# The End of Thoughts? **1) Explain briefly the two types of a “stopping meditation.”  What do they stop?** There is one kind of deep meditation where we go into a nearly unconscious state, and then awaken hours or even days later.  It feels as if the mind itself has stopped during this period, but actually only the gross, surface level of thought has stopped.  This type of meditation is actually considered something of an obstacle by true meditators, since there is no significant content of the meditation, and it only wastes the time of one’s precious life. Bb_Druid sleep The second kind of “stopping” meditation is the direct perception of emptiness.  During this time, one stops the state of mind which misunderstands how all objects are actually projections of our own mind.  This is the one and only thing in the world which can actually accomplish the process of stopping all our negative thoughts, obstacles, and pain. **2) Explain the most common meaning of the word “stopping” in a “stopping meditation.”  This stopping is sometimes called a “cessation.”  Give also the Sanskrit for this important term, and related English words.** The most common meaning of the word “stopping” or “cessation” is the idea of putting a permanent stop to a spiritual obstacle or mental affliction.  For example, the first time that we see emptiness directly we permanently stop a number of negative attitudes, such as doubt about the spiritual path and an intellectual belief that things could exist from their own side. The Sanskrit word for this type of stopping or cessation is nirodha intaex.  This word is composed of two parts, ni and rodha.  The prefix ni in here means down, and thus not.  It is found in the English words beneath and netherworld. Rodha comes from the root √rudh éx!.  It’s good to be aware that this root can have two opposite meanings: to grow and to obstruct.  The point here is that something will not grow.  Related English words are root, radish, radical, rhizome, and licorice. **3) It is often claimed by people who talk about the Yoga Sutra that the goal of yoga is to stop all mental activity.  How does this relate to the two different kinds of “stopping,” or cessation?** The claim that the goal of yoga is to stop all mental activity is a common misinterpretation of the opening lines which say, “Yoga is stopping how the mind turns.”  Throughout the centuries, as people have practiced meditation, there are many who have mistaken the temporary pleasant sensation of stopping gross thoughts as a spiritual goal.  This is the first kind of cessation, the unimportant one really.  The second type of cessation is the important one: where we stop our misperception of things, in order to stop our negative thoughts and thus all the pain that we and others ever experience. **4) Explain the idea of “transformation” at this point in the Yoga Sutra, explaining for example how a stopping or cessation might be transformed.  Then give the Sanskrit word for “transformation,” along with some related English words.** A transformation in the sense that it’s meant in the Yoga Sutra at this point means that we turn the combined effort of stillness (shamatha) and wisdom (vipashyana) upon an object and thus transform it.  For example, we may be getting pretty good in our meditation, and reaching a point where the mind seems to stop for an extended period of time.  If we then turn understanding upon this stopping, we come to see that it is a product of seeds within our minds.  This can put us on the path of transforming this temporary stopping into something more meaningful and permanent: stopping the mental afflictions forever. The Sanskrit word for transformation here is parinama piram.  This word has two parts, pari and nama.  The prefix pari means around, and is found in the English words perimeter and periscope. Nama comes from the verbal root √nam nm! , meaning to bend or to bow, in the sense of turning down.  Here then the two parts together mean to turn something around into something else, or to transform something. We see the root √nam in the common Sanskrit greeting namaste, which means I bow to you, as well as in the name of the well-known yoga asana, surya namaskara, which literally means making a bow to the sun.  Tradition says that the Sanskrit word nama nam, which means name and is directly related to that English word, is related to the idea of bowing down or honoring another person—honoring their name. **5) In this section of the third chapter of the Yoga Sutra, we talk about three transformations: about how we grasp that three different, very important things are actually projections brought on by the karmic seeds in our own minds.  Name the three transformations, and name the three important things that are involved with each one of them, respectively.** The “transformation of the stopping” means that we understand that how long we can stop gross thought processes or wrong perceptions of the world in meditation depends upon karmic seeds.  The “transformation of meditation” means that we understand that our single-pointed stillness also depends upon karmic seeds.  The “transformation of single-pointedness” means that we understand that our single-pointed awareness of the true nature of things, our wisdom, also depends upon karmic seeds. **6) What is it that allows us to remain “in” a state of meditation?  Include the Sanskrit word here, and related English words.** An important concept introduced in the Yoga Sutra at this point in the third chapter is the fact that, as with everything else in our world, it is mental seeds which create a meditative state and allow us to remain in this state.  As long as the seeds for coming out of the meditation are suppressed, we will stay in; when the seeds for coming out grow or manifest themselves, then we must come out. The word for mental seeds here in the Sanskrit is sanskara s<Skar.  This word is made of two parts, sam and kara.  (Due to the rules that govern how words join together, the letter s  is inserted between these two pieces; as it does in the word Sanskrit itself.) Sam means together; when this root enters English, the common change of a Sanskrit s into an English c occurs, and we see it in the words committee and combination. Kara here means to make or create, and so together with sam means to bring things together, or create things.  Kara comes from the Sanskrit root √kir k«, which is found in the words karma, create, and cereal. **7) Why is it that our first direct perception of ultimate reality lasts for so short a time?  How do we then increase this time, and how do we know how to increase it?** The direct perception of ultimate reality is the ultimate goal of all spiritual practice, since this is the only object in the world which has the power to permanently remove our own and all other beings’ suffering.  Because it is such a powerful object, seeds of tremendous power are required to maintain it.  At the beginning, we simply don’t possess sufficient seeds to maintain the vision of emptiness. When we do see emptiness directly, we by definition grasp the fact that all the objects in our life are a projection of our own minds forced upon us by our past deeds.  As such we clearly grasp that the direct perception of emptiness is itself a projection forced upon us by our past seeds. We naturally then understand that, if we wish to maintain the direct vision of emptiness for longer periods of time, we need to collect more pure karmic seeds of the type which cause deep meditation.  And these, according to the great Tibetan masters such as Je Tsongkapa, are nothing other than the seeds planted when we take care of other people.  Thus we return to the foundation practices of the yogic path: the different forms of self-control, and the commitments. **8) Having discussed what makes a state of meditation start or stop, Master Patanjali goes on to describe what makes things in general start or stop.  He makes the surprising statement that all things within us and outside of us follow after one single quality: the fact that “their starting and their stopping cannot be pointed to.”  Explain what this means with perceiving the word word right here on this page.  Then explain how this helps us grasp how things are really coming from us. ** In order to read the word word, we must first read the letter w.  Reading the word word happens so fast that we don’t really notice this fact, but if we think about it for a moment we know it must be true: our eye moves across the page from left to right, and “bumps into” the w before the other letters.  In order to see the whole letter w  though, we must by necessity see the first of the three lines that makes up this letter.  To see this first line though, we must first see the top of it and the bottom of it. To see the top of it though, we must first see the top of the top and the bottom of the top, and so on—ad infinitum.  We obviously don’t have time to do all this in the time it actually takes us to read the word word; and even if we did have the time, it’s obvious if we think about it that there must be a point where our eyes aren’t sensitive enough to see the two parts of a line that make up the smallest part of the line we can see.  The simple fact is that we can’t be seeing things the way we always thought we did. In actual fact, the way that we see the whole word word on this very page is only because our own mind is projecting it down on the page, gluing together indications of black and white into a comprehensible whole.  And this is how we see every other single thing in our entire world: it is all coming from us, from seeds we planted when we took care of others, or ignored their needs. **9) Give the Sanskrit word for “cannot be pointed to,” listing related English words as well.** The Sanskrit word in the Yoga Sutra for “cannot be pointed to” is avyapadeshya AVypdeZy.  This word is made up of four parts: a, vi, apa, and deshya. The initial letter a here is the negative in Sanskrit.  It’s the cannot in the expression cannot be pointed to.  The prefix vi means apart or away.  This prefix appears in all the English words that mean two, which means split or divided into two: duo, two, dipole, bipolar, and bicycle.  The prefix apa means away, or off.  The word off itself comes from this root. Deshya means to be pointed to.  It comes from the root √dish idz! , which means to point, and can also be found as diksh.  The word desha, which means a direction in which you point, came to mean country, and is found in words like Bangladesh: Land of the Bengalis.  The English word digit comes from this, meaning a finger with which we point, or digital, something counted with our fingers.  From this pointing motion too came the idea of dictate and dictator. All the pieces of the word together mean something you cannot point off in some direction to.