The Four Paths of Yoga

Yoga is one of the six Darsana – the six philosophies in India – based on the Vedas. Yoga philosophy is a sister philosophy to Samkhya. It aims to purify the heart, mind and body of a human being, allowing for freedom from suffering and the union of the individual Self (the Atman) with the universal Self (the Brahman). Within this system of yoga are four major schools or paths, here we see that yoga acknowledges that different people have different personalities and ways of thinking; what works for one human being may not work for another. For this reason, there exists these four paths or school of yoga. These are Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga and Raja Yoga. 

The first three schools of yoga were explained by Lord Krishna to Arjuna just before the start of the epic battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Bhagavad Gita. 

The last by the Maharsi Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra. 

The first school of yoga, Jnana Yoga is the yoga of knowledge, this is a kind of yoga that is appropriate for people who are naturally philosophical, naturally seeking to understand very deeply how things work. How the world around them works and how they themselves function in relation to the world around them, what they're made up of and trying to go deep down to the very nature of life. Going to the smallest possible parts of understanding everything down to the smallest details. This kind of yogis also like to study classical texts – the Upanishads, the Vedas, the Mahabharata, the Yoga Sutra, etc. If you are the kind of person who finds realization, understating, and peace  through study – studying with a teacher, reading, philosophizing, asking questions, interpreting text or learning new things every day, then you may be a Jnana yogi. The two main qualities or qualifications for Jnana Yoga are known as viveka and vairagya. Viveka is translated as discernment, discernment relating to the knowledge of the Self, discerning between the real and the unreal, between the Self and the non-Self. The second quality Vairagya can be loosely translated as non-attachment or non-identification. Having the ability to subdue excitement, passion, attachment to the Self and the component of the Self – the mind, the senses, the feeling, emotions, our narrative, our stories, the identity that we have formed for ourselves over the years. 

Bhakti Yoga is devotional yoga. It is the path of love.  It is a yoga of divine worship, divine love. Seeing God in everything, seeing unconditional love in everyone and seeing everyone as divine. Ram Dass can be seen as a Bhakti yogi, he used to say that we are all gods, gods in drag. You may be a bhakti yogi if you are person who finds realization, peace and truth through worship or prayer. Maybe the most power practice you have ever experienced is group chanting, kirtan, or you cherish creating an altar or having a guru or a person or a divine that you worship to, that you can draw inspiration from. Bhakti yoga is an ancient school of yoga, it was even mentioned in the Upanishad in the context of participation, devotion and love in any activity. In the Upanishads, anything that is done with devotion and conscious worship and seeing everything as the divine is Bhakti yoga. 

The third school, Karma Yoga, the yoga of Action. According to Lord Krishna, karma yoga is the spiritual practice of selfless action performed for the benefit of others. Karma yoga teaches that a practitioner or a spiritual seeker should act according to dharma without being attached whatsoever to the fruits of their actions or essentially to the personal consequences of their actions. It is said that karma yoga is best suited for people who are naturally extroverted, people who have enhanced interpersonal skills, people who are naturally active, dynamic and outgoing, they have a way with dealing with others. These types of people may find freedom from ignorance through work with other, though their selfless social service. You may be a karma yogi when you find that what you enjoy most in the world is connecting with others, being able to uplift, help or change a perspective for other, hold events for people and you know you are a karma yogi when you do these without any thought to what you may gain or how this will benefit you, you may be a karma yogi if this is true for you. 

The last of path to yoga is Raja  Yoga. Raja is Sanskrit for royal, high or majestic. This kind of yoga has been defined differently throughout history, now it is most closely associated with Ashtanga Yoga not the asana practice from Mysore but the eight-limbed path as described by the Maharasi Patanjali. This school of yoga is well-suited for people who are naturally meditative, more contemplative and are able to reach the states of pratyahara, dharana, dhayana and eventually Samadhi. Raja yoga, the eight-limbed path gives us clear steps to access union between the object of meditation and the subject, the observer and the observed, so eventually they come together and become united. It is said that this kind of yoga is best suited for people with a desire to achieve this systemic meditative and contemplative states. 

You may feel that you like the combination of some or even all of these schools of yoga, either way it’s nice to know a bit of background. Since there are many ways of practicing yoga, gradually the interest in one path will lead to another. It could be that you begin by studying the Yoga Sutra or by meditating, or you may begin with practicing asanas and so start to understand yoga through the experience of the physical body, or maybe you begin with pranayama, feeling the breath as the movement of your inner being. There are no prescriptions regarding where and how we can begin our practice. We begin where we are and how we are, and whatever happens, happens. Whether we begin studying yoga by means of asana, pranayama, meditation or by reading ancient texts, the way we learn is the same. We progress, the more we become aware of the holistic nature of our beings, that we are made of body, breath, mind and more. 

To me, the different paths of yoga are like a forest with different trees, filled with variety and color, the trees may look different from each other and they grow at different speed, but all them have one goal; to reach towards the light. One tree's method is not better than the other.

Each species has individual characteristics which enable it to grow to its greatest potential. The various yogic systems are unique, yet all have the same purpose: to grow toward enlightenment. When practiced with regulation and awareness, the tree sprouts. Practice is the only way of feeding it. Pattabhi Jois is fond of saying, "99% Practice and 1% Theory. As I get older I begin to appreciate this quote more. 

You may notice that Hatha yoga is not included in paths of yoga, since it is not an official path or school of yoga within in the yoga philosophy. Nowadays, hatha yoga is associated with the postural practices, I’ll do another blog about hatha since there seems to be a lot of confusion there. 

Have a beautiful day! 

Namaskar 

WHAT IS ASANA?

When people say they practice yoga, most of them refer to fact that they practice some form of Asana. So, what is asana?
Asana can have different definitions depending on whom, when or where we ask the question. It can have a vast array of meanings depending on the context.
However,  from the yogic context, Asana means a posture that can be a held comfortably for a sustained amount of time which can be used for meditation,  and comes from the Sanskrit word “asan” meaning “seat.” This definition comes for the Yoga Sutra of the Sage Patanjali. The Yoga Sutra is a compilation of 196 Aphorisms about 2500 years ago by the Sage Patanjali.
This was after Yoga has been practiced in India for thousands of years. 
In  Sutra 2.46, Patanjali writes, “Sthira sukhamasanam.” (Sthira meaning steady or stable; sukham meaning comfortable, joyous or pleasant; and asanam posture or sitting without interruption.) From this, we can see the qualities of an Asana.
An Asana is a posture that is joyous, comfortable and steady. When we say steady, we usually mean something that is unmoving, that doesn’t fluctuate or predictable. Something that is comfortable has a quality of peace, without concerns.
So according to Patanjali, a yogic posture is steady and comfortable, that is peaceful and that brings joy us to the yoga practitioner .
In order to have a more rounded definition of Asana, it’s also important to know the goal of a yoga practice. When we look at the 8 limbs of Yoga, also from the Sage Patanjali, the physical practice or Asana was primarily designed to facilitate the understanding and complete mastery of the mind.
In fact, the original goal is liberation, enlightenment and self-realization.
So having a posture that is steady and comfortable and developing the ability to be still and equanimous so that we can be liberated is the goal of Yoga. Therefore, for a practice that is in accordance with the teaching of yoga, it must have the intention of leading towards self-realization and liberation.
What this means is that every time we step on the mat, the goal and purpose is to free ourselves fully with the help of Asana.
When we practice and we get stronger and get healthier and the pains are alleviated, this is wonderful thing but in order to have a deeper yogic practice, to keep the original goal of knowing the Self and thereby attaining liberation we have to keep the original goal of the practice in mind.
Goals of being able to touch the toes, of putting the foot behind the head or doing a headstand, are wonderful but we have to remember that they are only secondary goals.
I think it a good habit to remind ourselves of this original goal.

The Sage Patanjali himself did not mention any Asana, but according to the Shiva legend, there are 8.4 million different Asanas, one for each person that was alive at that time. From these, Lord Shiva chose 84 Asanas to teach mortals (pretty cool, if you ask me :)). Most of the Asanas that we practice today are variations of these classic 84 Asanas.

Asanas allow us to connect deeply to our inner bodies, whenever we step on the mat we to honor and cherish our own connecting with it, we cherish and honour the aliveness of our bodies. And because we recognize this profound aliveness in ourselves, we are then able to – even when we step off the mat, off the "Asana" –  to continue to recognize this profound connection to the Earth and to all Being everywhere. We realize that we are, in fact, inseparable. There is nothing is external to anything. We are all interconnected.

Asana performed with the original intention of self-realization can truly teach us of the deep connection to our bodies, to our Selves and to the world around us, and eventually the individual Self sorts of dissolves and we begin to feel one with all Beings.
Every time we step on the mat which the goal of self-realization, we plant seeds that will grow eventual to liberation. This is without a doubt.
So every time you step on the mat, remember that the posture is steady, joyous, comfortable and equanimous.

Practice with me, together let us walk the path to liberation and self-realization. Check out the schedule to join in of my classes. 

Namaskar, Erika 

Restorative Yoga: The Next best thing to a Healthy Sleep

Emerging from research of more than two decades, an unequivocal message: Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brains and body health. Together with balance diet and exercise, sleep form the holy trinity of health. Through explosive discoveries, we have come to realize that evolution did not make a spectacular blunder in conceiving sleep as sleep dispenses a multitude of health-ensuing benefits.
Within the brain, sleep enriches a diversity of function, including our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions and choices. It recalibrates our emotional brain circuits, allowing us to navigate next day social and psychological challenges with a cool-headed composure. Even dreaming provides a unique set of benefits to all species fortunate enough to experience it, among these are consoling neurochemical bath that mollifies painful memories and a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge which inspires creativity.
Downstairs in out bodies, sleep restocks the armory of our immune system, preventing infection and warding off all manners of sickness. Sleep reforms the body's metabolic state by fine-tuning the balance of insulin and circulating glucose. Sleep further regulates our appetite, helping control body weight through healthy food selection rather than rash impulsivity. Adequate sleep maintain a flourishing microbiome within your gut from which we know so much of our nutritional health begins. Sleep is also intimately tied to the fitness of our cardiovascular system, lowering blood pressure while helping keep our hearts infien condition.
Sadly human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves without legitimate gain, so much so that the Center for Disease Control declared insufficient sleep as a public health epidemic. It is not a coincidence that countries where sleep time has declined most dramatically over the past century such as US, Japan, South Korea and the UK, and several in western Europe are also suffering the greatest physical and mental disorder related to insufficient sleep.
Fortunately if you are one of these people who are deprived of adequate sleep for whatever reason, you can join a restorative yoga class which is the closes thing you can get to a good night's sleep. The biggest benefit of practicing restorative yoga is the opportunity for your nervous system to switch over from the ‘fight or flight’ stress response to the ‘rest and digest’ relaxation response. When restorative yoga is done right, it can facilitate a deeper rest than sleep. What happens is almost the equivalent to REM sleep, but when we sleep, we dream and can experience anxiety. It’s not necessarily always a quality time of rest.

In order to fully relax, we need to feel supported, both physically and mentally. We prop up in restorative yoga, particularly at the joints, to give the body this experience of full support. Another important factor is the presence of the teacher, which offers another level of support.

Literature:
Walker, M. (2017): Why we sleep. Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams. Scribner: New York
Lasater, J.H. (1995): Relax and renew. Restful yoga for stressful times. Rodmell Press book: Boulder.

On Loneliness

 
Loneliness is borne out of the feeling of separation; there is me and the others. Especially in this time of social media, we are constantly seeing other peoples' lives or what they choose to share of their lives and this adds to the overall feeling of being separate, disconnected, alienated. Even though we are seemingly connected through social media, technology and our devices, a feeling of loneliness can persist.
While common definitions of loneliness describe it as a state of solitude or being alone, loneliness is actually a state of mind. Loneliness causes people to feel empty, alone, and unwanted. People who are lonely often crave human contact, but their state of mind makes it more difficult to form connections with other people. One can be surrounded by people and still be extremely lonely.
Solitude on the other hand is voluntary and welcomed something like a yoga retreat. People who enjoy spending time by themselves continue to maintain positive social relationships that they can return to when they crave connection. They still spend time with others, but these interactions are balanced with periods of time alone. This requires a certain level of the ultimate of relationship which is the connection with the Self. This can be quite challenging.  Since loneliness is a symptom of the illusion of being separate or the lack of awareness to connection, we really ought to look at what connection is and how we can be connected.
Connection is something that is natural and inevitable. We do not have to try connect with anything or anyone, the one thing that hinders this is the idea, this notion in the mind that say “I am a separate, lone being, that I am not connected.” This is of course not true because innately connected to everything. Even in our very bodies are connected to the plants, the Earth, the sun, our Ancestors. If we contemplate the  physical bodies alone – the Annamayakosha – we are made of the food that we eat. The food that we eat is made up of plants, of earth, of water, of air, so if  we really think about it we are made of all these elements, we are not different and separate from these, we are one and the same. It is hard to feel lonely when we sit with that knowledge. So, loneliness is really a lack of knowing about our connection to everything and everyone.
Because we are alive, we are interconnected with life, the whole universe. From this basic understanding we can then go the need for human connection. Everyone has a need to be connected to other. Need implies that there is something missing. It could be mental, emotional, it could be physical. Most of the time it is an energetic need, we need a certain type of energy that makes us feel more complete, more balance or alive, which is something that is completely natural. The first to do when this need arises to become aware of this need, to watch it, and observe it, to let it live in the spaciousness of our awareness. If we are able to practice this awareness of the innate interconnection with all life, we are then able to feel that we are in fact already part of this life, this universe. Then we are also able to give space to watching our more human needs and accept them, not identifying with the need itself but rather being the observer of the needs and desires as they arise. With observation comes acceptance, when we are to accept that we have certain human needs, maybe it be a mental connection – e-g- having a stimulation conversation – emotional ­ a loving friendship – physical connection – wanting a partner – or a combination of three, Whatever it is, when we are able to just watch those needs and to know that they are there and that they are normal and that this is part of being a human being which out being consumed by them, an energetic transformation happens in the body.
Firstly, we feel this connection to our Self more intensely and the loneliness subsides, since the perspective has transformed. From this we can take actions that are not driven by fear or compulsion or comparison.  Actions that are based on our connection to ourselves, to the universe and with all beings. Healthy desire of connection to other persons, this way we are more understanding and we listen more to others. Connections that are not needing – something that people can sense and nobody like this kind of unpleasant connection.
When we have this connection to ourselves, connection to other beings is automatic, it is natural, we do not have to try. In fact, people will enjoy connecting with us, people other will sense that you are someone that really listens and understand. That we are not having too many expectations. We do not project neediness or fearfulness.
The key to connection with others is to connect internally first, once we see this connection with the Self, this ability is extended outwards to others.
A consistent yoga practice is a great way to connect with the Self – the body, thoughts, emotions , feelings– and by connection, I mean you are able to be aware and accept the Self and this natural connection to everything and everyone. Accepting what is with complete compassion and loving kindness.
Join me in getting to know the Self and find deep and lasting connection to others.
Join my coming Yoga and Meditation Retreat here.