Everyone seems to have an opinion on yoga but what actually is it?
Have you ever tried to define it?
The more I learn, study and practice yoga the less I feel able to answer this question! Is it an exercise? Is it breath control? Perhaps it’s best described as a moving meditation or by others, just a mindful practice? Is it a spiritual practice? Is it a philosophy? Is it chilled or is it hard? Is it physical or mental? An ancient tradition or relatively modern?
The questions could go on forever and the answers would continuously differ depending on who, where and what you directed your question toward.
The yoga we know in the west tends to be the asana segment of Patanjali’s 8 limbed ashtanga yoga. There are many styles of yoga (focusing on the asanas), both fast and slow and everything in between, and although the asana side of yoga is rooted in Indian yogic tradition, there has been an intermingling of gymnastic poses on it’s journey to the west.
Within this form of yoga we may see the more ‘exercise’ style yoga classes, concentrating more on the physical benefits and gains of the practice. I have absolutely nothing against this and indeed, is how most people, including myself, initially engage with yoga. Yogis traditionally did have very strong and supple bodies as they were traditionally warriors and there is no doubting the physical benefits a regular yoga practice brings.
However, there are 7 other (somewhat lesser known) limbs to this practice:
Yama – External disciplines
Niyama – Internal disciplines
The yamas and niyamas kind of combine to create an ethical guidance for yogis. As an area of yogic philosophy, the yamas and niyamas are open to a variety of interpretations, all of which are thought-provoking to say the least (but this would be a whole other post, and may well be in the future).
Pranayama – This refers to the breath control practices that the yogis used and passed down. These are many and various, employed to bring about various benefits for different people in different situations. Even the least traditional of yoga class will have some focus on breath work and science has now been able to prove the benefits of certain breathing practices on both body and mind (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7336946/#:~:text=Available%20evidence%20on%20pranayama%20indicates,with%20cancer%20and%20cardiovascular%20disease.).
Pratyahara – this refers to sense withdrawal. I interpret this not to mean an ignorance of the senses but an all encompassing focus which enables the practitioner to be completely present and undisturbed by sensory input (for example remaining immersed in something, be it a yoga session, creating art or even washing up, and undistracted by your phone ringing).
Dharana – focused concentration. Working in tandem with pratyahara, as without sense withdrawal (pratyahara) there would be no focused concentration, and vice-versa.
Dhyana – meditation, again interlinking with focused concentration (dharana) and sense withdrawal (pratyahara) to enable complete absorption into a meditative state.
Samadhi – this refers to enlightenment, although enlightenment itself has been described in various ways. I am not an enlightened being myself so I can not tell you what it is, however, others have described it as being in a state of bliss, or becoming so immersed in meditation that the practitioner becomes one with the meditation object. I personally prefer the description given by Ram Jain, of enlightenment as ‘freedom from illusion’. This may initially sound much more easily attainable but when you consider the conditioning of our brains, the narratives we consistently employ surrounding our own and others experiences, the subjectiveness that we view all events through, ‘freedom from illusion’ becomes a worthy but extremely arduous (if not impossible!) goal.
So, in answer to the original question, what is yoga? Yoga is all of the things we posited earlier and then some. The great thing about yoga? It will meet you wherever you are at and provide whatever you are looking for (be that exercise, philosophy, self development etc) but be prepared for it to give you so much more when you are ready to receive it.
For me yoga is a journey, a path to peace.
Xx
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