WHAT IS YOGA?

"Yoga" is a difficult term to define simply. It is a word used to encompass everything from a 5,000- year old philosophical and spiritual tradition conceived in India to an exercise class at the local gym. Most essentially the word "yoga" mean "to yoke" or "to unite." It refers to the yoking of mind and body in conscious awareness, the uniting and balancing of the yin and yang energies within us, and the integration of the internal with the external, the Self with the Other or with the Not-Self.

There are many paths of practicing yoga:

Jnana-Yoga - The Path of Wisdom - This path is one of study and scholarship, immersing oneself in scriptures and holy writings.
Karma-Yoga - The Path of Selfless Action - This path involves action and working in the world, often on direct behalf of others, with no thought of what the result will be or how we will be repaid.
Bhakti-Yoga - The Path of Love & Devotion - This path is followed by mystics like Rumi, Mirabai or Teresa of Avila. Bhaktis are the poets and lovers of God.
Mantra-Yoga - The Path of Sacred Sound - Devotees of this path use chant and music as their primary spiritual practice.

The path of yoga that we as hatha yoga practitioners are most concerned with is Raja-Yoga. "Raja" means "royal" and this is the "Royal Path of Yoga" as laid out in The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. Patanjali was a scholar who lived sometime in the 2nd century B.C.E. He is credited with compiling a Sanskrit grammar, organizing Indian medicine into the Ayurveda, and condensing existing yogic wisdom and practice into 196 short aphorisms, The Yoga Sutra.

The Eight Limbed Path of Yoga

The word "sutra" means "thread." In The Yoga Sutra Patanjali weaves together many strands of yoga practice and wisdom to create a progressive and integrated path toward liberation. The path has 8 broad limbs:

Yama - These are the community-oriented disciplines of yoga and they are the foundation of the practice.
Ahimsa - Non-violence, respect for all living beings
Satya - Truthfulness, speaking with honesty and integrity
Brahmacarya - Wise use of energy, especially sexual energy
Asteya - Non-stealing, taking only what is freely given
Aparigraha - Non-grasping, non-greed

Niyama - These are the personal, internal disciplines of yoga.
Sauca - Purity, Inner and Outer Cleanliness
Santosa - Contentment
Tapas - Heat, Discipline
Svadhyaya - Self-Study, Self-Awareness
Isvara Pranidhana - Devotion, Surrender to God, to Life, to what is Asana - Physical Postures of Hatha Yoga

Pranayama - Breathing Practices of Hatha Yoga

Pranayama is considered the bridge between the "external" practices of Raja Yoga and the "internal" practices which are essentially stages of meditative absorption and awareness. These include:

Pratyahara - Withdrawal of the senses; awareness moves from external stimuli to the internal environment

Dharana - Concentration

Dhyana - Absorption, intense levels of concentration (According to some Buddhist schools of thought there are as many as 8 levels of Dhyana.)

Samadhi - While essentially impossible to define, "samadhi" is sometimes understood as complete absorption. In Hindu cosmology this would be the Atman (the individual soul) being reunited and absorbed into the Brahman (the Universal or Cosmic soul). Alternatively, samadhi may be described as an extinguishing, as in the Buddhist Nirvana when the individual self is extinguished and there is complete understanding of Anatta (No Self).

Together, these 8 limbs comprise the spiritual path of practice known as yoga. As practitioners of yoga, we are free to explore the concept of liberation or freedom and come to know what it means for us. Then we are able to choose those practices or "limbs" of yoga that seem most meaningful and nurturing to us as we move toward liberation. For some people that will be the physical practices of asana and pranayama, for some it will be primarily sitting meditation, and for others the ethical disciplines of yama and niyama will provide the most challenging and skillful path toward liberation. Over time our practices may shift to incorporate more and different branches of the 8 limbed path so that even if we start our exploration of yoga with asana, we may find ourselves drawn more and more toward meditation or different ways of relating to others and ourselves.