The first step: holding the ring (yam)

English self-restraint translation has a bit of a gap. Not only is there a little gap, really, the original taste of the whole yam is gone; because the English self-restraint feels like a strong, restrained general. 

These two words suppression and repression suppression, after Freud, have become a three-character, swearing. 

 Holding a ring is not a restraint. When Patanjali used the word yam, the meaning at the time was completely different. 

Words are constantly changing. Even now in India, samyam is derived from yam, meaning control and inhibition. 

Its true meaning is gone. Patanjali’s precepts are not self-inhibiting. What it means is: to guide a person's life...not to suppress energy but to guide and direct these energies into the right direction. 

Because, you are likely to continue to move in the opposite direction, but never arrived. 

It was like a car: the driver drove a few miles north, and then he changed his mind, so he went west for a few more miles, and then the idea changed again... and he exchanged it. This person will die in his original place. 

He can never reach anywhere, and there is no sense of accomplishment. You can continue to go in many directions, but unless you have a position, you are just swaying in vain. 

Then, apart from feeling more and more frustrated, nothing happened. First of all, holding a ring means giving life a direction. 

Vitality is limited. If you continue to waste it on the path of stupidity and no direction, you can't achieve anything. 

The energy will be hollowed out quickly, and the empty one is different from the Buddha's "emptiness." It was just a negative void, and there was nothing left in it, just an empty container. It has withered before you have died. 

However, this finite energy comes from the existence, the god, the nature (or whatever it is called how you like it...), and this finite energy can be used to become a door towards the vast infinite. 

If you move in the right direction; if, you are a conscious, aware action, gather all your energy in the same direction; if you are not following the blind mass, but become a unique individual. 

This is the meaning of yam--the precept. Usually you are a crowd, and there are many noises in you. 

One said: "Go in this direction." Another said: "That's no use. Go here." If you are not a unique individual, a unified life, you will miss the point wherever you go. No matter where you are, you can’t have the feeling of “going home”. 

You always go everywhere, but wherever you go. Never arrived. You will go crazy, and a life without a precept will be confusing. 

In the West, there are more lunatics than the East, and that is not surprising. In the East, people still follow the precepts in their lives, intentionally and unintentionally. 

In the West, just thinking about self-consistency makes people feel like slaves, and opposition to self-control seems to be free and independent. But unless you are a unique individual, you can't get real freedom. 

Your freedom will be just a scam, nothing but self-destruction. You will destroy yourself and destroy your potential and energy. 

One day, you will feel the whole life's efforts, and you will not get anything and grow up in the end. 

The meaning of the precepts, the meaning of the first step - give life a direction, let yourself be more centered. 

How do you get to the center more? Once your life has a direction, there will be a "center" that will start to emerge from you. 

The direction creates a sense of center, and the center gives a sense of direction. The two are mutually accomplished. 

Unless you hold the ring, it is impossible to reach the second step. That is why Patanjali calls them steps.