Yamas and Niyamas
How they may apply to your life both on and off the Yoga mat
Despite practising yoga for over ten years with a number of teachers in various countries, it wasn’t until preparing for a Yoga Alliance accredited 200-hour teacher-training course that I first heard of yamas and niyamas, which are the first and second of the eight limbs of yoga. Here I start to develop my understanding of the five yamas and five niyamas, a set of codes or ethical disciplines with which to approach life.
Yamas:
The yamas are a set of five rules, goals, or restraints in how we behave towards others and our environment.
- ahiṃsā अहिंसा
a is a negative pre-fix meaning ‘non’ while hiṃsā refers to harm, injury, or cruelty. Avoid harming any living creature by deeds, words or thoughts. Be mindful of our thoughts and behave with consideration and attention to others. This corresponds to the first of the five precepts of Vipassana meditation. In my life, this most easily applies to my evolving journey away from eating animal products. I eat a vegetarian-not-yet-vegan diet which I recognise means my actions do not fully accord with my values. To hurt another being is to hurt oneself. On the yoga mat, this means not to compare myself to others as we are all on our own journey.
2. satya सत्य
Truthfulness or essence. This remains unchanged, pure, remaining undistorted. Yet, it shouldn’t conflict with ahiṃsā — if speaking the truth to somone will harm them, it is better to say nothing. This corresponds to the 4th precept in Vipassana meditation. This has been a useful concept for me recently, when part of me feels I am being cruel preventing a man from seeing a vulnerable friend. The truth that she doesn’t want to see him will likely hurt him, so I continue to say nothing and let him interpret the situation as he will. At this stage, I feel uncertain how this applies to the yoga mat.
3. asteya अस्तेय
Non-stealing, corresponding to the second Vipassana precept. Take nothing that does not belong to us. If someone entrusts us with a task or confides in us, we shouldn’t take advantage of them. I see this as crucially important in the relationship between yoga teacher and student, in particular, that the teacher is in a position of trust and must use this carefully.
4. brahmacarya ब्रह्मचर्य
To move towards the essential, to stay true to oneself. To behave in ways that aligns with our values and our goal of moving towards the truth. Traditionally this was interpreted as encouraging those practicing yoga to conserve their sexual energy and use that energy in pursuing the path of yoga. I believe that intimate relations with a loving partner are a crucial part of moving towards inner truth. For me, making the choice to move forward with my yoga teacher training is the manifestation of this yama. When I work with and listen to my body carefully, I am on the right path.
5. aparigraha अपरिग्रह
Parigraha means ‘to take’ or ‘seize’ so aparigraha can be understood as non-possessiveness or not greedy, taking only what one needs and no more. It can also correspond to doing good for the action itself, not for some hoped-for benefit or outcome. I have a rule with myself to give away a certain percentage of all income received. Connected with my meditation practice, I see aparigraha related to giving dana — donation or generosity. When I can, I serve at the meditation centre to help provide the right environment for other meditators to practice. In terms of yoga practice, I have previously heard that technically, yoga should not be taught for monetary gain. At the same time, we all have obligations to our self and to our families so I look forward to learning more about different perspectives on this.
Niyamas:
The niyamas are more inward-looking, a set of five personal duties or observances referring to the attitude and behaviour patterns we adopt towards our selves.
- śauca शौच
Cleanliness: clarity of mind, speech and body. We should keep ourselves clean on the outside as well as inside, by being mindful about what we put in it (food, information) and through ongoing practising of yoga. While I am conscious and quite careful about food and nutrition, I find this challenging in terms of information consumption. I do my best to limit screen time but I still find myself with mindless scrolling capturing my attention and messying my thoughts and feelings. I have especially felt the negative effects of having little time to practice yoga since giving birth, which has left me feeling disconnected from my body and lacking clarity. - saṃtoṣa संतोष
Modesty or a feeling of contentment with what we have, optimism for the self. Expressing gratitude in my journal each day that I write is a helpful practice to develop this. I realised that happiness is not on a switch that gets triggered upon attaining this or that, but is something to be cultivated through daily appreciation for what one is doing. I need to develop this on the yoga mat as I still wish I was more flexible than I am and have not yet fully accepted my mother-body which is quite different to the one I had last year while pregnant, and the body I had come to know before pregnancy. - tapas तपस्
Keeping the body fit, to heat the body and by doing so, cleanse it. Lessening of impurities. If eating when you are not hungry is the opposite of tapas, then remembering the Japanese term hara hachi bu is useful — eat until you are 80% full. Unfortunately, I’m really not very good at this, is it because I was forced to finish everything on my plate growing up? Through yoga practice, I know that paying attention to my posture and my breathing are important (both on and off the mat) yet I struggle to bring this awareness in my everyday life while adjusting to being a mum. - svādhyāya स्वाध्याय
Svā meaning “own, one’s own, self, the human soul” and ādhyāya means “a lesson, lecture, chapter; reading”. Know thyself. Study yourself. Also, dhyāya means to meditate or contemplate. All the learning that helps you to learn about yourself, whether that be through reading texts, meditation, or reflecting on a conversation. For me, taking my first 10-day Vipassana meditation course in 2018 was a vital step in learning about myself. Stilling the body is one way to contemplate your self. On the other hand, yoga is a moving meditation; we observe our changing self each time we come to practice. - īśvarapraṇidhāna प्रणिधान
To lay all your actions at the feet of God. There is so much beyond our control, our obligation is to live well and do our best: this is enough. I find this perhaps the most challenging niyama to interpret — perhaps it is a combination of all the yamas and niyamas? I am not a religious person and am cautious of describing myself as spiritual. If I take away these elements, I connect īśvarapraṇidhāna with the saying ‘what will be’. It feels like I am late to start my yoga teacher-training journey, but I am still earlier than I could have been. There are many things I am nervous about as yoga is such a multi-layered practice and means different things to different people. All I can do is my best.
Learning about the yamas and niyamas as the first and second of the eight limbs of yoga has felt empowering as much of what I have seen and experienced with yoga until this point has been purely a physical practice. That the yamas and niyamas are the first limbs highlights that yoga is far more than an exercise class or a collection of poses, it is an art of living, uniting different areas of my life like a compass pointing me the right way.
