“By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous and disregard toward the wicked, the mind- stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.”
The Yoga Sutras 1.33
In my first encounter with this sutra, I saw it as the yoga equivalent (or precursor) of the Brahma Viharas (“Sublime Abodes”) of my Buddhist practice. (The Brahma Viharas are loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.) You may not know that ancient yoga and Buddhist practice are closely aligned in many ways (and divergent in others). The Buddha’s teachings on meditation, mindfulness, morality and personal conduct were derived from his own study and practice of yoga.*
Sri Swami Satchidananda's commentary on this sutra says that friendliness, compassion, delight, and disregard are “four keys.” These four keys unlock ways to think about and interact with people we encounter in our everyday life. Practicing this sutra (or the Brahma Viharas) cultivates the ground of serenity and peace. So these attitudes are the keys to the kingdom. This sutra teaches us how to get along in any situation.
Cultivating the heart-mind and acting with friendliness, compassion, delight and disregard; with loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity -- to dwell in serenity and peace is truly to be desired. When I practice this sutra (or the Brahma Viharas), I aim to radiate good for others, and to live my best life.
A calm mind, yes, yes, yes.
From The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Translation and Commentary by Sri Swami Satchidanda, Integral Yoga Publications, first printed in 1978
*”Yoga proved to be crucial to Gotama’s [the Buddha’s birth name] enlightenment and he would adapt its traditional disciplines to develop his own dhamma [Pali for “teachings” or “law”].” From Buddha by Karen Armstrong, Penguin, NY, 2001
(Image is a photograph of a brown stone-carved statue of Patanjali, seated in the lotus position in meditation.)
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