The Eight Limbs of Yogic Meditation - Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

Transcript

In India more than 2200 years ago, there lived
a great sage, a rishi named Patanjali, who compiled and systematized the various meditation
practices used at his time, practices that were already considered ancient. Patanjali's text, the Yoga Sutras, became
a foundational scripture for the practice of meditation, and is highly regarded even
today. His text contains 196 sutras, which are brief
and often cryptic Sanskrit aphorisms that are explained in great detail by traditional
commentaries. It's often pointed out that the word yoga
is related to the English word, yoke, with the meaning of union. But what's often overlooked is that a yoke
has two very different functions: one function is to join or unite animals to a plow or cart. But the yoke also functions to help control
the animals. With ropes attached to a yoke, the animals'
movement can be controlled and directed as needed. This observation is important because Patanjali's
sutras are concerned, not so much with union, but with control - control of your body, your
breath, your senses, and especially, control of your mind - all for the sake of meditation. This will become very clear as we proceed. Patanjali's system of meditation consists
of eight parts, ashta anga, so his system is called ashtanga yoga. The word anga strictly means part, but it's
often translated as limb. As a result, the eight angas are sometimes
depicted as limbs on a tree. Representing the angas as tree limbs is suitable
only if a key principle is recognized - the eight angas are sequential practices; they're
steps, like the rungs on a ladder. A properly drawn tree can depict this, showing
the first angas at the bottom of the tree and the latter ones at the top. The first anga, yama, consists of prohibitions
against adharmic or unethical deeds. The second anga, niyama, is comprised of injunctions
to develop various dharmic virtues. These first two angas direct you to control
your behavior. The next three angas, asana, pranayama, and
pratyahara, mandate certain kinds of control over your body, breath, and senses, respectively. The last three angas, dharana, concentration,
dhyana, meditation, and samadhi, absorption, mandate specific practices to control your
mind. So, these eight angas help you cultivate the
skills required for meditation by teaching you how to control your body, breath, senses,
and mind in that order. Let's examine each of the angas very briefly. There are five yamas that prohibit five kinds
of adharmic behavior. Ahimsa prohibits causing harm to any living
being, satya prohibits lying, asteya prohibits stealing, brahmacharya prohibits inappropriate
sex, and aparighraha prohibits possessiveness. In addition to the five yamas, there are five
niyamas that mandate the cultivation of dharmic virtues. Shauca mandates purity of body and mind, santosha
mandates contentment and forbearance, tapas mandates spiritual disciplines like fasting,
svadhyaya mandates spiritual study, and ishwara-pranidhana mandates prayer and worship. At first sight, these 5 yamas and 5 niyamas
might seem to resemble the 10 commandments of the Bible, but they couldn't be more different. The Bible's commandments are followed to avoid
sin and eternal damnation. But yoga's yamas and niyamas are followed
to develop a lifestyle that effectively supports your practice of meditation. How do these prohibitions and injunctions
help you meditate? Well, adharmic behavior tends to creates conflict
and stress in life it resists and opposes commonly accepted moral standards. So, following the 5 yamas helps you live a
conflict-free life that's conducive to meditation. Following the 5 niyamas helps you acquire
attitudes and qualities that are crucial in preparing your mind for meditation. The third anga, asana or posture, is the primary
focus of most yoga practice today. In yoga studios around the world, various
kinds of asanas, some of them quite complex, are taught and practiced with great enthusiasm. But, they're often practiced with little or
no attention to the other seven angas. This narrow focus on asana is a modern phenomenon. In his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali simply says
that asana, your posture for meditation, should be comfortable and stable. Then, what's the point of the elaborate assortment
of asanas practiced today? It's important to learn how to sit in meditation
for several hours without becoming uncomfortable or needing to constantly readjust your position,
and this requires a body that's healthy, strong, and flexible. Asana practice is meant to prepare your body
for lengthy meditation sessions. But, to practice asanas without meditating
later, as is done in many yoga studios today, is like preparing an elaborate meal of tasty
South Indian food without eating it later. The fourth anga, pranayama, is the use of
breathing exercises to further prepare your body and mind for meditation. The ancient yogis discovered a physiological
principle that's well known to modern medical science - your breath and your central nervous
system are closely connected. When you're stressed out or feeling anxious,
your breathing naturally becomes rapid and shallow. On the other hand, when you're calm and relaxed,
your breathing slows down and grows deeper. Your nervous system affects your breathing,
and in the same way, your breathing affects your nervous system. Rapid, shallow breathing stimulates your nervous
system, whereas slow, deep breathing calms it down. Many pranayama techniques exploit this physiological
connection to calm your nervous system by deliberately slowing and deepening your breath. The fifth anga, pratyahara, is sense withdrawal. It's impossible to find a perfect, solitary
place to meditate, so it's important to develop the ability to withdraw your senses, especially
your sense of hearing, so you won't be distracted. Unfortunately, there's no on/off switch for
our senses. Yet, when you're deeply absorbed in some activity,
like when you're working on a demanding project, you might not hear someone nearby calling
your name. By concentrating your attention on something,
your attention is simultaneously withdrawn from your senses. Your power of attention is like a flashlight
with a lens that can be adjusted to cast a very wide beam, or a very narrow one. Generally, your attention is widely focused,
allowing you to perceive what's happening all around you. This ability is immensely valuable most of
the time, like when you're driving a car. But when you sit to meditate, a wide scope
attention will make you more susceptible to distractions. Fortunately, like the adjustable flashlight,
your attention can also be narrowly focused. At night, whatever falls outside a narrow
flashlight beam is covered by darkness and can't be seen. In the same way, whatever falls outside your
narrowly focused attention can no longer distract you. So, the secret to pratyahara, sense withdrawal,
is to concentrate your attention. And that very concentration happens to be
yoga's sixth anga, dharana. Dharana is concentrating your attention on
an object of meditation. You can concentrate on many things - on the
sound, om, on a mantra, on your breathing, on a sacred image or a candle flame, or, as
prescribed in the Bhagavad Gita, you can concentrate your attention on the divine presence within
you. The fact that yogic meditation is so widely
practiced is largely due to the great variety of objects that can be meditated upon. You are free to choose an object of meditation
that appeals to you, an object that's well-suited to your individual needs and inclinations. When your practice of dharana matures, you
can reach a state in which your mind becomes absolutely one-pointed, completely free from
distractions and focused only on your object of meditation, without any other thoughts
intervening. This state is the seventh anga of yoga, dhyana. Dhyana is defined as an steady, uninterrupted
flow of identical thoughts. It's often compared to a stream of oil being
poured slowly and steadily, so that the stream remains perfectly motionless, even though
the oil inside the stream is in constant motion. This steady flow of oil represents the perfectly
uniform flow of your thoughts focused on the object of meditation. Even though your mind is active, this unbroken
flow of identical thoughts gives rise to an experience of deep stillness and perfect tranquility. The regular practice of dhyana will eventually
lead you to the eighth and final anga, samadhi or absorption. During dhyana, you remain as a meditator,
quite separate from the object you're meditating upon. But as your meditation deepens, the sense
of distance between you and the object of meditation gradually diminishes, until finally,
there's no distance whatsoever. You experientially merge into the object of
meditation, becoming utterly non-separate from it. This is the state of absorption, samadhi. Note that samadhi is not a state of thoughtlessness
because the object of meditation remains in your mind as an unchanging, unwavering thought. However, samadhi is a state in which your
experience of any kind of duality comes to an end. In samadhi, there's no distinction between
knower and known, between you and the world. All is one. This extremely brief overview of the eight
angas is not at all sufficient to properly guide your ongoing practice of meditation. On the other hand, it can help you make sense
of the sometimes baffling plethora of meditation practices and techniques being taught today. It's important to understand that, in addition
to practices based on the eight angas, there are other meditation practices and traditions
that are completely different from the system of yoga we've discussed here. Some meditation traditions incorporate devotional
stories and imagery to help you develop intense feelings of love and adoration for the divine. In meditation, your attention is directed
towards a particular deity or towards the divinity residing within yourself. Other meditation traditions teach you how
to become completely detached from your mind and observe it's activities objectively and
dispassionately. In these practices, there's no effort to control
your thoughts at all. The popular Buddhist practice of vipassana
falls into this category. Still other meditation traditions teach techniques
for channeling prana or subtle energies through various psychic centers located in your body. Certain tantric techniques and kundalini yoga
fall into this category. Each of these meditation traditions has its
merits, but the tradition based on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras is the one found in the Bhagavad
Gita and most other Vedantic scriptures. Before concluding, it's important recognize
the fact that the goal of Patanjali's system is not samadhi. Samadhi is a mental state, and mental states
always come and go. A skillful yogi might be able to remain in
samadhi for hours, but eventually, that state of absorption will come to an end. The ultimate goal of spiritual life cannot
be a transient mental state. Samadhi and the other seven angas are meant
to lead to that ultimate goal. Patanjali used the word, anga or part, because
parts always belong to a whole. Like limbs belong to a tree, the eight angas
belong to a goal, a goal that lies beyond the eight angas and is reached by means of
them. Patanjali calls that goal, kaivalya, which
literally means onlyness. Kaivalya is remaining as yourself, as your
true nature, as unborn, unchanging, all-pervasive consciousness, utterly independent of anything
and everything that can cause suffering. Your diligent practice of yoga's eight angas
can lead you towards this greatest of goals.