The Eight Limbs of the Yoga Sutras These eight limbs are the Sadhana of Yoga, Literally, they are the “means to gaining” the state of Yoga – which is unitary consciousness, not generated by thoughts. Each of the eight limbs must be seen in the context of how it helps you become free of a thought-conditioned state of awareness – to experience Reality directly instead of through mental ideas. The eight limbs are: Yamas and Niyamas, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi Yamas and Niyamas These are the ethical teachings of Classical Yoga. While each person’s ethics is for them to decide, as a yoga teacher you ought to be able to discuss ethical questions from a Yogic perspective. This also means being able to understand Yama and Niyama from a meditative perspective. Seeing ethics as a set of rules is to mistake what the classical teachers were getting at. The ethical teachings of classical yoga are tools for mental transformation. They are not, strictly speaking, moral teachings. What are ethics in a no-mind, empty-self life? A structured set of rules is inconsistent with a state of emptiness of self. And yet, emptiness of self and a non-rule bound attitude does not mean that whatever we feel like doing is what is right. Understanding this paradox is the realm of the classical yoga teacher. Asana also called Hatha Yoga and Yogasana When most people say yoga, most are actually thinking about the asanas for which Yoga is justly famous, and for the health aspects of flexibility and stretching. This is certainly the largest part of teaching yoga ! But it is not the only, and it is not the deepest aspect. And Asana ought to be seen in the context of the bigger discipline that Yoga is, ie a path towards enlightenment or Self-Realisation A database approach to Asana Training Developing for yourself a basic repertoire of postures that you would be comfortable to teach right from the start. Therefore, the most challenging task for you is to develop for yourself a basic repertoire of postures which you know thoroughly and that you would be comfortable to teach. This means that your database of postures must be appropriate for you to teach both those less able than you, and those more able than you. The database will comprise 20 major asanas. You will understand not only those particular postures, but also the principles underlying the movements. Your database must cover the normal requirements of teaching others to stretch and bend. You must be able to teach those less able than yourself and those more able, taking into account the health factors of body and mind Pranayama This could be a training course in itself ! Another aspect of Yoga that is justly famous, Pranayama involves breath training. This could be a training course in itself, and would reward many years intensive training. However… for the purposes of this course you will be required to become familiar with the most well known pranayamas (about 15) and to understand the energy dynamics of pranayama. Along with the study of the prana, don't forget the physiology of Pranayama - how much the practices strengthen the respiratory muscles. Pratyahara (Mindful Sense Experience) Often given as ‘restraint of the senses’, Pratyahara is not at all about refusing to have sensory experience. It is about understanding it realistically. Don’t forget that in the context of the Yoga Sutras, the Eight Limbs are intended to help us transform the mind, to make it more capable of an enlightened experience of reality. They are not moralistic and ascetic practices. Pratyahara is the remedy for mistakes that we make in understanding our sense experience, and gives us the means to stop creating a world in our head that doesn’t exist in reality. Refusing to enjoy the chocolate cake is not pratyahara. Recognising that the source of the enjoyment is in your head and not in the cake is the role of pratyahara. Refusing to project our enjoyments and unenjoyments on to the world is the task of the practice. But imagine how far-reaching that work is. Can you do it with your own body? Your experience at present is actually of a bottom on a chair, of the sensation of clothing and air temperature on your skin, of hands holding a mouse, of light rays on the retina. But instead of the actual, you are giving yourself the projected vision of yourself as a yogi, of a person who can judge the validity of what is written here, of being the final judge of the Yoga Sutras and the Australian College of Classical Yoga. That’s the projected image. What’s the reality? Dharana Concentration & Contemplation Part of being able to meditate is being able to concentrate. These exercises push the mind out of its complacency. Training the mind to push past its own barriers. Dharana exercises might be simple, or more demanding Dharana exercises might include something as simple as candle gazing, as difficult as keeping your attention focused during a sneeze, or contemplative like contemplating your own death. Who sees the candle? What consciousness is it that sneezes? Who dies? and who lives? Is the lily of the field aware of itself as a lily? The effect is always to bring you to understand that what is in your mind is the merest reflection of what reality is. Objects are empty of the meanings we project on to them. Dharana empties out the rubbish we pour on to the world. Then we get a real chance to move beyond the limitations imposed on us by a rigid mind and perhaps oneself is empty of the meanings we project on to it, too. Alarming! Dhyana Yogascittavrittinirodha - 'yoga (union) is slowing down the thought waves of the mind to a stop' . The very first statement of the Yoga Sutras is: Yogascittavrittinirodha - 'yoga (union) is slowing down the thought waves of the mind to a stop' . Thus the foundation of classical yoga is meditation, or stillness of mind. When Yoga was brought from the India to the West, often this was either misunderstood or else it was thought too difficult to communicate to a society that did not have any history of meditating. Anyway, it was left out. Or else 'meditation' was given as a little guided relaxation at the end of a Yoga session. This is antithetical to Yoga! Being a Classical Yoga Teacher necessitates: 1. Insight into non-mind consciousness. Stillness eventually brings a recognition that our ordinary mind state – where we say "I", "me" – is only a product of thinking. This asks big questions about who or what "I" am. The problem is that any answer you give involves going back into the thinking-mind that gives all the trouble in the first place. Understanding this is the first step towards being able to understand what Yoga is all about. No mind = no "me" Samadhi - Understanding Enlightenment Actually, Samadhi cannot be taught and in the Teacher Training course there will be no ‘exercises in Samadhi’. It is a state of altered awareness, a transcendent absorption which comes of the work in the previous seven areas. Samadhi is not a full state of enlightenment – the Sutras go on to describe further development and more work to do beyond getting to Samadhi. Nevertheless, you can’t say to yourself, “Now I’m going to go and practise Samadhi,” or, “I plan to get Samadhi within a year.” It is a state that comes of the work of preparing and the capacity of the student to allow an egocentric lens to change to a non-distorting lens. What you will be obliged to do in your studies is understand the discussion the Sutras give of what Samadhi is. And, in your own time, you will certainly want to be able to direct your students towards Samadhi if they want to go there.
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