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Patanjali’s Ashtanga
(Eight Limbs) Yoga System
Introduction
The eight limbs of yoga is both a science and an art. This system was codified by the great sage patanjali about 200 A.D. Patanjali, no doubt had learned much of what he knew through the oral tradition.
So one could say he was the first to arrange and systematize what is known as the eight limbs of yoga.
I think in the end, this eight limbed system helps us sentient beings to stay tuned and connected to the more subtle components of our existence as it relates to our godhead (or with nature herself), that is to say, to keep our bodies, mind and spirit graciously connected.
Patanjali developed what has come to be known as the yoga sutras.
These sutras are 195 in number and are distributed over four chapters or what is coined as “Padas.”
• Chapter 1 –Samadhi Pada is focused on ecstasy/entasy and is comprised of 51 sutras.
• Chapter 2 –Sadhana Pada focuses on “the path” or practice of yoga 55 sutras here.
• Chapter 3 –Vibhuti Pada focuses on the powers of yoga 55 sutras here as well.
• Chapter 4- Kaivalya Pada focuses on the liberated state of aloneness 34 sutras here.
Eight Limbs of Yoga From the beginning we have the first two limbs of yoga (anga) which are the yamas and niyamas.
The Yamas (universal morality) concern themselves with the outer discipline of our interactions with people and things outside ourselves and the niyamas (personal observances) are the tools we use to cleanse and purify all internal components of our consciousness and moral characteristics that comprise our being but also that it may relate to others.
There are five important moral obligations:
• ahimsa (nonharming) This component concerns itself with being kind, friendly and perhaps thoughtful towards others. It is about keeping our hearts open for a more meaningful life as it relates to ourselves and others around us.
• satya (truthfulness) This component is not just an absolute in and of itself. One must adopt a healthful approach to what truth is to them. In other words, sometimes if just the truth is told, there may be individuals of whom harm can come. So, one must be masterful in weighing the ingredients of what constitute truthfulness. We know in our hearts what is rightful and that if it is blurred by any of the afflictions we simply work our way back to the beginning of the path.
• asteya (nonstealing) Here what we’d like to stress is that nonstealing goes far beyond physical articles. One can steal things on a more subtle level such as being envious, having sexual thoughts about another-this is a form of stealing-stealing from their core source. Also one would want to refrain from reiterating information about another without their permission, esp. if it was told in confidence. One could also demand the time of others unnecessarily for whatever purposes.
• brahmacharya (abstinence and/or sense control) Like the tantric school of thought, sexual energy should be directed towards spiritual unitedness, unitedness with your godhead or perhaps a spiritual counterpart. This component is probably one of the most misunderstood. This practice is not just about celibacy but, about the resourceful usage of ones pranic force.
• aparigraha (greedlessness/hoarding) Again, aparigraha does not default to just things. Sometimes one can become attached to an emotive state that brings about over attachment. So yes, we can say hoarding wealth is a form of greedlessness but again, this at the same time can be a judgment from another based on bias. By and by, it is suspected that while one conjoins the eight fold path awareness will be the judgment.
These injunctions or moral virtues are aimed at helping to purify human characteristics. They are meant to help bring our instinctual life under control.
The first injunction, ahimsa, is nonviolence in thought and action. Most of the
world’s religions emphasize this idea. Violence seems to be an integral part of
human nature. It does not always take the form of physical assault, but sometimes
as fear, hostility, and disapproval.
Satya is translated as real, genuine, or honest, and this is usually taken to mean
one should tell the truth. It is mentioned many times in yogic literature.
Nonstealing, or asteya, is closely related to ahimsa, since stealing violates the
person from whom things are taken.
Chastity, or brahmacharya, is addressed by most spiritual traditions. Generally
speaking, sexual stimulation is thought to interrupt the impulse towards
enlightenment by indulging the desire for sensory experience and by draining
energy.
Greedlessness, or aparigraha, is defined as the nonacceptance of gifts. We are
encouraged to cultivate voluntary simplicity, since possessions lead to attachment
and fear of loss.
As the yama are concerned with our outer actions, so the niyamas are concerned
with our inner life. The five practices are:
• shauca (purity) Shauca is different from cleanliness. It is inner or mental purity brought
about by meditation and concentration. The goal is to "mirror the light of the Self with out distortion."
• samtosha (contentment) Contentment, or samtosha, means not coveting more than what is at hand. It is the voluntary sacrifice of what is transient anyway. Sages around the world speak of this virtue, as it equalizes pleasure and sorrow.
• tapas (austerity) Austerity, or tapas, includes such practices as fasting; prolonged immobilized
standing or sitting; the bearing of hunger, thirst, cold, and heat; and formal
silence. These practices raise energy that is then used to achieve higher
awareness. Tapas is not self-torture, however.
• svadhyaya (self-study) Svadhyaya, or self-study, is not intellectual learning, but rather "the meditative
pondering of truths revealed by seers and sages who have traversed those remote regions where the mind cannot follow and only the heart receives and is changed." It is one’s own exploration of the hidden meanings of the scriptures.
• ishvara-pranidhana (devotion to god) The last part of niyama is devotion or perhaps attunement to god, or some other omnipresent force greater then ourselves that helps to direct the course of our life.
The first two limbs, yama and niyama concern themselves with the mind as it relates to the of senses.
The third limb, asana, or posture, involves the physical body. The word asana can be translated to mean holding or staying. Many westerners think of this third limb of yoga as being the craft itself. Nothing can be further from the truth!
Asana is a methodological practice upon which any practitioner can learn to cleanse and stabilize the physical body by executing a pose and/or series of physical postures. It can be said that for every physical body that inhabits this planet earth-so there are asanas. In other words, every physical manifestation of space and time allows for an energetic expression to ensue within.
Yoga poses are coined after people, places, animals, things animate and inanimate. It is said, there are 840,000 configurations of poses (this according to my understanding represents the 840,000 different forms of beings, that again, inhabit earth.)
These days one will work with what is commonly known as the 84 basic hatha yoga postures.
Hatha can be translated as “Ha-(sun)-Tha-(moon) yoga”
One can infer yoga operates from within the body, mind and spirit bringing about integration, integration that ultimately leads to the core source of ones enstatic being (as it relates to the universe).
This practice (asana) invokes a sense of calm to the mind. This, in contrast, allows for an expansive awareness where one can then learn to better control the senses.
Asana also prepares the body for the other limbs of yoga i.e. pranayama, meditation and contemplation.
When yogins have become aware of their inner climate and have gained control of their muscular tensions and physical state, they become more attuned to the life
force (prana) as it circulates throughout the body.
The next step is to support awareness of energy systems and emotional states through the practice of pranayama (literally "extension of prana", or life force). The utilization of this life force is familiar to many cultures: the Chinese call it chi, the Polynesians mana, the Native Americans orenda. Modern scientists refer to bioplasma.
Through a careful craft, one learns to regulate and direct the breath to channel vital pranic energy throughout the body thus suffusing it with harmonic.
These skillful movements of prana are responsible in part by ones ability to annihilate fluctuations of the mind and body with force of shear concentration.
Prana can be stimulated and directed, usually toward the head. As prana rises, attention follows and leads to more and more subtle experiences. Finally, pranic energy reaches the crown chakra, and consciousness may be altered radically, leading to an ecstatic state (samadhi).
Pratyahara means to retreat or withdraw the nourishment from the senses.
Usually during meditation one will automatically embark upon the practice of pratyahara. When one curtails or decreases the nourishment from the senses the mind becomes sharp and more obedient. We are better able to witness the inherent processes of the nature of mind-this allows for greater tranquility, equanimity and a more pronounced mental alertness.
During asana or pranayama, we practitioners constantly encounter endless fluctuations within the body and mind. It is here that one becomes aware of these processes so that, energetically, the vortices do not slip from one form into another i.e a conscious state shifting into an unconscious state.
The body is a reservoir for pollutants when one does not know how to protect itself. Therefore, pratyahara allows us to transcend the notions of the categorization of limited concepts such as... Good and bad, unhappiness and happiness.
Dharana is "the focusing of attention upon some single stable entity or task which
may be a particular part of the body subtle (such as a chakra )or an external object (such as the image of a deity)." This is a highly intensified form of concentration we may experience some days. The difference is that dharana is "a whole-body experience free from muscular and other tension, and therefore with an extraordinary dimension of psychic depth, in which the creative inner
work or tasks can be completely and wholly absorbed." This work can be both
difficult and sometimes dangerous. Yogic concentration is a high-energy state,
and it is easy to see how this psychic energy could go awry especially when one is not properly prepared. When one assimilates this pinhead concentration into their being, there simply is the abolishment of “I” and “Me”
Deep concentration leads naturally to a state of meditative contemplation, or
dhayana. All thoughts regard the object of concentration and accompany a state
of peaceful, calm disposition. Alertness is intensified rather than dulled, although
there is little or no awareness of the external environment. When one contemplates with intense concentration there seems to be this process that allows you (the contemplator) to completely merge with the nature of whatever it was (is) that you were reflective of … if it was a rock- you become the nature or consciousness of that rock-one could say there is a realignment of the nature of two nomenclatures that, then completely resemble each other.
Meditation also allows us the opportunity to be able to discern what is illusionary and what is real and core to our hearts.
The final limb is elusive and difficult to define fully. Samadhi occurs when "all
the fluctuations (vritti) of ordinary waking consciousness are entirely stilled
through meditation." Samadhi is when the mind loses its form and takes on the consciousness of the contemplated at the cost of every other idea or thought.
There two forms of delineations of samadhi:
1- Samprajnata- samadhi involves ecstatic experiences that have an object with which the mind is reflective and becomes identified
2- Asamprajnata-samadhi is a form of enstasy or beyond cognition
While many texts and teachers refer to the hierarchy of the eight limbs, the vast number
of Western students begin formally with the third limb of practice (asana). The first five
techniques are often called the outer limbs of practice, while the remaining three more
subtle aspects are called the inner limbs. The linear progression through these practices is
only one way of conceptualizing them. Because each limb has as its ultimate goal the
realization of "ultimate truth", one could start from any lace and cultivate practice from
that point. It is useful to consider the eight limbs a circular progression rather than a tree
with higher and lower branches. One can also focus practice on only one limb while
maintaining awareness of the underlying unity between all the limbs.
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