Limbs Twigs Lists: Ethical Paths… There is great suffering in this world. There practices of yoga and Buddhism place great are tens of thousands of human beings putting emphasis on personal behaviour. Limbs Twigs themselves at enormous personal risk in their Lists is a personal perspective on these flight from war, disaster and strife; there are emphases — so subjective and potentially political processes that make House of Cards eccentric and idiosyncratic (“if you describe look like a sweet love story; there are countries someone’s actions or characteristics as being ripped apart by savage violence, being idiosyncratic, you mean that they are rather deeply threatened by climatic changes, being unusual” (Collins Dictionary)). ruined by the drive to extract raw materials. And there are countless individual stories of I have drawn from Bernard Bouanchaud (The difficulty and illness, of loss and struggle, of Essence of Yoga); Donna Farhi (Yoga: Mind Body fighting, controlling and succumbing to a and Spirit); Georg Feuerstein (The Shambhala global pandemic. Encyclopedia of Yoga); Richard Freeman (The Procrustean Bed and other teachings); Judith A question for us is “What can we do?” In Hanson Lasater (Living Your Yoga and other asking ourselves this question, we are applying teachings); Gregor Maehle (Ashtanga Yoga our awareness to what is in and around us. An Practice and Philosophy); and Matthew Remski essential part of awareness is considering our (Threads of Yoga). personal behaviour and how we live our lives. This can be called a matter of ethics and I have had ongoing discussions with my morality. partner, Maitripushpa Bois, who is a practitioner and scholar of Buddhism. There is One definition of the word ‘ethics’ is “moral also my own experience and my own principles that govern a person’s behaviour or perspective. the conducting of an activity…the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles.” I am not a scholar, my pronunciation of There are different schools of ethics, such as Sanskrit is poor and I prefer Winnie the Pooh that which developed from Aristotle’s (384–22 to the Bhagavad Gita. I am merely someone BCE) teachings. He believed that concepts who is trying to do my best with what skills I and that knowledge were ultimately based on have. This is my dance in the disco of perception. philosophy, my attempt to make some sense and express how these wisdom traditions can Another school is utilitarianism: “the guiding guide us in the 21st century. principle of conduct should be the greatest happiness or benefit of the greatest number.” HE IGHT IMBS There is also the characterisation of ethics as T E L Many yoga practitioners are familiar with the either ‘conventional’ (which reflects societal/ famous eight limbs of Patanjali — what has at cultural attitudes) or ‘natural’ (views of times been called the heart of ‘classical yoga’. conduct not conditioned by society or These are drawn from the Yoga Sutras culture). (compiled possibly about 200 CE) and, after The linguistic root of ‘ethics’ is the ancient centuries of obscurity, it has become the Greek word ethikos, which can be translated as standard philosophical text for yoga students. habit, custom, moral or character. Morality The eight limbs are: comes from the Latin moralis (meaning ‘custom’) and has come to mean which actions • yama guidelines for living a life of are right and which actions are wrong. personal fulfilment (more outer How we behave is incredibly important for emphasis) our own lives, the people whom we contact • niyama more personal precepts (more and our society. The philosophies and the inner emphasis) Limbs Twigs Lists / 1 • asana physical postures And there is the Yoga-Tattva-Upanishad (written between 700 CE and 1300 CE). It states that • pranayama managing and exercising scant diet (laghu ahara) is the single most breath important discipline. In the Tri-Shikhi- • pratyahara withdrawal of energy away Brahmana-Upanishad (written about the 17th from the senses century), there is sympathy (daya), rectitude • dharana concentration (arjava), patience (kshama) and others. The point is that there are different ways and • dhyana meditation different ideas and different situations; at the • samadhi merging of subject and object heart of all of this are attempts to guide us towards living a better life. These are all helpful ways for us to be. Yet of this list of eight, what is best known in the YAMAS AND NIYAMAS West is asana. The physical postures that are Returning to Patanjali and that explanation of performed throughout society, from yamas and niyamas. It is often stated that the professional footballers to YouTube channels, most central of the eight limbs are these first from up-market health clubs to local authority two, that chasing samadhi without having a leisure centres. basic grounding in yamas and niyamas is Sharath Jois, senior Asthanga practitioner, nonsensical. offered this in a talk. For Patanjali, there were five points (could we You can hurt your body by trying to prove call them twigs?) in each of these limbs. Yama things, and by performing. Know your can be interpreted as attitude towards others limitations… Don’t get so attached to the or wise characteristics or relationship to other. asana thing… Become wiser in your Niyama is often understood as personal thoughts… I used to be able to catch the principles for positive action or good backs of my knees. Now I can’t. So what? relationship to oneself or codes for living Asana practice is just physical at first, until you soulfully. develop wisdom. The yoga is what happens It has to be stressed that these are neither inside you — that should be alive all the time. goals nor statements that are carved into There are different reasons for the success of stone. These are much more guidance to living the Yoga Sutras. Indeed, whole books have better and brighter lives, vehicles that can help been written about why this text has become a us get towards the essence of who we actually dominant model in yoga philosophy, such as are: compassionate, generous and honest. David Gordon White’s The Yoga Sutra of Obviously, there are many layers and much Patanjali: A biography. There are other may obscure between that essence and us formulations of yoga philosophy which have now. And these are the journeys; this is a different limbs which emphasise different practice, we are on our paths and the qualities. Such as the Aparoksanubhuti (The direct guidances are signposts and reminders. experience of reality), which was written about The first yama is ahimsa. A common 800CE reputedly by Sankaracarya. translation of this term is ‘non-violence’, ‘non- In verse 100 of this text, we read of: “fifteen harming’ or ‘compassion for all living things’. steps by the help of which one should practice These meanings do not mean that you must profound meditation at all times.” In these be a vegetarian, for example. Personally, I steps (or limbs) there are the yamas and the have not knowingly eaten meat since 1982; yet niyamas and in addition to the ones in the Yoga I know that there are people in this world who Sutras, there is renunciation (tyagah), absolute must eat meat because of where they live, such silence (maunam), space (desha), time (kala), as the Inuits and the Mongolians. You can restraint of the root (mulabandha), balance and definitely still eat meat and practice ahimsa by equipoise of body (deha-samyam) and steady the way you are consuming the meat: with gaze (drishti). consideration, with respect, with veneration. Limbs Twigs Lists / 2 Ahimsa is the most important of these ethical PERSONAL PRINCIPLES FOR guidelines. So this is the question that we have POSITIVE ACTION to keep asking ourselves: are we living with The first niyama is saucha. This is widely ahimsa? How does this influence our understood to mean cleanliness or purity. A relationships with other? Personally, I like the difficulty is that saucha can encourage the use of ‘kindness’ as one way for understanding increasing disconnection from body that can this yama. be common: obsessional behaviours, fixations Then the second is satya: truthfulness and on physical form, eating disorders. As an honesty. Please note that truth has to be example of how this niyama is encouraging tempered with ahimsa. Are our words coming disconnect and disembodiment, Matthew with kindness as well as being true? If we can Remski quotes Sri Swami Satchidananda: “by embed ahimsa and satya in our lives, then purification arises disgust for one’s own body everything else can flow from this foundation. and for contact with other bodies”. The foundation of our lives and the way we For me, an essence of practice is becoming are living will be guided by and grounded in more connected with this physical form while compassion and truth. of course realising its inevitably changing The third is asteya. One unusual nature (grey hairs coming, hairlines receding, interpretation of asteya is ‘fair trade’. It is often bodies deteriorating over time). Remski described as ‘not stealing’ but this is not a rigid radically rejects the traditional understandings instruction that one must never steal. In some of saucha and interprets it as “honouring circumstances, it can be necessary to take what body”. is not ours. Such as when Hurricane Katarina Then there is santosha: ‘contentment’. Nearly hit New Orleans in 2005 and people were all the interpretations of santosha have this starving and shut-up shops had food. In such meaning — ‘contentment’. Yogi extreme circumstances, we still need to Mammoyanand provides an interesting spin maintain our grounding in ahimsa and satya on this interpretation in his book Sivananda (like leaving a note in that shop to explain Buried Yoga.