What are Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras? 🧐

The Yoga Sutras is a text every yoga teacher quotes - and almost no one understands. Except me of course 😏😤

So what are The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali?

Reading time → A few minutes. Worth it for the wisdom fam. 

The short answer is that it’s a concise manual for seekers - not to be confused with a “how-to” guide for your vinyasa.

The Yoga Sūtras is a collection of one-liners, likely compiled somewhere between ~200 BCE and 400 CE, outlining an inner path towards something beyond - by stilling the mind and realising what lies past it.

It’s often confused by enthusiastic modern-day "yogis" who wear toe rings as a step-by-step ladder that ALL yogis should follow - a rigid framework if you will for practice and experience.

A common confusion:Aṣṭāṅga in Patañjali’s Sūtras means the eight-limb path. That’s not the same as Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga (that Emma teaches), Same word, different worlds. (Truth is, Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is just very clever branding. Sorry Em).

So who should read this classical text that dominates yogi book clubs, instagram feeds and most modern teacher trainings?

If you’re curious about how classical yogis frames the inner journey, it’s a fascinating, compact read. It gives you a much broader look at yoga - one that goes way beyond the poses.

It gets students to see yoga from the perspective of an Eastern seeker. But it isn’t something the modern practitioner needs to follow or blindly believe in. It may present itself as a framework, even a ladder of yogic success, but it is by no means written for the fancy Westerner in Lululemons smelling of seaweed after a sweaty power class. (Nothing wrong with that, by the way!)

My point is: the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali should be read with an open mind. It’s a fascinating reminder of what yoga is beyond the poses. Because our poses? They only make up about 1% of what yoga truly is.

Bottom line: Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras isn’t a checklist for the modern student. It’s a mirror for the mind - written for seekers of the path from centuries past. Still useful and enlightening if you want to understand yoga beyond the mat. But it shouldn’t be mistaken as gospel, as something you and I must be doing or applying. (If you don’t believe me, wait till you get to Book 4.)

Closing thought: The hardest part isn’t understanding the Sūtras; it’s accepting how simple the work is: sit, breathe, notice - and keep noticing - until the noise runs out.

My opinion is, don’t read the Sūtras like instructions for a handstand. Read it like instructions for a headstand - flipping the way you see Yoga and even life itself.

Think of the Sūtras less like a ladder to climb, more like a rug to sit on. For a more detailed blog on the Yoga Sutras written by be → [link]

On an additional note - Zaccy and I made a video on what ALL "yogis" can learn from Spiderman → [link]

🟤 FREE Mini-course on Breathing? Of course not. You already know. But just in case → [link]

🟠 More on Breathing? 💨 - [Website]

🟠 IN-house Yoga Teacher Training? 🧘🏽‍♀️ - [Link] (new page)