The Eight Limbed Path

In yoga teacher training we were recently give the assignment to write about what yoga is to us. Yoga is the deepest spritual, mental, and physical awakening I have ever experienced.  It is the moving meditation that grounds me, that encourages me to show up on my mat, and to show up in my life. Yoga is my inspiration to express gratitude, kindness, compassion, and love in my daily life to everyone around me.  It's far from just a form of physical exercise.  Yoga is my way of life.  Some people have a set of religious values that they follow and worship. I have never been a religious person.  Then all of a sudden yoga and I collided and I would say that yoga has become my religion. 

The eight limbed path is a holistic approach to a yoga practice.  However, this approach is carried off the mat and into a yogis daily life. 

1. Yama :  Universal Morality
2. Niyama: Personal Observances
3. Asanas: Body Postures
4. Pranayama: Breathing exercises
5. Pratyahara: Control of the Senses
6. Dharana: Concentration and cultivating inner perceptual awareness
7. Dhyana: Devotion, Meditation on the Divine
8. Samadhi: Union with the Divine

In the next few blogs I intend to go through this eight limbed path in more detail.  The first two limbs are ethical precepts called yamas and niyamas. Yamas are suggestions on how we should deal with the people around us. Niyamas are suggestions on how we relate to ourselves inwardly.  For me the appeal to this way of thinking is that it's not a list of do's and don'ts.  They guide us into following our fundamental nature, which is compassionate, kind, and understanding. 

Asana is the practice of physical postures.  Which is what people generally think of when they think of yoga. Pranayama is the measure, control, and directing of the breath. Pratyahara directly translates to "to withdraw oneself from that which nourishes the senses." Which implies to withdraw the senses from attachment to external objects.

Dharana translates into "immovable concentration of the mind". Generally meaning to hold concentration or focus of attention in one direction.  Dhyana means worship or profound and abstract religious meditation.  Finally Samadhi means union with the divine or to bring together. 

Now this blog has turned out to be a more technical blog than normal.  In the next few blogs I'd like to delve further into this eight limbed path. Maybe together we can figure out how these concepts and guidelines can fit into our daily lives.