I. Samādhi Pāda · The obstacles (1.30–1.32)
1.32 · The Pole Star
To prevent them, practise on a single principle.
Word by word
- tat-pratiṣedha-artham
- to prevent them
- eka-tattva
- one principle, a single reality
- abhyāsaḥ
- practice
Where it fits
Vyāsa makes the link explicit: these scatterings, foes of absorption, are to be stilled by the same practice and non-attachment as in 1.12, and this sūtra names the object of practice (Woods pp. 65–66). Readers differ on the 'single principle'. Vācaspati takes it as Īśvara; others read it as any one object, as in 1.33–1.39.
Reading
The remedy for scattering is to keep returning to one thing. Commentators differ on what that one thing is. Vācaspati Miśra reads it as Īśvara, continuing 1.23–1.29; others take it as any single object held steadily, which fits the options that follow from 1.33. Vyāsa uses the sūtra to argue against the Buddhist view of mind as a stream of separate moments: there must be one stable mind that can be trained to stay. Either way, the method is practice (1.13), coming back to the same point.
Vyāsa
“To prevent the scatterings, one should train the mind to rest on a single principle. … So the mind is one, it has many objects, and it endures.”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 66.
Practice
Choose one point of attention for today: the breath at the nostrils, a word, a lamp flame, a name you hold sacred. Whenever you have a spare minute, return to it. Don't change it during the day, however tempting.
A question to sit with
What one thing will you keep returning to?
Where commentators disagree
What is the 'single principle' (eka-tattva) to practise on?
- Vyāsa
- Practise by resting the mind on one thing. He uses the sūtra to argue that the mind is a single, stable thing with many objects, against the Buddhist view of mind as momentary ideas. (Woods 1914, p. 66)
- Vācaspati Miśra
- The single principle is Īśvara, because Īśvara is the subject of the passage (1.23–1.29). (Woods 1914, p. 67)
- Bhoja
- One should keep returning the attention to one truth, 'some accepted truth'; once the mind is one-pointed, the distractions subside. (Tatya 1885, p. 29)