If Your Mind Is As Tight As Your Hamstrings, You Need These 5 Yoga Sutras
Practice is the most important factor in Yoga. Our guru, the trees, exemplifies this so magically. On your next stroll into the forest or park, take a moment and meditate on the beautiful yoga poses that unfold before your eyes.
Just like the tree, bringing your yoga practice into your every moment will not only illumine your spiritual path but - through growth - you’ll move closer towards mastering your body, senses and mind.
In this article, we’ll share five yoga sutras to help you expand your mind as you stretch your body.
Yoga Is The Science of The Mind
What is the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions the word Yoga? Most people will immediately think about the physical asanas commonly found in yoga classes.
The physical aspect of Yoga is designed to guide the practitioner into the spiritual journey of Yoga. Traditionally, Yoga was referred to as Raja Yoga, the mental science. Obtaining complete mastery over one’s mind and thoughts is what the mystics wanted yogis to realise through this ancient science.
When you step onto the mat, what is the state of your mind? Are you aware that once you become a yogi, your mat becomes a magic carpet? Meaning life is your mat. How are you bringing the practice of yoga into your daily life?
Why Yoga Is More Than Just Poses
Are you embodying ashtanga? Here’s a refresher on ashtanga or the eight limbs of yoga:
Yamas – The moral principles of not harming living beings, truthfulness, non-stealing, sexual restraint, and non-avarice.
Niyama – Expected habits and behaviors, including purity, clarity of mind, honest speech, and persistence.
Āsana – The ability to hold steady and at a comfortable position for a length of time.
Prānāyāma – Made of 2 Sanskrit words: breath and stretch.
Pratyāhāra – Retracting the sensory experience from external objects.
Dhāranā – Meaning, “concentration” and “introspective focus.”
Dhyāna – Contemplation, reflection, and profound, abstract meditation.
Samādhi – The ultimate goal: trance, union, and internal cohesion.
A rigid mind lacks the ease and flow needed to bring one’s being into alignment with your highest self. Blockages such as desires, selfishness and lack of respect for others keep you from liberating the mind from attachment.
Your daily asana journey is training the spirit to contemplate how you show up for yourself and others in the world.
5 Yoga Sutras To Deepen Your Practice
1.2 “Yoga is the control (nirodhah, regulation, channeling, mastery, integration, coordination, stilling, quieting, setting aside) of the modifications (gross and subtle thought patterns) of the mind field.”
1.33 “By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.”
2.1 “Yoga in the form of action (kriya yoga) has three parts: 1) training and purifying the senses (tapas), 2) self-study in the context of teachings (svadhyaya), and 3) devotion and letting go into the creative source from which we emerged (ishvara pranidhana).”
2.14 “The karmas bear fruits of pleasure and pain caused by merit and demerit.”
3.52 “Then (tataḥ), the veil (āvaraṇam) covering luminous clarity (prakāśa) disappears (kṣīyate).”
