Reflections on the Subtle Aspects of Yoga in Practice

For me the base structure of yoga as a practice is covered pretty decently by the ashtanga of Patanjali.

How I have come to know each of these 8 limbs;

1) Builiding a moral foundation

2) Duties and how to observe

3) Physical postures and the movement from one to another

4) Breath and the energy systems of the body - learning to expand and contract our system for specific or general living

5) Learning to control the senses - being able to move towards and/or away from any sensation either internal or external. Nervous system is trained to be more efficient. Lays the basis to develop a samyama, which is the combined next three limbs.

6) Concentration techniques - Learn to focus the mind on both internal and external points. Train capacity to concentrate unbroken.

7) Meditation - cleaning the mind of debris concentration becomes meditation. The mysteries of both internal and external states become more clear, and our knowledge expands. This is knowledge in action. Not to be confused with intellect knowledge. This is fluid intelligence at its best.

8) The fruit of the practice - Our primary emotion is eased and we are more likely to stay in it. Primary emotion is the concept of what each individual has for a base emotion, that state they spend the majority of their time in.

The first 2 limbs are filled with verbs, they are calls to action or inaction. They train us to conduct ourselves in manners that align with our deepest morales and allow for a true community to develop. These are time driven tasks and one should aspire to have considered deeply their morale conduct and to put them in both their internal and external lives.

The 3rd limb - asana - postures - Originally meaning 'throne' or 'seat' and evolved to be 'to sit', 'Seated pose', 'Posture'. To me the basis is how do we do basic movement in our daily lives? How do you go from laying to seated, from seated to standing, from standing to crouching, from crouching to standing, seated or laying. We attempt to prepare the body to better handle day to day functions of our musculoskeletal system.

The 4th Limb - Pranayama denotes an expansion and contraction of energy. This is everything from breath, to digestion and elimination. When we have the base shapes of physical postures, we start to refine them with our breath and either activations or deactivations of muscle groups around joint complexes. We learn to use the breath to increase or decrease available energy for actions or inactions. Internal states start to reflect deeper within and externally.

The 5th Limb - Pratyahara is the exploration of 'sense withdrawal'. We learn to utilize both internal and external stimilus to move through non-attachment exercises. This will help any individual to handle the stimulus that comes up in our daily lives. This is not an attempt to become 'empty'. This literally trains your brainwaves and allows you to explore the brainwaves and train them.

The 6th Limb - Dharana - We learn to concentrate. We learn to collect some acute thing into our stimulus. This can be an internal thought/word/image/sound/sensation or concentration on an external thing; candle flame, image, sound, structure, etc.  This is useful to help us concentrate on the tasks of our daily life. In conjunction with the preceding limbs we are able to do all our daily tasks much more efficiently

The 7th Limb - Dhyana - meditation - I see mediation as sweeping the mind. Sometimes I come across those whom believe meditation is emptying the self. I both agree and disagree. Cleaning a room doesnt remove the objects in the room, it removes the decay/dust/wrot/garbage/etc, meditation is the same thing for the mind and intellect. It will help clean up the nervous system and the thought process. Meditation can be everything from sitting and breathing to deeply concentration on a single subject for an unknown amount of time, you become so involved with the subject that your unable to seperate yourself from the subject, as though you were the subject.

The 8th Limb - Samadhi - I see this as the fruits of the practice. Its a state that is achieved through having put into practice the preceding limbs in such a way that it all becomes a part of our fluid intelligence, that intelligence that doesnt come from intellect, but from action (karma). Its in everything we do permeating us all the time. I think the psychology concept of primary emotion is the basis for this state. You have achieved the state of Yoga.