“‘Effort toward steadiness’ refers to focusing and stilling the mind in meditation, to cultivation of regularity, and to developing an unwavering awareness of the mind’s activities (especially the ego’s limiting and harmful impact)…. But yoga is not limited to formal meditation or prayer…. We won’t make satisfactory progress if we practice control of the mind for an hour per day and let it restlessly wander the other twenty-three…. That is why we need to live fully in the moment and to develop attentive focus on whatever task is at hand. That is also yoga practice.”

– Reverend Jaganath Carrera, Inside the Yoga Sutras

“The way to stop the movement of a physical object is to hold it steady. The same principle holds true when the object is the activity of the mind. The way to check the fluctuations that arise from external sources or internally is to direct the attention to a single thought and keep it there — to make the mind one-pointed.”

– Devadatta Kali, Managing the Mind: A Commonsense Guide to Patanjali’s Yogasutra

“Here Patanjali means continuous practice, not just for one or two days…. It means you become eternally watchful, scrutinizing every thought, every word, every action.”

– Sri Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

“Persevering practice allows us to turn a calm and serene mind at will in the chosen direction…. It means steering a straight course with neither too little nor too much energy, in spite of the continually eddying currents of our personal leanings and outside circumstances.”

– Bernard Bouchard, The Essence of Yoga