4.26 · The Gentle Slope

Then the mind bends toward discernment and leans toward liberation.

Word by word

tadā

then

viveka-nimnam

sloping toward discernment

kaivalya-prāgbhāram

leaning toward liberation

cittam

the mind

Where it fits

Then, Vyāsa says, the mind that once sloped toward objects and ignorance slopes toward discernment and leans toward freedom. These are the words he used at 1.12 for the river of the mind that can run either way. It now runs one way. Yet this is a direction, not arrival: 4.27 admits gaps.

Reading

The language is of landscape. Nimna is low ground, the way water runs; prāgbhāra is a forward incline. Then the mind slopes toward discernment and leans toward liberation. Vyāsa says the same mind that once ran down toward objects and confusion now runs down toward discernment. Practice has changed the gradient. Liberation becomes the way things flow, as in 1.12, where Vyāsa pictures the mind as a river that can run either way.

Vyāsa

“Then the mind that used to lean toward objects and bend toward ignorance changes. Now it leans toward liberation and bends toward the knowledge born of discernment.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 339.

Practice

Notice where your free time naturally runs today, the slope your attention takes when nothing is directing it. Make one small change that tilts the ground: a book left open, a cushion set out, the phone in another room.

A question to sit with

Which way does your mind run when you leave it alone?

Key ideas

viveka (discernment), kaivalya (liberation, aloneness), citta (the mind-field)