Patanjali's yoga sutras

2.1 To practice yoga, act consciously, with self-awareness. Surrender your will to the wisdom of the Universe. Stoke the fires of transformation. 

2.2. This is the way to thin out the obstacles to living in a constant state of awe, wonder, bliss and Cosmic Consciousness.

2.3 The obstacles are ignorance, the ego, cravings, aversion, and attachment.

2.4 The obstacles may be dormant, thinned out, or cut back, but they’ll be in full bloom again soon enough if the field of ignorance is there for them to grow in.

2.5 Ignorance is mistaking the temporary for the eternal, the impure for the pure, pain for pleasure, and the ego for the Self.

2.6 The power to experience the true Self, beyond the ego, and see the divine nature of the universe, exists in individual consciousness as it does in universal, divine consciousness, but… 

2.7 If you dwell on pleasure, you’ll experience craving.

2.8 If you dwell on pain, you’ll experience aversion.

2.9 Your susceptibilities and inclinations create attachments.

2.10 These obstacles can become less significant and easier to discard…

2.11 …through meditation. Just as the Sun sets as your spot on the Earth turns away from it, meditation turns your attention away from the vortexes that consume your consciousness.

2.12 It is said that the roots of your obstacles are in your actions and intentions, which have consequences, some that can be seen now, and others that will be revealed in future births…

2.13 …that as long as the roots exist, they will come to fruition in the kind of family you’re born into, how long you live, and your financial circumstances…

2.14 …that good karma causes pleasure and bad karma causes pain…

2.15 …but with discernment you see that everything in the material world is ultimately unsatisfying. You and everyone you love one day will die. Bad things happen and good things don’t last. The one constant in life is change. Welcome life’s difficulties. Let their fire burn away the residues of your past experiences, free you from your habits, personality traits, and conditioned behaviors, and liberate you from these sources of suffering.

2.16 You can quit suffering altogether.

2.17 Here’s how: Be the spectator, not the spectacle.

2.18 Live a life of enlightened, fully conscious action. Every experience is an opportunity to quit suffering. Be completely present to, and at one with, everything that’s coming to you through all of your senses and faculties…

2.19 …all five senses, your emotional, mental, and spiritual faculties, and your intuitive and extrasensory capacities.

2.20 The spectator is just consciousness, absolutely pure, direct perception.

2.21 Its purpose is to observe the spectacle.

2.22 When you serve that purpose, your ego dies but you remain alive, only with no wishes left unfulfilled.

2.23 When you are yoked to the spectacle and perceive the spectacle to be your true nature…

2.24 …that is the cause of ignorance.

2.25 When you, the spectator, are no longer yoked to the spectacle and stand alone, you are relieved of ignorance and can quit suffering.

2.26 To do this, you must be in a state of uninterrupted discernment.

2.27 The first chapter, on Cosmic Consciousness, described the seven-fold path to this highest stage of wisdom:

1. Sutras 1.1-1.15 Separating your identity from your mental vortexes until you are no longer susceptible to your cravings and triggered reactions.
2. Sutras 1.16-1.22 Getting free of the impulse to judge things by their various qualities by using devotion, energy, perfect concentration, mindfulness and discernment to access states of awe, wonder, bliss and conscious awareness. 
3. Sutras 1.23-1.32 & 1.39 – Overcoming the obstacles of illness, lack of energy, doubt, impaired judgment, burnout, overconsumption, low self-esteem, failure and relapse—and the grief, despondency, trembling of the body and irregular breathing that accompany these obstacles—by surrendering to Loving Awareness. You can do this through the repetition of its onomatopoeia mantra Om or by wish or will wherever desire leads.
4. Sutras 1.33-1.38 – Calming the mind with pranayama and meditation, so that you can cultivate loving kindness, compassion, delight and equanimity in pleasure or pain, fortune or misfortune.
5. Sutras 1.40-1.42 – Turning your mind into a wish-granting jewel, a genie within, through the power of thought transformation. This is possible when you stop feeding your mental vortexes and they start to waste away.
6. Sutras 1.43-1.46 – Contemplating that which has no characteristic marks. Loving Awareness can’t be described because it doesn’t have any qualities, but it exists within you and you can see through its eyes. You are the Creator observing its Creation. You know you have taken the seat of Loving Awareness when you have no judgments and feel only love and gratitude. This happens once you have emptied yourself of your ego. Only your essence shines forth.
7. Sutras 1.47-1.51 – Accessing the unlimited truth and wisdom of Cosmic Consciousness.

2.28 Cosmic Consciousness is always available to you at every moment. It isn’t necessary to do anything else than what’s already been described in the first chapter, but if this remains elusive to you and you’d like more detailed instructions, there are additional things you can do to enhance the knowledge that comes through discriminative discernment. The light of Cosmic Consciousness shines through the window of your awareness. The practice of yoga cleans the accumulated grime off that window to let the light of awareness come through brighter and brighter.

2.29 The eight limbs of yoga are: abstentions, observances, posture, breath control, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation, and Cosmic Consciousness.

2.30 Here’s what to commit to abstaining from: violence, lying, stealing, promiscuity and unfaithfulness, and greed and materialism.

2.31 Abstention from these is the great vow that everyone on Earth, no matter their birth, should aspire to in all places, times and circumstances.

2.32 The observances are purity, contentment, the fire of transformation, self-study and surrender to Loving Awareness.

2.33 These observances are the antidotes to the torments (violence, stealing, lying, lust and greed) that prevent us from living in a constant state of awe, wonder, bliss and Loving Awareness.

2.34 Harm to others is the greatest torment, whether it is done, caused to be done or permitted to be done; whether it is done for gain, in anger or in ignorance; whether it is mild, moderate or excessive. The result is infinite suffering.

2.35 You’ll know your practice of nonviolence is working when others give up their hostilities in your presence.

2.36 You’ll know your practice of truthfulness is working when what you say, do and manifest are in alignment.

2.37 You’ll know your practice of not stealing is working when riches come to you.

2.38 You’ll know your practice of non-lustfulness is working when channeling your desires into your spiritual practice gives you more energy.

2.39 You’ll know your practice of non-materialism is working when, as you lose your desire for things, you gain a desire to know the mysteries of existence.

2.40 You’ll know your practice of cleanliness is working when you lose your attachment to the body and your desire for intimacy with the bodies of others.

2.41 The pure state of mind that comes from nonviolence, not lying, not stealing, non-lustfulness, non-materialism and cleanliness is the single greatest sensation, total self-control, the triumph over the ego. With it comes the supreme spiritual knowledge of and compatibility with your true nature.

2.42 You’ll know your practice of contentment is working when you acquire extreme and lasting happiness.

2.43 You’ll know your practice of fanning the flames of purifying fire is working when, through challenges you face or take willingly, you burn away your ego identity and attain superpowers of the body and spirit, as well as the senses and faculties. 

2.44 You’ll know your practice of gaining knowledge of the Self is working when you gain the cooperation of the divine universe.

2.45 You’ll know your practice of surrender to Loving Awareness is working when you obtain the ecstasy of Cosmic Consciousness.

2.46 With correct posture, you obtain steadiness and ease…

2.47 …You obtain effortlessness and your powers of thought become limitless. …

2.48 …Then, you cease to be disturbed, even by conflict, by the extremes of hot and cold, pain, discomfort, etc.

2.49 By interrupting the movements of inhalation and exhalation with breath retention, the life force is extended.

2.50 By becoming intimate with every variation in the breath, from shallow to deep, by place (inhalation, internal suspension, exhalation or external suspension), time (the length or duration of the phases of the breath), and number (of repetitions), mastery of the vortexes of consciousness, both internal and external, is obtained. …

2.51 …With this fourth limb comes mastery over internal and external sense objects…

2.52 …Tada! That which eclipses the light of consciousness wanes…

2.53 …and the mind becomes fit for concentration.

2.54 Sense withdrawal is when the senses are no longer merged with and dependent on their objects and instead turn inward to study the essential nature of the mind. …

2.55 …Tada! The highest state of detachment from the senses. Now, nothing can distract you.