Yoga Sutra 1.2 "Yogas citta-vritti-nirodhah" 🙏🏻

Core teaching: This translates to "Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind." We can understand this from two angles: the philosophical and the practical.

One of yoga's core aims is helping us reach a state of inner stillness or self-awareness. According to the Yoga Sutras, yoga is defined as "the stilling of the mind's fluctuations."

The concept of fluctuations: Our thoughts, emotions, and reactions — these mental fluctuations — rise and fall like ocean waves, pulling us into inner turbulence and instability. Yoga uses various practices to calm these waves, bringing us to a place of steadiness and peace.

On a practical level, yoga includes:

The effect of practice: These tools help relax the body and mind, freeing us from the constant mental chatter and emotional reactivity of daily life. Through consistent practice, yoga helps us release excessive thought patterns, desires, and emotional reactions — returning the mind to a state of clarity and calm, like a still lake.

At its heart, "yoga is the stilling of mental fluctuations" means that one of yoga's key goals is to free us from the mind's restless waves, guiding us toward a state of stability and peace.

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