Tag Archives: Donna Farhi

Niyama 4, Swadyaya, self-study

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Yoga Sutra 2.44: svadhyayat ista devata samprayogah

Polish door (RKG photo)

Svadyayat: through reading and chanting sacred texts. Ista: desired, chosen. Devata: divinity. Samprayogah: union, fusion.

Union with the chosen divinity comes from the study of self through the sacred texts. (trans. Bernard Bouanchaud)

B.K.S Iyengar tells us in his Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali that “Traditionally, svadyaya has been explained as the study of the sacred scriptures and recitation of mantra, preceded by the syllable AUM (see 1.27-28), through which the sadhaka gains a vision of his tutelary or chosen deity, who fulfills all his desires.”

Barbara Stoler Miller in her Yoga, Discipline of Freedom, elucidates the function of mantra: “Through the repetition of and meditation on specific mantras, the yogi can commune with a chosen deity, who can then aid his spiritual practice.”

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Swadyaya—self-study—Sometimes an unwelcome task/sometimes an obsession.  If only I would learn everything I need to learn with each experience, but I never do and so I keep on repeating the lessons.

How is this sutra related to the practice of Tapas?

How important is it to work with a teacher or mentor? Will another person help me find clarity and guide me from possible self-destructive or egoistic tendencies swadyaya may induce?

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How do I define the canon of “sacred texts”? Is it static, ancient, or dynamic, evolving?

Donna Farhi, in Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit says that “Any activity that cultivates self-reflective consciousness can be considered swadhyaya.”

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How does knowledge of myself lead me to Divine knowledge and vice-versa, How does Divine knowledge lead me to understand myself? Is the Self a mirror? If so, what does it reflect?

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Bernard Bouanchaud asks us to ponder the implications of this sutra in the Modern Age: The Yoga Sutras were written in a time and culture that emphasized the sacred. Contemporary Western culture is secular and sacredness that does not conform to accepted religion is often rejected. In such a context, what word can replace “divinity” (devata) in this aphorism?

Door detail (RKG photo)

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Through meticulous attention on the sounds of the mantra, consciousness grows inward and focuses sharply. Further meditation on a chosen deity can provide a vehicle for insightful experience.This Niyama gives the yogin another powerful tool for transformation.

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Nischala Joy Devi in The Secret Power of Yoga suggests that this niyama challenges us to examine our beliefs and our attachment to our beliefs.She encourages us to allow our view of reality to grow and change as our hearts soften in practice.

There’s a parallel in zen meditation: I am not my thoughts. I am not my emotions. I am not my body.

Sutra 2.44 suggests that mantra and deity visualization can help us cut through long held beliefs.

Niyama 3, Tapas, Heart Fire

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Yoga sutra 2.43: kayendriyasiddhirasuddhiksayattaapasah

Kaya; the body. Indriya: the eleven sense organs, including thought. Siddih: power, perfection. Asuddhi: impurity. Ksayat: by the destruction, elimination. Tapasah: discipline, asceticism, austerity.

By eliminating impurity, a disciplined life brings perfection and mastery to the body and the eleven sense organs. (trans. Bernard Bouanchaud, The Essence of Yoga)

White Starburst (carolyn grady photo)

Tapas, the third yogic niyama, or code for living well, is another means for personal evolution. We don’t embark upon these practices for the sake of austerity or novelty or egoic gratification. T.K.V. Desikachar (The Heart of Yoga) stresses that Tapas must not cause suffering, “everything about tapas must help you move forward.”

Tapas is the inner fire or discipline which keeps the yogin practicing. Lethargy would be its opposite. One of the definitions of the word YOGA is “discipline,” so it’s easy to see how  Tapas is related to daily practice.

What is it that draws me to my mat day after day, year after year? It’s the fire that burns in my heart center, awakening a sense of embodiment that yearns for asana to express itself.

Yoga Scholar, Bernard Bouanchaud, asks us to consider the relationship between contentment, santosha which implies acceptance and Tapas, the fire that burns impurities. I’d ask, how then does Shauca, or purity itself affect or deepen the Tapasic experience?

A tidbit of trivia I learned from Wikipedia: One who undertakes tapas is a Tapasvin.

A primary purpose of yoga is to become aware of, to channel, and to utilize energy. Yoga can be considered a form of Tapas. Certainly it is integral to the yogin’s life. In Yoga Mind Body & Spirit, the popular teacher and New Zealand yogini, Donna Farhi says that, “Far from being a kind of medicinal punishment, tapas allows us to direct our energy toward a fulfilled life of meaning and one that is exciting and pleasurable.”

The other elements of the ashtanga yoga are inter-related practices. Pranayama and Asana help to stoke the fire. Pratyahara assists the Tapasvin in focusing the energy. Brahmacharya, the moderation of one’s vital energy, is a natural extension of Tapas. Its practice helps keep the heart fire bright and pure.

Pink Explosion (carolyn grady photo)

Farhi quotes Buddhist teacher, Pema Chodron,  “What we discipline is any form of potential escape from reality.”

It’s Tapas that helps me put some ooomph into a daily pranayama, so the practice does not become dull and listless. Tapas propels me and holds me on my dietary regiment. I pray for Tapas to light the flame of my teaching, service, and for inspiration for this blog!

Niyama 2, Samtosha, Contentment

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I write so much about longing and the un-contented parts of my life that it’s hard sometimes to acknowledge those areas of my existence that are perfectly or imperfectly just fine.  I often feel a sense of contentment after writing, especially in free writing in a journal—as if I’ve purged the “vritti” out of my system.  There is however, a sense of contentment that comes with acknowledgment of longing as a perennial aspect of the human condition. And a deeper contentment is possible through recognition of the longing as an expression of the Divine.

orchid (ckg photo)

II.42 samtosad anuttamah sukha-labhah

Samtosat:through or by contentment   Anuttamah:the strongest  Sukha: of happiness   Labhah: obtaining, gain

Contentment brings supreme happiness. (B.Bouanchaud)

The result of contentment is total happiness. (Desikachar)

From contentment and benevolence of consciousness comes supreme happiness (BKS Iyengar)

When at peace and content with oneself and others (Santosha), supreme joy is celebrated. (Nischala Joy Devi)

This sutra can be linked with Sutra 1.13 : tatra sthitau yatno’bhyasah

Persevering practice is the effort to attain and maintain the state of mental peace.

In an earlier post, I wrote about practicing through emotions. Linking these two sutras, Patanjali says that the way to mental peace is through persevering practice and by practicing contentment, or mental peace, we’ll achieve happiness.

Santosha, or the practice of content-ment, is the ability to feel satisfied within the container of one’s immediate experience. (Donna Farhi)

Family gatherings often are times when I see sides of myself that I don’t like (a Living Mirror). They can be occasions of great dis-contentment for me. They are also the times of my greatest happiness. Trying to navigate them and remain centered is a worthwhile goal for anyone. Amy Weintraub in Yoga for Depression ties Santosha  with a quotation from Swami Kripalvanandji “My beloved child, break your heart no longer. Each time you judge yourself, you break your own heart.” She says that “both self-love and self-acceptance grow with practice.”

Is contentment the aim of yoga practice?

Is all suffering alleviated through contentment or do we look at the sufferings in our own lives in a contented fashion?

Does happiness imply a different vision of suffering?  Or can the two emotions exist simultaneously?

Is total happiness only possible through a practice of contentment?

If all life is suffering as the Buddha tells us, why should we bother trying to attain happiness?

Does contentment imply a turning away from the difficulties of life, an acceptance of poverty, cruelty, and violence in the world?

Won’t we be missing out on much of our human emotional range if we practice contentment?  Won’t we become zombies? Can one’s passions be ignited while one is content?

Are there any other effects or side effects of contentment?

Is it possible for contentment to exist on a greater scale, say in a community or in a nation?  Would this be the same as peace?

What is the relationship between contentment and peace?

Is there a relationship between contentment and the practice of svadhyaya (self-study)?

What is the relationship of asana practice and contentment?

The sutra tells us there is a direct relationship between contentment and personal happiness.  With contentment, one’s emotions are brought under an even keel, and the fluctuations of the mind are stilled.  Isn’t this the purpose of yoga?  I search for sukha in each pose, to feel joy while my body works on the edge of pain.  This has incredible implications for those suffering from emotional lability.  Can I learn to accept where I am at at any given moment? This is contentment and the sages say that by working on this, I will attain the supreme gift of happiness.

Patanjali tells us something profound, yet really simple: be content and you will be happy.  Want what you have and don’t want what you don’t have.

Yoga Ethics 1, AHIMSA

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Clematis flower, Fredonia NY (ckg photo)

The first Yama is AHIMSA,  nonviolence.

I write this first yama post on nonviolence while Superbowl43 is on in another room….just to add a tad of irony regarding bringing nonviolence home.  OK OK I know that football is not intrinsically violent…but the ads often suggest a way of life that, well, can be improved upon!

Bouanchaud begins his discussion of these precepts by saying the “Respect for all beings and all things must permeate all levels.”

Ahimsa  shines like a luminous flower in the center of the circle of our practice, penetrating through and illuminating all other areas of the eightfold path.

Georg Feuerstein, preeminent yoga scholar, says in The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali,  “They are not only the first steps on the path but form the very foundation of the whole yogic enterprise. At first the practice of these moral principles requires conscious effort, but as  the yogin’s inner being becomes more attuned to the  higher realities, the application of non-harming, truthfulness, and the other virtues becomes habitual.”

Yogini-writer Nischala Joy Devi (The Secret Power of Yoga, A Woman’s Guide to the Heart and Spirit of the Yoga Sutras)) underscores the importance of Ahimsa in the practice of the other Yamas:

“When we revere all as ourselves through Ahimsa, the other four qualities of Yama: Satya (truthfulness), Astheya (generosity), Brahamacharya (moderation), and Aparigraha, (abundance) are naturally present.”

Ahh, such a place to begin our yoga practice from! And yet, how many of us begin with an underlying sense of violence to our own bodies? How often do we  speak in a derogatory tone or words to our Selves? How often do we compare ourselves to the yogi or yogini practicing next to us, or to the teacher, or some other image we have seen in a magazine?

from my journal:

Ahimsa —all of the other principles flow from this

the biggest challenge here for me is to not harm myself

I am really working on caring for myself

mentally, physically, psychologically, spiritually.

Not overdoing anything

finding the optimal, healthy balance

drinking enough water for goodness sakes!

If I harm myself, I harm others

we are connected

being proactively healthy for myself means doing good for others

it means keeping the link whole

do not take the connection lightly

Meanwhile, I reread Farhi’s early pages (YOGA BODY MIND & SPIRIT)  for the umpteenth time and today I make a vow of practicing ahimsa toward myself. Aren’t all of the precepts summed up in this one word?

The popular Buddhist nun from Gampo Abbey, Nova Scotia, Pema Chodron suggests a practice of ultimate friendliness toward oneself. This is ahimsa, lovingkindness, metta.

Can I allow myself to float into …..myself ….without trying to tie myself up?

Can I begin to act as if I love my self?

Can I become devoted to my own spiritual and physical and mental health?.

What is the relationship of me to me?

I am working on my own dear negativity towards myself.

Do you believe in PEACE? Inner…Outer….in your community…..family- with your kids, parents, sisters….World….

Is peace the same as nonviolence – can one be at peace and be violent or self-injurious at the same time?….can they exist without each other?

Are there levels of violence and self or community-injury? How much am I willing to put up with? Do my yoga and meditation practices take me to deeper levels, so that I accept less and less injurious behavior from myself and others?

Do I truly feel this way towards all beings, or only to a certain *level* of being?

What can I do to wake myself up to a deeper practice of AHIMSA? Are there already supports in my life that will encourage the development of this ethical principle in my life?

READ MORE:

Taking these thoughts to the international arena, see the excellent Huffington Post blog piece by

Ed and Deb Shapiro – Gitmo Or Gandhi: How Does One Deal With Violence?