According to Patanjali, the author of the classical text on yoga, yoga is the quieting of the vrittis (projections, turnings, motions, fluctuations). As a result, the seer's true or fundamental form is discovered. Otherwise, there is projection identification. Like Plato's shadows in the cave, mental vrittis are chimeras that people mistake for reality.
According to Patanjali, in order to discover the truth about anything, the mind must be perfectly still. The initial state is the calm mind. However, impediments (kleshas) keep people from seeing the truth. What these kleshas are and how to get rid of them are discussed in the Yoga Sutra. Patanjali's yoga aims to achieve a calm mind and discover one's actual nature. Then and only then is it possible to learn the truth about anything. Maharishi Patanjali talks about the mind's illumination. He asserts that because pure consciousness serves as the foundation for and the source of the mind itself, it is always aware of the actions of the mind.
The mind cannot simultaneously experience the process of illumination and cognize itself since it is not self-illuminating. This is fortunate because if it were not, there would be much confusion caused by an illogical chain of thoughts about who is seeing what, what they are experiencing, what they are perceiving, and so on. He also asserts that the mind field, influenced by perceptions of both the seer and the seen (the subject and the object), can perceive everything.
The mind must be stilled in order to allow direct seeing to occur because it is human nature for the mind to mediate between the object and the subject. The genuine subject (Purusha) and the true object (Prakriti) are both present in the mind simultaneously when it is completely silent and alert. Seeing occurs without distortion when the seer and what needs to be seen are present. When this occurs, there are no comparisons or judgments, misinterpretations, fantasies about out-of-body experiences, careless drowsiness, or clingin Purusha past. In other words, Prakriti has no distortions brought about by the perception organs, namely the mind, feelings, and senses. The only thing that exists is what is seen right now, the live instant in the timeless now. This is the kaivalya state of judgment unrestricted attention, which is the solitude of seeing rather than the seer being apart from the seen, as experts sometimes interpret it in yoga. In this state, the seer does not see through the sense organs but through them.
Patanjali draws a crucial distinction between two facets of the seer: the absolute subject and the empirical subject, between the absolute Self and the phenomenal self, or between consciousness and mind. According to the Veda Vatara Upanishad, the absolute Self is the one who embodies the characteristics of all the senses while remaining devoid of all the senses and who knows everything that needs to be known but of whom no one knows.
Unlike the Self, the mind requires the use of senses to perceive, and it may be identified as an object through introspection. Pure consciousness is unstructured, straightforward, and unaffected by change. It has no content, is not being used intentionally, and makes no references. The concept of unity, which permeates all forms of objective knowledge and the individual's behaviors and feelings, runs through the empirical subject, which is complex, deliberate, and always changing. In Sankhya and Yoga's philosophy, only one empirical subject appears to know objects (real or unreal), perform actions (moral or immoral), and experience pleasures or pain. The paradox of the Self is that, despite being by definition passive, it is also the power of the empirical subject or mind. The absolute seer makes the ego's experience possible even though it does not change itself; remaining outside of all change, it merely makes the transformation possible by witnessing it.
This contrasts with the empirical subject, which experiences a constant change that gives the impression that it is active and creative. Without a witness, nothing changes, nothing stays the same, and nothing is different from anything else. It is important to remember that this fundamental distinction needs to be made on both an ontological and an epistemic level.
At this level, therapies strive to heal a specific dualism, subject vs. object. "A sense of subject and object as one, as sudden as blinking, will lead to a profoundly enigmatic, wordless comprehension; and by this understanding, one will awaken to the truth." The truth disclosed is not divided into "one state that sees, and one state that is seen," but rather the reality of the real world. Additionally, the dualism between subject and object collapses with the dualism between the past, present, and future, as well as between life and death, causing one to awaken to the timeless and spaceless realm of cosmic consciousness as if from a dream.
From a yoga perspective, it is crucial to distinguish between the mind (Chitta) and the actual Seer (Purusha). Chitta claims to know, but his knowledge is of the kind that comes from seeing and knowing; it is an object rather than a subject. It could, however, be a tool for knowledge. The underlying mistake that causes all problems and misery is the confusion between the seer and the seen, or the person with his or her sensory organs.
Asmita (I-am-this-ness, egoism) emerges from this fundamental ignorance and causes a limitation through particularization. Asmita states, "I am this" or "I am that," but Purusha says, "I AM." The intense desire to maintain one's specialization and the resulting detachment from everyone and everything stems from this egoism and self-importance. The kind of "knowledge" built on this fundamental misidentification is invariably tinged with arrogance, a desire for dominance, or fear.
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