Let’s quickly recap. We’ve worked through the first two rungs of samyama (concentration and meditation) and we’ve now dipped our toes into samadhi (enlightenment).

The third chapter of the sutras is a chapter on ‘progressing’. It starts by unpacking the last three of the eight rungs of yoga. These final three rungs are concentration, meditation and samadhi. Collectively we call them samyama.

As promised, I’m going to dig a little deeper into some of the principles I’ve already touched on in this series and also in previous blog posts. These teachings are something I continually come back to, and I always get some new insight or understanding each time I do.

In this second chapter of the sutras, Patanjali introduces methods on how to reduce both gross and subtle colourings which veil the true self. These are things we need to minimise to continue our mastery of the fluctuations of the mind (the whole point of yoga!).

Patanjali writes that there are two kinds of aspirants in the world, those who have made tremendous advancement in previous lives and others who have not and must follow five types of effort or commitment. Don’t worry, most of us are in the second category!