yoga philosophy

Introduction to yoga philosophy

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Yoga is a mental and physical discpline, serving as a vehicle for people to achieve liberation. The word yoga means to yoke or unite, and in yoga we seek to tune in the mind to all the experiences of the body. Beyond the uniting of our thoughts with our physical sensations and activities, we can also unite ourselves with the very nature of our existance and the existance of everyone around us.

Yoga is one of several philosophical schools of ancient India, dating back perhaps to 3000 BC, though some yoga scholars and archeologists speculate the origins were even earlier. The earliest evidence of yoga is found in the vedas, a group of literature that describes Vedanta, another school of philosophy which seeks to understand the meaning of life. From Vedanta evolved yoga, along with numerous sub-philosophies of Vedanta. Vedanta served as the root of Hinduism, however the practice of yoga also stands alone as a philosophy unto itself. While many Hindus and Buddhists practice yoga, yoga philsophy evolved as its own discipline. This is an important distinction, while you will find a few poses named for Hindu deities because the people who created them were Hindu, the practice of these poses are not practicing Hinduism. These poses are universal to be practiced by everyone; in fact many yoga teachers rename the poses in their native languages to emphasize the adaptability of yoga.

Yoga philosophy saw its first codification as a dedicated philosophy with the writing of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali around 200 BC. Until then, yoga was an oral tradition, and one meant to be interpreted individually after studying for years with a teacher, or guru. The word sutra means thread, and these threads have been translated by numerous authors, most recognized being Sri Swami Satchidananda. The sutras describe the nature of reality, according to yoga philosophy. Patanjali also detailed the steps that lead towards liberation. There are a few paths to liberation, such as the devotional path, or the path of service, but most often in the West you will find the raja or royal path, also known as the eight limbs of yoga.

This is an overview of the eight limbs:

• Yamas: These are restraints, or the things we should not do in our day-to-day life.
• Niyamas: These are actions (literally, "not inactions"), or the things we should do in our day-to-day life.
• Asana: This tells us to find a comfortable seat, but yoga practitioners consider all kinds of odd positions to be comfortable seats, providing us with various yoga poses.
• Pranayama: Technically this means mastery of life force, but we generally take it to mean practicing various breathing exercises to regulate the flow of oxygen in the body.
• Pratyahara: This is withdrawal from the senses, which means bringing your focus inward, and not staying distracted by the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations around you.
• Dharana: You can interpret this as concentration and focus, such as the concentration you use during the visualization practice. Many people practice this by repeating a mantra, or staring at an image.
• Dhyana: This means meditation, or the absence of distracting thoughts. The path to meditation usually leads first through withdrawal from the senses, then through focus.
• Samadhi: This is a state of unadulterated and unqualified bliss. Many people see this as a permanent state you reach after years of working on your yoga practice. Instead, we see it more as moments in pure bliss, and hopefully you can find more of these moments and learn to extend them.

The eight limbs of royal yoga are all integrated, in that you don't complete one step then move onto the next. In fact, you practice many simultaneously. For example, when practicing a yoga pose such as a balancing pose,you are using breath control to stay calm, while at the same time practicing concentration as you stare at an object to focus. Throughout the practice of poses, you can also practice some of the lifestyle guidelines, such as honesty, by being honest with yourself in each pose. So these limbs are truly interwoven, and by practicing the first seven limbs, you can attain a state of samadhi or liberation, if only for a few fleeting moments.