Ashtanga Yoga and Samadhi
This stays in the same Patanjali framework but moves to the practical path and final absorption state, which is adjacent to mental cessation without restating it.
In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, ashtanga yoga is the eightfold discipline that turns ethical life into inner concentration and, finally, samadhi (समाधि), the state of deep absorption.
It begins with yama and niyama, which regulate conduct and self-restraint, then moves through asana and pranayama to steady body and breath.
Pratyahara withdraws the senses, dharana fixes attention, and dhyana sustains uninterrupted meditation.
Samadhi is the culmination, where the distinction between observer and observed thins out and consciousness becomes intensely unified.
The sequence is not merely devotional; it is a practical psychology of attention, linking moral order, bodily control, and mental stillness.
In Indian philosophical traditions, this model gave yoga a systematic structure distinct from mere physical exercise, and it continues to shape how yoga is understood as both discipline and inward transformation.