Even though Yoga talks about the possibility of
a state of being expressing motiveless action,
for the rest of us there is always an ulterior motive.

The issue is what it truly is, rather than just whether it
had what we believed as a white, grey or black intention.
Also, whether this intention is what we wanted to believe,
or is there another truth lurking within our sense of right?
Thus, the outcome may well differ from what we believed.

However, as many of our motives fall within the grey spectrum,
a deeper introspection into the reality of intention is important.
To at least minimise Viparyaya, existing as a flight of fancy, or
posing as if a truth convincing in its rightness to exist, when in
reality, merely an opinion, even if not its deeper partner Avidyā.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 7

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Pratyāhāra is not feeding the tendency of the Citta
to automatically form a positive, negative, or neutral
identification with whatever stimuli the senses present to it.
From that, we can begin to understand how their external gathering
activities stimulate our conscious and especially, unconscious choices.

From this, we can begin to understand how the impact
of this sensory knowing can lead us to travel in different directions
and trigger different levels of response, often without us being really
conscious of how deeply their input stimulates our psychic activities.

From these responses, there will be the inevitable re-actions,
again quite possibly unconscious and multilevelled,
according to our psychic history in terms of our memory,
habit patternings and deeper memory processes.

From those initial insight, we can begin to understand
and interact in how we can resist unconsciously slipping
into the trance states that can so often culminate with
the  Kleśa manifesting fully in the entrancing dance of
Udārā Rāga, or Udārā Dveṣa, or Udārā Abhiniveśa,
the potent and profligate children of Avidyā.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

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The ten senses or Das Indriya are the gateways
between our inner and the outer experiences,
in the twin roads of the worldly phenomena
that we call sensory knowing or bodily action.

The five senses that transport knowing from
the outer to the inner are called the Jñāna Indriya,
or the senses through which we perceive the world.

The five senses that transport action from
the inner to the outer are called the Karma Indriya,
or the senses through which we act out into the world.

The coordinator of this remarkable interface is Manas,
often referred to as the eleventh sense or internal organ.
The identifier in this remarkable process is Ahaṃkāra.
The discerner in this remarkable trinity is Buddhi.
The source of perception within this remarkable play
of knowing and action is known as Cit or Puruṣa.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

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Given the at all other times in this verse,
we need to thwart the ploys of the mind to
conform to its unhelpful fluctuations by reducing:
1. The tendency of the mind to perceive in too many ways.
2. The tendency of the mind to distort what we see.
3. The tendency of the mind to fantasize.
4. The tendency of the mind to go to sleep at inappropriate moments.
5. The tendency of the mind to get lost in memory or impose memory on reality.
When these old or other tendencies take over you are not there.
So if you are not consistent with your efforts,
you will not change your state of mind.
Plus, the unhelpful aspects of the fluctuations reduce
the tendency of the mind to experience a clarity of being.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 4

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Kaivalya is the outcome of the
equality of Sattva and Puruṣa.
The clarity of Sattva acquired
through our efforts with Citta,
coexisting with the eternal
abiding awareness of Puruṣa.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 55

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The mutual aim of Yoga and Sāṃkhya is to
experience the more discerning aspects of the psyche,
rather than just the more grasping aspects of the psyche.

In the former, the tendency of the Buddhi to discern discriminately
prevails over the tendency of Ahaṃkāra to grasp indiscriminately.
In the latter, the tendency of the Ahaṃkāra to grasp indiscriminately
prevails over the tendency of the Buddhi to discern discriminately.

The former is a state known as Buddhi Sattva,
where the clarity of discernment prevails over the
indiscriminate grasping nature of the Ahaṃkāra.
The latter is a state of Buddhi Tamas,
where the discerning clarity of the Buddhi
is obscured by the grasping nature of the Ahaṃkāra.

Thus our Yoga Sādhana has but one primary Saṃkalpa,
that of the reduction of the obscuration by Tamas in the Buddhi.
This reduction of Tamas facilitates the advent of the clarity of Sattva,
as in the metaphor of the reduction of the cloud facilitates the advent of the sun.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 49

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Within the practice guidelines for Prāṇāyāma
Length and Subtlety are the fruits of a process,
they are not tools for use within this process.
The tools here are Deśa, Kāla and Sāṃkhya.
By these the breath becomes Dīrgha and Sūkṣma,
in other words the breath becomes Long and Subtle.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 50

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Āsana, according to this verse, needs to correlate the
two qualities of steady attentiveness and spacious clarity.
However, we are being offered qualities that are actually
the fruits or outcome of the practice guidelines in the next verse.
Hence this verse is a definition, but one that arises as an outcome
of an attitude around the way we go about exploring Āsana.
Although it could be added that this definition also relates
to the direction of one’s Āsana practice as a whole.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 46

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Are our impulses to act self serving,
as in arising from a place of Karma?
Or, are our impulses to act serving the self,
as in arising from a place of Dharma?
Furthermore, how to discern the difference
betwixt my and thy, given the facility of
Karma to proclaim itself as being Dharma?
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 21

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Āsana alone can be a support for
our outer relationship with living.
However, can Āsana alone be a support
for our inner relationship with dying?
Especially as our disposition towards
clinging to life is continuous, as well as
being deeply buried within our psyche.
This is why Yoga offers vehicles beyond Āsana
for the inner and especially the final journey.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 9

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Better not to mistake the feelings
arising from the movement away from
something undesirable, for the
feelings arising from the movement
towards something desirable.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verses 7-8

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In our journey towards foresight
lies the quandary of whether we can
grasp our past sufferings positively,
or be negatively held within their clasp.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 16

Paul’s Yoga Mālā – A Thread of Pearls from Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra

Moha is a state of delusion, such as expressing
what is merely a self-opinion as if it is a reality.
Because expressing an opinion as if it’s a reality,
does not in fact actually mean that it will be true.
So how can we discern as to whether an opinion
that we experience as if a reality, is really true?
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 34

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Where there is the sense of “I am“,
so there is the power of awareness,
or where there is the power of seeing,
so there is the power of the seer.
Such is the essence of our nature.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 6

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The Antarāya are presented
as a guide through life’s distractions,
rather than a rationale for life’s obstacles.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 30

Paul’s Yoga Mālā – A Thread of Pearls from Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra

“Pratyāhāra is the ability of the Manas
to resist the dance of the senses.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

Paul’s Yoga Mālā – A Thread of Pearls from Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra

When working with the Breath in Āsana,
it’s perhaps less appealing initially,
but ultimately more attractive, satisfactory
and effective, to integrate a Bhāvana on
the Samāpatti of Śaithilya and Ananta,
within a developmental Prāṇāyāma Sādhana,
focused towards the Siddhi of Dīrgha or Length,
supported by its counterpoint, Sūkṣma or Subtlety.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 50

Paul’s Yoga Mālā – A Thread of Pearls from Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra

From Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 47
Krishnamacharya taught that the
common denominator for successfully uniting
both aspects of relaxation and the infinite
within the practice of Āsana is the breath.
He saw it as continued effort
and synonymous with giving life.
The continued effort of the breath is that which gives life.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 47

Paul’s Yoga Mālā – A Thread of Pearls from Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra

“Awareness doesn’t change,
however our awareness of our
experience of awareness does.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 20

Paul’s Yoga Mālā – A Thread of Pearls from Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra

“What is it you are ready to give up?”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 35

Paul’s Yoga Mālā – A Thread of Pearls from Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra