The obstacles

What this passage does

Having said at 1.29 that the obstacles fall away, Patañjali names them: nine scatterings of the mind (1.30), with companions felt in body, mood and breath (1.31). The remedy is practice on a single principle (1.32), which Vyāsa ties back to the two means of 1.12. Diagnosis comes before the supports of 1.33–1.39.

Learning goals

• Name the nine obstacles of 1.30 and say what each means, following Vyāsa's definitions.
• Explain how the companions of 1.31 serve as signs a practitioner can notice.
• State the remedy of 1.32 and the two main readings of 'a single principle'.

The argument, step by step

1. The obstacles that 1.29 said would fall away are nine scatterings of the mind.
2. Vyāsa adds that they arise only together with the mind's movements, so they belong to the scattered mind, not the absorbed one.
3. Pain, despair, trembling of the body and unsteady breathing come with the scattering.
4. Because these are felt in body, mood and breath, they can be noticed before the obstacle itself is named.
5. To prevent the obstacles, one practises on a single principle.

The sūtras

1. 1.30 vyādhistyānasaṃśayapramādālasyāviratibhrāntidarśanālabdhabhūmikatvānavasthitatvāni cittavikṣepās te 'ntarāyāḥ
   Illness, dullness, doubt, carelessness, heaviness, craving, false seeing, not reaching a stage, and not staying there: these scatterings of the mind are the obstacles.
2. 1.31 duḥkhadaurmanasyāṅgamejayatvaśvāsapraśvāsā vikṣepasahabhuvaḥ
   Pain, despair, trembling of the body and disturbed in-breath and out-breath come with the scattering.
3. 1.32 tatpratiṣedhārtham ekatattvābhyāsaḥ
   To prevent them, practise on a single principle.

Study

1.29 promised that the obstacles would fall away. Vyāsa asks what they are and how many (Woods p. 63), and 1.30 lists nine: vyādhi, styāna, saṃśaya, pramāda, ālasya, avirati, bhrānti-darśana, alabdha-bhūmikatva and anavasthitatva. Patañjali calls them citta-vikṣepa, scatterings of the mind, which ties them to the distracted state Vyāsa named under 1.1.

Vyāsa defines each in a phrase (Woods pp. 63–64). Illness is a disorder of the humours, secretions or organs. Dullness is the mind's inactivity. Doubt touches both sides: 'it might be so; it might not be so.' Carelessness is failing to give thought to the means of absorption. Heaviness (ālasya) is a lack of effort due to heaviness of body or mind. Avirati is the mind's greed, a craving for sense objects. False seeing is mistaken knowledge. The last two concern progress: not reaching a stage of absorption, and not staying in a stage once reached. He adds that the nine arise only together with the movements, and calls them the stains, the foes and the obstacles of yoga.

1.31 gives companions that can be felt. Vyāsa names three sources of pain: from oneself, from other beings, and from the gods. Despair is disturbance of mind when a desire is thwarted. Trembling shakes the limbs. In-breath and out-breath are listed as they come unbidden, and Vācaspati contrasts them with the willed breathing that helps absorption. All of these occur in a scattered mind and not in an absorbed one (Woods p. 65). The list moves from hidden to visible, which is useful: a tight breath or a sinking mood can be noticed before one can say 'this is doubt'.

The remedy is short. Vyāsa says these foes of absorption are to be stilled by the same practice and non-attachment as in 1.12, and that 1.32 names the object of that practice: a single principle (Woods pp. 65–66). He then argues at length against the view that the mind is only a series of momentary ideas. If it were, he says, it could never become one-pointed, since there would be nothing lasting to train; so the mind is one, has many objects and endures (Woods pp. 66–70).

Readers differ on eka-tattva. Vācaspati takes it as Īśvara, continuing 1.23–1.29. Others read it as any one object held steadily, which fits the series of options that begins at 1.33. Renderings of the obstacles vary too; this set uses 'heaviness' for ālasya, following Vyāsa's definition, where Woods gives 'listlessness'.

For practice the passage puts diagnosis before treatment. It names what stops practice without blame, gives signs that show in the body, and prescribes the plainest remedy: come back to one thing.

For discussion

1. Which of the nine obstacles concern the body, which one's attitude to practice, and which progress itself? Why might the list end with the last two?
2. Vyāsa says the obstacles arise only together with the mind's movements. What does that suggest about where they can be met?
3. Why might the felt companions of 1.31 be easier to notice than the obstacles themselves?
4. Is the 'single principle' of 1.32 Īśvara, or any one object? What in the text supports each reading?

A common misreading

That the obstacles are moral failings to feel guilty about. Patañjali calls them scatterings of the mind, Vyāsa defines them plainly, illness included (Woods pp. 63–64), and the response 1.32 gives is practice, not blame.

A practice for the room

Sit together for eight minutes. For the first two, make a quiet check of the signs of 1.31 without changing anything: any discomfort, the mood, restlessness in the body, the evenness of the breath. Then give everyone the same point of attention, such as the touch of breath at the nostrils, and for five minutes return to it whenever the mind scatters, gently and without blame. Close with one minute of open sitting.