prasad1
Active member
I attended a seminar on Patanjali's Yoga sutra at Arsha Vidya.
The following is an excerpt from that seminar.(My understanding).
The five Yamas: The first rung is the five Yamas, which are considered codes of restraint, abstinences, self-regulations, and involve our relationship with the external world and other people (Scroll down or click the links to go to the sutras dealing with the individual Yamas):
2.35 As a Yogi becomes firmly grounded in non-injury (ahimsa), other people who come near will naturally lose any feelings of hostility.
(ahimsa pratishthayam tat vaira-tyagah
Non-harming does not mean love: Non-harming and love are two different things. It is not a practice whereby you are feeling the drive to harm others and you practice love to stop that. Rather, the first step is to focus on the cessation of the harming at the levels of actions, speech, and thoughts. Then, the natural love can come shining through. This has extremely practical application in daily life. Trying to directly cultivate love for a person you dislike might be extremely difficult, whereas working on letting go of the negative is more direct or immediate. Then, it might come more naturally to like or love that person. Take a look at the article on the five sheaths, and notice that the level of bliss or love (ananda) is far deeper than the mental level where the more surface emotions dance.
Cultivating opposites brings positive fruits: With each of the Yamas and Niyamas, cultivating opposites of our negative habits or conditionings brings positive fruits.
The following is an excerpt from that seminar.(My understanding).
The five Yamas: The first rung is the five Yamas, which are considered codes of restraint, abstinences, self-regulations, and involve our relationship with the external world and other people (Scroll down or click the links to go to the sutras dealing with the individual Yamas):
- Ahimsa: non-violence, non-harming, non-injury
- Satya: truthfulness, honesty
- Asteya: non-stealing, abstention from theft
- Brahmacharya: walking in awareness of the highest reality, continence, remembering the divine, practicing the presence of God
2.35 As a Yogi becomes firmly grounded in non-injury (ahimsa), other people who come near will naturally lose any feelings of hostility.
(ahimsa pratishthayam tat vaira-tyagah
- ahimsa = non-violence, non-harming, non-injury
- pratishthayam = having firmly established, being well grounded in
- tat = that, of his or her
- vaira-tyagah = give up hostilities (vaira = hostility, enmity, aggression; tyaga = abandon, give up)
Non-harming does not mean love: Non-harming and love are two different things. It is not a practice whereby you are feeling the drive to harm others and you practice love to stop that. Rather, the first step is to focus on the cessation of the harming at the levels of actions, speech, and thoughts. Then, the natural love can come shining through. This has extremely practical application in daily life. Trying to directly cultivate love for a person you dislike might be extremely difficult, whereas working on letting go of the negative is more direct or immediate. Then, it might come more naturally to like or love that person. Take a look at the article on the five sheaths, and notice that the level of bliss or love (ananda) is far deeper than the mental level where the more surface emotions dance.
Cultivating opposites brings positive fruits: With each of the Yamas and Niyamas, cultivating opposites of our negative habits or conditionings brings positive fruits.
- In the case of not-harming, one might have the inclination towards harming, hurting, or injuring others to varying degrees, so as to get what one wants.