Patanjali's second Sutra
A sutra is a thread, and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are a collection of dense, aphoristic threads that lead into the maze that is yoga. The Sutras are not a religious text, but an ancient how-to manual on what is required to practice yoga and what the results of that practice might be.
Today, at the end of class, I read the second sutra. It's hard to get away from the beginning of this book, because the opening lines are so strong. And this sutra is the one that's quoted in almost every yoga book you'll read. In Sanskrit: yogas citta vritti nirodah. In English, usually understood, as here in Barbara Stoler Miller's translation: "Yoga is the cessation of the turnings of thought."
But in a translation I recently bought, this is the way in which the second sutra is translated: "Yoga happens when there is stilling. . . of the movement of thought . . ."
I like this version much better. Have you ever tried to stop thinking? Well nigh impossible. Take that great American Express commercial with Ellen Degeneres. She's sitting in a Zen meditation room, in lotus position, hands carefully held in a mudra, or seal. Against this emptiness is the constant internal dialogue she's holding with herself. And while it's a dialogue about shoes, I believe which I'm all in favor of, the commercial points up the unlikelihood of us being able to stop thinking.
In yoga, we call this constant internal conversation citta, or chatter. It's what makes the final pose in a yoga practice the most difficult. Savasana, or corpse pose, requires the body to be still. And once the body stills, the mind thinks it's its job to be active.
What I appreciate about the translation I read from today: no hint of yoga leading the mind to stop its turning. Instead, what is offered is a possibility of pausing, resting. I compared it, in class, to a car that's idling. The engine is still running, but the car has paused, momentarily, so that the driver might notice the view of a mountain range or a beautiful sunset before moving on.
Postscript:
Correction courtesy of assistance from the Source of All Knowledge. Apparently Degeneres is
thinking about socks, not shoes, which make no sense at all to me. Being that I contend that shoes are the Best Thing to make yourself feel pretty: you can look down at your feet, admire your shoes, and not see the rest of your body. No matter what your shape or size, that foot looks good in a great shoe, preferably red in color. And looking down, turning your toes in and out, like Dorothy checking out her ruby slippers in "The Wizard of Oz," how can you not say to yourself, "am I cute or what?"
Addendum: this, clearly, is the reason that shoe departments make the mirrors so tiny that you can see nothing in them above your ankle.
Today, at the end of class, I read the second sutra. It's hard to get away from the beginning of this book, because the opening lines are so strong. And this sutra is the one that's quoted in almost every yoga book you'll read. In Sanskrit: yogas citta vritti nirodah. In English, usually understood, as here in Barbara Stoler Miller's translation: "Yoga is the cessation of the turnings of thought."
But in a translation I recently bought, this is the way in which the second sutra is translated: "Yoga happens when there is stilling. . . of the movement of thought . . ."
I like this version much better. Have you ever tried to stop thinking? Well nigh impossible. Take that great American Express commercial with Ellen Degeneres. She's sitting in a Zen meditation room, in lotus position, hands carefully held in a mudra, or seal. Against this emptiness is the constant internal dialogue she's holding with herself. And while it's a dialogue about shoes, I believe which I'm all in favor of, the commercial points up the unlikelihood of us being able to stop thinking.
In yoga, we call this constant internal conversation citta, or chatter. It's what makes the final pose in a yoga practice the most difficult. Savasana, or corpse pose, requires the body to be still. And once the body stills, the mind thinks it's its job to be active.
What I appreciate about the translation I read from today: no hint of yoga leading the mind to stop its turning. Instead, what is offered is a possibility of pausing, resting. I compared it, in class, to a car that's idling. The engine is still running, but the car has paused, momentarily, so that the driver might notice the view of a mountain range or a beautiful sunset before moving on.
Postscript:
Correction courtesy of assistance from the Source of All Knowledge. Apparently Degeneres is
thinking about socks, not shoes, which make no sense at all to me. Being that I contend that shoes are the Best Thing to make yourself feel pretty: you can look down at your feet, admire your shoes, and not see the rest of your body. No matter what your shape or size, that foot looks good in a great shoe, preferably red in color. And looking down, turning your toes in and out, like Dorothy checking out her ruby slippers in "The Wizard of Oz," how can you not say to yourself, "am I cute or what?"
Addendum: this, clearly, is the reason that shoe departments make the mirrors so tiny that you can see nothing in them above your ankle.
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