the yamas: a yoga recipe for ethical living
We are social beings. To be happy we need to live in regular social contact with others. How should we conduct ourselves when dealing with others and indeed the world at large? Well, yoga has some answers. Traditional yoga texts defined a set of moral guidelines or ethical priniciples called the yamas.
“2.30 Self-restraint in actions includes abstention from violence, from falsehoods, from stealing, from sexual engagements, and from acceptance of gifts.
2.31 These five willing abstentions are not limited by rank, place, time or circumstance and constitute the Great Vow.”
web: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Translation by BonGiovanni
Much commentary has been written about the traditional texts of yoga. I’m no Sanskrit scholar and feel presumptuous writing about something I know so little about but hope to use yamayamas.com as a way to develop my understanding and yoga practice. It’s interesting to see that the yamas are interpreted and understood in different ways by different translators and commentators. This is partly due to the very concise language used by Patanjali which provides a refeshing blend of precision and depth. The same adjectives could be used to describe B.K.S Iyengar’s style of yoga. One of the first things he does in his seminal work, ’Light on Yoga,’ is to provide an overview of Patanjali’s eight limb system of yoga and to explain the yamas:
“yama (ethical disciplines) – the great commandments transcending creed, country, age and time. … the rules of morality for society and the individual … “
Iyengar dedicated ‘Light on Yoga’ to his guru, T. Krishnamacharya. T.K.V Desikachar, son of Krishnamacharya and one of his disciples, hasn’t had as big an impact in the West as Iyengar but it is perhaps safe to say that he had a close understanding of his father’s approach to yoga.
“Yama can mean ‘discipline’ or ‘restraints’; I prefer to think of yama as ‘attitude’ or ‘behaviour’.”
I like both of these definitions for yama. I think that perhaps they start out as rules that we have to try hard to follow but then as we begin to follow them diligently they slowly change our attitudes and behaviour. The yamas then become analogous to yoga asana practice. We start by just doing the poses and then are slowly, magically transformed. I’m at the beginning of this alchemical process but I hope that this blog will help me to develop a happier, more congruent, more conscientious life.
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”web: Gandhi (1869 – 1948)
