ASHTANGA: THE EIGHT FOLD PATH

The Yogic Path as Prescribed by Patanjali

with Marty Tribble, RYT

When we set out on an exploration, we typically do research about where we are going and the challenges we might incur along the way to our destination. We naturally begin to research, asking others about their experiences of the journey, reading books, and so on. We ask, by what method can we set ourselves up for a successful, smooth journey from point A to point B, with the least amount of effort and the most benet? If we are wise, we take the truths gathered from those who have gone before us to bolster our exploration, and may even take with us a map or guidebook or tools of some sort that keep us connected to the rules or guidelines of the journey. These maps and tools are not meant to keep us from the act of exploration, curiosity, or new discovery, but to expedite the journey, pointing us more directly to our goal while keeping us safe, focused, and well nourished. The path of yoga is a method or system that results in a particular way of experiencing an integrated life, and there are what could be seen as rules or guidelines that govern the practice. These guidelines are laid out not to create restriction, but instead to keep us from anything that is counter productive to achieving overall health and wellbeing. Patanjali was a yogic scholar who contributed what has become the most inuential guidebook for the yogic path, The Yoga Sutras. While Patanjali did not create yoga, he was a great expounder of the practice. The Yoga Sutras consist of 196 aphorisms on the practice of yoga, which became the foundation for Raja Yoga, the highest or best method of yoga. (The four main schools of yoga are Jnana - path of knowledge and introspection, Bhakti - path of devotion and compassion, Karma - path of action or service, Raja - path of meditation or insight, transcending thought, but also encompasses the whole of yoga. Each person will be predisposition to one path or another, but an integrated approach to practice will involve all aspects.) In this guidebook, Patanjali lays out the principles of Ashtanga (not to be confused with the asana form, Ashtanga Vinyasa developed by Shri K. Pathabi Jois), meaning eight-fold or eight-limbed, which is seen as eight aspects of a single organism that function together to create ease and wholeness in the life of a yogi. The Yoga Sutras have preserved the wisdom of an ancient lineage, and greatly support our own modern day exploration of the practice of yoga. In the Western world, namely the USA, there are few links to lineage or ancestry, and we are addicted to the illusion of independence. It is an illusion, because there is no such thing as independence. Even one who is living what seems to be a self-sufcient life, is completely dependent upon something outside of themselves to sustain life (i.e., the sun, water, food). We tend to think in terms of I rather than we and this had led us far away from the benets of community, teachers, elders and lineages. While it is wise to ask questions and engaging in dialog rather than blindly swallowing a proverbial pill
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of information, we have taken the act of questioning to such an extreme that we have come full circle, swallowing dose after dose of seductive information disguised as truth from our imbalanced society, without even realizing we are being drugged. Our lust for independence and the freedom to do as we please without regard for consequence has become our bondage. We have forgotten our true nature. The yogic path offers us an opportunity to wake up from this bondage and realize our true nature, but it requires that we have some trust in the foundational wisdom of those who have come before us. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali were written at a time (circa 200-300 b.c.) when the world was less complicated and in some ways, a quieter place, but humans were already facing many of the challenges that we still grapple with today. Even then, humanity was seeking true and lasting freedom. When yoga came to the West, we did with it what we do with everything (think GMOs). We tore it apart, took out what we found cumbersome or inconvenient, and produced a hybrid system that gave us what we liked and/or what we could package and sell (a feel-good workout, a sense that we can attain enlightenment, a place to escape from our normal lives, etc.) and threw out the rest, or at the very least considered it optional or for the excessively spiritual or purists and extremists. We tossed out the eight limbs as well as the important role of the traditional relationship of student and teacher. Teachers became hired guides that we consulted when we felt like it, rather than a constant that we depend on to support our growth. Great leaders, teachers, and guides are few and far between, and perhaps this has contributed to our mistrust of authority, including our own inner authority, thereby further fueling our desire for independence. What we must understand is that true leaders and teachers have no desire to create a following or to merely sell you something, but instead to create community and understanding, and thereby create more true leaders. Teachings that come from this kind of leader will stand the test of time, as have The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Being in the role of teacher or student requires humility, but does not require us to lose our personality or our personal sense of truth...only our attachment to ego which creates resistance to this natural and supportive relationship. The ancient yogis devoted their lives to developing practices that, when followed in their whole and natural form, to the best of ones ability, produce a lasting result--what is known as moksha, or true freedom. It is almost as if the ancients knew how much we would need to remember the way home to our true nature. The Yoga Sutras could be considered a prescription for the yogic path, preserved from a lineage of ancient leaders and teachers, that when followed wholeheartedly, will expedite the process of relaxing into our true nature. This is yoga. A life integrated with ones true nature. When we disregard the wisdom within the eight limbs, and enter the path of yoga from a desire to utilize just the parts we like or that come easy to us, we do ourselves and the world a great disservice. This approach causes us to expend great effort, waste time and suffer far more karmic challenges than are necessary.

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We eventually return to the originally prescribed method (consciously or unconsciously), through the force of karma, as a way to sustain our yoga. Upon our return, we discover we already have the essence of the yogic philosophy within us, and it appears as us, as the Truth that we already are. An integrated life comes naturally when we recognized that we are the living, breathing path of yoga. Yoga Sutra 1.1-1.4 states: Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah.!Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam. Translation by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati (Swami J): Yoga is the mastery of the activities of the mind-eld.! Then the seer rests in its true nature. Perhaps it is time to start again, at the beginning of where we are now.

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Part 1: The Five Yamas

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Yama = self-restraint (the donts). Yamas speak to our relationship with the outer world. It is ease to stray from the Yamas when we see others as separate from ourselves. They help us remove the obstacles so that we better understand our true nature, which is oneness. AHIMSA #$%&'

Non-violence or the absence of violence or harm. To take no action that will bring harm to another living being, and includes thought, word and deed. The scope of the practice of ahimsa includes the self. Preference should be avoided as it creates special treatment of those we prefer, and brings harm to others.

What is your personal denition of harm?

How do you feel when you are harmed?

In what ways do you bring harm to yourself?

In what ways do you bring harm to others?

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In what ways are you already integrating the practice of ahimsa in your life?

In what ways do you bend the rule of ahimsa to benet yourself or avoid selfrestraint?

How might your life benet from a more conscious practice of ahimsa?

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SATYA &(! Non-illusion, the absence of falsehood. To be truthful in thought, word, and deed. This is not a license to be harsh or cruel, as it comes after ahimsa, but to consider the truth we are sharing before we speak it, and to consider if our words will bring more harm than good to a person or situation. If we live from truth, there is no need to worry. The truth sets us free.

What is your personal denition of truth?

How do you feel when you are lied to?

In what ways do you lie to yourself?

In what ways do you lie to others?

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In what ways are you already integrating the practice of satya in your life?

In what ways do you bend the rule of satya to benet yourself or avoid selfrestraint?

How might your life benet from a more conscious practice of satya?

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ASTEYA #)*! Non-stealing. To avoid taking what is not given freely to us. This includes nontangibles such as ideas or time, as well as personal property. In the practice of yoga asana, it applies to not taking a posture that the body has not naturally progressed to.

What is your personal denition of stealing?

How do you feel when something is taken from you?

In what ways do you steal from yourself?

In what ways do you steal from others?

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In what ways are you already integrating the practice of asteya in your life?

In what ways do you bend the rule of asteya to benet yourself or avoid selfrestraint?

How might your life benet from a more conscious practice of asteya?

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BRAHMACHARYA +,-!. Sexual responsibility and energy conservation through contentment (thus why it follows asteya. Ensuring our expression of sexual energy does not bring harm to ourselves or other beings, and refraining from harming or misusing other beings sexually.

What is your personal denition of sexual responsibility?

How do you feel when you are disrespected sexually?

In what ways do you disrespect your own sexuality?

In what ways do you disrespect the sexuality of others?

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In what ways are you already integrating the practice of brahmacharya in your life?

In what ways do you bend the rule of brahmacharya to benet yourself or avoid self-restraint?

How might your life benet from a more conscious practice of brahmacharya?

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APARIGRAHA #/012% Non-greed or non-grasping, taking more than is given or needed. To avoid hoarding or possessiveness. Living from contentment. Not wanting things or specic conditions.

What is your personal denition of contentment?

How do you feel when you are discontent?

In what ways are you discontent with yourself?

In what ways are you discontent with others?

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In what ways do you express greed?

In what ways are you already integrating the practice of aparigraha in your life?

In what ways do you bend the rule of aparigraha to benet yourself or avoid selfrestraint?

How might your life benet from a more conscious practice of aparigraha?

Ashtanga: The Eight Fold Path MartyTribble Yoga 2013 | www.martytribble.com