Yama and Niyama

Flower of the Day

“Everything can be summed up in love. It is the essence of life,
and the greatest power on this earth. Love is what brings us joy,
but it is also what squeezes us and brings us sadness. Love takes
us to the highest heavens, but it also shakes us and leads us to
the depths so that we may become free from our attachments.
All this happens so that love can fulfill itself through us, turning
us into pure instruments of love.”
Yama & Niyama

!   First 2 stages of Patanjali

!   10 in total

!   Yoga extends far beyond the physical

!   Literally a way of living

!   Integrate the moral and ethical aspects in a very rigorous way

!   Essential basis for any spiritual growth

!   Sometimes our inner voice conscious can be confused by so

many influences
Why?
!   Guides as opposed to commandments
!   Suggested to ease the karmic ties

! Electricity - don’t touch the live wire because it will shock you
!   “Thou shall not touch the light wire”

!   Clues as to actions being

! Harmonious – consistency in thought and action
! Producing good karmic results – not abusing power
! Disturbing our health
! What is increasing our meditation
Essence
!   Things to do today:
1.  Put an end to hunger
2.  Floss

!   Addresses both the lofty ideals of life as well as the practical

components

!   Provide both
!   The possibilities of human existence
!   Practical guidance of the choices in our daily lives

!   When practiced to perfection are said to bring paranormal

poers
Yamas
!   The first five jewels

!   Sanskrit word which translates into “restraints”

!   Don’ts

! Gernerally Yama is external, what I do to the world

!   The word yama proceeds from the root yam-, which means ‘to
harness’, ‘to hold’, ‘to submit’, ‘to rule’
!   Ahimsa - Nonviolence
! Satya - Truthfulness
! Asteya - Non stealing
! Brahmacharya - Continence (Walking with God)
! Aparigraha - Non Possessiveness
Niyamas
!   The last five jewels

!   Generally Niyama is what I do with myself

!   Do’s

!   Translated as “observances”
! Saucha - Purity
! Santosha - Contentment
!   Tapas - Self Discipline
! Svadhyaya - Self Study
! Ishvara Pranidhana - Surrender
Ahimsa – Non Violence
!   In eastern thought, nonviolence is so valued that it stands as
the very core and foundation of all yoga philosophy and
practice

!   Not a coincidence this is the 1st

!   Mahatma Gandhi, the liberator of india,

with his famous non-violent revolution
! Cultivating the virtue to not harm in deed,
speech or thought any sentient being
 Extremes
!   Let’s analize a little bit the concept and see if it is possible to
actually live your live in a non-violence

!   In India, for example, there is a form of practising non -violence

to the extreme

!   The Jains
! Gauze over their mouth, to avoid swallowing insects accidentally
! Monks may walk on all fours, with a small
brush to not step on insects
! Won’t swat flies and mosquitoes
!   Not eat vegetables from the ground as you
may kill an insect
Krishna and Arjuna
!   On the other extreme is the Bhagavad Gita

!   Krishna is more or less condoning or supporting a war

!   “Arjuna! Don’t become impotent. This does not befit you”

!   Gita 2.3

!   Detached, he had to do this for their spiritual good. No lust for

killing, nor duty, but pure detachment to do Krishna's work
!   Krishna, the most beloved archetype, apparently condones war

! Between extremes and it’s really difficult to say where the limit is
! What is non violence?
!   So how to hold ahimsa and still survive?
Dilemma
!   There is a tiger amongst a herd of cattle, and you have a gun in your
house that you do not touch because of your oath of nonviolence

!   You know you can kill the tiger and save the herd.

!   What would you do?

!   Detachment

!   This is what Krishna teaches: do not follow violence or nonviolence,

just be detached.

!   What Arjuna is taught is the essence of all oriental martial arts

where one is trained to hit the opponent but inside oneself remain
in the centre of stillness. That is ahimsa in the battle field. This is
the resolution of the ‘koan’ of Gita’s non-violence.
 Courage
!   Non-violence is almost like unconceivable for a
person with a strong ego
!   “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other”

!   Yogis say, there is always a non-violent way to resolve any situation

!   That is why the thing is that non-violence is something very

difficult
! Being non-violent is not “never acting” – but it IS acting always out
of love
!   “Cowardice is impotence worse than violence. The coward desires revenge
but being afraid to die, he looks to others, maybe to the government of the
day, to do the work of defense for him”
!   Gandhi
Subtleties
Verbal
!   Emotional abuse
!   Gossip
!   Passive-aggressive
!   Manipulation

Mental
!   Frustration
!   Repression
!   Imagination

!   Seeds of all actions are planted at the mental body

 Love
!   Sometimes seeming violence is done out of love

! Love is not always gentle though

! Eg. Mother seeing her child about to drink some chemical accidently

!   She might yell at her child to stop before she drinks it

! When your action results from love, it is ahimsa automatically

!   Non Violent Communication

!   “If we are arrested every day, if we are exploited every day, if we are
trampled over every day, don’t ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate
them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have compassion and
understanding for those who hate us.”
!   Reverend Martin Luther King Jr
Perfection
!   “When non-violence is established, hostility recoils in its presence”

!   Yoga Sutras (II: 35)

!   Many stories of yogis going into the forest to practice, and cobras
and tigers don’t harm them

!   Buddha is said to have had his enemies send a rogue elephant to

attack him, and he just stood as it came – when it entered his field
of ahimsa, it stopped its attack and became calm
Practice
!   Watch where you are running interference on others’ lives
!   Are you a worrier?
!   A fixer?

!   Discern the diff erence between “help” and “support.”

!   Notice what you might be avoiding in your own life because

you are so interested in others’ lives
 Satya - Truth
!   The truth is God and God is the Truth”
!   Mahatma Ghandi

!   Sat = eternal, unchanging truth beyond all knowing;

! Ya is the activating suffix which means "do it."

! Satya = "actively expressing and being in harmony with the
ultimate truth."
!   “The truth must used for the benefit of everybody, and not to
destroy or harm any creature. Even if we tell the truth, but
harm another being by doing so, we are committing a big
mistake”.
! Vyasa
What Is The Truth
!   Language is dual, so cannot express absolute
!   It is nightime

!   “Right speech” – Buddhism

!   As long as you have any desire, it is very difficult to always say

the truth
!   Often lying is a result of fear
!   The one who can say the truth is fearless
 Dilemma
!   You see a small guy run by at a crossroad
!   Larger group of armed men come by and ask which way

!   What to say

!   If you use the truth for harming other people, that is an

improper use of the truth
!   Ahimsa comes first

!   Telling the truth no matter what and say “what, the

consequences are not mine, I am simply telling the truth”
!   Correct – you are following satyam but you may be breaking
ahimsa
 Ahimsa & Satya
!   The Yogis say take the habit of being brave
!   stand up and say the truth, even if the
!   Whatever will come will come, just speak
the truth

!   Of course there are exceptions

!   Truthfulness is second only to Ahimsa
!   There are white lies which can save harm

!   Where you can save a life, save pain, do so

! Vs ability to say you are completely virtuous and have never lied
 Power of The Word
!   “In the beginning was the Word, and the word

was with God, and God was the word”

!   Gospel of John

!   Jesus uses the word to heal the sick

!   “Rise, you are healed”, and then they were healed!

!   Humans are the only species with articulated speech and with
reflexive consciousness
!   Correlation between consciousness and the ability to speak

!   Study of grammar was one of 5 paths to enlightenment in

ancient Vedic times
! Jnana, Yoga, Music, Dance, Grammar
The Mask
!   Truth demands integrity to life and to our own
self that is more than not telling a simple lie
!   “A lie would make no sense unless the truth was felt to be dangerous”
- C. Jung
!   Watch out for nice people
!   Nice is an illusion, a cloak hiding lies
!   It is an imposed image of what one thinks they should b

!   What is driving you to distort yourself or silence yourself or say

yes when you mean no
!   Necessary to be truthful to ourselves about ourselves
!   Now where you are to be able to take the next step
Extremes
!   Mahabharata

! Arjuna the hero comes home happy and he enters the door,
and he says, “Mother, guess what I have won!”

!   And his mother, without turning even the face to him, throws
the first word which spontaneously comes to her
!   “Whatever you have won, you will have to share it with your
brothers.”

!   “But Mother I have won a wife!”

!   “What has been said has been said. I have said the word. I
cannot take it back.”
 Perfection
! Vak Siddhi – the capacity for whatever you say will happen
!   “Being firmly established in satya, the results of actions will be achieved,
depending entirely on our own will”
!   Yoga Sutras 2:36

!   'If ye have faith even as a grain of mustard seed, ye will say to this
mountain, move from that place, and it will move, and nothing shall be
impossible for you’
!   Matthew 17:20

!   Lifetime of work
!   Understanding power of speech
!   Understanding vibrations of mantra and sound
!   Working on vishuddha chakra
Practice
!   Observe the difference between “nice” and “real.”

!   Notice situations where you were nice.

!   What did this experience invoke in you?

!   What were the results?

!   Notice situations where you were real.

!   What did this experience invoke in you?

!   What were the results?

!   From whom or what do you seek approval?

!   Does this aff ect whether you act from your “niceness” or your
“realness”?
Asteya – Non Theft
! Steya means theft, and therefore A-steya means no theft.

!   Perhaps the most straight forward of all the Yamas

!   We live in a highly materialistic world

!   Useful to clearly define what is theft
!   Where are the limits

!   Means to take what is not clearly yours,

!   Misuse / destroy somebody else’s property

!   The Yogis would say if you steal something equal will be stolen
from you sooner or later
Desire
!   The yogis consider that theft originates from envy
!   You have something that I don’t have, and I want
what is yours

!   Small vision of the world

!   We live in an infinite universe
!   The need of something external to make us happy

!   If the desire is there, as much as you get, you will never get
enough
!   Once again desire is at the heart of this Yama

!   “When we compare ourselves to others, we either find ourselves

lacking, which makes us feel cheated, or we find ourselves
superior, which leaves us feeling arrogant”
!   Deborah Adele – Yama & Niyamas
Entitelment
!   Examine why you feel more deserving than others, more superior?

!   You can argue “I need this, and so I can take it”…

!   There is often a "justifiable" reason to steal –

!   Jean Valjean stealing bread to support his sister's
family in hard times

!   But look at the patterns that form (Valjean stole silverware from a
priest afterwards, then a child)
!   Gets easier to come up with reasons and harder to resist

!   Same thing with over-consumption

!   I need to leave the water on in the shower while I soap up because...
!   I need to leave the lights on in the house when I go out because...
Global Impact
! Asteya implies that we do not take more than we need
!   What we acquire we do so with integrity

!   Over-consumption
!   Rape of the land
!   Conscious use of resources and energy
!   Downloading

!   Temporary visitors to Earth

!   We technically do not own anything
!   What would the planet be like if every time we took something
we gave back?
Perfection
!   "To the yogi established in asteya, all kinds of jewels appear to him.”
!   Yoga Sutras 2:33

!   If you're not feeling entitled or superior towards others and

their possessions, then the universe will support you
automatically
! Sivananda
!   Money was constantly flowing
!   He built everything by donations
!   Printing press, ashrams, medical centers, University, Leper Colony

! Faith
!   If you trust that you really are Self as inexhaustible Spirit, then it
leaves nothing to be desired
 Practice
!   Notice when and how you steal from others
!   Time
!   Attention
!   One-upmanship
!   Power
!   Confidence
!   Not being able to celebrate others’ successes

!   Notice what is happening in you that prompts this stealing

Brahmacharya
!   One of the most difficult and controversial to understand

!   Literal Translation
!   Brahma is the name of a deity (The Creative Universal Force)
!   char means "to walk,”
! ya means "actively,”
!   Walking With God

!   Broad Translation
!   Conduct that leads to the realisation of the Self, or Brahman
!   Study of the Vedas and scriptures,
!   Contemplation on Brahman
!   Spiritual one-pointedness
Continence
!   Classical translation
! acharya = to lay foundation, to be firm,
!   Stable in Brahma (The Creative Force)
!   The creative force can be seen to have a correspondence with
sexual energy
!   "celibacy,” or “continence”

!   Why the issue around continence?

! Ojas = Raw sexual energy in Sanskrit
!   Both in Ayurveda and Yogic scripts
!   Suggest Ojas is the power that drives humans to transformation
!   Like a propeller on a boat
!   If not under pressure more like a flat tire
Brahmacharis
!   Spiritual students in India
!   Vows of celibacy
!   Intense focus on their spiritual practice and teachings
!   Spends his sexual energy out he will not be able to memorize, to
learn, to transform

!   Ramakrishna tell the story of the 2 boys rowing a boat across

the Ganges…

!   If you don’t do something about the sexual energy, to keep it

under pressure
!   You will row twenty years and you will go nowhere
Sex and Sport
Ojas
!   The ancient Yogis and in Ayurveda suggest that there is a
limited amount of ojas
!   In Ayurvedic medicine every single person on this plant is born
with the same equal amount of ojas
!   3 ½ drops

!   You burn it even by physical effort – microgram by microgram

!   Running
!   Weight lifting
!   Mountain climbing
!   Sex – biggest proportionally

! Kundalini, Kriya, pranayama can start to recycle Ojas

Swami
Sivananda

!   Practice of Brahmacharya gives good health, inner strength, peace of

mind and long life. It invigorates the mind and nerves. It helps to
conserve physical and mental energy. It augments memory, will force
and brain power. It bestows tremendous strength, vigour and vitality.
Strength and fortitude are obtained... He who is established in
Brahmacharya will have lustrous eyes, a sweet voice and a beautiful
complexion
Supression
!   Some believe to practice brahmacharya means suppression of the
natural sexual instinct
!   Anything that is suppressed will eventually be released
!   May cause hysteria, hormonal imbalances, cancer, health problems,
neurosis
! Brahmacharya is a natural blossoming

!   The proper way to practice brahmacharya is to sublimate these

natural urges by a strong yoga practice
!   Meditation
! Asanas
!   Pranayama
! Japa
! Kirtan
! Satsang
!   Reading of scriptures or yogic texts
 Tantra
!   There are 2 general paths with sexuality in spirituality
! Vedantic – refrain, celibacy, find union within the Self
!   Tantric – Sublimation, transmutation, kundalini

!   The problem is not with sex, but rather with the loss of sexual
energy

!   Necessary to convert the sexual energy

!   Men lose Ojas in the form of sperm, and women lose it with
explosive orgasms and menstruation
!   Implosive vs Explosive

!   Sex should not be done for animalistic purposes

!   Rather it is the combining of the yin and the yang towards unity
!   There is no tantra without love
Cause and Effect
!   Celibacy sometimes considered to be brahmacharya
!   However, celibacy is not the cause, but the effect

!   The cause is constant remembering of the highest reality

!   The celibacy is the effect
!   The effect may be visible when observing
a spiritual person
!   Can accidentally reverse cause and effect
Perfection
!   “When the yogin is firmly established in brahmacarya, great virya is
gained”
!   Yoga Sutras 2:38

! Virya means efficient power, the power of efficiency

!   Verbal root as in virility

!   Stockpile of vitality and energy grows within

 Excess
!   When considering practicing brahmacarya, think of it as self-
control in all things
!   Continence in your sex life
!   Be temperate in eating
!   Movement
!   Thought
!   Possessions
!   Entertainment

! Brahmacharya reminds us to enter each day and

each action with a sense of holiness rather than indulgence
!   There is a moment when we reach the perfect limit
!   We need to recognize this moment of “just enough”
Life’s Cues
!   When we over consume we often will get a negative bodily,
emotional or mental effect
!   Reminder of not living a life of sanctity

!   Can use technology to help us manoeuvre through society’s

demands and expectations without them becoming gods

!   When gratitude and wonder sit in the heart, there is no need

for excess
Practice
!   Eat, work, and sleep to the point of increased energy and
before the lethargy of excess sets in.

!   Ponder the words of Gensei, a Japanese Buddhist monk, who

said, “The point in life is to know what’s enough”

!   For this week, know what is enough and stop there

!   Practice pleasure without excess

Aparigraha – Non Possessiveness
! Grah
!   Receive, acquire, take possession of
!   Seize, take, overpower, grasp, covet

! Pari
!   All around

!   May seem similar to Asteya

!   There is an overlap with all of the Yamas
!   It’s said of the sutra-writers that, if they could shorten a sutra by
even half a syllable, it was considered a bigger event than the
birth of a child
!   Pay Attention
Asteya vs Aparigraha
!   Not to steal means not to take what does not belong to you

!   Not to accumulate means not to collect things you don’t need

!   Formulated to suggest
!   Not accepting favors
!   Not being attached to objects you possess
!   Not accumulating material property

!   Discover that everything you really need is given to you exactly

when you need it
!   Feeling of inner security
!   Not here on earth just to satisfy our own desires but we are part
of a greater whole
Consumer Society

!   Encouraged to buy and possess

whatever is “more luxurious” or “more fashionable”
!   The goal
!   Simply learn to use goods without being dependent on them for
our happiness

!   The possession of a material thing never satisfies anyone,

because the mind will immediately head toward another object
!   “The richest person is the poorest in wants”
Ascetism

!   Buddhism, Christianity, suggest you need to be poor or

have no possessions to live a successful spiritual life
!   “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” - Matthew 19:24

!   Why need poverty, austerity, modesty to be spiritual?

!   If my bank account is stable, does it mean I cannot reach
Samadhi?
!   Does something happen to my chakras?

!   It doesn’t matter how much you have, it matters how you

have it, what your attitude is towards having
Possession
!   People who make lots of money, work hard for good life
say “I’m not stealing, I work hard, honest work, I enjoy
the fruits. Why are you telling me this is bad?”
!   Hard work is not bad – but if you work so you can
possess more, then you become
“possessed by the wish to possess”
!   Mistake possessions as providing happiness rather than
just tools
!   When the tool becomes the purpose you have lost your integrity
Fight Club
Essence
!   So where would you draw the line?
!   Only have what you would need for a year? A month?
!   Just your begging bowl and the clothes on your back?

!   All starts from people’s relationship to property

!   Someone has nothing, maybe will kill to keep it
!   Someone may have great riches, but can give it all away freely

!   The mind is a very tricky animal

 Parable (Ramakrishna)
!   A young student wanting to learn to meditate goes to his master
!   Given Mantras, sadhana etc
!   “Sit here quietly and practice every day, until you reach perfection”

!   “One more thing, Give up all your possessions”

!   Move to the forest and bed in the local village for you food

!   Student wants to keep his loincloth as he doesn’t want to

embarrass the villagers
!   Master advises him against it but keeps it anyway
!   Few months later….
!   Mouse begins to chew his loincloth
!   Gets a cat

!   Now needs to beg for milk

!   One year later villager offers him a calf

!   Wet season needs shelter and dry season needs food

!   Builds a stable

!   Slowly but surely he eventually has a house, a wife and kids

!   Working to maintain his fields and family

!   Guru comes back 10 years later and asks the wife

!   “Where is the great yogi that used to live here?
Forgetfulness
!   Those who are immersed in pleasure, tend to forget the goal
!   They who suffer, they remember

!   Typically when do they pray to God?

!   When they are happy and rich?

Jesus Parable – Eye of the Needle

!   “What do I do for eternal life?”

!   Jesus “Drop everything you own, sell/give to poor, follow me”

!   “Everything? My father worked his life for me, this, I can’t just
give it all up” and leaves
!   Has forgotten what life is made for
Rudyard Kipling, IF
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
…yours is the world

And everything in it, my son

Possession of Others
!   Not just with people and objects
!   Treating other people in the same way, as objects they possess

!   You are never actually free of others’ expectations:

!   Parents
!   Society
!   Job
!   Lover

!   You become objectified by the world around you

!   When opposite of detachment and non-possessiveness

enters into a relationship, gravest form of disrespect
!   =Disrespect of human spirit, human spirit = freedom

!   If you want to reach freedom, start first of all, giving freedom

Suffering

!   It’s like Buddha said 2500 years ago – life is suffering, and it’s
suffering because of attachment

!   You love someone, they die, you own something, it breaks or is

stolen – and then the misery comes

!   Yoga is telling you that until you learn to let everything go,
live purely in love and respect and worship, you will not be
free of this misery, you will not have mastered aparigraha

!   ‘Undoubtedly it is very difficult to curb the restless mind, but it is

possible by perseverance and by detachment’
!   Bhagavad Gita 6:35
Perfection
!   When one is steadfast in aparigraha, there arises

knowledge of the why and wherefore of past

and future incarnations
!   Yoga Sutras 2:39

!   Conjecture – reincarnation happens in part because you are

blinded to some compulsion that makes you come back
!   So to be free of these compulsions gives you the clear view o
fall of the past incarnations, trapped in this cycle of possession
Legends? Maybe, maybe not – but all these traditions see
aparigraha as the highest of aspirations, the key to success in this
life and the next
Practice
!   “Love is what is left when you’ve let go of all the things you love”
!   Swami Jnaneshvara

!   Look at the physical things you have surrounded yourself with

!   Do these things make you feel free and light or do they have a
hold on you and make you feel heavy?

!   Remember: what you cling to, clings to you

!   Experience the difference between
enjoyment and attachment
Recap
!   From harming ourselves and others to kindness and
compassion for self and others
!   From lies and half-truths to expressing our
uniqueness and authenticity
!   From theft to cultivating new skills and abilities

!   From greed to appreciation and pleasure without

excess
!   From attachment to intimacy without possession