The 8 Limbs: The Yamas

The 8 Limbs: Yamas

Welcome back! Today, we delve into the essence of the Yamas, the vital first step on the path to self-discovery. These simple yet powerful social codes will revolutionise your daily life.

The Yamas, outlined in Patanjali's Eight Limbs of Yoga, comprise five principles:

1. Ahimsa: Embrace non-violence in thoughts, words, and actions. Speak kindly, even to yourself. Act with compassion, preserving the intention of love. Ahimsa guides us away from harm, fostering a harmonious existence.
2. Satya: Embrace truthfulness, but exercise discernment. Not all truths need to be shared; some can cause harm. Honesty rooted in compassion builds trust and authentic connections.
3. Asteya: Avoid theft, not just of physical belongings but also time and energy. Minimize unproductive conversations and steer clear of energy vampires. Respect boundaries and safeguard your precious energy.
4. Brahmacharya: Cultivate self-restraint, particularly in matters of sexual energy. Redirect this vital force within, enhancing spiritual practices. Avoid misusing energy and distractions that drain your potential.
5. Aparigraha: Release attachments and desires for possession. Embrace the flow of the universe, trusting that abundance is always present. Free yourself from the tension caused by clinging to people, things, or situations.

The Yamas create a sanctuary within, fostering elevated consciousness and tranquility. Embrace these principles and witness the alignment of mind, body, and spirit.

Unleash your true potential through the Yamas—forge a life of inner harmony today!

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What are the Yamas?

Welcome back. Today we are going to give a break down of what the yamas are. Now, on the last episode we talked about the 8 limbs as a whole and why they’re important. Today we will focus n the first one, the Yamas, which are the social codes, or self restraints to live by.

These aren’t too huge and something that you can only aspire to do, these are simple and can be easily implemented into your daily lives. To be honest, if you’re already listening to this podcast and others like this, chances are you’re already doing these things anyway.

Let’s dive into it.

There are 5 YAMAS that are outlined in Patanjalis 8 limbs of Yoga.
Ahimsa, or Non-violence. This can be taken as broad or as narrow as you like. It can be thought of in the most literal sense, of don’t physically injure someone, or worse, murder them. This isn’t to say, if you were in an awful situation where you had to fight someone, or fight off someone or fight for your life, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t fight or fight back, it means that you do it for self preservation and you should try to do it with as little malice or hatred as possible. Because in those situations you may have no other choice. On the non physical side, Ahimsa, also means non-violence in relation to your thoughts, words and intentions. It means speaking kindly to others and to your self. There’s the old saying, “If you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything at all”. This is the same. In speaking to your self, this is the chitta in your mind, the conversations you have to yourself or words you say in your mind or out loud about yourself. Especially in the western world, these might be things like, “I’m not good enough” “I’m ugly, I’m fat” “I will never be happy” etc. These are things that we might be saying to ourself which are actually not coming from a place of love. When we also act from a place of good intention we are acting in accordance with ahimsa. When we come from a place of ill-intention or malice, this is acting against ahimsa. Ahimsa means to act from a place of compassion. As we evolve and reach these higher states within mediation and life, we have less of a desire to hurt anyone and become the embodiment of ahimsa.
Satya, or Truth. This may sound like a pretty straightforward yama. It literally means that we should be as truthful as possible. I say as possible, because this doesn’t mean you should be revealing all to everyone all the time. Not all things need to be known. Such as, if the truth will cause violence, than depending on the situation then perhaps nothing is said at all. Although lying or untruthfulness tends to come from a place of fear. A small child, for example, will lie about spilling the cup of milk, out of fear of the punishment. However if the parent is coming from a place of compassion and patience with the child, then the child is less likely to lie about it. It’s the same with adults. If a safe place with compassionate people has been created then we are far more likely to open up and share truths than if this space of love and compassion was not available to us.
Asteya, or non-theft. Again this seems pretty straight forward, we don’t steal. Think of this in the broad sense of not stealing a car, or robbing a bank, or breaking into someone’s house and stealing their belongings. But if we think of this in the narrower sense, it can be perceived as the non-stealing of time. This might be when you go up to the teacher after a class and just start talking and talking and talking and talking. This could be the friend that you call all the time to complain about your problems! Think about how often this might happen in your day to day, generally, more often than we think it does! This can also be thought of as the non-stealing of energy. Hands up if you know an energy vampire. You know the ones, the people or places that just drain you. You may not be able to pin point exactly what is is that makes this happen, but you certainly feel it!
Bramacharya Self restraint, especially in relation to sexual control. Now, I know what this sounds like, it doesn’t mean you need to don the chastity belt. It simply means to abstain from unnecessary sex. Now, why would that matter for meditation or yoga? If you think of the basic desire of sex, it’s the build up of sexual energy and the subsequent need to release this energy. Which in the simplest form, that is what sex achieves, it drains the vital energy from the body. Energy can manifest in different ways, and sexual energy is no different, therefore if we look at that energy and redirect it within the body, we can enhance and expand our practises. Now if we can consider this from a non-sexual manner, we can suggest that we don’t want to misuse our precious energy to manipulate ourselves or others. From this perspective, look at how you might be procrastinating, or wasting time. Social media scrolling anyone?? Have some self restraint and try to redirect your energy to benefit yourself, rather than drain yourself.
Aparigraha Non-attachment. This would have to be a personal favourite. It simply translates to non-coveting, so don’t hoard, or grasp at things, places, people, time, situations, relationships, anything really. Who has a favourite chair that they always have to sit in? Or a favourite place to put their yoga mat in the room? Yep, we’ve all been guilty of these attachments. We do these things, we attach because its easy, because its comfortable, because as humans we crave routine as that’s what makes us feel secure on an very primal level. Look at the unhappiness that has been caused in your life from either not having something or from the thought of losing something, this can result in a subconscious tension that is constantly there. Yet, when you can let go, and begin to trust in the flow and the generous nature of the universe, you will ALWAYS have enough. Repeat after me, you will ALWAYS have enough. This in itself leads into having an abundance mindset, which if you follow any sort of manifestation guru, you would have heard of this. Non attachment people!

The over all point of the Yamas is to create a more peaceful mind and environment for you to have higher states of consciousness. The more you practise these YAMAS, the more calm and stable your mind becomes. There is less conflict between your own thoughts and actions. Practise one or more of these for a week, and let me know how you go!