Ways to a clear mind

What this passage does

Supports for a mind that scatters, each offered with 'or': attitudes toward others (1.33), the breath (1.34), refined sense experience (1.35), an inner light (1.36), a mind free of desire (1.37), dream and sleep (1.38), and whatever one holds dear (1.39). The open ending makes the point: the object matters less than the steadiness it brings.

Learning goals

• List the seven supports of 1.33–1.39 and explain why each is offered with 'or'.
• Explain the four attitudes of 1.33, the kind of person each is matched to, and what Vyāsa says they produce.
• Say why 1.39 leaves the choice open, and what that shows about the role of the object.

The argument, step by step

1. The mind becomes clear by cultivating friendliness, compassion, gladness and equanimity toward the happy, the suffering, the good and the unvirtuous.
2. Or it is steadied by breathing out and holding the breath.
3. Or by a refined sense experience that binds it to steadiness, or by a state that is luminous and free of sorrow.
4. Or by resting on a mind free of desire, or on the knowledge that comes in dream and sleep.
5. Or by meditating on whatever one holds dear.
6. The chain of 'or's shows that the object matters less than the steadiness it brings, which 1.40 sums up.

The sūtras

1. 1.33 maitrīkaruṇāmuditopekṣāṇāṃ sukhaduḥkhapuṇyāpuṇyaviṣayāṇāṃ bhāvanātaś cittaprasādanam
   The mind becomes clear by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion toward the suffering, gladness toward the good, and equanimity toward the unvirtuous.
2. 1.34 pracchardanavidhāraṇābhyāṃ vā prāṇasya
   Or by breathing out and holding the breath.
3. 1.35 viṣayavatī vā pravṛttir utpannā manasaḥ sthitinibandhanī
   Or an experience of a sense object, when it arises, binds the mind to steadiness.
4. 1.36 viśokā vā jyotiṣmatī
   Or a state that is luminous and free of sorrow.
5. 1.37 vītarāgaviṣayaṃ vā cittam
   Or a mind that rests on one who is free of desire.
6. 1.38 svapnanidrājñānālambanaṃ vā
   Or a mind that rests on the knowledge that comes in dreams and sleep.
7. 1.39 yathābhimatadhyānād vā
   Or by meditating on whatever you hold dear.

Study

1.32 gave the remedy for scattering: practice on one thing. This passage offers things to practise on, joined by 'or' (vā). Vyāsa introduces the first after his argument that the mind is one and endures, asking how the teaching prepares such a mind (Woods p. 70).

1.33 is ethical. Four attitudes are matched to four kinds of people: friendliness toward the happy, compassion toward the suffering, gladness toward the good, equanimity toward those who do wrong. Vyāsa says that cultivating them brings forth 'white', that is good, merit; then the mind becomes clear, and once clear it becomes one-pointed and steady (Woods p. 71). Vācaspati spells out what each removes, among them envy, the wish to harm and jealousy (Woods p. 71). The mind is cleared first by how one meets other people.

The breath follows (1.34): a deliberate breathing out and a holding. Vyāsa defines breathing out as expelling the air of the abdomen through the nostrils by a particular effort, and holding as breath control (Woods p. 72). Vācaspati says this 'or' adds an option and does not replace the attitudes of 1.33.

The supports then move inward. 1.35: a refined sense experience, such as a divine scent perceived when attention rests at the tip of the nose. Vyāsa's reason is that one thing known directly confirms what scripture, inference and teachers say, so that faith and the other qualities of 1.20 can arise unhindered (Woods pp. 72–73). 1.36: a luminous state free of sorrow, which Vyāsa places at the lotus of the heart and compares, in its bare 'I am' form, to a waveless ocean (Woods p. 74). 1.37: a mind free of desire as one's support, a single line in Vyāsa (Woods p. 76). 1.38: the knowledge that comes in dream or in sleep (Woods p. 76). 1.39: whatever one holds dear; once steady there, Vyāsa says, the mind is steady elsewhere too (Woods p. 77).

Readings differ. Woods renders upekṣā 'indifference'; many teachers prefer equanimity, which need not mean ceasing to care about harm. The same four attitudes are central in Buddhism as the brahmavihāras. In 1.34 Vyāsa's 'holding' is general, while Vācaspati reads it as keeping the breath out; many modern teachers read the sūtra gently, as a longer out-breath and a rest in the natural pause. 1.38 may mean the content of a dream or the peace of sleep, and 1.39 a chosen deity, as Vācaspati reads it, or any wholesome object.

For practice the list is both permission and a test. Use what steadies you. The test is the result: a clear, one-pointed mind (1.33, 1.40).

For discussion

1. Why might Patañjali put an ethical practice first in a list of ways to steady the mind?
2. Each attitude in 1.33 is matched to a kind of person. What goes wrong when they are mismatched, for example envy toward the happy?
3. Vyāsa says a little direct experience (1.35) confirms what teachers and texts say. How do experience and trust work together in this argument?
4. 1.37 offers a mind free of desire as a support. How is resting on someone's steadiness different from imitating them?
5. 1.39 leaves the choice open. Does the rest of the text give any guidance on choosing well?

A common misreading

1.33 is sometimes read as condoning wrongdoing, or as coldness toward it; upekṣā is an attitude that keeps the observer's own mind clear (Woods p. 71), and the text says nothing in favour of the wrong. 1.34 is sometimes read as a call to hold the breath for long periods; the sūtra names only breathing out and holding, and safe practice rests in the natural pause without strain.

A practice for the room

Sit quietly for eight minutes in four parts of two minutes, guided by the phrases of 1.33. Bring to mind someone who is happy and wish them well. Then someone who is suffering, and wish them relief. Then someone doing good, and let yourself feel glad. Then someone whose conduct troubles you, and simply breathe evenly, without wishing them anything. No one shares names. Close by noticing whether the mind feels a little clearer.