Reading room

Samādhipāda (Chapter on Concentration)

Patañjali

It opens with the definition of yoga as the stilling of the movements of the mind and lists the five kinds of movement: valid knowledge, error, verbal construction, sleep and memory. It proposes practice and detachment, distinguishes concentration with support (samprajñāta) and without support (asamprajñāta), introduces īśvara and the syllable om, and describes the obstacles and the ways of calming the mind, such as friendliness, compassion, joy and equanimity.