4.11 · Four Supports

Since they are held together by cause, fruit, basis and support, when these are gone, they are gone.

Word by word

hetu

cause

phala

fruit, result

āśraya

basis, seat

ālambanaiḥ

and supports, objects

saṃgṛhītatvāt

because of being held together

eṣām

of these

abhāve

in the absence

tat-abhāvaḥ

their absence

Where it fits

Beginningless does not mean endless. Tendencies depend on cause, result, seat and support, and Vyāsa traces the cause to ignorance turning a six-spoked wheel (2.4). Take these away and the tendencies go. Vyāsa then raises the objection that opens 4.12: nothing that exists can simply be destroyed, so how can they cease?

Reading

Beginningless does not mean endless. Tendencies are held together by four things: a cause, a result they serve, the mind as their seat, and an object that sets them off. Vyāsa traces the cause as a wheel: action brings pleasure or pain, these bring liking and dislike, these bring effort, and effort brings more action, all turned by ignorance, the root of the afflictions (2.4). Take the supports away and the tendencies fall, like a table with its legs removed.

Vyāsa

“From merit comes pleasure; from demerit, pain. From pleasure comes attachment; from pain, aversion; and from that, effort. … So this six-spoked wheel of rebirth is set turning. It turns at every moment, and its driver is ignorance, the root of all the afflictions.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 314.

Practice

Pick one habit and find its four supports: what started it, what it gets you, where in you it lives, and what sets it off. This week, remove just one support, the easiest, and see what happens.

A question to sit with

Which support of this habit could you take away?

Key ideas

saṃskāra (latent impressions), avidyā (ignorance), karma (action and its residue)