Yes, but the impressions are not the modifications; they cause them.
I agree, sorry for causing confusion with my wording, I meant to say the impressions cause the modifications.
When you say, “modifications of mind”, that itself raises the question of “modification over what?”. With reference to what? I think, the mind modification comes from the already stored mind impressions/opinions, and current impulse to the mind. Now, how the impressions are stored to mind? I think, that is because of life impressions from current life and as as well as from the “karma” (whatever that means ) and from impressions of previous births(If one believes in Ayurveda). So, in summary, present modification of mind is a function past and present impressions.
In a sense this is correct because our current impressions, memories and opinions can also also be modified. However, here Patanjali is referring rather to the entire substance of the mind field or the chitta which undergoes modifications. It undergoes modifications every moment because impressions are being received continuously by the senses. The very first modification Patanjali describes is correct perception. Why is this a modification? It is a modification because in order of sense perception to be constructed it require three things: the sense object, the instrument of sensing and the cognizer. When there is a contact between the cognizer, the instrument of sensing and the sense object a perceptual act takes place. If either are missing perception will not take place e.g. if the sense object is not in contact with the instrument of senses and the cognizer, then no perception can take place. If the sense object is present, but the instrument of senses is not present, then no perception takes place. If the sense object is present, the instrument of senses are also present but there is no cognizer than no perception takes place.
The instrument of senses are turn divided into three categories: 5 sense organs(jnanaindriyas); 5 motor organs(karmaindriyas) and the internal processing organ or mind, further subdivided into processing mind, personality, intellect. When there is a contact between the particles of light and the pupil of the eyes, the information is transmitted via the optic nerve to the brain, where the information is processed by the mind which deliberates on what the impression could be, it is then relayed to the personality which personalizes the information, and then relayed to the intellect which ascertains the nature of the perception, before finally relaying it to the cognizer and then a perceptual act takes place.
In other words even before we actually have a perception of the anything in the world such in this case form, colour and light, several stages of apperception takes place which can be broadly classified into the 4 stages(sense contact, processing, personalizing and ascertaining). So whatever we actually perceive is a modification of the mind substance(chitta). As long as we have sense perception, modifications are taking place continuously. This is why Patanjali prescribes pratyhara, shutting down the sense organs, because as long as we receive sense impressions the modifications of the mind cannot cease.
This is a subtle nuance of Yoga philosophy that many people misunderstand and something we all take for granted. We think that the sensory perception is the original and real world, hence take this world of space, time and matter, including our body to be real. However, it is actually a sensory construction that takes places in our mind-field: the mind field literally takes on the form of the modifications. This point is now being understood in modern neurbiology and neurophilosophy: that our entire sensory/phenomenal world is a virtual construct. This means everything we perceive in this virtual reality, even the brain is a virtual construct, an idea strongly hinted by the [i]holographic theory of the brain[/u] So this leaves us with only one conclusion if our entire reality is a virtual construct, then it means the actual substance of our reality is virtual stuff - very similar to the Yogic mind-field substance.
The implications of this is whatever manifest phenomena, action, effect you witness in phenomenal reality is caused by an unmanifest mind stuff, which in Samkhya-Yoga is variously called chitta, prakriti, moolaprakriti As this unmanfiest substance is all pervading and continuous, there is no principle of locality operating within it, this is why it is modeled as a function of the modes of change or the gunas. The Gunas cannot operate in isolation, but always operate in relation to one another, in the same a string when made taut has triple stress factors working on it which change in relation to one another. In this manner the entire universe that we witness is interconnected and entangled at the fundamental guna level.
So the gunas are the real causes behind every phenomena we witness, and these are the chitta-vrittis of yoga. (In fact Patanjali explicitly makes the connection between the gunas and the vrittis in the last chapter) The gunas are the cause of evolution at the macrocosmic scale of the expansion and contraction of the universe, at the microscopic scale the generation and dissolution of particles, at the bodily scale the cause of the regulation of the body(vata, pitta, kapha) At the energetic level they are the cause of the movement of the pranas. At the mental level they are the cause of thoughts and emotions. At the level of the intelligence they are the cause of the construction of sense perception. Indeed, the gunas are the fundamental cause of everything we witness in reality.
Like in quantum physics just as everything has its wavefunction, in Yoga everything has its guna-function. In terms of quantum field theory we can express the same in terms of implicate order and explicate order. If you can access the reality of any phenomena at the guna level you will know the exact, original, primordial and unadulterated nature of that phenomena. So using sqz’s example of speech, every speech uttered will have a guna-function, and the guna-function will give away the actual meaning of the speech.
Now if it was that easy to access the guna-function level, then we would be all be doing it effortlessly. Unfortunately or fortunately, to access this fundamental level of nature requires stilling gradually and systematically from gross to subtle the modifications of the mind field. In Yoga this is achieved on several fronts: stilling the emotional modifications(yamas) stilling the physiological and psychological modifications(niyamas) stilling the somatic modifications(asanas) stilling the vital force modifications, usually through breath(pranayama) stilling the sensory modifications(pratyhara) stilling the mental modifications, thought activity(dharana) stilling the consciousness states modifications(dhyana) and stilling egocentricity(subjective-objective) modifications(samadhi) In this way you will be able to gradually still every modification of the mind field - the mind will become crystal clear like a clear lens and reveal reality as it really is.
