3.11 Transformation toward integration

3.11 Releasing internal commentary and identification with externalities brings about a transformation toward integration (samadhi parinama).

The transition from the previous two sutras to this one moves along a similar process to the change from concentration (dhyana) to meditation (dharana). Your tendency towards inner stillness shifts gradually from intermittent to steady. Inner silence becomes established once all opinions dwindle and identification with changing external phenomena ceases. This aphorism contains the echo of sutra 1.4 that suggested that identification with your ways of being resulted from not being aware of and not regulating your ways of being. As you effectively neutralize your temporary ways of being, you release tension, and your awareness moves from being focused on the gross aspects of perception toward the subtlety of the perceptual process itself. This is the change known as the transformation of deep integration (samadhi parinama). For instance, notice what happens when you change from being entangled by your perceptions and reactivity to what you perceive, to being aware of your own perceptual processes. Does this shift generate a different experience of being? Another question to apply this sutra: Are you in greater harmony with life regardless of whatever happens? Because it is always easier to be at peace with life when everything goes according to your plans, desires, and expectations. What happens when life brings you something different from what you prefer or like? You may want to pay attention to any inclinations to generate opinions and judgments about anything that crosses your path. Notice if the internal voices offering commentary on everything you perceive are quieting down. In other words, are you being with what is happening without placing conditions? What is the actual experience of awareness of your own perceptions? When you have less judgments and opinions, what is the quality of your participation in your own life? Are you more present?

As usual, one more way of exploring the meaning of this sutra is by chanting it.
You can choose to chant it in its traditional form with some of the words coming together:

3.11 sarvārthatā ekāgrātayoḥ kṣayodayau cittasya samādhipariṇāmaḥ
सर्वार्थता एकाग्रातयोः क्षयोदयौ चित्तस्य समाधिपरिणामः ॥११॥

Another option is to chant each word in the sutra individually:

• sarva
• arthatā
• ekāgrātayoḥ
• kṣaya
• udayau
• cittasya
• samādhi
• pariṇāmaḥ

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