The Hidden Secret to Achieving Enlightenment
This makes yoga + meditation more accessible
This is the fourth installment in my series on applying the wisdom of the Yoga Sutra from a mother’s perspective.
Tell me: What’s one accomplishment you can celebrate today? There is no accomplishment too small!
Enlightenment doesn’t have to be scary or unattainable
Sutra 1.17: There are four stages of focus that make up the process of achieving the lowest level of samadhi. These four stages are:
Examine the form of an object
Reflect on the subtle characteristics of the object
Experience joy or bliss
Identify as “I” with the object of focus
This process of focus must be applied to one thing only.
Sutra 1.18: There is a higher level of focus as well. At this level of focus, there is no longer anything to focus on. The only thing that remains in the mind-field are memories. This level of focus can only be achieved after mastering the lower level of focus described in Sutra 1.17.
~From Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra
The Yoga Sutra is often dismissed as irrelevant to modern living because Patanjali’s main thesis promotes yoga’s end goal as samadhi—enlightenment. Paradoxically, Patanjali offers another more applicable lesson in the Sutra for life in 2025: be where you are.
Like the word yoga, samadhi describes both a process and a state of being. Here are some samadhi definitions, according to the Sanskrit-English dictionary:
Enlightenment
Absorption
Putting together
Joining
Completion
Accomplishment
Bringing into harmony
Intense concentration
Perseverance in difficulties
Intense concentration, perseverance in difficulty, joining or putting together, and bringing into harmony explain the samadhi process. The other translations—absorption, accomplishment, completion, enlightenment— describe the samadhi state. Sutras 1.17-1.18 illustrate the meditation process one takes to reach the lower level samadhi states. Turns out there were no short cuts, life hacks, or overnight successes back in the second century BCE.
Accessible enlightenment
Yoga practice progresses step-by-step. A progressive approach makes yoga accessible. However, people often get caught up in extremes. Many people mistake extremes for the “right way”; when they can’t succeed the “right way” on their first attempt, they give up and move on to a new pursuit. Patanjali never suggests in the Sutra that achieving ultimate samadhi is the “right way” to practice yoga. It is the ultimate potential available to the practitioner, but there is also nothing wrong with hanging out at meditation’s first step your whole life. You start where you are, remain present with where you’re at, and that’s your practice, regardless of whether or not you achieve the end goal.
We recently took my son to the ice rink to teach him how to skate. He was excited but nervous—he didn’t want to fall. He started holding onto the plastic blue whale to keep his balance. Within an hour he was able to skate holding onto his dad’s hand. The joy on his face as he got more confident with each lap around the rink was heartwarming. He was learning, progressing, and he was having fun—so much fun that he demanded to go back again the next week. By the end of his second time out on the ice he was skating all on his own without holding onto dad’s hand. He was even pushing his little sister around on the blue whale!
Ice skating brings my 5-year-old joy. We’re not going to start taking him to private lessons at 5am in the hopes he can someday be an Olympic gold medal figure skater. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a day out on the ice a few times every winter with your loved ones and sipping a delicious hot chocolate when you’re done. If we want him to be the next Olympic gold medalist, we could figure out the progression needed to make it happen. Or we can just let him follow his joy.
In yoga, you have to be honest with yourself about what you need from your practice and where you want to go. You are allowed to feel accomplished when you balance on one foot for five seconds rather than two in Tree Pose, or when you lift more than one toe off the ground in Crow Pose. You are allowed to practice yoga for the joy it brings you. Achieving the very first step on the path toward samadhi can be your samadhi.
How meditation works
Sutras 1.17-1.18 outline a meditative process for achieving the first two samadhi levels—I call these levels samadhi-lite and super-samadhi. As a progressive process, you have to master samadhi-lite before you can level-up to super-samadhi. That there are levels in the first place is reassuring to those who feel yoga’s extreme potential is overwhelming, unattainable, or irrelevant.
Step one in the meditative process, outlined in Sutra 1.17, is to examine the form of one object. You examine the object’s shape, color, texture. For example, you might choose to focus on the color, temperature, shape, and sound of a candle flame.
Once you’ve examined the object, continue your examination at a more subtle level. If you’re staring at a candle flame, how does it make you feel? These energetic qualities cannot be seen with the eye but can be felt in the body.
After you have spent some time reflecting on your relationship to the object’s energetic qualities, the third step is to experience joy. Allow joy to develop naturally as your focus deepens on your chosen object. Who knew Marie Kondo was asking her followers to meditate when asking the question, “Does this object bring me joy?” In meditation, joy develops as the natural progression of deep concentration—it is a joy born of connection with your object. Don’t expect your candle flame to bring you immediate joy. Give it time. You’re not trying to force the joy, you’re developing a relationship. Relationships are hard work.
In the fourth step of the meditative process a realization arises: though the candle flame looks or feels different than you, ultimately, you and the flame share the same basic qualities. Your idea of “I” merges with the idea of the flame. This does not mean you become the flame; rather, you realize your essence and the essence of the flame are the same. With this realization, you have achieved samadhi-lite.
Choose your own adventure
The super-samadhi meditative process takes your tools away. Samadhi-lite requires an object of focus (the flame) to help you discover a low-level state of harmony. The process to achieve super-samadhi—a more advanced harmony experience—picks up after step four in Sutra 1.17 and requires you let go of the object of focus without interrupting your flow. Samadhi-lite is like learning how to ride a tricycle. To pursue super-samadhi, Patanjali forces you to get rid of the training wheels.
On the way toward super-samadhi, the flame disappears. Some Sutra translations go so far as to say the object of focus gets destroyed. The flame doesn’t poof into thin air (unless you blow it out or a gentle breeze snuffs it), but your mind no longer holds onto the object as a point of focus. This disconnection paradoxically helps you feel more connected.
Dissecting how meditative processes work is great fun for philosophy nerds, but the real take-away message for every other yogini who gets a headache thinking about objects of focus in mind-fields is to be where you are. Patanjali provides a framework for how meditation works. Everyone starts at stage one. Everyone has to go through the process. You’re allowed to stop at any point. If you want to keep going, go for it. You will fall down. Get back up. Very few of us will make it to the extreme end goal. That’s okay.
Meditate on your flames, your breath, your mantras. Practice every day. Or don’t. But don’t expect extreme results if you’re not willing to put in the work to master every step. Be where you are. Embrace it. Keep showing up. Not to be the best, simply to enjoy the ride. May you find your samadhi in bringing your body, breath, and mind into harmony, wherever you are on the path.
Let’s Connect
There is no accomplishment too small. Every step counts.
Tell me: What’s one accomplishment/step you can celebrate today? Let me know in the comments below!
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This is so true Ashley! "Many people mistake extremes for the “right way”; when they can’t succeed the “right way” on their first attempt, they give up and move on to a new pursuit." What I often hear from people is, "I'd love to do yoga, but I'm not flexible enough"... :)