The Eight Limbs of Yoga

A holistic yoga practice has impact on every aspect of our life, from the social to the spiritual via the body, breath and mind.

I find it soothing to dive into Yoga’s history and philosophy and find this so clearly articulated and explained. We tend to call it ‘philosophy’ but Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra reads more like a modern pyschology textbook.

The text is likely to be 2000 years old and yet already articulates a clear understanding that meditation is a practice that needs anchoring in our bodies and our wider social context.

There is a trend towards fragmentation in Yoga and Complementary Therapies which concerns me. Of course there is nothing wrong with focusing on stretching, strength training, breathwork, mindfulness or soulcraft but let’s not forget there is also value in traditional holistic yoga, which is all of these things rolled into one integrated practice.

For the practice to be well rounded and whole I must grow all eight limbs simultaneously.

The Eight Limbs of Yoga: (Patanjali Yoga Sutra 2.29)

The Eight Limbs of Yoga are described in chapter two of the Yoga Sūtra, a key yoga text credited to Patañjali and dated to as early as 500BC. The eight limbs (aṣṭa-aṅga) are presented in sūtra 29:

“yama-niyama-āsana-prāṇāyāma-pratyāhāra-dhāraṇā-dhyāna-samādhayaḥ aṣṭau-aṅgāni”

Yama

Five restraints which facilitate good relationships with others (non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, boundaries, not-grasping).

Niyama

Five ‘not-restraints’ which help us cultivate good habits for ourselves (cleanliness, contentment, effort, self-awareness, devotion).

Asana

The Sanskrit word ‘āsana’ (pronounced ah-sana) means literally a posture or seat, but implies we cultivate a relationship with our bodies.

Pranayama

This involves cultivating and conserving energy via a relationship with our breath.

Pratyahara

Pratyahara is awareness of our senses and the things which attract or distract them, habituating ourselves to less stimulation.

Dharana

The practice of concentration or focus – effort or work and ‘doing’ of meditation.

Dhyana

Dhyana is what happens when the practice of continued concentration or focus leads to the point of meditative absorption – the ‘being’ in meditation.

Samadhi

Samadhi is a state of relaxed focus in which we are at ease. Please note that this is not the final goal or end point of yoga practice. Samadhi is a starting point for the deeper meditative practice which may lead one towards Kaivalya or liberation.

Yoga is Meditation

I think it is worth noting that dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi are all to do with the mind and that at the very start of the Yoga Sutras, yoga is defined as “the containment of the fluctuations of the psyche” (translation by Paul Harvey at Centre for Yoga Studies).

The eight limbs clearly present yoga as a path of meditation. While contemporary yoga practice is often represented by postures (they are easy to photograph), these eight limbs remind us that yoga is a holistic practice, affecting every aspect of our lives, from the social to the spiritual via the body, breath and mind.

There are many scholarly books about the Yoga Sūtra and many people have translated and interpreted the eight limbs slightly differently. For an excellent and practical introduction to the Yoga Sutra I recommend ‘Embodying the Yoga Sūtra’ by David Charlton and Ranju Roy, which can be purchased directly from the authors at Sadhana Mala.

A final thing I would like to share is that, for me, the eight limbs of yoga now make more sense as a kind of circle or cycle. I will never have mastered any one of these eight limbs, but continue to cycle through them. It doesn’t matter whether I start with body, breath or mind, morality or meditation, each limb is connected and interrelated.