The Shala Daily

We’ve spent several articles looking at what brain science reveals about practice—shrinking amygdalas, thickening prefrontal cortexes, immediate metabolic shifts across seven brain regions. Today we turn to what the yogis themselves said about where this all leads.

In Book One of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali describes two distinct forms of samadhi. Getting them confused can mean mistaking a way station for the destination.

🪷 Samprajñāta: With Seed

The first type—samprajñāta, also called sabīja or “with seed”—is blissful, luminous, real. But consciousness still relates to an object. A trace remains.

This is the samadhi most practitioners touch in deep meditation—the quiet mind, the sense of expansion, the peace that seems to pervade everything. It’s valuable. It’s part of the path.

But it still leaves seeds—vāsanās, mental impressions that can sprout again. The mechanism that generates suffering hasn’t fully dissolved.

🌑 Asamprajñāta: Seedless

The second type—asamprajñāta, also called nirbīja or “seedless”—is qualitatively different. No object. No cognitive content. The usual subject-object structure dissolves entirely.

In Sutra 1.18, Patanjali says this state is “preceded by the repeated practice of cessation.” After long, sustained practice aimed at stopping the mind’s contents, a state can arise where only residual impressions remain—and eventually, even those dissolve.

This points toward kaivalya, liberation. Not just peace, but freedom from the mechanism that generates future fluctuation.

⚠️ The Practical Warning

Here’s what matters: don’t mistake samprajñāta for asamprajñāta. Don’t mistake blissful absorption for final freedom.

The bliss is real. The peace is real. But if seeds remain, more fluctuations will arise. The brain studies show tissue changing over years of practice. The sutras tell us what the yogis understood that change was for—not just feeling better, but becoming free.

The path from seeded to seedless samadhi requires abhyasa and vairagya—devoted practice and non-attachment. Show up consistently. Learn to let go of what arises. Even the bliss.

— MJH