Day 100: From Scattered to Still: A Taipei Layover and Yoga Sutras 3.9 - 3.16
What an unexpected day in Taipei taught me about consciousness, presence, the mind and meditation.
Remembering the Sutras
I know the first two chapters of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras like the back of my hand. I could probably close my eyes and break down the overarching themes of each section from Books One and Two without much effort. I can often name the number of a sutra if someone brings it up in conversation.
But Chapter 3 & 4? That’s where things start to get fuzzy. Whilst I’ve studied and taught these chapters at least 5 times, I still don’t know them by heart the way I know chapters 1 & 2. (A side note is - this circles me back to the Spiral of Learning - and the reason we need to revisit the Sutras over and over again. And that’s why so many of my students join into my Advanced Yoga Sutra Studies program after they complete the Yoga Sutra Studies Course with me - because knowing this text is a lifetime’s work!)
Part of the reason I don’t know chapters 3 & 4 as well is simple: I haven’t taught them as often. Someone asked Rolf in 2019, “How did you become a walking book of the Sutras?” He said it was from teaching 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Trainings over and over again for twenty years. What I take from that is: “You learn what you teach.” I’ve taught my Yoga Sutra Study course about ten times now, and the foundational sutras in just about every 200-Hour training I’ve led. But the deeper practices - vibhūti and kaivalya - those have remained more distant, because I’ve had fewer opportunities to dive in with others. It’s just happened that during the courses I’ve taught, I’ve often had to get subs for these lessons as I’ve had other conflicting retreats or travels.
I recently had this lesson,Sutra 3.9 - 3.16, on the calendar with one of my groups, but I had to get the class subbed since I was teaching yoga on the Sobah Sistahs retreat that week. Maybe I’ll write something about it instead to help reinforce the teachings to myself… I thought. But no ideas came to me, so it was just swirling in the back of my head. And then - it hit me - what to write about - in the last twenty four hours.
A Different Kind of Layover
I am currently in transit, still. (Bali is far from North America, you guys!) I was on a 6 hour flight to Taipei yesterday, followed by 24 hours in Taipei, and a 15 hour flight to Toronto today. Yesterday, I started itching to get on the internet during the plane ride, and even bought some extra time with the wifi. But I wasn’t dying to get online for Instagram or email. I wanted to get online for three things:
I wanted to text Mr. Doesn’t Use Plane Wifi (Mr. Doesn’t Drink Coffee, Mr. Z, Mr Shakshuka, Raja Haiku, Mr. Mimpi Indah, Habibi (My Love in Arabic), The Approaching-Boyfriend (Boyfriend in Waiting), Mr. Vritti, Mr. Jack Pot, Mr. Meditation, Rocket Man, Mr. Mantra, The Meow-ditator, The Rational Mystic, Burrito Boy, the-guy-i-like-that-i-feel-safe-with, him (the crush)).
I wanted to publish the Daily Dharma that I wrote the day before.
I just wanted to open my Yoga Sutras document, and reference this particular section of the document.
The document is a 215-page beast I’ve been building for the past five years. It holds notes, interpretations, quotes, my own reflections—everything I’ve gathered on the sutras as I’ve studied and lived them. (If you take my Yoga Sutra Study course you’ll get access!)
And I wanted to revisit a section I titled:
“What It Looks Like As We Literally Change Our Brain Chemistry.”
That’s how Sutras 3.9–3.16 land for me. They describe the subtle rewiring of consciousness that occurs through regular meditation and presence. And during this layover in Taipei, I felt them.
Taipei, City of Contrasts
Taipei blew me away today. I think one of the reasons why is because I had no plans, done no research, and had no idea what to expect. It is AMAZING! Taipei is one of those places that feels like it lives in two worlds. Skyscrapers stand beside lantern-lit temples. Tech hubs pulse with life while street vendors quietly stir bubbling pots of soup. Everything glistens with a kind of magic.
I’d hired a driver to explore the city—but I didn’t speak Mandarin, and he didn’t speak English. We both used Google Translate to try to connect and talk, but for the most part, it was a practice of surrender, of silence, of letting go.
And something shifted.
I stopped narrating the moment and simply lived it. My awareness turned inward and became focused, still. That’s when the teachings of Chapter Three began to come alive in a whole new way.
Yoga Sutras 3.9–3.16:
Brain Chemistry Changes
This section of the sutras literally tracks how our brain changes as we move into a state of samyama (dharana, dhyana and samadhi simultaneously.) Here’s what it says:
Sutra 3.9: vyutthana-nirodha-samskarayoh abhibhava-pradubhavau nirodhaksana cittanayo nirodha-parinamah
Nirodhah-parinamah is a transition of emerging into mastery while watching the imprints of the consciousness disappear. It is the mastery of that infinitesimal moment in change in connection with consciousness.
Sutra 3.10: Tasya prasanta-vahita samskarat
If this state of nirodhah-parinamah flows undisturbed, it will write conscious imprints.
Sutra 3.11: Sarvarthata ekagraatayoh ksayodayau cittasya samadhi-parinamah
Samadhi-parinamah is a transition state when all-pointedness decays and one pointedness arises in the consciousness.
Sutra 3.12: Tatah punah satoditau tulya-pratyayau cittasya-ikagrata-parinamah
Ekagrata-parinamah is a transitional state where the consciousness’ snapshot of presence is identical to presence.
Sutra 3.13: Etena bhutendriyesu dharma-laksana-avastha parinama vyakhyatah
Every single thing has a dharma, a purpose. These three phases, with the way the brain changes it’s structure, helps us understand the purpose, the symptoms and the conditions of an object.
Sutra 3.14: San-odita-avyapadesya-dharmanupati dharmi
As the brain changes structure, we begin to see that the past, present, and future are all natures that originate from a single nature.
Sutra 3.15: Kramanyatvam parinamanyateve hetuh
The reason distinct changes happen is because of an underlying change in life’s sequence.
Sutra 3.16: Parinamatraya-samyamat-atitanagata jnanam
Complete absorption in the three transitions gives you knowledge of all cause and effect.
I started to make many connections as I continued on the day in Taipei.
3.9 — Nirodha Parinama: The Pause Between
Like the silence in the car ride, Sutra 3.9 speaks to the tiny pause between one mental impression leaving and another entering. It is not absence. It’s potential. You can imagine it like removing a rock from a jar and replacing it with water. That moment of “nothingness” is not empty. It’s fertile, like the quiet between notes in music.
In Taipei, without language to communicate, I entered that pause. Instead of narrating, I felt. Instead of labeling, I noticed. The citta (consciousness) was no longer cluttered with meaning-making—it simply was. That’s nirodha parinama: the restructuring of the mind through subtle awareness of silence between thoughts.
3.10 — Extending the Peace
Sutra 3.10 tells us that the peaceful flow of this “pause” must be extended in order to become a samskara - a concious imprint of peace. Not just glimpsed once, but practiced into permanence. The same way I had to surrender to the silence of today’s tour for hours - not reaching for my phone or trying to “fix” the silence - it became a natural state.
This elongation of stillness, of citta-vṛtti-nirodhah, takes discipline (abhyāsa) and detachment (vairāgya). But over time, it plants new samskaras - conscious imprints of peace.
I didn’t try to “fix” the quiet in that car. I didn’t check my phone or scroll. I just let it unfold. And over time, the quiet became comforting. Familiar.
This is abhyāsa and vairāgya in action—practice and detachment, cultivating peace as a new pattern.
3.11 — Samadhi Parinama: From Scattered to Still
In Sutra 3.11, we’re told that all-pointedness begins to dissolve and single-pointedness arises. That’s what happened as the hours passed in Taipei. At first, my mind jumped - "What should I say?” “What’s this building?” “Should I post this?”- but slowly, I surrendered.
I began to be with just one thing: the sensation of the ride, the rhythm of the road. Like in Vedic meditation when the mind softens into one mantra, my awareness softened into presence. That’s samadhi-parinama—citta aligning with purusha.
3.12 — Ekagrata Parinama: The Same Thought Repeating
Then something even subtler: ekagrata-parinama - when even the rising and falling of thoughts are identical. It’s like chanting the same mantra over and over. On that drive, my “thoughts” became the same: presence, noticing, presence, noticing. It wasn’t that I stopped thinking, it was that my thoughts harmonized.
This sutra reminds us: repetition reshapes consciousness. Through mantra, or even through mindful silence, the citta learns to rest in sameness - a soft, healing hum of focus.
3.13 — Seeing the Truth of Things
Once this steadiness arises, Sutra 3.13 says we begin to see clearly—the dharma (purpose), laksana (qualities), and avastha (state) of objects. I had a moment where I started to really see my driver as this beautiful being full of love - that I was connecting to even without words. I actually got tears in my eyes when I realized how beautiful it was that we could connect without sharing the same spoken language. I could see him in his essence, his true nature, which is love. Through concentration, we begin to see the truth of things - not just what they look like, but what they are.
We begin to perceive with our whole being - not just the eyes.
3.14 — All States Exist Within One
Sutra 3.14 then points us to the dharmi - the essence that contains all dharmas. Just like the quiet of the car held all my potential expressions - past, present, future - the dharmi holds all states of being within it. It is the container.
The driver and I didn’t need to speak to connect. The space between us held the potential of all interaction. This is the mystery of the dharmi - the substratum of all becoming.
3.15 — Change Happens in Sequence
Sutra 3.15 reminds us: transformation isn’t random. It follows sequence. My capacity to experience the fullness of today didn’t come from nowhere. It followed years of practice, silence, yoga, sobriety, mantra. I’m sure that if I weren’t sober, and weren’t deep into my practice - that I would have had a really different experience of Taipei today. I’d probably have gotten frustrated with the fact that my driver couldn’t speak English. But today, because so many seeds of presence and patience had already been planted over a decade - I was able to come to this moment today with patience and compassion.
Transformation unfolds in order. Taylor Swift didn’t become a star overnight. A caterpillar needs it’s cocoon. The sadhaka’s (yoga practitioners) journey is step by step - and no moment is wasted. This moment of stillness in Taipei today wasn’t random. It was part of a sequence - decades of practice, sobriety, journaling, chanting, devotion.
Just like no flower blooms without seasons, transformation unfolds step-by-step. So if you’re in your early stages of your practice, have patience for it.
3.16 — Absorbing the Transitions
When we fully absorb ourselves in these shifts—nirodha, samādhi, ekāgratā—we begin to see the whole arc: where something has come from and where it’s going.
This is the beginning of siddhi—the power of insight.
Not magical, but fully embodied awareness.
Final Reflections
Today in Taipei, I didn’t do anything extraordinary. But I experienced everything differently.
I let go of labels. I entered the silence. And I saw through essence - not just appearance.
And that’s what Patanjali is offering us:
A way not just to think differently, but to be differently.
Through stillness. Awareness. Love.
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