Thousands of years ago, a sage named Sri Patanjali is credited for writing what is known as the Yoga Sutras.  The Yoga Sutras is essentially a compilation of lessons for people to follow, providing us with a comprehensive guide of spiritual practices that will allow us to reach our full potential.  

Within the Yoga Sutras text is the Eight Limbs of Yoga.  These Limbs include:

1.  Yamas -- five moral restraints to apply, keeping our relationships, as well as personal energy, harmonious.  The Yamas are:

-Ahimsa -- nonviolence

-Satya -- truthfulness

-Asteya -- nonstealing

-Brahmacharya -- moderation or celibacy

-Aparigraha – nonhoarding

2.  Niyamas -- five rules of conduct to help us detach from the world and the ego so that it becomes easier for the meditator to let go during deep meditation.  The Niyamas are:

-Saucha – purity

-Santosha – contentment

-Tapas -- zeal, austerity

-Svadhyaya – self-study

-Isvara-pranidhana -- devotion to a higher power

3.  Asana -- physical postures performed to allow the body to sit comfortably and in stillness during meditation.  Asana is what's commonly called "yoga", especially in the West.  When you take a "yoga" class, it's technically an asana class.  

4.  Pranayama -- controlling of the breath, causing the mind to quiet, as well as storing up prana needed while in deep meditation.

5.  Pratyahara -- withdrawal of sensory perceptions, allowing one to turn inward.

6.  Dharana -- deep concentration, perhaps on a mantra, an object, or on each individual chakra.

7.  Dhyana -- complete, uninterrupted meditation.

8.  Samadhi -- the final stage where the individual consciousness has dissolved into pure cosmic consciousness.

One thing that I love about the Yoga Sutras, and specifically the Eight Limbs of Yoga, is that they are very inclusive when it comes to spiritual context, with nothing contradictory to any religion.  Their purpose is to provide a guide to right living, a simple roadmap to help us become our best selves.  They're easy to understand (especially when we go into them in more detail), and yet they might be surprisingly challenging to implement.  We are mere humans, after all, and with our humanity sometimes comes some less-than-desirable attributes.

When reading the list of the Eight Limbs, you'll notice that the first two are all about handling what's going on inside of ourselves and how we interact with the world.  They're also higher up on the list than the others, indicating the importance of us taking the time to work on ourselves.  

You'll also notice that the third Limb is Asana (a.k.a. a "yoga" practice).  This indicates that, while moving the body via postures is incredibly important, it's not the be-all/end-all – meaning your rock-solid yoga ass is less important than being a kind and good person.  #perspective

Over the next few weeks I'll be exploring the Eight Limbs in more detail.  I'll begin with the Yamas and move through the Limbs in the order they've been placed within the Sutras.   

The first of the Yamas is Ahimsa, or nonviolence.  That one seems pretty obvious, and to some extent it is.  So while you're waiting for next week's deeper dive into the topic, take a moment and think of what it means to you to live a life without violence.  You just might discover that there are layers and complexities around the concept of living a life of nonviolence.