The 8 Limbed Path: What does it have to do with me?

One of my most favorite lectures to deliver in our Teacher Training program, is our Philosophy and History of Yoga lecture. Not because I consider myself a pro at any of this topics, by far, yet because I think there is something truly magical in the ability for us to take concepts and ideas that were compiled nearly 1500 years ago, and make them applicable to life today. Cell phones, busy lives, organic food, high rise living, credit card debt...this all can be looked at through the lens of the 8 Limbed Path. Compiled by Patanjali, within a larger text of the "Yoga Sutras", which means to suture, to thread, to weave together, the 8 Limbed Path is a prescription or moral and ethical conduct, on how to live a more meaningful life, void of suffering, in the end, leading to the final state of Samadhi, or 'Bliss'.

The coolest part about this book, is that even though the Yoga Sutras were written 1500 years ago, they didn't serve as a pivotal text until the 19th Century, when Swami Vivekananda translated this book into several languages, making it accessible to the Western Cultures of America and Europe. And finally, in the 20th Century, it really took off, with translations by many teachers of the Krishnamacharya lineage, including BKS Iyengar. Up until that point, the Bhagavad Gita was thought to be the most inspirational Yogic text that was studied, and I don't know about you, but there are times within that book, that my head gets lost in knots. Don't get me wrong, the story is epic, the lesson is meaningful, but not many of us are running around banishing our relatives to the woods and going to war against them. There is just something, about the Yoga Sutras, and the 8 Limbed Path, that is much more relateable than any philosophical text I have ever read.

When I first learned about the 8 Limbs of Yoga, I very much though of them as a check-list, as a 'to-do' list. Being a very action oriented person, I believed I just needed to check up the list, and everything would be good, and the goal would be reached. Oh young, naive, Lara. What's truly fascinating about this path is that it's an ever interconnected thread of ways to live your life. One day you may nail the observances and breath, yet the postures, and the focus could be non-existent, and the next day, it could be completely shifted. It's about finding the flexibility, much like water, changing shapes, weaving in and out, shifting focus somewhere, and the next day, finding focus somewhere else. It's a life long practice. Much like the journey of the Lotus flower, that grows in the murky mud, it's destined to fail. Yet the roots grow really strong, deep into the mud, these are the Yamas (the observances) and the Niyamas (the disciplines), the hardest of this practice, that we must focus on every day. From there we journey up the stem and find the Asana (our postures) and Pranayama (our breath focus), this is what holds everything up, and solidifies what the roots have dug in.

We move even more closer to the top, with Pratayahara (withdrawal of sense). Now we find ourselves on the petal of a beautiful lotus, that because of the hard work, and dedication, starts to blossom a beautiful magenta. The lower petals are Dharana (intense focus and concentration) and Dhyana (meditation). No longer do we focus on what we physically are doing and capable of, but more things that happen to us, due to the hard work. We can't tell ourselves 'I am going to meditate...meditate, Lara!'. Trust me, I've tried it. Not very successful.

Finally, the inner part of the lotus, the most beautiful piece of the flower, that regardless of circumstance has risen to the top. Samadhi (bliss). The 'final' goal. The final piece to this puzzle of life. Knowing that bliss 1500 years ago may look different than it does today, we begin to focus this merely on finding our peace, our freedom. From all the noise, the petty struggles, the Ego, and we truly focus on what matters. The union of self, our mind, and our body. Becoming one in the same.
Within the next few weeks, we will we diving deeper into the limbs, most specifically, the 1st two, the Yamas, and the Niyamas. I like to think of these as the 'dirty work', the hard lessons, and actions, that we must go through, in order to find bliss, to find our peaceful path. And trust me when I say, that is attainable in a life that we live now. It may look slightly different from meditating for months on top of a mountain, yet it's still relevant, and it's true. It's the difference of shifting our mind from a place of things that happen 'to us', towards a life of things that happen 'for us'. It's our ability to look at our life objectively through a rosy colored lens, regardless of the situation. It's our ability and opportunity to free ourselves from the chains of our own minds. To release old habits, expectations, to create new thought processes, to mindfully put healthy foods and thoughts into our bodies, to create long lasting relationships, to treat others the way we want to be treated. To believe.

This is our ability to live as the greatest version of ourselves that we can. Are you in? The time to transform is now.