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Yoga Sūtras

  • 1.01  Now, the teachings of yoga.
  • 1.02  Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind.
  • 1.03  Then the seer can abide in its own true nature.
  • 1.06  These five kinds of thought are right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, sleep, and memory.
  • 1.07  Right knowledge consists of sense perception, logic, and reliable experts.
  • 1.08  Wrong knowledge has no objective basis
  • 1.09  Imagination comes from words devoid of substance
  • 1.10  Deep sleep is a mental activity based on the absence of content.
  • 1.12  Fluctuations of the mind are stilled by means of practice and non-attachment
  • 1.13  Practice is the sustained effort to rest in stillness.
  • 1.15  Dispassion is the mastery of one who no longer craves for pleasures — whether experienced directly or heard about.
  • 1.16  The highest dispassion arises with the clear seeing of the Self, when even the pull of nature’s qualities no longer captivates.
  • 1.20  For others, realization is preceded by faith, effort, mindfulness, absorption, and wisdom.
  • 1.21  Success in yoga comes quickly to those who apply themselves wholeheartedly
  • 1.22  The time necessary for success further depends on whether the practice is mild, medium, or intense
  • 1.23  Or, [samādhi arises] through wholehearted surrender to the inner teacher
  • 1.30  Disturbances that distract the mind and block the path include sickness, mental laziness, doubt, carelessness, physical laziness, craving, confusion, lack of progress, and lack of consistency
  • 1.31  Suffering, discouragement, physical restlessness, and disturbed breath accompany these distractions.
  • 1.32  The obstacles are overcome by steady practice on a single principle.
  • 1.33  By cultivating an attitude of friendliness toward those who are happy, compassion toward those who are suffering, sympathetic joy toward those who are virtuous, and equanimity toward those who are non-virtuous, the mind becomes clear and serene
  • 1.36  Or by resting in the inner light that is free from sorrow
  • 1.37  Or by focusing the mind on thoughts free from attachment.
  • 1.38  Or, the mind becomes steady by resting in insight from dreams or deep sleep.
  • 2.01  Yoga in action consists of self-discipline, study, and surrender
  • 2.03  The afflictions are ignorance, ego, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life
  • 2.05  Ignorance is the perception that the self, which is joyful, pure, and eternal, is the nonself, which is painful, impure, and temporary.
  • 2.06  Egotism is to misunderstand the seer to be the power of seeing.
  • 2.15  To a person who sees clearly, all experiences, whether pleasant or unpleasant, carry the seed of suffering, because they are impermanent, driven by craving, shaped by habit, and bound to change.
  • 2.16  The suffering not yet arisen can be avoided.
  • 2.17  The false identification of the seer and that which is seen is the cause of suffering to be avoided.
  • 2.18  The phenomenal world consists of material elements and senses characterized by their illumination, activity, and inertia. This world can serve the goals of sensual experience or spiritual liberation.
  • 2.20  The seer is merely the power of seeing. It appears to take on the changing contents of the mind. In reality, it is unchangeable.
  • 2.24  The cause of this identification is ignorance.
  • 2.25  With the removal of ignorance, our true nature is revealed. This is the absolute freedom of the seer.
  • 2.26  The skillful means for removing ignorance is discriminative discernment.
  • 2.28  The practice of the limbs of yoga leads to the destruction of impurities and discriminative discernment.
  • 2.31  These ethical commitments constitute the Great Vow of yoga: universal, timeless, and unconditional, applicable to everyone in every place at every time regardless of role or situation.
  • 2.33  When troubled by harmful thoughts, cultivate their opposites.
  • 2.34  Negative thoughts are violence, etc. They may be created directly, indirectly, or approved; they may be triggered by greed, hatred, or delusion; and they may be slight, moderate, or extreme in intensity. One must become an opponent to such influences by cultivating the opposite.
  • 2.35  In the presence of someone who is deeply committed to nonviolence, hostility recedes.
  • 2.46  The posture should be steady and comfortable
  • 3.01  Concentration is the fixing of the mind in one place.
  • 3.13  In this way, the transformations of qualities, features, and states in elements and senses are understood.
  • 3.23  By directing discipline toward loving-kindness and so on, one gains strengths
  • 3.26  By meditating on the sun, knowledge of the world (or the cosmos) arises
  • 3.32  By focusing attention on the light at the crown of the head, one perceives realized beings.
  • 3.44  By integrated concentration on the form, essence, subtlety, interrelation, and purpose of the elements, mastery over them arises.
  • 4.10  The saṁskāras are without beginning, because the desire for life is eternal
  • 4.21  If the mind were perceived by another mind, then there would be an infinite regress of one intelligence being known by another intelligence. This would cause confusion of memory.
  • 4.22  Although it is unchanging, consciousness becomes aware of its own intelligence by means of pervading the forms assumed by the intelligence.