योगसूत्रYoga SūtrasOpen in the app

I. Samādhi Pāda · sūtras 1.40–1.46

Coalescence

What this passage does

With the mind steadied (1.40), the text describes what it does with an object. Coalescence is defined by the image of a clear jewel (1.41) and graded into four kinds, on gross and subtle objects, each with and beyond coarse or subtle thought (1.42–1.44), reaching as far as unmanifest nature (1.45). All four are absorption with a seed (1.46).

Learning goals

The argument, step by step

  1. A mind steadied by these means has mastery from the smallest particle to the greatest magnitude.
  2. When its movements have faded, the mind is like a clear jewel and takes the colour of what it rests on, knower, knowing or known: this is coalescence.
  3. Coalescence on a gross object, still mixed with the blending of word, meaning and idea, is savitarka.
  4. When memory is purified, the object alone shines, as if the knowing were empty of its own form: this is nirvitarka.
  5. The same pair applies to subtle objects, savicāra and nirvicāra, and subtlety reaches as far as unmanifest nature.
  6. All four are absorption with a seed, which sets up the seedless absorption of 1.51.

The sūtras

  1. 1.40 paramāṇuparamamahattvānto 'sya vaśīkāraḥ
    Its mastery reaches from the smallest particle to the greatest magnitude.
  2. 1.41 kṣīṇavṛtter abhijātasyeva maṇer grahītṛgrahaṇagrāhyeṣu tatsthatadañjanatā samāpattiḥ
    When its movements have faded, the mind is like a clear jewel, taking on the colour of whatever it rests on: knower, knowing or known. This is coalescence.
  3. 1.42 tatra śabdārthajñānavikalpaiḥ saṃkīrṇā savitarkā samāpattiḥ
    Of these, coalescence mixed with the verbal construction (vikalpa) of word, meaning and idea is called 'with coarse thought'.
  4. 1.43 smṛtipariśuddhau svarūpaśūnyevārthamātranirbhāsā nirvitarkā
    When memory is purified, the coalescence seems empty of its own form and only the object shines: this is 'beyond coarse thought'.
  5. 1.44 etayaiva savicārā nirvicārā ca sūkṣmaviṣayā vyākhyātā
    In the same way, coalescence 'with subtle thought' and 'beyond subtle thought', on subtle objects, is explained.
  6. 1.45 sūkṣmaviṣayatvaṃ cāliṅgaparyavasānam
    And the subtlety of objects reaches as far as the unmanifest.
  7. 1.46 tā eva sabījaḥ samādhiḥ
    These indeed are absorption with a seed.

Study

1.39 ended the supports with Vyāsa's claim that a mind steady on one thing is steady elsewhere too. 1.40 states how far that steadiness reaches: from the smallest particle to the greatest magnitude. Vyāsa adds that such a mind no longer needs the preparation that practice brings (Woods p. 77). The means are finished, and Vyāsa asks the passage's question: for a mind that has gained steadiness, what is coalescence, and what are its objects? (Woods p. 77).

1.41 answers with an image inside the sūtra itself, a flawless jewel. When the movements have faded, the mind takes the colour of whatever it rests on, as a crystal takes the colour of what lies beside it (Woods p. 78). Its object may be the thing known, the act of knowing, or the knower. The red flower often placed beside the crystal comes from Vācaspati, not Vyāsa.

1.42–1.44 grade coalescence in two steps, applied to two kinds of object. On a gross object it is first savitarka, mixed with vikalpa, the blending of word, meaning and idea. Vyāsa's example is 'cow': the word, the animal and the idea are distinct, yet in knowing they are taken as one (Woods p. 80). This is the vikalpa of 1.9 at work inside meditation. When memory is purified of word conventions and of ideas from testimony and inference, the object alone shines, and the coalescence is nirvitarka (1.43). Just before 1.43, Vyāsa calls this direct seeing the seed from which testimony and inference grow (Woods p. 82). He then argues that its object is a real whole and not a mere heap of particles; if there were no wholes, nearly all knowing would be error (Woods pp. 82–83).

On subtle objects the pair repeats. Coalescence is savicāra while still framed by place, time and cause, and nirvicāra when the insight is as if empty of itself and the object alone remains (1.44; Woods p. 89). 1.45 traces subtlety back to aliṅga, unmanifest nature. The self is subtle too, Vyāsa grants, but in another way, since it is not the material cause of things (Woods p. 91). 1.46 calls all four absorption with a seed, the seed being an outer object (Woods p. 92).

Readings differ. The English names of the four depend on how vitarka and vicāra are rendered (see 1.17); Woods gives 'deliberative' and 'reflective'. Vyāsa takes the seed as an outer object, while other readers take it as the latent impressions that can sprout into new movement.

For practice the passage describes attention ripening by subtraction. First the labels fall away, then the frame of place, time and cause. It also warns that even the finest of these states still rests on something.

For discussion

  1. In the jewel image of 1.41, what corresponds to the jewel, to the colour, and to the faded movements?
  2. Using Vyāsa's 'cow' example, what does it mean that word, thing and idea are taken as one? Where do you see this in ordinary life?
  3. Why must memory be purified (1.43) before the object can shine alone?
  4. Vyāsa says the self is subtle, but not in the way unmanifest nature is. Why does that distinction matter for the rest of the text?
  5. What makes all four coalescences 'with a seed', and why is the phrase both praise and warning?

A common misreading

That the highest coalescence is a blank trance in which nothing is known. In nirvitarka and nirvicāra the object alone shines (1.43–1.44), and Vyāsa calls this direct seeing the seed of testimony and inference (Woods p. 82); what falls away is the overlay of names, not the knowing.

A practice for the room

Place one ordinary object where all can see it, such as a cup or a stone. One minute: say its name silently and notice the ideas that come with it. Three minutes: look without naming; when a word or memory arises, let it pass and return to colour, shape and texture. Two minutes: close the eyes and listen to one sound in the room in the same way. End with a minute of quiet, then ask what was there when the names fell away.