberg;
3) Yoga Sutras – Chip Hartranft;
4) Yoga Sutras – Swami Jnaneshvara.

The challenge of translation is significant. There is no definitive or perfect translation of the Yoga Sutras from Sanskrit (the original language of the Yoga Sutras and one of the oldest Indo-European languages, dating back to approximately 1500 BC) into English. Certain concepts fluidly expressed in one language may be exceedingly difficult to express in another. Indeed, a concept common to one language may have no direct correlation in another language. This is the case with translations of Sanskrit into English.

This challenge is also an opportunity to introduce new concepts into our own language and thought. Though we may desire a translation to have direct transference to our own language, the introduction of new concepts into our language has transformative potential. Language is the foundation of intelligence. When we creatively search for ways to express new concepts in our own language we expand our own intelligence. This expansion brings new potential for both thought and feeling.

Summary

An aphorism (i.e. – a statement designed to contain a deep insight, powerful perception or important truth about life) is intended to promote thought and reflection. The meaning embedded within a sutra requires that we constantly examine and test it in the light of our own experience. To comprehend a sutra means that we perceive its purpose and relevance within our own being. In this way, the Yoga Sutra is a strategy for interpreting and transforming our experiences in life.

The Yoga Sutras, like the Bible and other sacred texts, are a source of inspiration that encourage people to explore the deeper questions about life and our place in it. The Yoga Sutra is the foundation for building a Yoga practice.