Strong threads for stabilizing the mind: Exploring Sutra 1.33

Extension of May 4th blog....

http://rhondageraci.blogspot.com/2013/04/choosing-strong-threads-to-help-repair.html

In Patanjali's quest to provide memorable, pithy guidelines for our self-realization, he devised 196 sutras or threads that interweave with one another to form a ribbon of knowledge that expands into a blanket of wisdom. There are countless interpretations of his Yoga Sutras.  Each interpretation adds its own subtle textures and hues.  Below are a few examples of various interpretations to help us expand our understanding of Sutra 1.33:

        Maitri karuna mudita upeksanam sukha duhkha 
        punya apunya visayanam bhavanatah cittaprasadanam

BKS Iyengar in Light on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali  offers the following interpretation of this sutra:

"Through cultivation of friendliness, compassion, joy, and indifference to pleasure and pain, virtue and vice respectively, the consciousness becomes favourably disposed, serene, and benevolent."

Iyengar beautifully relates the disturbed mind (Citta Viksepa) to a running river. Giving us the image of a strong current in the water that creates turbulence. Then, explaining that when there is "graceful diffusion" of this current (Citta Prasadana) the consciousness can become a calm pool of water like a lake.  This "graceful diffusion" takes place with the cultivation of the four following qualities:  1) friendliness 2)Compassion 3)Delight 4) Equanimity.

Reverend Jaganath Carrera in Inside The Yoga Sutras, A comprehensive sourcebook for the study oand practice of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras offers another interpretation:

By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and equanimity toward the nonvirtuous, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.

Carrera interprets Patanjali's Yoga Sutras using the idea of "locks and keys"  Locks being the challenges we face and keys being what overcomes the challenge.  For example:  the lock for the times when another's happiness or success seems to upset us and draw attention to our own failures is remedied with the key of friendliness.  "If we dwell on happiness, looking for it like a miner's eye seeks gold, we will cultivate it in our own lives."  Another example is the lock of unhappiness.  When another's unhappiness or misfortune trouble us or their suffering scares or unsettles us --the key is to have compassion.  He goes on to say we summon compassion by remembering when it was given to us while also keeping in mind the emotional suffering we were enduring at the time.
Compassion takes reflection on our human predicaments and frailties.  It takes moving beyond our own self-interests and offering strength to another human being in their time of weakness.

Edwin Bryant in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali offers another interpretation:

By cultivating an attitude of friendship toward those who are happy, compassion towards those in distress, joy toward those who are virtuous, and equanimity toward those who are non-virtuous, lucidity arises in the mind.

Bryant draws his insight from his vast research into the traditional commentators of Patajali's Yoga Sutras.  With this interpretation, he takes the opportunity to draw direct parallels between Yoga and Buddhism noting the four practices noted in Sutra 1:33 correlate to the four Brahma-viharas outlined in various Buddhists texts.  Bryant discusses the various commentators on the Yoga Sutras and explores the human tendency to envy the happy, be jealous of the pious, and even taking "cruel delight" in the misery of an enemy. He wants us to consider this Sutra, "...speaks to the fact that yoga need not be perceived as a world-renouncing tradition but is perfectly compatible with engaged and benevolent social action in the world." Thus, providing a deeper texture and hue to our understanding by demonstrating its relativity to all human endeavors in everyday life.

As I said, there are countless interpretations and each one provides subtle differences that add to our understanding. There are many other parallels that can be drawn to other spiritual texts as well, which help us see the universality of this sage advise. Take a moment to think back to a time when you were able to produce the four qualities: 1) Friendliness 2)Compassion 3)Delight 4) Equanimity with relative ease. Conjure up a time that you were able to produce these qualities not only towards others but towards yourself as well.  Now, recall a time when you were unable to summon the four qualities for yourself or another.  Compare the state of your consciousness in all of these instances, which time was more stabilizing for your mind -- the times that you were able to utilize the four qualities or when you were not able to?