I often get asked, “What is Yoga”? It’s a simple question with a long answer. Let me offer several variations of the same thing.
Yoga is a philosophy put into practice. This practice will help you feel better in your skin and body, gain mental clarity, make conscious choices that bring a sense of well being, allow for a clear connection of your spirit (soul, being, consciousness, inner-being, self, psyche, essence ) to the divine (God, god, source, infinite intelligence, higher being, higher consciousness) which in turn help reduce suffering on all levels (physical, emotional and mental) thus increasing your Bliss (happiness, connection, wholeness, great joy, ecstasy, fulfillment).
Yoga is a holistic well being philosophy put into action.
Yoga is a spiritual practice that uses physical postures, breath work, and meditation among other tools to help you find your true inner being so you can brings ease to the most mundane struggles of life to the hardest of hurdles in life.
Yoga is not a religion.
Yoga refers to a traditional physical and mental discipline that originated in India. The history of yoga spans from four to eight thousand years ago to present day.
The word yoga translates into “yoke” or “union” coming from the word yuj in Sanskrit which is an ancient Indian language. The concept of this union is to balance your mind, body and spirit so that you can achieve a full awareness, otherwise called enlightenment and eliminate your human suffering.
The way to fortify this “union” is through what is known as the eight “limbs” of yoga.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are thought to have been authored by Sage Patanjali around the year 250 CE. And, although there is little direct mention of yoga asana practices (which are the physical poses), the Yoga Sutras are often cited as the philosophical basis for modern postural yoga. The sutras outline eight “limbs” of yoga and each limb relates to an aspect of achieving a healthy and fulfilling life, and each builds upon the one before it, outlining a path for the aspiring yogi to follow.
Today yoga has taken on beautiful and creative ways to teach, share and practice yoga. But, the eight limbs will always be at the core.
These 8 limbs are:
1. Yama:
The five yamas are moral directives intended to guide the practitioner’s behavior towards others. They are:
- Ahimsa: Nonviolence towards others. Ahimsa is often cited as an argument for choosing a vegetarian diet. Being a vegetarian though is not a yoga requirement.
- Satya: Truthfulness.
- Asteya: Not stealing from others. Though this probably had a literal meaning originally, it has been extended to mean not putting others down to build yourself up or stealing someones time.
- Brahmacharya: Chastity. Whether this means celibacy or simply controlling one’s sexual impulses is open to interpretation.
- Aparigraha: Not coveting what others have.
2. Niyama:
While the yamas direct one’s behavior towards others, the niyamas describe how to act ethically towards oneself. Together, these two sets of rules were meant to guide one to a righteous lifestyle. Here are the niyamas:
- Saucha: Cleanliness. Again, probably a practical meaning originally but has a modern interpretation keeping your intentions pure.
- Santosa: Contentment with oneself.
- Tapas: Self discipline. Having the commitment to sustain a practice.
- Svadhyaya: Self study. Having the courage to look within yourself for answers.
- Isvara pranidhana: Surrender to a higher power. Whether that is a deity or the acceptance that the world is governed by forces outside of our control is up to you.
3. Asana:
The practice of yoga postures, although it should be noted that in the time of Patanjali the word asana meant seat. The poses known at the time were probably seated positions intended for meditation. The development of what we would recognize as modern yoga postures like downward facing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) happened much later.
4. Pranayama:
The practice of breathing exercises. Choosing to control the breath for specific effects.
5. Pratyahara:
The withdrawal of the senses, meaning that the exterior world is not a distraction from the interior world within oneself.
6. Dharana:
Concentration, meaning the ability to focus on something uninterrupted by external or internal distractions. Dharana builds upon pratyahara.
Once you can ignore external stimuli, you can begin to direct your concentration elsewhere.
7. Dhyana:
Meditation. Building upon dharana, your are able to expand your concentration beyond a single thing so that it becomes all encompassing.
8. Samadhi:
Bliss. After you have achieved dhyana, the transcendence of the self through meditation can begin. The self merges with the universe, which is sometimes translated as enlightenment.
Sources for 8 Limbs of Yoga:
Light on Life, B.K.S. Iyengar, 2005.
Yoga: The Iyengar Way, Mira Silva and Shyam Mehta, 1990.
Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, Mark Singleton, 2010
The awareness that you cultivate is what makes yoga a practice rather than a task or a goal to be completed. It is one of the many things I truly love about yoga.