Last week I opened a discussion into the thousands-year-old philosophy that is the Yoga Sutras.  Within the Sutras is a section called the Eight Limbs of Yoga, which begin with the Yamas and Niyamas.

In practicing the full Eight Limbs of Yoga, we're removing impurities: those things that are unwanted or unnecessary that prevent us from being the best people we can be.  The Yamas and Niyamas form the foundations of everything that follows within the Eight Limbs.

The Yamas and Niyamas are like our own personal guideposts, because they encourage us to start doing the work on our internal selves before anything else.  That makes sense because we can't heal the world when we're coming from a place of pain and suffering.

As a refresher, the Yamas are at the very top of the Eight Limbs, which indicates their level of importance.  They include five moral restraints to apply to our daily lives, helping us to live more harmoniously.

The Yamas are Ahimsa (nonviolence), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (nonstealing), Brahmacharya (moderation or celibacy), and Aparigraha (nonhoarding).

In this post, we'll explore the first of the Yamas, Ahimsa.

You'll notice that nonviolence is at the very top of all of the Eight Limbs – again, indicating the level of importance and attention to be paid to this one concept.  

An obvious application of Ahimsa is to not kill someone.  That's a no-brainer.  Then comes the idea to not kill bugs, don't kill animals, then don't hurt people/bugs/animals… you get the idea.  These are pretty clear examples of the concept of nonviolence.

But in addition to not killing things, Ahimsa also includes being nonviolent in thoughts, actions, and speech.  Suddenly things just got a bit more complicated.

Let's dive a bit deeper into these aspects to notice the places where we might implement a less violent internal state.

Thoughts: 

*What we think of others, what we think of ourselves, the stories we tell ourselves (true or otherwise), and negative self-talk we might have.

Examples include judging others, talking trash about other people or yourself, and creating negative narratives within our minds.

Actions:  

*How we treat others and how we treat ourselves.

Examples include being mean or even just slightly rude or unhelpful to others, overindulging in foods and drinks, not getting enough sleep, eating foods that do little to nourish ourselves, and doing self-harm (which presents in many different ways).

Speech: 

*The things we say to others and to ourselves.

Examples include hate speech, racial slurs, sarcasm, criticism, rude comments, and even the tone in which we speak.  

Now that we've talked about the obvious ways that we can practice Ahimsa, let's go deeper.  Not only is it how we express violence (thoughts/actions/speech), but it's the motivation or intent behind the whole thing.

I'm a fan of analogies, so let's see if this one helps explain my point.

Imagine you're relaxing outside with a friend and you see a black widow spider.  It's far enough away from you so you're not in any immediate harm, but you know that black widows are highly poisonous and even sometimes deadly.  

As someone who wants to practice Ahimsa, do you kill the black widow spider?

One option you have is to not kill the spider.  If you're worried about it moving to a more threatening position (because, you know, spiders have legs and can easily maneuver to other places), you can use objects to help you safely relocate the spider to a different place, away from people.

Maybe you're someone who gets a level of satisfaction from stepping on a spider, in which case you're definitely not practicing Ahimsa because you experience a positive feeling associated with killing the spider.  

Another option is to give the black widow a blessing and then squish it quickly, having it die a fast death while (permanently) ending its possibility of interacting with your family in the future.  In this example, you performed an act of violence, but the intent was softer than the person who killed the spider without regard.

And what if you're the friend, sitting and watching the whole scenario?  Even if you're not the one doing the actual killing, if you're urging someone else to kill the spider, where do you fall within the realm of Ahimsa?

With this principle, it's the motivation behind the action, the intent to cause harm.  This is why you're not actually practicing Ahimsa if you're still thinking hateful or harmful thoughts even though you're not acting on them.  In other words, it doesn't count if you're being a total asshole and yet you're like, "Well, I didn't kill a person so I'm practicing Ahimsa."  Being a jerk to someone is violent, whether or not you get physical, and whether or not you think it's justified.   

Practicing Ahimsa also requires us to be nonjudgmental and have a forgiving attitude toward others.  So simple, and so not that easy.

As you can see, the concept of nonviolence has a lot of complexities and ramifications in the karma department, which is why I suspect Patanjali put it as the very first thing for us to work on.

Take a sec and think about how practicing Ahimsa impacts the way you'd move throughout your day if you weren't even the slightest bit violent.  How would that change things?  Here are some ideas to help you get started.  Some might resonate with you more than others, but all are valid.

Ways to practice ahimsa:

*Start with the obvious, don't kill anything.

*Become a vegan.  While there are technically several different types, some general principles are that you stop eating animal flesh (beef, chicken, pork, deer, fish, etc.) and animal products (eggs; dairy -> cheese, milk, yogurt, butter, etc.; some also include honey here).

*When you catch yourself having negative thoughts about yourself or someone else, try redirecting them to something else.  It doesn't have to be a positive thought; it's just something other than a negative one.

*Notice what and how you speak with others and practice being a bit softer in the process.

*Be kinder to our planet.  The Earth is a living being, just as you are.  

*Check your (true, honest) motivation behind your actions, words, and thoughts. If they're not coming from a place of kindness and compassion, it's likely a form of violence.

*Notice in what ways you might be enabling or contributing to violence.  Look at the people you spend time with, the shows you watch on TV, the way you spend your money.  How do your actions align with the principle of Ahimsa?

Practicing only this Yama could take years to have it turn into your default setting, so don't think that you can blow past it just because you're a vegan who takes spiders out of your house instead of squishing them.  It's only when our thoughts, words, and deeds are truly nonviolent that we can feel we've learned the basics of this Yama.  

I think it's obvious why this is the first of all of the limbs: Because, while taking on this principle of nonviolence can be quite challenging, the internal and external positive ripple effects are massive.