I. Samādhi Pāda · Ways to a clear mind (1.33–1.39)
1.33 · Four Ways to Meet
The mind becomes clear by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion toward the suffering, gladness toward the good, and equanimity toward the unvirtuous.
Word by word
- maitrī
- friendliness
- karuṇā
- compassion
- muditā
- gladness
- upekṣāṇām
- equanimity, looking on evenly
- sukha
- toward the happy
- duḥkha
- toward the suffering
- puṇya
- toward the virtuous
- apuṇya
- toward the unvirtuous, wrongdoers
- viṣayāṇām
- having these as objects
- bhāvanātaḥ
- by cultivating
- citta-prasādanam
- the clearing of the mind
Where it fits
Having argued under 1.32 that the mind is one and enduring, Vyāsa asks how the teaching prepares such a mind (Woods p. 70). The first answer is ethical: four attitudes toward others. Each support in 1.34–1.39 is introduced by 'or'. Vyāsa ends that a clear mind becomes one-pointed and steady (Woods p. 71).
Reading
Placed at the head of the ways to steady a scattered mind, this sūtra makes ethics the ground of meditation. Each attitude is matched to a kind of person, and Vyāsa says that the mind then becomes clear, and a clear mind becomes one-pointed. Vācaspati Miśra adds that friendliness toward the happy dissolves envy. Woods renders the last as 'indifference'; many teachers prefer equanimity, which can still oppose harm without being consumed by it. The same four are central in Buddhism. 3.23 returns to them.
Vyāsa
“Here one should cultivate friendliness toward all beings who are enjoying happiness; compassion toward those who suffer; gladness toward those who are good; equanimity toward those whose conduct is bad. … Then the mind becomes clear. Once clear, it becomes one-pointed and reaches steadiness.”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 71.
Practice
Bring to mind four people: one happy, one suffering, one good, one difficult. Send the first a silent wish of goodwill, the second a wish for relief, the third honest gladness, and the fourth a steady, neutral breath.
A question to sit with
Which of the four attitudes is hardest for you now?
Where commentators disagree
Are the four attitudes part of yoga itself, and where do they come from?
- Vyāsa
- Friendliness to the happy, compassion to those in pain, gladness for the good, indifference to the wrongdoer. Cultivating them brings 'white' dharma; the mind becomes calm, then one-pointed and steady. (Woods 1914, p. 71)
- Vācaspati Miśra
- Each attitude removes a particular stain: friendliness ends envy, compassion the wish to harm, gladness jealousy, and indifference anger. Then sattva prevails. (Woods 1914, p. 71)
- Bhoja
- These are external aids, not parts of samādhi itself, like addition used in solving harder sums. They clear away passion and envy and so prepare the mind for absorption with an object. (Tatya 1885, pp. 29–30; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 1.33)
- Dominik Wujastyk
- Following Senart, the four match the Buddhist brahmavihāras, though Patañjali does not use that word. Muditā is not well-formed classical Sanskrit but a familiar Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit form. (Wujastyk 2018, pp. 24–25)