I want my yoga practice to be more than just a workout, and I want to convey the beauty of the entire philosophy to my students. Yoga is so much more than just asana. Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutras, envisioned the path as a series of branching lines, moving us through our various relationships: with others, with ourselves, and with whatever we conceive of as a power greater than ourselves. To me, yoga and tantra are set apart from other philosophies because of this focus on the entire person – body, mind, and soul – and the way that we interact with the rest of the world.
Patanjali envisioned yoga as organized into eight “limbs”, or areas of focus. The first two, yama and niyama, are often referred to as the “Ten Commandments of Yoga,” but they are more than a series of directives. The five yamas instruct us in optimal living of an ethical life as part of a community: how we live and interact with others influences the circumstances of our lives. From here, the niyamas pull us inwards, giving our days optimal structure that allows us to focus on what is important. Taken together, the yamas and the niyamas give us a foundation for our lives.
Movement is important for optimal health, and breathing techniques further help us to work with the body. Long before scientific practice was coded, the sages recognized both our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, giving us the optimal way to move and change energy. What’s interesting here is that asana and pranayama, the third and fourth limbs of Patanjali’s path, are presented in a similar order to the yamas and niyamas: first we work with the outer part of our being before moving inside the body. We work with the body, and we work with the breath. Pranayama, like the niyamas, gives us a structure for bridging the gap between our quotidian existence and our ability to access more greater realms.
These first four limbs, presented in this particular order, help us control the body for the purpose of better living. Once we are using these regularly, we can then consider better control of the mind and spirit. Pratyahara, the fifth limb, is the practice of moving inside, consciously detaching from the outer world that we have been working with. From here, we focus on dharana, or concentration – we bring our minds to a single point and work on extending our ability to stay focused.
Thus, the first six limbs of Patanjali’s path give us tools to move into meditation. The final two limbs show us where these practices can take us. Dhyana, or meditation, is what occurs when we can focus well enough to sit with a quiet mind. Samadhi, or enlightenment, is what occurs when we transcend our mind to merge with the Divine and then with the entire world at once. For most of us, these states happen to us rather than because of our will. The more we practice, the greater the chance that we will be able to access these lofty realms.
Do you see the progression that links us to the entire panoply of life? We start with our relationship with the community and then progress, step by step, inward. When we become skillful, we then are able to extend back outward to re-join the world, this time at a different level. Like those undertaken the mythic Heroes Journey, we travel inward to be able to yoke our personal lives with the rest of the universe. In the process, we are able to help others on similar journeys.
I love asana, but I must continually remind myself that it’s only one part of the yogic path. I also recognize that asana, taken out of context, is a form of cultural appropriation, which is something I work hard to avoid. According to Accessible Yoga founder Jivana Heyman, we can best de-colonize our practice by bringing as many different limbs as possible into our practice. When teaching, we optimally do the same while showing respect to individual differences of belief. I agree with Jivana on this, but I’m somewhat more selfish – I want to live a fuller life, and the entire path offers me a way to do this that goes way beyond a ‘perfect yoga body.’ I’m hoping that you, Gentle Reader, will enjoy the coming articles that document my ongoing journey into a fuller yogic existence.
Yoga Cielo Stellato 