On a Yogic note…

 

Sthira Sukham Asanam [That in which the body and mind are steady and comfortable is an Asana]

 

The quote above is from Patanjali, a sage who wrote the "Yoga Sutras" between 4th and 1st century BC. Yoga according to Patanjali has these 8 aspects

 

Yama: Mostly don'ts for the bad stuff - like don't cheat don't smoke etc aka precepts

Niyama: Yama preached by an optimist - what good things we can do, good habits we could develop and good attitudes to cultivate

Asana : The postures - aka Hatha Yoga. This is the most well known aspect of Yoga

Pranayama: Breath control by awareness and practice

Pratyahara: Focusing all senses on the same thing - a wholesome experience

Dharana: Single pointed concentration - kind of difficult

Dhyana: Deep Meditation - Delta realm

Samadhi: you know it :)

 

The categorization and order of these 8 principles continues to fascinate me.

The first 5 aspects are more geared to the external self and the last 3, towards the internal self. And ofcourse one is seen as the ramp to another.

 

Some gifted souls could take the shortcut though – There are stories of people in different ages that have flouted all yamas and niyamas, never moved a limb (or their nostrils) consciously and yet have had Samadhi. So there’s hope J

 

Ofcourse it is impractical to say that only after perfecting each step, one could move to the next.. But they do reinforce each other in a beautiful feedback loop. Like if I get up early in the morning (a Yama), then I have time to do some Asanas and breathing which put my mind in a state of feeling “I like it!” (and wants to get up early the next day – at least sometimes)

 

And the originally conceived purpose of doing dozens of postures painstakingly is just so we can sit and breathe or meditate for a longer time without the legs going numb!