In previous posts, I have talked about the five yamas and the five niyamas, two of the eight limbs in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. According to Patanjali, these yamas and niyamas have to be understood thoroughly and practiced diligently in order to bring about peace and stability of the mind.
Starting with today’s post, I will try to address the question, "How can we integrate these values into our daily yoga practice"?
You may recall, the yamas and niyamas are the ethical and moral guidelines presented by Patanjali and form the foundation for a fully integrated yoga practice. Yamas guide us regarding interpersonal relationships and niyamas about how to inculcate self-discipline of various types. The yamas and niyamas are listed below:
Yamas
- Ahimsa (non-violence)
- Satya (truthfulness)
- Asteya (non-stealing)
- Brahmacharya (celibacy)
- Aparigraha (non-hoarding)
Niyamas
- Shaucha (cleanliness/purity)
- Santosha (contentment)
- Tapas (austerity)
- Swadhyaya (study of self/scriptures)
- Ishwara-Pranidhana (surrender to God)
In today’s post I will be talking about integrating the value of "ahimsa" (non-violence) into our yoga practice. As you know, a complete yoga routine includes the practices of asana (physical postures), pranayama (breathing practices) and meditation. I will be discussing how we can incorporate the principle of ahimsa in all these three aspects of the yoga practice.
Ahimsa (non-violence)
Ahimsa can be translated as non-killing, non-injury, non-hurting, non-violence etc. and applies to other living beings, the environment and to oneself. Injury can be caused through action (slapping or kicking someone), speech (saying harsh words) or thought (thinking evil about someone).
Ahimsa in asana practice
One of the guiding principles in the practice of yoga is to keep the practice within your limits of flexibility, strength, endurance and balance. If we are practicing the seated forward bend, for example, the teacher might ask us to try to bring the hands closer to the toes. Here the keyword is "try" which means that we must make an effort to deepen the stretch but at the same time being fully aware of the signals received from the various muscles and joints engaged in the stretch. The mind at this point listens to these signals and, without engaging the ego, keeps the stretch within comfortable limits. The facial expression can be an excellent indicator of whether one is trying to overstretch in a specific pose. If we cannot smile in a pose, and have a contorted facial expression, we are in the range of causing "himsa" or injury to ourselves. At this time we need to step back and bring ourselves back within our comfort zone.
Patanjali defines asana as "Sthira Sukham Asanam" which means that asana must be steady or firm and comfortable. We can achieve that level of stability and ease in the asana by being fully aware and absorbing ourselves in the experience of the pose at all levels – physical, mental and even emotional. If we follow this definition of asana, we will automatically be following the principle of ahimsa.
Ahimsa in pranayama practice
It is equally important to apply ahimsa to the practice of pranayama. At no time in the pranayama practices should be strain ourselves in any way. Many times, in the pranayama practices that involve retention of breath, for example, we may be tempted to try and hold the breath beyond our limits. This can severely strain our system and can actually cause much harm to us rather than bringing the desired benefits. One key guideline in breath retention is to make sure that after retention, the subsequent breath should not be impacted in any way. For example, in alternate nostril breathing, the guideline is to keep the exhalation twice as long as the inhalation. In this technique, we may introduce breath retention after each inhalation. When we practice retention of breath after inhalation, we want to make sure that the subsequent exhalation is still twice as long as the inhalation.
Ahimsa in meditation
The same concept can be applied to the practice of meditation as well. Sometimes when we sit for meditation, it may happen that a particularly nagging thought may completely clog our mind and we are totally unable to stay focused on the object of our meditation – mantra, for example. At that time, rather than forcing ourselves to stay in meditation, it is best to quit the meditation practice and, maybe, take a walk to clear the mind. If we force ourselves to keep trying to meditate, we can actually develop a headache.
It is thus very important that we keep the yoga practice safe and enjoyable by applying the principle of ahimsa to all aspects of our yoga practice – asana, pranayama and meditation.
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