The road to Samādhi: Ashtānga Yoga – the eight-limbed path
Yama – ethical observances
The yamas are the moral principals or restraints that set the foundation for living an ethical life. They are the rules one lives by to inform right action.
Ahimsā – non-harming
This includes overt acts of violence towards other humans, animals and the environment, and the more subtle acts or harm such as negative thoughts or actions towards oneself or others, with no limit to person or species, place or culture, time or circumstance.
Satya – truthfulness
Satya is the truthfulness of one’s action, speech and thought; it goes much deeper than the act of not telling lies, and speaks to the inner truth that resides in all; the willingness to take off the veil and discern between what is true and real and what is appearing to be true and real.
Asteya – non-stealing
Asteya is the not taking of whatever is not rightfully yours to take. Going past the tangible object, non-stealing included one’s relationship with wanting, craving, and hankering for what they perceive to be outside of themselves, driven by selfish desire.
Brahmacharya – sexual discipline; regulation of sexual energy
This yama involves preserving one’s vital energy through sexual discipline and upholding ethical relationships. Traditionally this included periods of celibacy, but more broadly speaks to right use of energy, so that one’s attention shifts away from external desires and moves inwards towards brahm, the universal whole.
Aparigraha – non-greed, non-possessiveness
Aparigraha is the act of not hoarding or grasping onto things, people, or experiences. Greed shows itself through a sense of lack that has one wanting what they do not have. It is unconscious consumer behaviour, the attachment to relationships and external objects that has one yearning for more and clinging tightly to a false sense of wholeness.
Niyama – personal guidelines
The personal behaviours that refine the relationship with one’s inner world.
Shaucha – purification, cleanliness
Shaucha is the outer purity of the body and the inner purity of the mind. It is practiced by upholding to proper physical maintenance and cleanliness, and by purifying one’s speech and thought, so that bodily health and clarity of mind are realized.
Santosha – contentment
Perfect peace and happiness that belongs to no particular object, person or circumstance. Santosha is unaffected satisfaction, or contentment with the state of simply being, by dissolving one’s attachment to preference or results. It is the practice of renouncing all effort to control the outcome and experiencing the wholeness of each moment exactly as it is.
Tapas – fire of discipline
Tapas means to heat, it is the intense fiery discipline that allows one to transcend or burn away the impurities of action, thought, body and mind, that prevents one from realizing their highest Self. It is the practice of enduring hardship for the purpose of becoming aware of one’s true nature. Here one purposefully frustrates themself through practices such as vigorous āsana or exercise, fasting, or sitting in meditation for long periods of time.
Swādhyāya – self-study
Literally translated as self-study, swādhyaya is the practice of observing the inner workings of one’s thoughts, habits, and behaviours to shine the light on what keeps them bound or separate so that they can begin to know their true nature. In this study one discovers that there is in fact no separate self and understands the divine Self is one existence, the same in all. Swādhyāya practices include mantra repetition, scripture study or satsang, and reflecting on the self.
Īshwar Prānidān – surrender to the divine
Īshwar Prānidān is the practice of surrender and devotion to God. It is the purest form of love, trust and dedication to the divine, the Supreme Being or universal consciousness, allowing one to surrender all resistance and attachment to the ego self and act in their highest truth. For some, this practice may not resonate in the traditional sense and instead could be shifted to a great love and devotion to nature, looking out into a vast ocean or lake and practicing letting go.
Āsana – posture, to sit
Āsana, the physical postures the yogi practices are what primes the body to sit with steadiness and ease during meditation. The physical āsana practice is the process of balancing effort and ease so that the body can sit for long periods of time and transcend feelings of agitation, restlessness or tension, as a means to comfortably focus the mind.
Prānāyāma – regulating and expanding the life force
Prānā is life force and can be understood as breath, for breath is the tool that nourishes the whole inner system with vital energy. Āyām can be interpreted as restraint, the ability to control or regulate the vital energy or breath, by extending (ex. lengthening the inhalation and exhalation) and containing it (ex. retention of the breath at the top of the inhale and the bottom of the exhale). In prānāyām the breath is trained, cultivated, and brought to a state of subtle stillness.
Pratyāhāra – returning the senses inward
When unregulated, the senses control thoughts, actions and behaviours and jump from one stimulus to another, be it touch, taste, smell, sound, hot, cold, etc. When one is ruled by the senses they tend to follow every whim or impulse that arises and each sensory experience fluctuates between the pairs of opposites of like and dislike, pleasure and pain. The act of retraining the mind allows for mastery over the senses so that one can act according to their true nature, verses the throws of sensory impulse.
Dhāranā – one-pointed concentration
Dhāranā is the practice of fixing the mind’s focus on a single thing, be it the breath, an object, sensation, or a candle flame for example. In this dedicated focus one is able to invoke the state of watchfulness that is present in mediation. When one concentrates on an object or experience, the thought waves begin to still, senses have returned to equilibrium, observation of one’s inner atmosphere takes place and the muscle of focus is built.
Dyhāna – meditation
When the effort of attention dissolves and one’s concentrated awareness becomes continuous, the practice of dyhān has begun. You could call it the next layer of consciousness, where the state of watchfulness is unbroken and the identification with the wavering state of the mind has ceased.
Samādhi – absorption in the Self
Samādhi is complete absorption in the experience of supreme consciousness. Samādhi is the result of a continuous meditation practice where name and form have been surpassed and the meditator is completely absorbed in the highest Self. It is the space of pure awareness, where nothing is separate, everything is whole, and oneness alone exists. It is the direct experience of the Self, unmixed, pure, free, forever.
The road to Samādhi
The yamas and niyamas lay the foundation of the yogic path by regulating one’s behaviour for the purpose of purifying the mind and living a conscientious life. They are the very basic and obvious ethical conducts that should guide all action. While upholding to them on a profound and genuine level is not an easy task, they are essential on the road to samādhi because mastering the mind is very difficult when one’s thoughts, actions and behaviours are unethical.
Continuing on the path, just as one’s behaviours need to align with the highest good, one’s body needs to find that same harmony. Āsana brings the body into a state of balance so that one is able to physically sit in meditation with steadiness and ease. Āsana primes the physical body so that the mind can concentrate and be free from any distractions of restlessness or discomfort. Prānāyām then serves to further prepare the body on a more subtle level, a level that can profoundly change one’s state of being, by expanding and restraining the life force. One is able to shift their experience by regulating the prān so that the body-mind system can become clear and harmonized.
Once the body is primed and the vital energy is harnessed and balanced, the awareness can flow more freely to the retraining of the senses – pratyāhār. In order for the samādhi state to be realized, one must gain mastery over their senses and impulses so that the mind can remain still. By withdrawing from the noise of the external world and retreating to find the peace and silence of one’s inner world, the mind starts to become one-pointed. This mastery of the senses now leads to the process of mastering the mind.
Dhāranā is the initial stage of unfolding this meditative state. By fixing one’s attention and becoming deeply concentrated, the whirls of the mind begin to subside. This focused concentration starts to tear down the confines of the unrealized state, where absorption into meditation, dyhān can begin. In the state of dyhān there is no longer the acknowledgement of ‘I am meditating’, or the identification of fixed name or form, it is now a sustained and effortless awareness of pure watchfulness. This watchfulness uncovers another layer of consciousness, a layer that has nothing to do with the thinking mind and instead illuminates the higher mind.
When this continuous and effortless awareness is unceasing it merges into samādhi, absorption in the Self, the realized state of supreme consciousness. It is beyond the limits of regular mental understanding and is absolute saturation in the Self, the highest state of awareness. The yogi has now realized that there is no separate existence other than the Self, one and the same in all, complete unity with all that is. This is the practice of Ashtānga Yoga, the eight-limbed path, revealed in the teachings of sage Patañjali in the scripture Yoga Darshan. While undertaking this path is a serious endeavour, no effort is wasted on the journey of uncovering the true Self.
*Gratitude to my teacher Hali Schwartz for teaching me this knowledge.