Me & The Yoga Sutras

Olive Oyl in Lotus Pose

The Yoga Sutras written by Patanjali are the guidelines by which we practice yoga in the modern world.  Outwardly to many, yoga is nothing more than the ability to contort and twist the body into poses that resemble pretzels.   And, to be honest, when I attended my first class, (almost 6 years ago) I believed that too.  I have since learned the poses, called ASANAS in Sanskrit are just one little piece of the puzzle.  In the second pada, or chapter of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali explains there are 8 limbs of yoga:

1.        YAMA-universal moral commandments

2.        NIYAMA-self-purification through discipline

3.        ASANA-posture or poses

4.        PRANYAMA-rhythmic control of the breath

5.        PRATYAHARA-withdrawal of the mind from the senses and external objects

6.        DHARANA-concentration

7.        DYHANA-meditation

8.        SAMADHI-super-conscious state where individual becomes one with the object of his/her meditation

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For the first four years, my yoga practice was sporadic and at times non-existent.  So it took me a long time to realize the poses were nothing without the breath, also known as PRANYAMA. 

Hollace Stephenson, senior student of Rod Stryker and owner of Yoga Shala in Charlotte, NC states, “The quickest way to change your mood is through your breath.”  I could not agree more.  Once I learned I could calm my nervous, anxious, impatient, easily angered, quick to judge, unbalanced mind with long, slow breaths, my world changed.  I became a better mom.  I became a better wife.  I became a better all-around
person.
 

Bakasana aka Crow Pose

Once I figured out that yoga was more than just a bunch of party trick poses, I quit agonizing over the ones I found challenging, like Bakasana.  I let go of my ego and took this quote by the red-headed yoga teacher that Claire Dederer writes about in her book, Poser:  My life in twenty-three yoga poses, to heart:  “I hope everyone will allow themselves to be really crappy today, to walk away from being perfect.  The real yoga isn’t in the perfect pose; it’s in the crappy pose that you are really feeling.  You want to feel it from the inside out, rather than make it perfect from the outside in.” 

So there you have it.  The red-headed yoga teacher said it best.  It’s not just about the poses.  But, it’s also not just about the breath.  Remember, there are eight limbs of yoga.

So while I consistently practice the first four limbs, I need to start working on the last four.  I believe 5,6,and 7 are all interconnected so once I add meditation to my practice on a regular basis, I believe Pratyahara and Dharana will fall in line like good soldiers.  As for Samadhi, my mind cannot even process the concept yet.  I’m not ready to go there.  Like an infant learning to walk, one step at a time is my modus operandi.  If someday I reach it, so be it.  If I don’t, so be it.  The greatest gift I have received through my yoga practice thus far is santosa or contentment.  Just as my ego no longer needs Bakasana as part of my physical practice, Samadhi is not a requirement for my spiritual practice.

Epilogue:  Approximately thirty minutes after writing this article, a fellow yogi friend posted this quote from Swami Rama on her Facebook page:  “The goal of meditation is to experience a state beyond the mind’s levels of thinking, feeling, and analyzing.  To achieve this, we must create a state that is still and one-pointed so that the mind becomes silent.” 
  

Coincidence? 
  

Maybe.  But I prefer to believe the universe was sending me a message about my Samadhi musings. 

Well played Universe.  Message received.

Sanksrit Word of the Week: Samadhi

As part of my curriculum for yoga teacher training through Holistic Yoga Therapy Institute, I am required to read the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  I am then further required to journal each week about a Sutra that impacted my life in that seven day span, culminating in a one page article on the Sutra that MOST impacted my life over the course of the training.

I'm at it again.  Trying to read the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and I keep seeing the word SAMADHI.  And, it's not always alone.  Sometimes it's also joined by other words I don't understand.
For example:

• SABIA (with seed) SAMADHI
• NIRBIA (seedless) SAMADHI
• SAMPRANATA (distinguished) SAMADHI
• ASAMPRAJNATA (non-distinguished) SAMADHI
• SAVITARKA (deliberation) SAMADHI
• NIRVITARKA (without deliberation) SAMADHI
• SAVICHAR (reflective) SAMADHI
• NIRVICHARA (non-reflective) SAMADHI

So back to the beginning I go.  

What is SAMADHI?

According to dictionary.com 

SAMADHI [suh-mah-dee] is:

noun:  hinduism, buddhism

the highest stage in meditation, in which a person experiences oneness with the universe.

  

In the Yoga Journal article, titled Seeking Samadhi, Judith Lasater wrote: Samadhi is a state of being intensely present without a point of view. In other words, in samadhi you perceive all points of view of reality at once, without focusing on any particular one. 

This reminded me of my first job as a freshly minted college graduate working for a big box home improvement retailer.  Hired as a department manager to oversee the design center, I focused my attention solely on my own department.  Armed with only a degree in interior design and no real world experience, I had no concept of how my department impacted the rest of the store.  In my infancy as a retail manager, I could not see the big picture.

According to Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success, it takes 10,000 hours to successfully master any skill.  I worked for that company for approximately three years or 6,000 hours (achieving a couple of promotions along the way) before it merged with another big box retailer; it's doors eventually shuttered.   In that time frame, I made tremendous growth as an individual and as a manager, expanding my focus to better comprehend how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.  And while I still had a lot to learn, I'd like to believe I'd achieved some level of retail manager enlightenment.  And perhaps, if circumstances had been different, I may have even reached "master manager" status.

Twenty years later and on a completely different path, this time striving to become a certified yoga instructor, I again find myself in my infancy working toward the same goal:  Samadhi...but this time in Patanjali's terms.