1.20 · The Five-Slab Bridge

For others, it is preceded by faith, energy, memory, absorption and wisdom.

Word by word

śraddhā

faith, trust

vīrya

energy, vigour

smṛti

memory, keeping in mind (compare the Buddhist 'mindfulness')

samādhi

absorption

prajñā

wisdom, insight

pūrvakaḥ

preceded by

itareṣām

for the others

Where it fits

Against the temporary state of 1.19, this gives the way for everyone else: five qualities, each leading to the next. Vyāsa ends that from practising these, together with non-attachment, objectless absorption arises (Woods p. 46). So the two means of 1.12 are still at work.

Reading

For everyone else, the way to objectless absorption runs through five qualities in order: faith, energy, memory, absorption, wisdom. Smṛti, the word translated 'memory' in 1.11, here means keeping the aim in mind. Vyāsa shows each giving rise to the next. Faith, he says, is the mind's clear serenity, and it protects the yogi like a kind mother. From faith comes energy, from energy memory, from memory a settled mind, and from that the wisdom that sees things as they are. Buddhist texts list the same five as the five powers; scholars debate how the two traditions shaped each other.

Vyāsa

“Faith is the mind's clear serenity. Like a kind mother, it protects the yogi. In one who has faith and seeks discernment, energy arises. In one in whom energy has arisen, memory becomes present.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 46.

Practice

Write the five words in a column: faith, energy, memory (keeping the aim in mind), absorption, wisdom. Beside each, note one small sign of it in your life this week. Which is thinnest? Do one thing today that feeds that one.

A question to sit with

Which of the five needs feeding?

Where commentators disagree

What is smṛti among the five qualities that lead to absorption?

Vyāsa

Each quality gives rise to the next. Faith protects the yogin like a good mother; it brings energy; with energy, mindfulness is at hand; then the mind is undistracted and becomes concentrated, and insight follows. (Woods 1914, p. 46)

Vācaspati Miśra

Glosses smṛti as dhyāna, meditation. 'Becomes concentrated' means having the eight aids of yoga, so the list hints at the yamas, niyamas and the rest of 2.29. (Woods 1914, p. 46)

Bhoja

Smṛti is the memory already defined at 1.11: to one who perseveres, the memory of past subjects arises, and the mind is absorbed through recalling it. (Tatya 1885, p. 19)

J. H. Woods

Notes that the five are the Buddhist list saddhā, viriya, sati, samādhi, paññā, and cites the Majjhima Nikāya passage where the Buddha says Āḷāra Kālāma, as well as he, taught them. (Woods 1914, p. 45, n. 3)

Key ideas

samādhi (absorption), prajñā (wisdom), abhyāsa (practice), vairāgya (non-attachment)