Theos-Talk Archives (March 2004 Message tt00162)

Believe what you wish. The entire book is about restraining the 
wandering mind. The word "samyama" is often translated "restraint" 
although it has a richer meaning than just that.

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, leonmaurer@a... wrote:
> Since that sutra is only the introduction to the first stage yoga 
practice of 
> book 1... How come when the meditator arrives at the practice of 
book 4, 
> he/she is still thinking intuitively, after having gained 
Bodhichitta or 
> discriminative mind? 
> 
> As Patanjali says at the end of Book 4 (transliterated by WQJ) "it 
is then 
> perceived that the moments and their order of precedence and 
succession is the 
> same." How does one "perceive" such a recondite idea without it 
being a thought 
> in the higher intuitive mind field? (Only those who don't know 
what it is 
> made of, calls it "mind-stuff". :-) Actually, Theosophy calls 
it "The Thinking 
> Principle."
> 
> If you read further in Book One, it becomes obvious that the 
modifications 
> referred to are only the random or discursive thoughts that are not 
directly 
> controlled by the thinker and are based on false knowledge, or as 
the Buddhists 
> say, "wrong view."
> 
> Unfortunately, the dead letter reading of the Sutra's is the big 
problem in 
> understanding what those "modifications" actually mean. The 
experience is 
> simply watching the uncontrolled or discursive thoughts come and go 
while 
> concentrating on the breath until they finally stop and the mind 
becomes calm, and you 
> can start meditating (focussed thought, contemplating, reflecting, 
pondering, 
> etc.) on right ideas with or without a seed.
> 
> But, all through the sutras, Patanjali makes it perfectly clear 
that 
> meditation is and active process of thinking or concentration of 
the mind on right 
> views of the true nature of reality and one's place in it.