Exploring the Yoga Sutras

Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutras

1. Samadhi-pada: Perception
2. Sadhana-pada: Practice
3. Vibhūti-pada: Power
4. Kaivalya-pada: Liberation

Download Dr Sutton’s verse-by-verse translation of the Yoga Sutras

Session One: From Samkhya to Yoga Sutras

The Samkhya system of Indian thought provides the philosophical basis for Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and Patanjali himself makes extensive use of Samkhya teachings in his work. So we begin our course with an overview of the precepts of Samkhya. This enables us to better identify and understand the ideas encountered within the Yoga Sutras.

Session Two: Samadhi-pada

In this session, we consider the first half of the Samadhi-pada of the Yoga Sutras, noting Patanjali’s definition of yoga. This is followed by his discussion of the conventional movements of the mind and the means by which such movements can be brought under control. We conclude with a discussion of the alternative path of devotion to the Deity, ishvara, which Patanjali introduces in sutra 23.

Session Three: Transformation through Yoga

After his brief discussion of devotion to the Deity, Patanjali returns to his consideration of the ways in which the mind can be transformed by yoga practice. In this third session we will again follow his line of instruction as he reveals the importance of serenity of mind and two stages of samadhi (self-realisation): samadhi with an object on which the mind is focused and then the absolute absorption of pure seedless samadhi.

Session Four: Problems of Existence

The Yoga Sutras were composed with the aim of revealing how the repetition of death and rebirth can be stopped. In this session, we consider the first half of the Sadhana-pāda in which Patanjali explores the existential problems of this world and explains how these problems can be resolved through yoga.

When truthfulness is firmly established, the results of action become certain.
Yoga Sutras 2.36

Session Five: Introducing Ashtanga

Turning to the second half of the Sadhana-pada, this fifth session looks at how Patanjali delineates the forms of practice that can resolve the problems of life we looked at in Session Four. This practice consists of the yoga of eight limbs (ashtanga). In this session we review the first five of these as explained in the Sadhana-pada.

Session Six: Unwavering Concentration

This course is based on Dr Sutton’s translation of the Yoga Sutras.

In the sixth session, we begin our review of the third chapter of the Yoga Sutras, the Vibhuti-pada. This begins with a discussion of the final three of the eight limbs (samyama). Patanjali reveals that the advanced practice of samyama, in the form of unwavering concentration, enables the practitioner to perform miraculous feats, a description of which forms the main part of the Vibhuti-pada.

Session Seven: The Eternal Entity

Here we consider the final passages of the Vibhuti-pada in which Patanjali shows that advanced samyama, including samadhi, brings with it not only supernatural abilities, but also the enlightened knowledge that brings liberation from rebirth. This discussion is then carried forward into the Kaivalya-pada, and in this session we review the opening passages of that chapter in which Patanjali begins to demonstrate the reality of the eternal spiritual entity, atman or purusha, which is our true identity beyond the body and mind.

Session Eight: Liberation

In this final session of the course, we follow the progression of Patanjali’s ideas up to their final conclusion, which is the attainment of kaivalya: liberation from this world. First of all, we notice his refutation of Buddhist views in order to demonstrate the reality of the world and the individual self, and then follow his line of discussion as he reveals that liberation can be attained through knowledge of the spiritual identity of the true self.

Everyone who finishes the course will receive a certificate for 12 hours of study.Teachers registered with Yoga Alliance can log these as continuing education with a YACEP.