Yoga Sutra 1.6 — Your Mind’s Five Favourite Moves

1.6
pramāṇa viparyaya vikalpa nidrā smṛtayaḥ

The five movements of the mind are: correct knowledge, misperception, imagination, sleep, and memory.

We have learned that the mind moves in ways that can lead us either toward suffering or toward peace.

Now, Patañjali gives us the full list, and it turns out the mind has only five main moves.

Five! That’s it.

Which is both comforting and slightly alarming, considering how busy our minds can feel most days.

From the moment we wake up, the mind is already at work.

We interpret what we see.

We misunderstood something someone said.

We imagine how the day might unfold.

We drift in and out of sleep.

We replay memories from the past.

These five movements make up most of what we experience as our inner world:

• Perception.

• Misperception.

• Imagination.

• Sleep.

• Memory.

The mind may feel incredibly complicated, but according to the sutras, its patterns are surprisingly simple.

Yoga begins when we start to notice these movements clearly, because when we can see the movement of the mind, we become a little less tangled in it.

And sometimes we even catch ourselves mid-thought and realize:

“Oh shit… my mind is doing that thing again.”

Over the next few sutras, Patañjali will explore each of these movements in greater detail.

And once you know what they are, you will start to recognize them everywhere — sometimes several times before breakfast.

Deep Thoughts (with a respectful nod to Jack Handey)

Only five movements.

And yet the mind can still feel incredibly crowded.