The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali describe the eight limbs or steps that are followed in the practice of yoga. The first two are concerned with ethics and morality (attitude towards the outer world and oneself), the next three with the body and the senses, and the last three with the mind. The transactions of life are between the real man (purusha) or self (atma) and the world, and between these is the mind as inner instrument and the body as outer instrument.
The Abstentions or self-restraints are things not to do:
Cleanliness refers to both the mind and body - thought, word and deed.
Contentment comes from a word meaning to be positively pleased and full of equanimity, even gladly accepting of adverse conditions, seeing them as opportunities. Circumstances that arrive 'without effort', be they positive or negative, are the result of past actions in this or a previous life, and so they are to be accepted, not lamented.
Austerity does not mean self-mortification, for this could not lead to good posture, breathing, control of senses, concentrtion, meditation, contemplation. Instead the yogi strives for not too much and not too little. Austerity refers to conditioning the body so that it gives of its best. It does not mean 'enough is enough' but instead 'enough is necessary'.
Self-study means that there should be some daily study of the nature of oneself, including the things that are of concern to the self.
Attentiveness to God is the acceptance of all experiences without resentment, seeing God in everything as the ultimate source of all knowledge.
The term asana or seat covers a large variety of bending and stretching postures. There are two groups, those intended to be retained for a long time during meditation, and those that promote bodily fitness most of which are held for only a short time.
The posture used for meditation should be one that is comfortable and that can be held easily and in a relaxed way so as to allow 'attention without tension'. It is important that the head, neck and back are in a straight line, resting completely on the buttocks, so as to give a feeling of sitting up, rather than sitting down. Some possibilities are:
There are over 80 asanas, but usually only a few are performed regularly. They include inverted postures, lying positions, face-down positions, raised postures standing on the arms, twists, balances.
Yoga teaches that Prana is the life force or vital energy.
The practice of pranayama is the voluntary control of inbreathing (puraka), holding (kumbhaka), and outbreathing (rechaka). The purposes are:
According to Indian philosophy, mankind is troubled and endangered by three kinds of things, the material world, other living beings, and worst of all, himself. From here originates the idea that the yogi has to purify and develop himself. Hence the need for the subjects of this chapter.
The yogi becomes very aware of himself and what he is feeling. His senses in relation to himself become heightened. On the other hand, to meditate, he needs to avoid distraction and so withdraws his senses.
In hatha yoga, purification is brought about by six practices:
There are six kinds of purifying
action: general cleansing, washing the intestines, cleaning the nostrils,
loosening the abdominal contents, clearing the vision and clearing the
skull.
Some examples are abdominal uplift (uddiyana bandha), bee breathing, looking
between the eyes or eyebrows, alternate nostril breathing, mantras.
The last three of the eight limbs of yoga are concentration (Dharana), meditation (Dhyana), and contemplation (Samadhi). Taken together, as one operation, 'the three in oneness are poise'.
Concentration is the application of the mind's attention to a particular thing or idea, without wandering away from it. 'The binding of the mind to one place'.
Meditation involves the play of thought upon the object of attention, without passing on to other things. Concentraion is still going on in the background. In meditation, as many features as possible of the object are explored, i.e. complete thinking. 'Continuity of ideation'.
Contemplation involves both concentration and meditation and the object 'shines through' giving a quality of ecstacy or rapture. The self is forgotten, nothing comes from memory, but there is an experience of seeing and knowing the unity of the whole picture. Someone who is contemplating has lost themselves.
Contemplation can be with consciousness of an object (samprajnata), or without it (asamprajnata). When there is an object in mind, there are two stages, inspectional (savitarka - more concrete characteristics) and investigational (savichara - subtle or abstract). These can be further subdivided to give also non-inspectional (nirvitarka) and non-investigational (nirvichara). Beyond these four stages there is contemplation without the idea of subject (seer) and object (seen) asamprajnata samadhi.
Ultimately the realisation comes that the body is not conscious, but we are conscious of the body, and the mind is not conscious, but we are conscious of the mind. In this super-conscious state, it is possible to contemplate God, the Absolute, Consciousness, Self, Reality.
| Light on Yoga | Iyengar |
| Hatha Yoga Manuals | Samskrti et al |
| Yoga | Wood |