How to Get Good at Yoga Quickly: Focus

Photo by Devin Avery on Unsplash

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Your focus determines your reality. - George Lucas

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This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series.  
​Want to start at the beginning?

​Sutra 1.21 - तीव्रसंवेगानामासन्नः - tīvra-saṁvegānām-āsannaḥ
​To the Keen and Intent Practitioner the Goal Comes Quickly

In the last two months, we've studied Sutras 1.12 and 1.14.  Yoga Sutra 1.12 gives us the two pillars that stabilize us enough to become good at yoga - practice and non-attachment.  Yoga Sutra 1.14 explains that practice requires patience, faith and devotion in our yoga sadhana.  

This month's Sutra, which is 1.21, covers how long it will take to become a master at yoga and achieve samadhi or liberation.  In between Sutras 1.14 and 1.21, Patanjali explains the various stages of non-attachment and how to develop in yoga.

Although in Sutras 1.13 and 1.14, Patanjali explained what practice is, it isn't until Sutras 1.15 and 1.16 that he goes into depth about non-attachment.  Yoga Sutra 1.15 defines non-attachment as freedom from cravings.  So that "one can encounter an object of enjoyment without attachment, and be content."  (Shoshoni, 9)  

For me, this Sutra is a reminder that to practice non-attachment - or to be a true renunciate - doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy the world.  It means we are free from craving material things.  This is contentment in action.  Things come.  They go.  We are content nevertheless.

It is a constant effort for me (at this level of development, at least) to be content with whatever is at every given moment.  I am not always content.  But I know that every time I experience disappointment, fear, anguish, it can either lead me to insight or confusion.  In practicing feeling content within my discontentment, I am actively accomplishing the goal.

Beyond this state of contentment, Sutra 1.16 explains, is “the ultimate state of non-attachment” (Stiles, 4).  The most accomplished form of non-attachment is to be free of desire for even the constituents of nature, called gunas in Vedic philosophy.

This may be hard to grasp initially.  What are constituents of nature? Vedic philosophy segments the constituents of nature into three types - inertia, vibrance and serenity (Iyengar, 66).  These constituents are responsible for the “dramas of the world.”  (Shoshoni, 9)  

Each of these energies has a place in the functioning of the material world.  Although we are a part of them, we don’t have to be affected by them.  What I believe Patanjali is explaining is that pure contentment is living among the drama without our essential nature being affected by it.  

Beyond inertia, vibrance and serenity.  Beyond heaviness, activity and calmness.  Beyond  sadness, anger and peace. Beyond death, life and existence.  That is where the supreme soul exists.

Further, as we master the state of non-attachment, we experience an “involutionary process.”  (Iyengar, 67)  BKS Iyengar describes the path of yoga like a ladder.  Practice (abhyasa) inspires us to ascend the ladder.  And renunciation/non-attachment (vairagya) pulls the ladder up behind us so that we are no longer affected by the constituents of nature from which we have ascended.

Now Patanjali briefly explains the various states we may experience between the intermediate and final stages of accomplishment in yoga.  He will come back to these states to discuss them in more depth in later chapters of the Yoga Sutras.

By practice and detachment, in the final stages we develop along a fourfold path.  First, we develop a state of analysis.  In this state, we get involved in our thoughts and feelings and try to study them.  We are doing research on cause and effect in order to learn how living yoga (and even, how not living yoga) affects us.

Second, we develop a state of integration.  In this state reason and insight come to a head in our meditation practice.  We reflect on our thoughts and feelings without the cloud of logic.

Third, we develop a state of elation.  This state, called ananda or bliss, is felt when we no longer identify with our ego.  In ananda, our self simply reflects the pure bliss of existence within each of us, without thoughts or any feelings other than bliss.  (Iyengar, 68-69)

Fourth, we develop a state of pure “I-am-ness” (Satchidananda, 54) within our practice.  It is “the comprehension that all is the Self.”  (Shoshoni, 9).

Once we’ve passed through the four preceding phases, Patanjali explains that we will reach another level of samadhi.  This samadhi is when only impressions of our desires remain, which are called samskaras.  When our focus wavers or we stop practicing, samskaras rise to the surface of our consciousness again.  (Shoshoni, 9)  In this state, “only subliminal impressions remain and their residue has no impact on the mind.”  (Stiles, 6)

A plateau along the yogic path occurs once our mind experiences bodiless existence within the physical body.  This is our natural state.  
In fact, some people are born illuminated like this.  They experience their pure self unlimited by nature.  

I can provide testimony of many individuals I have had the privilege of meeting - especially in providing yoga to people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities - who live in a state of pure bliss.  They live the experience of True Self, of Universal Spirit, of God without the limitations of material existence.  I am not saying that these people are never angry or sad or ornery but they aren’t attached to their thoughts or feelings.  They live moment to moment in a state of pure flow.  

Selfishly, this is the reason I love teaching the YSC method.  I learn from my students how to be in this state of flow.  How to be in the moment.  How to be non-attached.  How to be a renunciate.

Those of us who aren’t privileged to be born into a state of flow may acquire it.  To practice and acquire it, we need faith, vigor, memory, mindfulness and a discernment between the Self and the outer, material world.  (Satchidananda, 63)

Now we come to Yoga Sutra 1.21.  This Sutra is very motivating because it tells us that if we are very eager and dedicated, we might be able to accomplish our goal very quickly.  

BKS Iyengar translates this state (tivra) as “supremely vigorous and intense” as well as sharp and acute.  (76)  Swami Satchidananda translates tivra as keen intent.  So in addition to vigor and intensity, tivra also encompasses a sharply developed “urge for Spirit and wisdom.” (Stiles, 7) 
 
The Shoshoni Yoga Retreat handbook on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali translates Yoga Sutra 1.21 as “Those who are very intense in practice and are quick to understand will reach the goal quickly.”  (10)  To accomplish this quickly you will need both a keen desire and a keen aptitude.

Finally, in Yoga Sutra 1.22, Patanjali clarifies that practitioners’ success “depends on whether the practice is mild, medium or intense.”  (Satchidananda, 63)  So we will have varying rates of success depending on whether we are fickle, average or ardent in our practice (Iyengar, 76).  The rate of our practice will define our “closeness to Spirit” or wisdom.  (Stiles, 7)

In our next blog, we’ll explore Sutras 1.23 - 1.29.  These Sutras outline our True Nature, which will be discussed again and again throughout the Sutras, refining our understanding of who we really are.  These Yoga Sutras also begin to explain why Om is such an important sound in yoga.

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We are all in different stages of development in various aspects of our lives.  Life is exciting because we’re all in different places and we can all learn from each other.  Where are you in your yoga practice?  Are you content?  If you have one, what’s your next step?