From Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ to the work on Essence

At the very beginning of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, we find a definition that forms and is the essence of the yogic practice:

Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ.

Yoga is the cessation of the movements of the mind.

This sūtra is often quoted, translated, and explained, yet its radical simplicity is easily missed. Patañjali does not begin with postures, ethics, or philosophy. He begins with a diagnosis of perception itself. Human suffering and confusion arise because consciousness is continually absorbed in its own movements, its vṛttis.

Immediately following, Patañjali states:

Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe’vasthānam.

Then the seer abides in its own nature.

And just as immediately, he adds the counter-condition:

Vṛtti-sārūpyam itaratra.

At other times, the seer is identified with the movements of the mind.

These three sūtras form a single unit. Together, they describe a complete phenomenology of human experience: identification, interruption, and return.

What is striking is how closely this structure corresponds to the work on impressions and essence as articulated in the Gurdjieff tradition.

Identification as default condition

Patañjali’s third sūtra states the ordinary condition without moral judgment. Most of the time, the seer is not established in its own nature. It is absorbed in mental activity. Consciousness takes the shape of what appears in it.

This is precisely what the Gurdjieff Work calls sleep. Not unconsciousness, but a state in which perception is immediately transformed into reaction, interpretation, and identity. Reality enters, but it is never met directly. It is instantly shaped into thought, emotion, and self-image.

In yogic language, consciousness becomes identical with the vṛttis.
In Gurdjieff’s language, impressions are received mechanically by personality.

In both cases, the result is the same: we do not see reality, and we do not see ourselves.

The decisive moment: interruption

Neither Patañjali nor Gurdjieff suggests that liberation comes from suppressing life or withdrawing from experience. The key lies in interruption.

In the Yoga Sūtras, nirodha does not mean violent suppression. It means a stopping, a settling, a non-continuation of automatic movement. When the vṛttis no longer carry consciousness away, something else becomes possible.

In the Gurdjieff Work, this interruption occurs at the moment of impression. When an impression is received without immediate reaction, a pause appears. This pause is not created by force. It arises when attention is present.

Both systems locate freedom before thought, not after it.

Yoga does not say “think better thoughts.”
The Work does not say “have better reactions.”

Both say: do not be carried away.

The return of the seer, the awakening of essence

When the movement ceases, Patañjali says, the seer abides in its own nature. Nothing new is produced. Nothing is added. There is simply a return.

This is a crucial point. Yoga is not about becoming something else. It is about ceasing to be absorbed in what one is not.

In the Gurdjieff Work, this corresponds to the distinction between personality and essence. Personality reacts, interprets, and identifies. Essence perceives. Essence receives impressions directly, without distortion.

When impressions are received consciously, they are assimilated. When vṛttis subside, the seer stands revealed. Different languages, same structure.

Presence is not an experience.
It is the absence of misidentification.

Why this is the essence of yoga

Over time, yoga has often been reduced to techniques, methods, and outcomes. But the Yoga Sūtras themselves point relentlessly back to a single question:

Where is consciousness located right now?

Is it absorbed in movement, or is it established in seeing?

The Gurdjieff Work asks the same question in different terms:

Is anyone here to receive this impression?

Both traditions insist that the decisive factor is not effort, belief, or moral improvement, but attention at the point of contact with reality.

This is why these teachings remain relevant. They do not depend on culture, posture, or doctrine. They describe a universal structure of human experience.

A shared insight

When read together, Patañjali and Gurdjieff illuminate one another. The Yoga Sūtras provide a concise phenomenological map. The Work provides a practical language for observing the same processes in daily life.

In both cases, the movement is the same:

• from identification to seeing
• from reaction to reception
• from vṛtti to draṣṭā
• from personality to essence

Yoga, in its original sense, is not something we do. It is what remains when we stop being carried away.

And that stopping does not happen somewhere else, or later.
It happens NOW, at the moment an impression is received.