Introduction to the Eight-Limbed Path

The longer I do yoga, the more I realize that most of the things I learn on my mat can be applied to life off my mat. The lessons of discipline and patience that I discover during my yoga practice teach me patience during long lines, pedestrian traffic or late trains. Also, a lot of the things I experience and explore in my daily life, whether good or bad, eventually find themselves into the way I express myself on my mat. For example, mental and emotional tension manifest themselves in the physical body. Certain areas of the body are containers for tension, such as hips and groin. These tight tissues become the junk drawer of the body. There is an undeniable and symbiotic relationship between life on and off the mat. As I explore how my yoga and my "real life" cross pollinate their way into each others' paths, I continue to refer back to a framework that addresses the way I think, act, and learn on and off the mat.

The Eight-Limbed Path and the Yamas and Niyamas

Last month I mentioned the Eight Limbed Path of Yoga. The core of Pantanjali's Yoga Sutra is the Eight Limbed Path. The Eight Limbed Path forms the structural moral and spiritual framework for a yoga practice. Upon studying the Path, it becomes evident that there is no hierarchy between its various pieces. Each need and support the other.

The Eight Limbed Path (in a very, very tiny nutshell):

1. Yama :  Willpower for constraint, or the five absentions
2. Niyama :  Willpower for the application of truth, or five observances
3. Asanas :  Discipline of the body. In widely spread applications this applies to diet and pastime, but also in this case refers to the physical asanas that we now know as yoga postures.
4. Pranayama :  Breath control
5. Pratyahara :  Withdrawal of the senses from external influence. This can be seen as a process of non-dependence on sensory stimulation. 
6. Dharana :  Concentration and cultivation of inner perceptual awareness.
7. Dhyana :  Devotion to or meditation regarding higher power. It is perfect contemplation. 
8. Samadhi :  Union with the divine. The true meaning of the word yoga is yoke, or union. This is the place of the liberated soul.

If that doesn't sound like a complicated and pretty all encompassing framework for meditation and the good life, I don't know what does. Understandably, it is easy to get overwhelmed by lofty ideals and good intentions, especially as you continue to discover how deep these little bullet points really are. For example, each of the yamas and niyamas include five more things to work on!

The Yamas and the Niyamas:

 

These observances and restraints have been a central point to the way I organize my yoga practice, both on and off the mat. Throughout the last year and a half, after being introduced to the Yamas and Niyamas during my 200-hour teacher training certification, I have tried to integrate this framework into my life. I have written about them. I have meditated on them. I even made a craft project about them for my best-yogi-friend. There are always times were explorations of these frameworks will be more successful than others. However, much like a successful yoga practice, the best thing you can do is keep coming back to them. In the near future, I will address separately the yamas and the niyamas as a moral framework for your treatment of your practice, your world and yourself.

Here is the artwork that I made for my friend. It is intended to be a meditative center piece for contemplating and reminding oneself of the moral observances and restraints that can be discovered in a yoga practice, both on and off the mat. Artwork 2013, sharpie on colored paper.



 In the meantime, begin your own process of meditation on the eight limbed path. What thoughts or feelings does it inspire? Just like in your on-the-mat yoga practice, there are no right ways to move, only the ways that feel best for you.