Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III · 27 of 55 · tr. Charles Johnston

Sutra 27

By perfectly concentrated Meditation on the moon comes a knowledge of the lunar mansions. Here again are different meanings. The moon is, first, the companion planet, which, each day, passes backward through one mansion of the stars. By watching the moon, the boundaries of the mansion are learned, with their succession in the great time-dial of the sky. But the moon also symbolizes the analytic mind, with its divided realms; and these, too, may be understood through perfectly concentrated Meditation.

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Themes

Correspondencecosmology

The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.

The passage links the movement of the physical moon with the structure of the mind's divided realms, reflecting a cosmic order in human cognition.

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Meditationpraxis

Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.

The passage centrally defines the practice as 'perfectly concentrated Meditation' used to gain knowledge of cosmic structures.

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Microcosm Macrocosmcosmology

The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.

The moon (cosmic body) is stated to symbolize the analytic mind (human faculty), with the mind's divided realms mirroring the lunar mansions, making the human mind the privileged mirror of celestial structure.

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Self Knowledgesoteriology

The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.

The second meaning of the sutra is that meditation on the moon yields understanding of the analytic mind and its divided realms, making introspective knowledge of one's own mental structure the soteriological goal.

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