As the year slows down towards its end, and the weather gets colder, asana always gets more difficult for me. My arthritic knee and hip complain, and I find that I have to be much more gentle with my body until the weather warms up. Fortunately, a yogic lifestyle is a moveable feast, and this is the time for me to practice raja yoga, or working with the mind. My first step this holiday season? A review of the yamas and niyamas, the first two trails on Patanjali’s Eight-Fold Path.
Most of us in the Western world are familiar with the Ten Commandments, based on the Bible of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Yoga, which derives from a similarly venerable body of literature, has its own version of these precepts. Numerically, East and West share the same number of strictures; there are five each of the yamas and niyamas. Yogic tradition, however, organizes the ideas differently. The yamas detail five arenas for restraint; conversely, the niyamas detail the precepts for persistence.
The yamas are listed in the second chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the classic yoga text dating from the fourth century B.C.E. These precepts are also discussed in other Hindu texts, such as the Rig-Vega and the Upanishads. With this in mind, it’s important to remember that these teachings are universal in nature, and yoginis are not required to convert to Hinduism.
A short list of the yamas can be phrased as such: ahimsa, or nonviolence; satya, or non-lying; asteya, or non-stealing; brahmacharya, or avoidance of physical excess; and aparigraha, or non-possessiveness. Each of these suggests a perfect state of being, and all are more complicated than would first appear. For example, bramacharya, usually simplified to mean ‘chastity’, also applies to the way in which the yogi/ni approaches food, exercise, and other addictive behaviors. Similarly, aparigraha can refer to object covetousness, but the concept can also be applied to one’s envy of other’s position, popularity, or abilities.
When first confronting the yamas, it’s easy to feel despair at how far one’s experience is from the absolute adherence to these precepts. Consider the mind in a typical yoga class. We often want to practice in a ‘balls to the wall’ manner, which is potentially violent; we lie to ourselves about our reasons for doing this. We covet the perfect spot in the studio, sometimes stealing it from someone who got to class a minute or two behind us. Living in relentless pursuit of the ‘perfect yoga body’, we don’t spare much thought for how excessive our behavior has become. In under two hours, we’ve mentally broken each and every one of the yamas! And, to be honest, this is sometimes a good day for me!
Realistically, no one is perfect, not even yours truly. No one is ever expected to demonstrate perfection. Rather than contemplating this list of restraints and falling into despair, we should rather consider these precepts as a guide to improvement. The idea is to move forward, which sometimes means giant leaps but also includes three steps back followed by a return to the new baseline.
As I mentioned earlier, I find yoga class to be a great place to start thinking about the yamas in my life. I like the adage that how I do one thing is how I do everything, and this part of my life gives me a small window into how the other hours are lived. Is my critical mind becoming violent in its judgments? This is a violation of ahimsa. Am I trying to monopolize the teacher’s time and efforts? Hello, asteya! Do I envy the flexibility of another participant? Counter to aparigraha. Do I follow up class with a large meal, in violation of brahmacharya? And, during that meal, do I rationalize my behavior, counter to satya? Oh my…. even after I think I’ve done some work on the incidents in the above paragraph, another group of infractions occur!
I find it helpful to work on a single small, incremental goal at a time. I like to choose one of the yamas and focus on it during practice. In this way, I train the mind while training the body; although I may not be physically working at my peak, my experience of yoga is certainly improving my experience of life itself.
Yogic thought pre-dates Descartes’ separation of the mind and body, which tells me that thinking is just one part of who I am. We’ve heard ad nauseum how the word ‘yoga’ means ‘union’, but this apparently hackneyed idea is actually quite profound. At any time of the year, working with the <i>yamas</i> is one way to encourage the development of the ‘bodymind’, and to achieve more integrity in our lives.
What do you think of this? I’d love to read your comments!
Yoga Cielo Stellato 