The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Austerity, self-study, and devotion to the Lord constitute the yoga of action.

It is practiced for attaining samadhi and for weakening the afflictions.

The afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life.

Ignorance is the breeding ground for the others, whether they are dormant, weak, interrupted, or fully active.

Ignorance is seeing the transient as eternal, the impure as pure, suffering as pleasure, and the non-self as the self.

Egoism is the apparent merging of the power of seeing, the Seer, with the instrument of seeing, the mind.

Attachment is the clinging that follows experiences of pleasure.

Aversion is the clinging that follows experiences of pain.

Clinging to life, flowing naturally, is firmly established even in the wise.

These subtle afflictions are to be destroyed by resolving them back into their original cause.

The activities of these afflictions are to be eliminated through meditation.

The latent store of karma, rooted in the afflictions, brings experiences in a seen, present, or unseen, future, birth.

As long as the root of afflictions remains, it ripens into birth, span of life, and experiences of pleasure and pain.

These experiences yield delight or anguish, according to whether their causes are virtuous or non-virtuous.

To one of discrimination, all is indeed sorrowful, because of the pain of change, the pain of anxiety, the pain of latent impressions, and the conflict among the qualities of nature.

The suffering that has not yet arrived is to be prevented.

The union of the Seer and the seen is the cause of what is to be avoided.

The seen is of the nature of luminance, activity, and inertia; it comprises the elements and the senses, and exists for the sake of experience and liberation.

The stages of the qualities of nature are fourfold: the particular, the universal, the mere mark, and the unmarked.

The Seer is pure consciousness alone, and though pure, it seemingly looks through the mind and its thoughts.

The very essence of the seen is only for the purpose of the Seer.

Though the seen has ceased for one who has fulfilled its purpose, it has not ceased altogether, since it still exists for others.

The union of the Seer and the seen is the cause of the recognition of the true nature of the powers of the owner and the owned.

The cause of that union is ignorance.

With the disappearance of ignorance, the union ceases; that is the release called kaivalya, the aloneness of the Seer.

The unbroken discernment between the Seer and the seen is the means of liberation.

For such a one, wisdom arises in seven final stages.

Through the practice of the limbs of yoga, as impurities are destroyed, knowledge shines forth, culminating in discriminative wisdom.

Restraint, observance, posture, breath control, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation, and absorption are the eight limbs.

Non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, chastity, and non-covetousness are the restraints.

These restraints, not conditioned by class, place, time, or convention, are universal and form the Great Vow.

Cleanliness, contentment, austerity, self-study, and surrender to the Lord are the observances.

When the mind is disturbed by wrong thoughts, one should cultivate the opposite thought.

Wrong thoughts, such as violence, whether performed, caused to be performed, or approved, whether born of greed, anger, or delusion, whether mild, moderate, or intense, bear the fruits of suffering and ignorance; therefore, one should cultivate the opposite.

When one is firmly established in non-violence, all hostility ceases in the presence of that one.

When one is established in truthfulness, the fruits of one's actions come to depend on one's word.

When one is established in non-stealing, all treasures present themselves to that one.

When one is established in chastity, vital energy is attained.

When one is steadfast in non-possessiveness, one gains insight into the mysteries of birth and existence.

From cleanliness arises a distaste for one's own body and a disinclination to contact with others.

Through that purity come clarity of mind, cheerfulness, focus, control of the senses, and the fitness to behold the Self.

From contentment, supreme joy is attained.

From austerity, impurities are destroyed, and thereby perfection of the body and the senses is gained.

From self-study, one attains union with the chosen deity.

From surrender to the Lord, the perfection of samadhi is achieved.

Posture is that which is steady and easeful.

It is perfected by relaxing effort and by absorption into the infinite.

From that, the pairs of opposites do not overwhelm one.

When that posture is accomplished, pranayama is the cessation of the movements of inhalation and exhalation.

Pranayama has three movements—outward, inward, and suspended—and when regulated by place, duration, and repetition, it becomes long and subtle.

The fourth kind of pranayama goes beyond the spheres of the external and the internal.

From that, the covering of the inner light is dissolved.

And thereby the mind becomes qualified for concentration.

When the senses, without contact with their objects, assume the form of the mind itself, that is withdrawal of the senses, pratyahara.

From that, supreme control of the senses is attained.