“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

“Abhyāsa or Practice is,
the effort to remain within
the stillness of the present.
Vairāgya or Dispassion is,
the absence of thirst towards
the dance of the past.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 12

“According to Patañjali, the process of Abhyāsa needs
to be in place before Vairāgya is a viable reality,
as one is an increasingly subtle developmental process
arising from the initial engagement with the other.
Hence Abhyāsa is the attentive and consistent effort
to remain there and Vairāgya is our relationship with
what arises from and within our effort to remain there.
Here is a psychological drama where the internal play
of our neuroses acts itself out on the stage of the mind.
Though at least, with our efforts with Abhyāsa, the inner
audience can look at the play, rather than from the play.
Until we embrace the skills to remain there consistently,
we cannot consistently engage within the very erratic
relationship we have with the neurotic characters
that populate the drama/mystery/romance plays we
stage on a daily basis in our mind, as if a plat du jour.
Essentially until we choose to desist from not stopping,
we cannot begin to observe how much movement there is.
Thus, firstly there needs to be a consistent effort at
Abhyāsa Dhyānam, then we have the developmental
correlative of Vairāgya to help contend with what arises.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 12

“Meditation is about the quality of the effort,
rather than the fruit of the time.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 13