Classical Yoga · compiled by Patanjali
Yoga Sutras 1.36
Concentration on the inner light, beyond sorrow
विशोका वा ज्योतिष्मती॥
Or by concentrating on the inner light that is beyond all sorrow.
What this verse points to
One of a series of alternatives Patanjali offers for steadying the mind — the repeated "or" in this section is significant. He is explicit that different people need different objects, and he does not rank them.
This particular option, vishoka, is described as free of sorrow. When the mind is agitated and the breath will not hold it, an object with no grief attached can work where effort does not.
Sit with it
If the breath is not holding your attention today, rest it instead on a steady inner brightness at the centre of the chest.
About the Yoga Sutras
The Yoga Sutras are 196 terse aphorisms compiled by Patanjali, organised into four books: samadhi (absorption), sadhana (practice), vibhuti (attainments), and kaivalya (liberation). The style is deliberately compressed — each sutra is a memory-thread meant to be unpacked by a teacher — and the text is the foundational statement of the eight-limbed (ashtanga) path.
References to this text are given as book.sutra — here, 1.36.