In our cultural context, we often hear "yoga" and simply think of the physical exercise. But when yoga was originally developing, the "asanas" (poses) were actually just a small part of the yoga practice as a whole. Patanjali, the first to write a book about the yoga practice, described eight "limbs" of yoga:
- Yamas (Restraints)
- Niyamas (Observances)
- Asanas (Poses)
- Pranayama (Breathwork)
- Pratyahara (Sense withdrawal)
- Dharana (Concentration)
- Dhyana (Meditation)
- Samadhi (Enlightenment)
In my mind, the order in the eight limbs is very significant. Notice that the first two deal with lifestyle. First and foremost, a person must evaluate their attitudes and behaviors. Now, this self-evaluation often happens naturally as a result of practicing Asanas. You may have heard a yoga practitioner talk about the way he started to think about how he treated others, or himself, when he began a consistent practice. So, as is often the case, the first three limbs begin developing around the same time. They continue to grow and change together with time and practice. However, it is important to recognize the fact that Patanjali placed the Yamas and Niyamas first, which shows that yoga was developed primarily as a lifestyle discipline, not a physical exercise.
There are five Yamas/Restraints: Non-violence, non-lying, non-stealing, non-obsession, and non-possessiveness. The first one, Ahimsa (non-violence, or non-harming), is in many people's opinions the most important, because it is often said to encompass all the others. (That is, if you embrace the restraint of not bringing harm to others or to yourself, you will not, of course, steal or lie, because those things are harmful.)
The chance to "practice" ahimsa presents itself in pretty much every single moment of our lives. What we eat, what we buy, what we say, what we think, how we treat our loved ones, how we treat strangers, how we treat ourselves - all can be affected by this idea of non-harming.
Food - This is a tricky topic, and one that I don't necessarily want to go into great depth about. (The reason being that people can be very sensitive about their food choices.) One thing I will say is that you will find greater numbers of vegetarians among people who practice yoga than any other group. Why? Because of ahimsa. Life is precious, whether it's yours or mine, or a dog's or cat's or pig's or cow's. If I may be so bold (Eek! I promised myself I wouldn't get preachy...) as to use the phrase "spilling blood" (I know, I know, you don't want to think about it that way), we start to think about the life of the animal that was killed in order to satiate our desire for a hamburger or fried chicken. Can you do without meat in order to protect those that can't protect themselves? (Note: I'm not talking about the proportionately small number of people in third world countries who actually need meat to live, I'm talking about Americans with their factory farms and spoiled taste buds.) (Also note: I have great respect for people who are willing to simply reduce their meat intake to once or twice a week, or those who only buy meat from farmer's markets where the animals are at least killed in a somewhat humane way. Every little step helps!) (Also note: If you are one of those people who think that vegetarianism is unhealthy, check your facts.) (One last note: I am certainly not perfect. I am a cheese addict, and sometimes I buy cheese and eggs and milk from grocery stores where it undoubtedly came from factory farms where the animals are not treated well. I have decreased the amount of these products, but I hope to one day be completely free of them, either as a vegan, or a crazy city girl who owns her own goat and chicken. :))
Food 2 - Okay, I had to interrupt myself on that last one. I could go on for hours. This second part about ahimsa/food has to do with non-harming ourselves with what we put into our bodies. Okay, here we have a serious hypocrisy alert... I am a junk food junkie. In fact, if my husband Shane is reading this, I guarantee he just snorted when he read that "what we put into our bodies" sentence. Shane is constantly getting onto me for not eating healthier. My loves are all forms of bread and cheese, and also sweets - and often a day goes by without me eating anything else. It's quite terrible. But I am getting better, I think. (For example: today I had a grapefruit BEFORE eating pizza and Cheez-its and gummy bears.) But in all seriousness, this is an area where ahimsa has at least brought AWARENESS to my bad habits. Awareness is the first step to changing, and so I have great hopes that I will one day be able to change my eating habits to be less harmful to my body.
Purchases - This is probably fairly obvious, and my point here is not to preach to you, but to simply say that ahimsa has the ability to bring about consciousness in everything we do. Do you want the next car you buy to be an environmentally dangerous gas guzzler? Do you want to buy items that were made in a third world country where the workers are abused and underpaid? Do you want to buy produce that was shipped from thousands of miles away and artificially ripened and hormonally injected? The principal of ahimsa can help guide you in all of your everyday purchasing decisions.
Words - We all know how much harm words can cause. Everyone has specific memories of a time that someone's words seriously hurt their feelings. We can also remember moments where we said things that hurt someone else. Words can't be taken back. So each time you speak, ask yourself, "Will these words cause harm to anyone?"
Thoughts - Thoughts are often the impetus for actions and words. Since our actions and words can be harmful, we need to consider our thoughts as potentially harmful as well. Also, because our thoughts are dominated by our ego, the majority of what goes through our minds is about ourselves. And since most people have plenty of negative self-images or low self-esteem, our thoughts can do great harm to ourselves. Ahimsa towards ourselves can often be the most important step of all, because in order to be kind and love others, you must be kind and love yourself.
The principle of ahimsa goes far and wide. It would be impossible to cover all the scenarios it could present itself. For that reason, it makes an excellent life motto. In every situation, in every moment, the principal of non-violence can change your life.
