# We Must Become as Gardeners **1) Give the name of the fourth chapter of the Yoga Sutra (in English and in Sanskrit); then explain its position within the other three chapters.** The fourth chapter of the Yoga Sutra is called “The Chapter on Total Purity.” The Sanskrit for this is Kaivalya Pada. The word pada refers to a leg or a section of a book. The four chapters function like the four legs of a table, or the four cornerstones of the foundation of a house. Over the course of the four chapters of the Sutra, we pass three times through a description of the path to perfection. The first chapter, or cornerstone, of the Sutra is “The Chapter on Meditation.” It presents the path to total purity through the five paths or stages of spiritual evolution which all of us will go through. Advancement from one path to the next can only be accomplished in deep meditation; thus the name of the chapter. The second chapter is “The Chapter on the Way.” Here we begin some very practical yoga methods to attain the meditation of the first chapter, as well as the wisdom which rides upon it. Thus the first two chapters together then reflect yoga as a union of inner, mental methods and outer, physical methods or activities. The third chapter is a continuation of the famed ashtanga, or eight parts of the yogic path, which began in the second chapter. It concentrates on the three “inner” parts. Thus the second and third chapters considered together are again a complete presentation of the path to total purity. The fourth chapter again presents the path to perfection, but from the viewpoint of specific details of the mental processes involved in reaching this state. **2) Explain the different parts of the Sanskrit word for “total purity,” and give some of its other senses.** The Sanskrit word for “total purity” is kaivalya. This comes from two parts, ka k and iva #v. The word ka means what, or that. It is found in English as the qu- in question words like question or query, where it means what? Sometimes the “q” sound drops off, and it becomes the question sound whe, as in where, what, or which. The word iva means similar, or just like, or simply just. Similar forms are found in the English endings –ish and –ic: outlandish, girlish, intrinsic, characteristic. The two parts together mean just that, simply that.  The Tibetan is bashikpa, 808-6m#-. meaning that and only that; this is sometimes used as a word for the state of perfection, in the sense of a perfect being, being the “one and only.” This sense of perfection is the what total purity refers to here, in the Yoga Sutra. Sometimes also the word is translated into Tibetan as mandrepa, 1-8H{=-.k meaning unmixed, unadulterated, absolutely pure. **3) In the third chapter of the Yoga Sutra, we were introduced to a wide variety of different miraculous powers—such as walking on water or through walls—that a yogi can gain. In the opening lines of the fourth chapter, Master Patanjali lists five different ways in which we can gain these powers. Name these five, explain them briefly, and state which one of them is the “preferred method” for yogis such as ourselves.** (a) A person can gain certain powers simply by virtue of the type of rebirth which they take. For example, a person born as a craving spirit or “ghost” haunting a house may have the power to walk through walls. (b) Special herbs or drugs can give one special powers or visions, temporarily. (c) Extreme practices like sleep deprivation or drastic fasting can give one temporary visions or powers. (d) Special spells or mantras can give one the power to pick up fire, or to fly. (e) The problem with all these methods is that they simply cannot be sustained at will. We must instead master deep meditation, where we learn to plant the necessary seeds to purposely create powers that we can use to help others. **4) What does it mean when the Master says, “The transformation which occurs between births is fulfilled by nature”?** It means that deceased people in the spirit world (the bardo) have special powers for up to seven weeks after their death; their powers are then “fulfilled,” meaning that they automatically end. They can see their relatives and hear what they say; and even understand prayers and the like which are chanted in another language on their behalf. They can also pass through walls, and such. When their powers end, they become trapped and are unable to pass through the walls of the womb, for example. **5) What does it mean to “destroy the veil of the qualities of things,” in order “to be released from them”?** It appears to us that things have their own qualities: that a pen is a pen from its own side. Our belief in this apparent reality is a veil which covers ultimate reality: the reality that—if we see it—frees us almost immediately. By understanding that things do not have any quality of their own, any quality coming from their own side, we destroy this veil. We are then released from our belief in the false appearance of things, and from the reactions to these false appearances which enslave us in suffering. **6) In perhaps the most important line of the Yoga Sutra, Master Patanjali says that “we must become as gardeners.” What does this mean, and what would be the opposite of a gardener?** Once we have “destroyed the veil” by realizing that things are coming from our side, then we are equipped to go about creating our own future, our own paradise. We take control of our lives, and purposely plant the seeds we need to see a perfect world, a world without pain. We realize that the things which appear to be causing other things in truth lack any connection: gas doesn’t run a car, for example. We learn that the only way to make a car run is to assure that others get where they want to go. We are willing to take the time, we have the patience, to purposely plant seeds and wait for the desired results to appear. The opposite would be what we call “roboclaws.” This is a crude attempt to manipulate our reality in order to get what we want in the immediate present. If we were desperate to get someplace, for example, we might steal a car. But in fact the act of stealing someone else’s means of getting somewhere could never cause us to get somewhere. If it seems to work, it’s only because we have helped someone get somewhere in the past, and not because of the theft. **7) Why would understanding how things are neither one nor more than one help us to emanate clones of ourselves?** We can’t see a car without looking at a good number of the car’s parts, which would suggest that the car is inherently more than one thing. But if we have five car parts we don’t have five cars. From its own side then, a car is neither one thing or more than one thing. This is because a car that exists from its own side is simply impossible. When we understand that the reason we see a car at all is because of some unifying concept coming from ourselves, we can use this principle upon our own body. We can purposely collect the necessary causes to see this body as any other kind of body or form that might be of service for others: an emanation. **8) Extend the metaphor of planting a garden to the destruction of our storehouse of old seeds. What understanding is required for both?** As we plant the garden of our new seeds—positive seeds, for a deathless paradise—we must also tear out the weeds of our old, negative seeds. These seeds are destroyed through the same understanding of how things work that we use to plant our garden of good seeds. Negative seeds exist and are potent only because of our perceptions. We can purposely plant positive seeds which will destroy these perceptions. The positive seed needed to destroy a negative seed planted by killing a living being is primarily the resolution not to do such an action again. **9) Master Patanjali says that deeds done by a true practitioner are neither white nor black, whereas deeds done by others are of three different kinds. Explain.** People who don’t understand how seeds are planted in the mind and ripen to create our reality commit both good and bad deeds through the course of their lives. They also “mix” good and bad deeds—for example, by making a contribution to charity with the hopes that others will commend their action.  From these white deeds (which we call “dirty” white deeds) they get good results that wear out; from the black deeds they get painful results; and from the mixed deeds they get mixed results. Real yogis—people who act out of a knowledge of the laws of seeds, people who garden—no longer commit any of these three kinds of seeds. Rather, their knowledge of what they are doing makes the seeds give good results and perpetuate themselves in the act, creating a never-ending paradise. **10) What are the words that Master Patanjali uses to describe the amount of control that we gain over the way our life will go, if we understand the laws of seeds?** He says that, for real yogis with knowledge, the corresponding consequences which will ripen from the deeds they do are perfectly obvious to them, from the seeds they’ve planted. That is, they plant perfect seeds and enjoy a positive predictability about what kinds of results they will get from these seeds. There is no more guesswork about their lives.