Hey this is Ish and today I'm going to talk to you about Ashtanga Yoga or Eight Limbs of Yoga.
So whenever we think of Ashtanga we might think of yogis doing back bends in a really hot yoga class.
Well there's actually just one limb of yoga known as asana or postures.
And according to Patanjali who wrote the most influential yoga text called Yoga Sutras,
There are actually eight different limbs that can help you reach a union and awakening.
And these limbs are yamas which are ethical rules,
Niyamas which are internal disciplines that you take on,
Asanas which are the yoga postures we normally think of,
Pranayama which is a controlling of your breath,
Pratihara which is the withdrawal of your senses,
Dharana which is concentration,
Dhyana which is meditative absorption,
And lastly samadhi which is basically union or awakening.
So these are the various limbs and according to Patanjali the most concrete way to start off is to first focus on yamas which is how you relate to the outside world and then from there the limbs get more and more subtle.
So it goes from the outside which is dealing with others,
Then it goes to your internal disciplines which is niyama and then the postures and then after you've mastered the postures or your physical postures then you work on controlling your breath and your emotions through pranayama.
And then from there now your mind has started to become more subtle through the practices and then you can now withdraw your senses inwards.
Then you can now you're in a good space to concentrate which is dharana and then through concentration you reach dhyana which is meditative absorption and then once you continue with that then you reach samadhi.
So what I like about this process is very systematical and step by step process.
So you can really skip steps in this process and if you do you'll kind of find that you kind of get derailed over the process.
So for example if you find that your legs are starting to ache after maybe just 20 minutes of meditation it's probably a sign that you skipped over asana which is the yoga postures.
But let's just say you're an avid yogi you go to yoga classes every day and you're able to sit right because now your body is relaxed it's able to sit and hold your posture up.
Now you might find that your mind has started to wander and that's because you haven't taken the steps and done pranayama which is controlling the breath.
So essentially what I like about this is it's a holistic practice and you can first start at how you deal with the outside influences and then kind of go in and then your practice becomes more and more subtle and gives you a step to work on.
So this series of talks that I'll be producing the next videos and talks will cover the next steps and go more in depth about each specific limb so you can really understand it practice it and then work on the next limb and it'll be kind of like a step by step process and it will help you understand yoga and meditation and really deepen your practice a lot more.
Thank you.
