Selection from Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Book I & II, Part 2 of 2

The pain-bearing obstructions are- ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life. Restraint (Yama), binding observance (Niyama), posture (Asana), regulation of breath (Pranayama), abstraction and sense-withdrawal (Pratya hara), concentration (Dharana), contemplation (Dhyana) and perfect meditative absorption (Samadhi) are the eight limbs of yoga. Of these, non-violence (Ahimsa), non-stealing (Asteya), continence (Brahmacharya) and non-possessiveness (Aparigraha) are the five forms of restraint (Yamas). These, unbroken by time, place, purpose, and caste, are (universal) great vows. Pratyahara, abstraction or dissociation, is the disjoining of the sense-organs from their respective objects, assuming, as it were, the nature of the mind itself. Thence comes supreme control of the senses.