Sutra 1.32: Cultivating One-Pointed Focus

Sutra 1.32: Tatpratisedhartham Ekatattva Abhyasah

Cultivating one-pointed focus will relieve you from disturbance.

Sutra 1.32 offers us a solution to the obstacles presented in 1.30 and their symptoms in 1.31. Patanjali reminds us here that by developing one-pointed focus, we can be like Ganesha and become the remover of our own damn obstacles.

Our ability to experience our experience, absolutely depends on how proficient we are at attending to and consciously directing our own attention. The depth at which we can experience anything, a conversation, the magic that lights up the nights sky, a home cooked meal, the heartbeat of another that can be felt when wrapped in their embrace, is the direct result of how fully we get to be alive.

This one-pointed focus is an acquired skill of which we must choose to practice. When we allow every ding dong, every he said/she said, every opinion, and every unhelpful thought, to receive our attention, we are essentially leaving the pilots seat empty. So whose flying the plane when you have sauntered off down a wormhole of worry? When no one is flying the plane, it feels out of control, scary, and hopeless.

We have to sit our asses down in that pilots seat every single day and learn to fly our plane. We have to practice our take offs and our landings over and over and over again. It really doesn’t matter where we go, it’s how we go. If we know how to navigate through the stormy skies then we get to go anywhere and everywhere or no where at all and simply enjoy flying our plane. We get to witness the chaos and the magnificence of life and rest in right relationship with our co-pilot, Great Spirit, because we have taken the time, we have made the effort, and we have offered our hearts to being the pilot of our plane, not the dependent passenger.

This practice, reminds us that it is not perfection, but persistence, that will always provide us with all of the presence.    

Dearest Yogis,

As always, I feel honored to receive your consideration in the study of the yoga sutras. They have helped me more than words can portray in my own growth, accountability, and reflection. The wisdom woven into each sutra, stitch by stitch, is unfathomable. Keep on keepin on, as the fruits of our study are just beginning.

So much love,

Andrea Dawn