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THEESSENTIALYOGA SUTRAAncient Wisdom for Your YogaGeshe Michael Roach&Christie McNally
by the same authorsThe Diamond Cutter:The Buddha on ManagingYour Business and Your Life*The Tibetan Book of Yoga*The Garden: A Parable*How Yoga WorksThe 18 Books of the Foundation SeriesAsian Classics InstituteThe 10 Meditation ModulesAsian Classics Institute*published by Doubleday/Random House
Dedicated to the memory ofSamuel D. Atkins(1911-2002)Professor of Sanskrit;Chairman, Department of Classics,Princeton University;and a good man.
TABLE OF CONTENTSFOREWORD ---------------------iYogi, Dancer, Thinker, Doctor ------------------------------------------- 1FIRST CORNERSTONE:THE CHAPTER ON MEDITATION ----------------------------------------------3It Begins with Meditation 5The Power of Humility ---6To Become Whole ----------7The Seer ----------------------8A Day in the Mind ---------9Right Seeing ---------------10A Leaf in the Road -------11Pictures in the Mind -----12Approaching the Door --13The Power of Daily Practice achment to Distraction ----------------------------------------------- 15Attachment to Illusion --16Meditation Traps ---------17Bombs that Never Explode e Five Powers ----------19The Four Stages -----------20The Master -----------------21Serving ----------------------22The Highest of Prayers - 23Beginning Obstacles -----24Ultimate Obstacles -------25Inner and Outer -----------26The Four Infinite Thoughts ight and Clear ----------28Freedom from Selfishness The Deeper Powers ------30
Path of the Diamond ---- 31Remember What You Saw pproaching the Goal -- 33Beyond All Fear ---------- 34The End of the Seeds ----35SECOND CORNERSTONE:THE CHAPTER ON THE WAY 7Reaching to Reach --------39The True Enemy ----------40The Four Mistakes ------- 41The Beginning of Me ----42Is It Wrong to Like Things? xing the World --------- 44Where the World Comes From -----------------------------------------45Where Pain Comes From 6Why Things Fall Apart - 47Why Good People Suffer 8Everything We See -------49The Two Realities --------50The Loneliness of Seeing 1Who’s in Control? --------52To See the Illusion --------53The Eight Limbs ----------54Self-Control ----------------55A Code for All of Us -----56Commitments -------------57Destroying Old Bad Karma e Four Forces -----------59In Your Presence --------- 60Where Money Comes From --------------------------------------------- 61How to Succeed in Relationships -------------------------------------- 62Simply Clean --------------63How to Be Happy --------64Finding Your Guardian Angel ------------------------------------------65Body Yoga ------------------66The Lie of Choices --------67
The End of Breath --------68How to Breathe -----------69Breathing to a Single Point nding the Tyranny of Stimulation ----------------------------------- 71THIRD CORNERSTONE:THE CHAPTER ON PRACTICE 3Focus and Stay ------------75The Clear Light -----------76The Eye of Wisdom ------77The End of Thoughts? ---78How Things Begin and End ---------------------------------------------79How Things Neither Begin Nor End ----------------------------------80The Power to Save the World ng the Minds of Others ------------------------------------------- 82The Power of Invisibility 3Where It All Leads -------84The True Source of Power ----------------------------------------------- 85The Channel of the Sun -86The Channel of the Moon The Channel of the Polestar kepoints and Chakras ----------------------------------------------- 89Everything, from Understanding --------------------------------------90Know Thyself ------------- 91When Two is One --------92The Rainbow in a Prison ------------------------------------------------- 93The Five Primary Winds ------------------------------------------------- 94The Three Skies -----------95The Four Bodies ----------96The Last One Left -------- 97The Body of All-Knowing Herein Lies Total Purity 99Respecting Our Destiny 00The Final Moments -----101All Things in All Ways 102FOURTH CORNERSTONE:
THE CHAPTER ON TOTAL PURITY ------------------------------------------103We Must Become as Gardeners ---------------------------------------105The Destruction of the Storehouse ----------------------------------- 106Gaining Control of Our Lives ----------------------------------------- 107The End of Limits -------108Dropping the Borders of Time ---------------------------------------- 109Beyond but Not Beyond the Mind ----------------------------------- 110How We Hear Ourselves Think -------------------------------------- 111Knives Don’t Cut Themselves -----------------------------------------112The Apparent Self-Awareness ---------------------------------------- 113How We Project the World arning from Seeing --115The End of Seeds --------116Debts Never Paid -------117Stepping over a Puddle 18And So We Must See ---119INDEX OF IMPORTANT IDEAS 121
FOREWORDWe encourage readers to study the “Index of Important Ideas” at the endof this book, so that you know immediately where to look for help onany personal needs or interests you may have.To help those who might want to chant the Yoga Sutra in its originallanguage, we have included the Sanskrit here in the closest Englishpronunciation possible without special marks or spellings not found innormal English. Please note that the combination a-a should be read asone long ah sound. Divisions like this are made wherever two words arejoined, but only if it would not change the pronunciation or meter inchanting.The authors would like to acknowledge the kind assistance of the AsianClassics Input Project and its director, John Brady, for access to itsdatabase of several thousand ancient Asian manuscripts for completingthis translation of the Yoga Sutra. We would also like to thank Dr. M.A.Jayashree and Dr. M.A. Narasimhan, of the University of Mysore andUniversity of Bangalore, India, for providing information on earlyprinted and palm-leaf editions of the Yoga Sutra for finalizing its finalform here.Finally, we would like to express infinite thanks to our many teachersfrom India, Tibet, and the west, who have spent many thousands ofhours patiently passing these teachings on to us.
1YOGI, DANCER, THINKER, DOCTORA Short Book about Yoga:The Yoga Sutra of Master PatanjaliPatanjala Yoga SutramA sutra is a short book which tells us the very crux of something—ideas tied tight together, with a stitch of thread. The Yoga Sutra is themother book of all yoga. It was written about two thousand years ago,by Master Patanjali.Master Patanjali was a great yogi; he knew the physical poses of yogaand the art of breathing: yoga of the body. He was also a great thinker,and meditator—a master of the yoga of the mind. He wrote as wellfamous books on medicine and on Sanskrit, the ancient tongue fromwhich almost all our languages come. He is recognized too as the fatherof the classical dance of India.Dancer, doctor, yogi, thinker, master of ancient words. What do theyall have in common?Yoga, as we shall see, has many meanings. One is the union of thewinds within our inner body. We unite these winds with our yoga,when we think and understand. The winds will sing within us, the veryfirst words of all. They will flow free, and force us to dance, and run toheal others.
The Essential Yoga Sutra 1
FIRST CORNERSTONETHE CHAPTER ON MEDITATIONThe Essential Yoga Sutra 2
The Essential Yoga Sutra 3
2IT BEGINS WITH MEDITATIONFirst Cornerstone: The Chapter on MeditationPrathamah Samadhi PadahThe Yoga Sutra has four chapters: four cornerstones upon which itstands, like a table on four legs.The first chapter describes five crucial steps that we all pass throughduring our spiritual journey. This journey always begins from pain: wesee death, we see people suffer, we dream of saving them. And thejourney ends when we change, finally, into a sacred being who actuallyhas the power to save them.Inbetween its beginning and its end, the road we travel has five parts:five paths, each one leading into the next, each one marked by its ownspecial milestones. Stepping up to each new path from the one before itcan only be done in one way. We must be in deep meditation; we mustlearn to meditate.Thus it is that the first chapter, the chapter on the five paths, is calledthe Chapter on Meditation.The Essential Yoga Sutra 4
3THE POWER OF HUMILITYI.1 I will now review for youhow we become whole.Atha yoga-anushashanam.Another meaning of yoga is to become whole. Ultimately we onlybecome whole when we are truly capable of helping others with thethings that really matter: when we can help them understand how theycame into this world, and what life is for, and whether it has to end withlosing everything.This then, says Master Patanjali, is why I write my short book. Hewants us to know, from the very beginning, that his book containssomething of ultimate importance, something worth the precious hoursof our life.And I will only review, says the Master, what I have heard from myholy teachers. He attacks his own pride: I have nothing new to tell you,and there is nothing here that I have made up myself. I am only a vesselfor the wisdom of the ages, and I pass it on to you—tried, tested, andunadulterated.And he says, “I will” write this book, for once a Master promises to dosomething, they do it—or die trying.All the great books of India begin with these three noble themes. Theirpower, their karma, stops all obstacles to the work we now begin.The Essential Yoga Sutra 5
4TO BECOME WHOLEI.2 We become whole by stoppin
The Yoga Sutra has four chapters: four cornerstones upon which it stands, like a table on four legs. The first chapter describes five crucial steps that we all pass through during our spiritual journey. This journey always begins from pain: we see death, we see people suffer, we dream of saving them. And the journey ends when we change, finally, into a sacred being who actually has the power .
