YAMAS AND NIYAMAS FOR ENLIGHTENED LIVING
Sayde Alexandrescu

 We begin a mindfulness practice, a yogic presence, by deciding goodness before coming to the mat/chair. Before attempted, there must be a commitment to come to practice to do something better for yourself and others; you made a commitment that stems from a choice (knowing or unknowing) to practice Restraint and/or Observance. Yamas, restraints, and Niyamas, observances, are the first 2 leaves of a yogic way of life. Like all words, nuance and depth are lost in translation, but these 10 “rules” are an Indian way of setting the framework for living. When asked to define the yamas and niyamas, here are my favorite one-word answers.
Yamas, Restraints, are better understood as ethics or the “don’t’s.” We restrain (don’t) by following:

1. Non-violence (Ahimsa)
2. Truthfulness (Satya)
3. Non-stealing (Asteya)
4. Continence (Brahmacharya)
5. Non-coveting (Aparigraha).

Niyamas, Observances, are habits of self or the “do’s.” We observe (do) when we follow:

1. Purity (Saucha)
2. Contentment (Samtosha)
3. Discipline (Tapas)
4. Self-Study (Svadhyaya)
5. Surrender—to divine (Ishvana pranidhana).

How similar are these to the ten commandments or mitzvot positive and negative commandments that you may have already learned? Listing these principles for conduct is like boiling down the moral universe to ten words, but this is a template for understanding how we come to practice more than breathing, prayers, meditation, stretches; how we come to practice the yoga, the yoking, the yoking of you with you, you with loved ones, you with friends, you with neighbors and co-workers, you with acquaintances, you with your continent, you with the planet, you with the divine.

The nuance of the word Ahimsa, the first Yama, is understanding that anything (word, action, intention) that stems from negativity, is a violent way. The depth of Ahimsa is that the non-violence extends to all—self, weak, poor, powerful—and it begins by recognizing patterns within. As a child, I watched the cartoon that followed the cartoon GI Joe, and I would tune in just early enough that I would hear GI Joe’s end, when he surmised that, (no matter what problem he faced that day), he was successful because he faced the problem: “Knowing is half the battle.” We must first practice acceptance of this piece of ourselves that needs to be retrained so that we can respond rather than react. Practices of Non-violence can be the gentle way in which you tell a toddler that they can “use walking feet” instead of “not running,” choosing better fuel (food) for your body, or reducing self-criticism.

Truthfulness is such a beautiful word. This truth, Satya, runs from non-lying to self (even about your deepest fears, lusts, shame, etc.) to shining light on regrets. My favorite offenses of Satya are the people who, like the fox in Aesop’s tale, tell of the sour grapes rather than admit the defeat or failing that they faced when intending one outcome but ending up somewhere other than. To impart this ethical conduct for someone who is in the habit to tell of sour grapes is to retell the event as it occurred on the cosmic line, to admit the strength in the lesson learned rather than to rationalize an outcome, and to practice communication to share with others.

We add non-stealing, Asteya, to our rules of ethical conduct. The nuance of this word is taught in the West as we constantly struggle to determine how we pay our taxes, how we tithe, how we reduce/reuse/recycle, based on what we think of as of the community/government and what see as ours. The depth has still to be worked out in the West, as we regret to face that waste, too, is stealing from someone else who could have had it (or the resources utilized to produce/prepare it). And, the first step is reducing.

Continence, Brahmacharya, is a multi-faceted Yama. While at first translation it suggests that yoga is an abstinence-only education program, we learn that celibacy itself comes in stages (pun intended). At first, continence is to understand the power harnessed when we practice redistribution of sexual energy by redefining attachment to the desire. Next is to recognize the desire, the impetus, for humans to reproduce as compelling and necessary to “householders,” who do have sex for union/reproduction and must end sex for power. For the hermits, the forest-dwellers, as persons other than householders, continence purport the clarity that accompanies voluntary chasteness by engaging in meditations and other practices that guide energy upward rather than outward. A dry spell is not a legitimate commitment to brahmacharya, but a practice of redistribution of second chakra energy during a set period of time, or heart meditations preceding/during intercourse with your partner are real world applications.

Aparigraha teaches that thou shalt not covet a wife, nor car, nor health, nor anything else. It paves the way for understanding karma, for embracing your lot and recognizing that you are exactly where you are meant to be. Further, it extends to an end to hoarding, and recognition of jealousy and envy. To work on non-coveting in daily life is to see social media for the tool of connection that it can be instead of comparing one’s own life to a snapshot of someone else’s.

The Niyamas, the good habits that we observe, begin with purity, Saucha. It is to clean from the outside–in, from body to heart to mind. This concept of taking time to be cleanly was radical in a time when people were struggling from dawn to dusk in order to obtain and prepare meals, maintain shelter, protect family. Saucha builds not only ritual into the day or week, provides not only self-care, but, indeed, gives us the pause to reinforce our connection to life and spirit. We purify outside with water, air, sun, we purify body with healthy earth and water in balanced meals (a real effort when one is eating seasonally, locally), we purify heart and mind with guidance in repetition of prayer/mantra/meditation. A modern day practice of saucha is maintaining clean drinking water for your community, or washing clothes in accordance with the availability of water in your area, if not with water then with sun and air (rather than drop them in a heap on the floor at the end of the day).

Practicing contentment, Samtosha, may be the biggest failing of our current American model. We have actually embedded in our vernacular the saying: “Keeping up with the Jones’s.” Like aparigraha, samtosha teaches us to recognize envy, jealousy, and, further, dissatisfaction. We seek to find pleasure in our connection to the divine rather our ever-changing human experience. It is the absence of greed, of want for more, and the satisfaction of being. To enact samtosha in one’s life is to keep a gratitude journal, to use cleaning/maintenance of what you have as a meditation in motion so that the mind is trained not to stray to thoughts of more.

I used discipline as the one-word translation of Tapas, but it is so much more. Firstly, the discipline, as with all of the niyamas, is of self. It is the discipline to preserve the material world, your health, your thoughts, your energy. Austerity is another important understanding of this third observance, as it reminds us to waste not, want not. Discipline, austerity, waste are all words that I think of as severe, cold, restraining; tapas is not a restraint but is an observance. You do commit to your preparation for transcendence, you do refine your possessions, you do preserve your health, etc, and with passion. Tapas is an observation of controls on excess of spending/working/eating…whatever it is that directs your energy outward rather than inward on the spirit. In today’s world, it is to remember that the big house, cultivated yard, ten children, are just more “things” to pull one’s attention from the health and wealth that exist in an open body and still mind. Though any one of those “things” could offer a great spiritual lesson and medication in motion, too many lessons leaves you unable to take the exam of spiritual awakening.

Self-study is, again, not only an amazing quality to foster today, but it must be remembered in the context of the revolution that it led when first introduced. Not just following, not just studying the scholars and professors, the brahmin and ancestors, but engaging in contemplation while then trusting the answers that you receive in self-study, Svadhaya, is quite a concept. I agree with LePage, et al when they remind us that we are “engaged in an ongoing process of self-exploration…in which [we] explore areas of limitation, pain, and suffering in [our] own lives,” (IJYT, 2014, 12). Studying cannot always replace experiencing, and the self-exploration of sitting with the experience, especially something like pain or suffering. The best way to develop svadhaya in life is coupling education with meditation, especially a meditation of open-monitoring, like I-am-meditation or vipassana. The knowledge of a great author or philosopher helps one to understand more clearly the answers that they receive during meditation.

Lord, God, Jehovah, Atman, Allah…no matter the name, the last observance is surrender to the divine, Ishvara pranidhana. This practice of letting go is to be free of our human body, emotions, thoughts and just be the spirit energy that we were born of, that we return to and that flows eternally. Sigmund Freud may have been off on a theory or two, but he did understand human’s main obstacle to being is our ego. To move beyond the clutch of one’s ego is to really be at peace, to “lose your mind to gain your soul” (Dass, 2014, 6). Without fear, shame, sadness, anger toward what was or what will be, we allow ourselves to be in the presence of the divine, to receive without question. Any church asks this of participants, though I, also, think of the Anonymous meetings that do the same, that begin with surrendering to a higher power. Ishvara pranidhana is saying yes to who, what, where, when, how you are and knowing that it is part of your path, and that all who cross your path are part of your path, too. As the last of the niyamas, it bring us full-circle from self-practice to the oneness.

These moral imperatives are set because it is understood that the path to enlightenment is easily sent off-course when we experience life. These principles serve “the purpose of preventing disturbances to the mind…distress might have manifestations in the form of physical health-problems, as well as generating obstructive karmic consequences” (Fields, 2001, 108). The practices are not easy to perform, but the resultant freedom from suffering make the continued practice easier, as gurus, as lay people, as professionals. We visit the void, leave fear, and use this life to prepare for the rest of our existence in the void as One.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Dass, Ram (2014). Polishing the Mirror. Boulder: Sounds True.

Feuerstein, Georg. (2001) The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice. Prescott: Hohm Press.

Fields, Gregory P. (2001). Religious Therapeutics: Body and Health in Yoga, Ayurveda, and Tantra. Albany: State University of New York Press.

International Association of Yoga Therapists (2016). IAYT Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibilities. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.iayt.org/resource/resmgr/
docs_Certification_ALL/docs_certification/docs_ethics_documents/final_code_of_ethics-4.12.16.pdf

International Journal of Yoga Therapy (2014). Yoga Therapy: The Profession, Perspectives. IJYT, Vol. 24, No. 1.