How to practise yoga well and live from an open heart space; Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1.12
Have you wondered if yoga is more than a practise once a week with like minded yogis, in a hopefully comfortable hall space?! Maybe you have mastered downface dog and some breathing practises and wondered where to go from here.
There is an amazing 2000 year old body of knowledge, the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, that describes yoga tools & pathways to develop and deepen your practise that are just as relevant today as when they were written.
The Patanjali Yoga Sutras are comprised of about 200 pithy statements, 'sutras', and I wish to share one of them with you; PYS 1.12 - it's the twelfth sutra in the first chapter and says:
abhyāsa vairāgyābhyāṁ tan nirodhaḥ
this statement can be translated as:
"calming and containing the mind can be achieved by cultivating stability and openness"
and sounds like this:
Patanjali is expressing the idea that in order to calm the mind, 'nirodhaḥ', we need first, to practice ('abhyāsa') and to do so in a stable way. By this he means, regularly, in yoga practices that create a sense of stability for the individual, to challenge the individual sufficiently to enable them to grow with the practice and sustain their interest, with out being put off by it being too easy or too difficult. Secondly to do so with a sense of openness, 'vairāgyābhyāṁ' - not to stick rigidly to a practice over time, we need to adapt a practice to our ever changing needs.
And with these ('tat') two principles, we will move towards 'nirodhaḥ'
So why would you wish to have a calm mind 'nirodhaḥ'?
Nirodhaḥ is a state of mind that is so calm, that it allows your true inner self to be seen and felt and known by you. For you to experience and love yourself for who you are, unconditionally - perfect, beautiful you.
That sounds amazing right and possibly impossible?
Well Patanjali gives us a simple way to move towards and experience this in this sutra by using these 2 principles.
So how do we do this - how do we practice with stability and openness?
Lets look at warrior pose - Virabhadrāsana as an example.
You need to feel truly stable in this one sided pose by engaging your leg muscles, with a comfortable alignment, and only then can you expand and lift your chest into a back bend, creating a sense of openness.
So not only are both principles at work in this one yoga pose, but they are both reliant on each other: you can't open into a backbend if you are not already stable. And without a sense of openness, maybe to adaptation of your position as your physical needs changes overtime, you will not be able to maintain a sense of stability.
Stability and openness are interlinked and dependant on each other in this context of yoga.
Its the same in life i.e. off the yoga mat; if we wish to truly feel open and vulnerable, we need to first feel stable and self accepting.
These 2 principles of stable practice and openness apply to any form of yoga you might practice, what ever the tradition, tool, or level. For example, yoga traditions from restorative yoga right through to Ashtanga yoga will all use these 2 principles, Equally yoga tools such as breathing practices through to poses and meditation will only be yoga tools if these two principles are adhered to. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced yogi of many years, these 2 principles still hold true.
This yoga sutra is beautiful in it's simplicity .
I wish you a sense of stability and openness on and off the yoga mat,
leading you to a sense of self acceptance and wonder at beautiful you.
Namaste, Elaine
Bibliographry
Embodying the Yoga Sutra by Ranju Roy and David Charlton, 2019
Liberating Isolation, the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali by Frans Moor, 2012
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