Yoga sutras require practice.

Good news: Yoga offers freedom! Tough news: You are going to have to "do" something about this.

In the yoga sutras’ first chapter Patanjali defined yoga and laid out the core misunderstanding that is the root of our mental suffering. He succinctly (and quickly!) reveals how our own minds manage to thoroughly muddle our perceptions and wreck havoc with our lived experiences. 

READ PART ONE: The Yoga Sutras Are About Life and Living

The good news
Patanjali says yoga offers freedom. Freedom from so many of the difficulties we impose upon ourselves due to our lack of clarity, our lack of direct knowledge of who we are, and who we are in relationship to everything else. Yoga offers a solution to the common problem (and problems) of distorted self-perceptions. 

The tough news
The solution will require us to take responsibility for doing what is necessary to improve our perceiving abilities. That is what we call practice. 

Let's also be clear here, yoga is a multifaceted practice. There is no one piece, i.e. yoga postures, that works on its own. Sorry guys, making your asana practice a meditation is not enough. All of yoga's principles and techniques need equal and consistent attention. All of them can and should be taken into account and practiced to the best of your ability at all times.

The practice is said to have “eight limbs”. The eight limbs define qualities of behavior, study, dedication, and techniques for honing body and mind. They provide the outline, a container, for a lifetime of practice. We are clearly instructed that all eight limbs are essential to support our growth in yoga.

Yoga practice is full hearted, embodied, brave, and consistent inquiry into the nature of life. Fancy ideas are all fine and may be inspirational to keep you going, but this yoga is about doing. It involves also involves undoing. We are called upon to thread out limiting patterns of mind that have become engrained into the fabric of our being. 

Yoga involves involves paying unwavering attention to everything and working with dedication and zeal toward your chosen goal. Yes, yoga has a goal! Far from goal free, yoga has very worthy goal — attaining a clear and radiant mind.

In chapter two we will soon learn about the overriding need to be kind, what honesty and self-study involve, and how important it is to learn — through practice — how to place our personal selves into the larger perspective of a universal whole.

CHAPTER TWO
HOW DO WE DO THIS?
Chapter two forms the "how to" of yoga. In chapter two, Patanjali presents comprehensive methodical means for clearing up the crux of the problem. In chapter one, Patanjali has so bluntly states that we are fundamentally mistaken about who we are. He tells us there is a solution — a process — for clearing up this mess. Patanjali is very clear that this is a practice. The clear implication of the text is that yoga requires nearly constant attention to every aspect of your life. To gain from Patanjali's yoga sutras you are going to need to do it. Now we learn technique.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE?
The first sutra of the second chapter reveals immediately what is needed to approach a fruitful yoga practice. You will need discipline, intelligence, fortitude, humility, and a burning desire to realize the nature of life. In other words this is not casual stuff. Yoga as presented in the yoga sutras, is about doing. It is kriya yoga. 

It will require dedication, commitment, persistent self-study, and willingness to surrender the ego-mind's craving for personal gain.

KRIYA YOGA — FIRST SUTRA OF CHAPTER TWO
II.1
tapah  svadhyaya  ishvara-pranidhanani  kriya-yogah
The yoga of action (kriya-yoga) has three main components.
—intense discipline (tapas)
—persistent self study (svadhyaya)
—surrendering individual consciousness to its rightful home — universal intelligence (ishvara-pranidhanana)

kriya yoga is the yoga of effective action. It is a system of processes and practical techniques for yoking and drawing together the seemingly disparate aspects of individual and universal consciousness. It requires doing.

• We are told in no uncertain terms that this yoga will involve taking action. There will be techniques to follow. We will need to “do” this.

tapas — disciplined and consistent practice, paired with discernment and passion; the flame of desire to see more clearly 

• We are told we will need serious determination for this endeavor. Our desire for clarity must be the primary driving force in our lives.

Tapas is the burning desire to know deeper truths. Intense, bright and hot, tapas is the untiring persistence and dedication to transforming an agitated and distracted mind. Tapas places passion for clarity right at the forefront of our lives. Whatever it is we do, we do it with intention and focus that always burns toward revealing clarity.

Tapas propels our practice. Without a burning desire to know, we simply wouldn't do it. It would be too hard. Practice will bear fruit in direct relationship to the clarity and passion of our endeavor.

svadhyaya — brave and incisive self-study; study of texts that have withstood the test of time

• We are told we will need to cultivate razor sharp and persistent inquiry to uncover and accept difficult truths if we are to gain an ever widening perspective. We are encouraged to read and listen to the wisdom of trusted teachers who have come before us.

Svadhyaya includes both personal and universal self-study. Fueled by the intensity of tapas, we dive inward to learn and observe the layers of consciousness with which we function and perceive the inner world.

To see the whole picture we need to be willing to allow our personal qualities and traits to be seen. The inquiry reveals layer upon layer of who we.

"Who do we take ourselves to be? How do we treat ourselves and others? What do we really think?"  Thankfully, the inquiry itself is not about ridding ourselves of anything. We may decide to take effective action about our insights, but the inquiry itself is simply about honest and brave witnessing of it all. From there, if we desire, right action will have more power and clarity under it.

ishvara-pranidhana — surrendering individual consciousness to its rightful home — universal intelligence. Always acting with humility and reverence for that.

• We are told we must learn to place the personal into the context of the universal; to always act with the utmost humility and integrity, and to surrender the fruits of those actions to the wisdom of the highest universal order.

Ishvarah-pranidhana is a radical shift in self-perception. We are asked to live and relate within the knowledge of life's larger picture at all times. We learn to surrender our desire for ego building; to release personal ownership of our actions to the highest order of life. We are asked to trust in the larger universal movement and to act in accordance with that. 

Ishvarah pranaidhana is both the means and the result for gaining release from the dominance of our ego's clamoring for recognition. With joy and relief, we learn to choose to surrender the fruits of our actions their rightful universal home. It's just natural; it feels right.

A PEEK AT THE EIGHT LIMBS — A MAP TO CLARITY
As Patanjali’s second chapter continues he elaborates on what kriya yoga will entail. He lays out his map for practice: the eight limbs.

Again, Patanjali asks a lot of us. The eight limbs elucidate exactly what is necessary to attain yoga’s compelling goals — freedom in mind, contentment in living, and self-realization.

Doing yoga means all of the eight limbs. Picking and choosing is not yoga. It maybe be useful, good, and even fun but it is something else.

The Eight Limbs of Yoga

1. yama: maintaining the highest integrity in absolutely everything you do
2. niyama: essential personal conditions and commitments for effective practice
3. asana: finding comfort in sitting
4. pranayama: steadying breath and life-force
5. pratyahara: intense inward sensing and feeling
6. dharana: focusing, collecting attention to flow in a single direction
7. dhyana: entering into effortless flow of attention in a single direction
8. samadhi: compelling state of absorption, unity of perceiver and perceived

ASK YOURSELF
For a moment consider the first two limbs. When taken to heart the yamas and niyamas themselves are incredibly challenging. They are just as critical to your practice as any of the other limbs. You cannot attain inner comfort without attending to these fundamental principles for living, for steadying the mind, and glimpsing the larger picture.

Acting out of integrity, being hurtful to others, lacking commitment and humility, etc. will always continue to cloud the mind and obscure deeper knowledge.

Take a moment and inquire: How do you perceive yourself to be in relationship to these examples from the yamas and niyamas?

• We will be asked to cultivate kindness, honesty, and benevolence toward others.

• We will need to learn to act with complete integrity at all times and in all situations.

• It will take inner bravery to observe our most destructive patterns of thought and action.

• We are asked to earnestly and truthfully observe our thoughts, feelings and actions.

• We will need to cultivate self-acceptance and to undo deeply embedded self-concepts that no longer serve us.

• Finally, we must navigate how to subdue our ego's incessant desire to be front and center at all times. 

An active exploration even into these two limbs alone can radically improve quality of life.

HOW WE LIVE MATTERS
Lived experience matters. How we perceive affects every micro and macro moment of our lives. Clarity is not reserved for the transcendental state of mind to be experienced only in deep meditation!

A yogic life is one of coming into alignment with the highest universal order of "right action", our dharma. In other words recognizing who we are and acting in accordance with that.  Although yoga is not a shortcut to anything, its benefits begin immediately and grow progressively over time.

"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." Zen Proverb

COMING SOON — MUCH MORE ON THE EIGHT LIMBS OF YOGA
In our next post we will continue to look more closesly at the eight limbs and examine what they mean to us now. How we can truly practice them and maintain our complex lives? We can do this!

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In yoga and with love,
Patty