Jennifer Snowdon
  • Breath Retraining
  • Yoga
  • Workshops & Webinars
    • Finding Kevala Pranayama
    • Upcoming YTTs
  • Connect
    • About Jennifer
    • The Journey
    • Second Breakfast
    • Newsletter
  • Login

What is Yoga, Patañjali?

4/6/2022

0 Comments

 
Yogaḥ cittavṛttinirodhaḥ
Yoga Sūtra 1.2, Patañjali


I've been thinking about this sutra, this thread from Patañjali's Yoga Sutras, the second sutra: yogaḥ cittavṛtti nirodhaḥ. The Yoga Sutras were compiled by Patañjali sometime between 500BCE and 400CE, although scholars generally agree that somewhere in the 3rd century CE is most likley. It is one of the central texts used to describe yoga, one of the two most likely to be encountered in a yoga teacher training (YTT) program, along with the Bhagavad Gita.
Picture
Photo by Daniel Mingook Kim on Unsplash

​This sutra, the one that follows, "And now we're going to talk about yoga," (my rough translation of the opening) is usually translated to mean approximately, "Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind." After the introduction, it's the first real description of what yoga is. It's foundational for everything that is going to follow it, and many practices are built on this concept.
Here are some other translations I've found in my own library and other places:
Yoga
is experienced
in that mind
which has
ceased
to identify itself
with its
vacillating waves of perception.

~trans. Mukunda Stiles
Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness.
~trans. Chip Hartranft

To block the patterns of consciousness is yoga.
~trans. Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Yoga happens in the resolution of consciousness.
~remixed by Matthew Remski
Yoga is the control (nirodhah, regulation, channeling, mastery, integration, coordination, stilling, quieting, setting aside) of the modifications (gross and subtle thought patterns) of the mind field.
~Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati
I've used this many times in my teachings on the breath. If yoga is stilling the fluctuations of the mind, and if the mind follows the breath, we should calm the breath to calm the mind (Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2.2), and this then is yoga. Stilling the breath is yoga — it's the bedrock of what I teach. But this week I came across a blog post by Lucie Crisfield entitled "Yoga is not the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind." (I'll link to it at the bottom — if you're with me on this so far, you might want to read it, but maybe just one thing at a time.) Lucie is a long time student of yoga and Sanskrit, and she has a beautiful and thorough description and explanation for what these words actually mean, but in the end it comes to something like this:

In the context of and within the practice of yoga, we remember who we are, and as we shift and change and grow, sometimes with action and other times without action, moved by the creative energy of the universe, we become ourselves, one with everything.

That's my language, but I think it encapsulates what she says. (Disagree? Happy to discuss it! Comment below, or email me...) If this is the case, then the goal of yoga is more than stilling. And although it remains true that stilling the breath will calm the mind, perhaps the goal of yoga is not always to calm the mind. Maybe we need to also stir and move the mind sometimes (like I'm doing right now) as a part of the process of practicing yoga.
Picture
Photo by Sarah Nolter on Unsplash
Picture
Photo by Surface on Unsplash
Picture
Photo by Swapnll Dwivedi on Unsplash

​We often say, in our modern interpretations of yoga, that yoga can be anything, if the intention is there, which I agree with. Perhaps this is what Patañjali was saying as well. If you are becoming more you through the process, then it's yoga.

So what does this mean for the breath? Although there are many good reasons to "still the breath," if by stirring up the breath, you are connecting more with who you are, then that may be yoga for you, at that time. I think that none of this has given me more answers — merely more questions, more things to consider, more things to include, more things to study (including more Sanskrit!).

When does your breath feel like yoga to you?

Yoga is not the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind. Lucy Crisfield
0 Comments
    Picture

       

    Welcome to my blog. It's about yoga, movement, breathing, design, books, and me.
    ​
    I tend to take in food like I take in information in small, digestible bits, even eating breakfast in two or three parts. Second Breakfast is something small to read, something to feed the brain or the soul, and goes well with a cup of tea.

    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    July 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    March 2017
    October 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    July 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Anatomy
    Breathing
    Design
    Food
    Meditation
    Movement
    Philosophy
    Trauma
    Walking
    Words & Pictures
    Workshop
    Yoga
    Yoga Life

​Jennifer Snowdon  ©2022   ✉️ ​breathe@jennifersnowdon.ca​
Subscribe to my Newsletter
PRIVACY POLICY                   LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
  • Breath Retraining
  • Yoga
  • Workshops & Webinars
    • Finding Kevala Pranayama
    • Upcoming YTTs
  • Connect
    • About Jennifer
    • The Journey
    • Second Breakfast
    • Newsletter
  • Login