Yoga Sutras, 1.32

In the next eight sutras Patanjali goes over techniques to quiet the mind and prevent obstacles to spiritual progress.

Sutra 1.32:Tat pratishedha artham eka tattva abhyasa, The concentration on a single subject (or the use of one technique) is the best way to prevent the obstacles and their accompaniments.

In the previous two sutras (1.30&31) the obstacles were described. Just before that (1.29), meditation with Om was given as a technique to remove the obstacles. In this sutra abhyasa (practice) on eka (one) tattva (principle or element) is given as the technique for preventing the obstacles. Some commentaries interpret this as focusing on God. Others feel he is referring to any single principle or technique.

I have observed in life that successful people have in common the ability to focus on one thing. If we don't focus on anything, the same amount of energy gets spread out over a broad spectrum of things. The result being small results in many areas. Last year in teacher training when studying this sutra a student argued "Why not practice different meditation techniques each day to prevent boredom?" My response was as told to me by a teacher, "it is like digging a well and stopping each day to start a new hole the next day and the next etc. After time passes all you have is a bunch of shallow holes. If you were to continue with the same one each day you would reach water promptly." Likewise in meditation if one is to skip around and not stay with one technique, all that is accomplished is starting anew each time. The practice doesn't have a chance to mature and deepen.

The following is my personal lesson with this sutra. This took place in the early '80s when I was living and practicing acupuncture in Idaho. I had a regular yoga and meditation practice and was quite satisfied with it so I thought. A friend told me about a renowned teacher that was to give a lecture in the area and asked if I would go. We went and enjoyed his talk and that was that. Well the next day she called and said she was going to go to his meditation initiation meeting and asked if I wanted to go. I told her that I was satisfied with my practice and declined her offer. She insisted that I should go and that you didn't have to get instructed, that the first part was questions and answers with the teacher. So as you've probably guessed I went. There is always, I think, the feeling that there must be something better out there. Anyway he talked a bit about the technique and then had interviews before instruction. Through a translator I told him about my practice and asked if there was a reason to get initiated. His answer was, "only if you want to become enlightened." This was like a personal challenge to my ego! So I started his technique as well as what I was already doing. I had already been doing a mantra meditation and when I did the new technique I would start to deepen a bit but before I knew it I'd be doing the old mantra. When I'd start back to the new technique it would bring me back up to the surface again. It wasn't that the new meditation was any better or worse than the old one, it was just new to me. It felt very confusing to my nervous system. I tried it for three months then gave it up. It would have taken years to get back to the place I was already at with the new one. I feel strongly that we frequently mistake the technique for the goal. The goal being direct experience of God, inner quiet, or whatever you want to call it. If one were to take a trip to the Grand Canyon for example, neither the vehicle used nor the route taken would matter upon arrival. The magnificence of the Grand Canyon stands on its own. Likewise with meditation, the inner experience of yoga (union with God) is what matters not which technique is used to get there.