3.12 · Flame After Flame

Then again, the transformation of one-pointedness: the thought that fades and the thought that rises are alike.

Word by word

tataḥ

then

punaḥ

again

śānta

subsided, passing

uditau

and risen

tulya-pratyayau

alike in content

cittasya

of the mind

ekāgratā-pariṇāmaḥ

the transformation of one-pointedness

Where it fits

The third transformation describes the mind already one-pointed: each thought that fades is followed by one just like it. This completes the series begun at 3.9: stilling, absorption, one-pointedness. 3.13 then applies the same pattern of change to everything outside the mind.

Reading

This third transformation describes a mind already one-pointed, which still changes every moment. Vyāsa: the subsided is the earlier idea of a concentrated mind, the risen is a later idea of the same kind, and this lasts until the concentration breaks. Thoughts still come and go. But each new moment holds what the last one held. One-pointedness is not a frozen state; it is a sequence of matching moments.

Vyāsa

“In a collected mind, the earlier thought is the one that fades, and the later thought, like it, is the one that rises. The absorbed mind runs through both, and so again and again, until the absorption breaks.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 211–212.

Practice

Watch a lamp or candle flame for five minutes. It is renewed every instant, with new fuel and new fire, yet it looks the same. Then let your attention do likewise: each moment new, each one resting on the same object.

A question to sit with

Is this moment like the one before?

Key ideas

citta (the mind-field), samādhi (absorption)