8 Limbs of Yoga - Satya

satyapratisthayam kriyaphalasrayatvam
when we are firmly established in truthfulness, action accomplishes its desired end

YS II,36 translation by Alistair Shearer

Yamas - observances for living well - are the first of Patanjali's guidance for yogis; the second of the yamas is satya: truthfulness, honesty, sincerity, integrity.

Such a simple vow, the promise to be honest, but much more difficult to consistently fulfil.  Small untruths litter our communications with each other.  We lie about the reason we are late, or the reason we can't make an event, how much we spent on a shopping trip, how many glasses of wine we had last night, books we've read, how much time we spent fruitlessly surfing the internet.  Other people may never know (or care) that we lied, but we know and we weigh ourselves down with it.

It can therefore be very liberating to tell the truth.  In a sense, telling the truth allows us to be totally human, accepting of our weaknesses and all of the mistakes we make, and content with that perfect imperfectness.  For example, if we admit that we are late because we overslept (instead of blaming the traffic), we are admitting to our mistake with the confidence that it doesn't have anything to do with who we are as a person.  Everybody gets up late sometimes.  We make the choice to be honest, rather than to find a false explanation that might conform more to what is expected of us (or what we expect from ourselves).  We choose to feel better on the inside, rather than to look better on the outside.

There are times when it might be hurtful to tell the truth, so we temper our honesty with kindness (ahimsa) - if telling the truth will hurt somebody, then it might be better to say nothing.  And satya doesn't give you license to go and tell the person you dislike all the bad thoughts and feelings you have about them.  Be wise, be kind, do your best.  As the Mahabharata advises:

"Speak the truth which is pleasant.  Do not speak unpleasant truths.
Do not lie, even if the lies are pleasing to the ear."

Mahabharata translated by TKV Desikachar

Part of yoga practice is to reflect honestly on all of our actions.  In the quiet stillness of yoga we confront ourselves and our actions with a clear eye and seek to understand the source of our behaviour, so that in future we might avoid the actions that cause ourselves and other people harm.  If you can't be honest with anyone else about the way you feel, you can at least be honest with yourself.  With careful scrutiny you are able to find the root of the matter and to discern why it made you feel and behave the way you did.  Once you understand that, you are free to address the causes in the hope that you might behave more generously in future. 

Satya is also about trusting yourself.  You know who you are and what you need, admitting this to yourself is an important first step to admitting it to the world and to living by your own deepest truth.  It's about integrity too: saying what you mean, meaning what you say and living up to it in practice.  

According to the Yoga Sutras, when we live honestly, speak honestly and think honestly, other people take more notice of what we say because they know it to be true; moreover we do not waste energy on the concealment of untruths and secrets.  Patanjali tells us in this sutra that through the practice of satya, we gain freedom.

"Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth."

Elizabeth Gilbert

8 Limbs of Yoga - Ahimsa

ahimsa pratisthayam tatsannidhau vairatyagah
The more friendly one is, the more one stimulates friendly feelings among all in one's presence

YS II,35 Translation by TKV Desikachar

The first of yamas is ahimsa - do no harm.  Do no physical, verbal or mental harm to yourself or to others.

The idea of doing no harm might sound passive (we might think of those Jain monks sweeping the ground before them with a broom, lest they inadvertently kill a bug with their feet), but ahimsa is a dynamic, active, positive kindness.  It is the idea that formed the basis of Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent protest (satyagraha), which influenced Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela among others, and which demonstrates just how powerful, vigorous and world-changing this simple idea can be.

Ahimsa is a good first principle for your asana practice - practice with compassion and sensitivity for yourself.  You don't want to sacrifice the positive feeling gained in a pose by pushing yourself so far into it that you feel pain.  There is a balance to be found between effort in a pose (the sensation of having muscles work, stretch and come to life) and the pain felt when you crank yourself into a pose with the determination to get further or deeper, but without the self-love to make it work for you and how and who you are today.  Make the effort to come to your mat, commit to focus and do your best to make each asana your best version of it, so that it looks like your asana and not someone else's and so that it feels good (challenging, but positive).  That's all.  That's perfect.

Ahimsa is a good first principle when approaching your inner critic.  Most of us have one, don't we?  What does your inner critic say to you?  Would you ever dream of being as hard on anyone else as you are on yourself?  Ahimsa means accepting yourself exactly as you find yourself.  In your practice, see if you can be alert to your inner critic: notice when it sparks up it's commentary, listen to what it says to you, you will find that you can choose to ignore it.  You might even be able to laugh at it.  Decide to be kind to yourself instead.  Remind yourself that your thoughts aren't real.  Notice how rather than holding you back, this capacity for kindness within yourself actually helps you to achieve more.

Ahimsa is the most basic principle for living well.  Listen in and be kind.  Give kindness to other people.  My teacher told me that you can change someone's life by offering them a kind word.  I believe him.

Be kind to yourself and through finding compassion for yourself learn how to be kinder to others, even the people you find difficult; we're all just doing our best in any given circumstance.  Even just trying to be kinder to yourself and to others brings more kindness.  Don't intimidate yourself by imagining that you need to reach the highest of ideals, we can all think of someone who seems to us the quintessence of eternal sunshine and kindness (the Dalai Lama?  Nelson Mandela?), but we're all human, so we all get impatient, cross, grumpy, unreasonable, or frustrated sometimes. 

The great thing about yoga is that it lets us be human (with all our mistakes and weaknesses and the dark bits that we'd rather other people didn't know about), but it gives us space to reflect on how we could have a better, kinder, stronger, more generous way of living and it gives us a method for working towards that.

You can't truly be kind to others until you know how to truly be kind to yourself.  You above all others know the many ways that you have fallen short, and it is so much easier to linger on those memories than on the times that you did well, helped someone out or made a positive difference.  Sometimes you won't ever know how much something you said or did has helped another person.  Hold yourself in positive self-regard: you are a human being doing your best to be good, helpful, compassionate and you have a lot to give.

Be kind: don't jump to judge and separate yourself, seek instead to understand; treat others as you long to be treated yourself, with love and respect, regardless of whether or not they deserve or notice your kindness and regardless of what they offer you back.  Your kindness ought not to be dependent on what you hope or expect to receive from another. 

We all want to live in a kinder world, but the only part of the world that you can change is yourself.

It is obvious why this is Patanjali's first rule for living well, for without commitment to ahimsa one cannot very well set out along the path of yoga, or the path of living well.

8 Limbs of Yoga - Yamas

The first of Patanjali's 8 Limbs of Yoga are the yamas - observances for living well in the world.  

There was a time when spiritual pursuits were solely the domain of the Brahmin class.  In Vedic times it was only a member of the Brahmin class who could be a priest, perform religious observances and translate the Vedic texts.  But by the time of the Buddha and Patanjali, many of these religious ceremonies had become meaningless ritual; the shallow outward trappings of faith.  In response to this lack of genuine religious endeavour came the Upanishads, Buddhism and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.

Patanjali's system of yoga took away the need for someone to be of a certain class or social standing by birth to follow a spiritual path - then as now, yoga is for everyone.  The Yoga Sutras also give responsibility for one's path to the student himself; we may consult teachers or learn from others, but essentially the yoga path is something we must do by and for ourselves.  To walk along the path of yoga, you have to practise; you have to experience it for yourself.

The yamas are Patanjali's rules for this new breed of yoga practitioners who were often living normal lives in the world, rather than living cloistered lives as priests or scholars.  They describe a set of restraints, which if practised, give yoga students a firm foundation on which to build their yoga practice. 

They yamas are as follow:

• Ahimsa - non-harming/non-violence

• Satya - truthfulness/honesty

• Asteya - non-stealing/integrity

• Brahmacarya - chastity/self-restraint

• Aparigraha - non-grasping/freedom from greed/non-attachment 

These restraints are consistent with the purpose and method of all yoga practice, for instance we cannot practice yoga successfully if we are being violent or causing harm elsewhere in our lives; we will not have a fruitful practice if we are being dishonest to ourselves or to others.

Patanjali describes the yamas as follows:

jati desa kala samaya anavacchinnah sarvabhaumah mahavratam
Yamas are the great, mighty, universal vows, unconditioned by place, time and class

YS II.31 translation by BKS Iyengar

These are vows for everyone regardless of their place or situation of birth (this had particular meaning for a culture with a caste system like India's) - they are for everyone.  They must not be broken for any excuse, be it time, place, or circumstance - it is no good being truthful all week and dishonest on Friday because it was expedient to for you be so.

It is helpful to think of the yamas not as rules, but as freedoms... to be free from causing harm; free from dishonesty; free from the guilt caused by having stolen; free from over-indulgence; free from greed.

The yamas require a commitment to self-reflection: sometimes it is obvious when we have transgressed one of the yamas, other times our actions are more subtle, our motivations more profound.  As when we become angry (ahimsa) because we did something we didn't want to do because we were unable to say no (satya).

A dedicated yoga practice requires not the highest levels of moral rectitude, there is no judgement to be taken here, there is no hierarchy of goodness; yoga requires only that we commit daily to the concept of yamas and each day forgive our shortcomings and commit once more to Patanjali's observances for living well in the world.