Some people who practice ashtanga yoga may perhaps know that ashta means number eight in Sanskrit. What is more, ashtanga yoga is claimed to be the “original” yoga. This is where opinions and beliefs may divert from the facts but I understand that it is kind of nice to believe that you practice “superior yoga”. Like the Jews may believe that they are the God’s chosen people.
What is perhaps less known is that yoga, according to the most acknowledged source, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, also consists of eight limbs. Please note that the two limbs most commonly known in the yoga practicing communities – Asana and Pranayama – are not coming first in the list of the eight limbs. They are preceded by:
- YAMA – Restraints, moral disciplines or moral vows, the foundation of spiritual life for a yogi including non-harming, non-stealing and truthfulness.
- NIYAMA – Positive duties or observances or rule of conduct. Yama and Niyama are interrelated – it is a moral code (Yama) which one puts into practice through niyama. One can learn from self-study, for example, how far one has advanced with truthfulness or non-violence.
And only now we come to:
- ASANA – Posture, the physical yoga we know best because almost every posture in Sanskrit ends with the word “asana”. Trikonasana, Eko Pada Rajakapotasana, Parvsottanasana, Dandasana, Sirasana, etc, etc
- PRANAYAMA – Breathing techniques. The knowledge that breath plays the key role in yoga is widely known. Asanas are mostly practiced together with pranayama.
Could this affect the quality of yoga that the first two limbs are overlooked and not so well distinguishable in the contemporary yoga world which is transfixed on physical yoga? Yes, absolutely. But there are more limbs to be aware of:
- PRATYAHARA – Sense withdrawal. This means narrowing one’s senses to what is going on inside of oneself. Being able to listen to one’s heartbeat, being able to eliminate the noises around by stopping listening to them.
- DHARANA – Focused concentration
- DHYANA – Contemplation or meditation, also called effortless concentration.
- And the final limb of the eight – SAMADHI – Enlightenment. A state of being totally aware of the present moment, being one with it.
When we look at meditation in this context, it is surrounded by much more substance to take in. But this substance also helps to give meditation a bigger meaning and a clearer understanding. I am a firm believer that safe meditation can be practiced as part of the eight limb yoga. It is possible in other ways too, most certainly. But the Patanjali way is definitely safer than cutting off one limb and trying to make it work without the seven. Without Pranayama, Asana, Yama, Niyama, Pratyahara, Dharana and Samadhi meditation may be like a homeopathic pill – diluted. Sometimes it works but sometimes it does not. Believing plays equal role to the act of administrating the pill.
Several years ago I participated in a Yoga Nidra training which lasted for about four (4) days. It is a technique which puts people into hypnagogic dream and works with the subconscious part of the mind. I remember thinking – this here is a serious and complicated psychological tool. I had full trust that the teacher knew what she was up to – she was amazing and had full control of the technique. But I doubt that the ca 30 yoga teachers who participated, including me, left the training after four days in a complete mastery of this tool. Hopefully no brain has been harmed and no state of mind fucked up by any of us who has put the technique to use. I have actually not dared to use the full specter of what I learned at this training until now.
As a yoga instructor, you are sometimes taught yoga techniques during a very short time which means that the training ends before you fully understand and grasp them. If you were a psychiatrist, nobody would take you seriously if you start receiving patients after half a year of studies. But as a yoga teacher you turn to a doctor, psychologist and a therapist after about 200 hours, sometimes even less if you do not want to invest your time and money to be Yoga Alliance certified.
No contraindications when you put some people into a trans-like state? Hmm… I saw some of the participants getting wild emotional outbursts, crying or laughing in an unrestrained manner. It is often said in yoga that when people lose control over their feelings, this is how you start to release your tensions. This is the start of your healing process, you are assured. I call it an understatement. More than just the release of tensions happens when you start influencing people’s thinking patterns and consciousness. It is rather programming or deprogramming the mind. We are not alike, some people are more susceptible to hypnosis. For some it takes one sniff of coke to turn into an addict. Some people need a higher dose of a painkiller in order not to feel pain. When you are testing out techniques which tweak your mind, you have to be very careful. Your limits are not known beforehand. Nobody can tell you in advance how it will work out for you. When you are susceptible, you start to act according to the “expected” behavior and launch the self-fulfilling prophesy.
The brain changes physically each time when we learn a new skill. Meditation is also a new skill. Therefore the studies which conclude that the brain changes after a course on meditation prove what is already known. More about other studies can be read in my previous blog post about meditation.
Meditation is not something that can be bought and consumed as a product. This, more than anything else, triggers of the dark side of meditation.
Let’s try to differentiate between side effects and true purposes of meditation:
Relieve anxiety – side effect
Calm down – side effect
Enjoy sense of freedom – side effect
Learn something new about yourself – side effect
Feel bliss – side effect
Experience being in the now – yes
Improve focus – yes
Show more compassion/love – yes in some meditation type
Be more self aware – yes
Complement your yoga practice – yes
Reduce fluctuations of mind (brain wave frequencies) – yes
Feel the union with the universe – illusionary effect of body and mind as certain regions in the brain either decrease or increase their activity to allow to experience this sensation
Know your true self – imaginary purpose, regardless of whether you like it or not, you are always your true self
Adverse effects of meditation:
When there is a tremendous expectation that meditation can be good for you, people silence some warning signals inside them. It is possible to unwillingly program the mind during meditation for behaviors/outbursts/actions taken outside the yoga/meditation class without being aware of this happening. And equally important to consider – meditation loses its effect when we start attributing values to meditation experience and become emotionally attached.
To cut the long story short, to be on the safe side, treat meditation as part of the eight limbs of yoga. It is a solid stand when you have more limbs than one to rely on. Standing on one limb can be quite unstable.
More reading:
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/22/seven-myths-about-meditation
- http://www.health.com/mind-body/can-meditation-trigger-panic-attacks-the-weird-effect-making-news
- https://thehumanist.com/magazine/september-october-2007/features/can-meditation-be-bad-for-you
- http://www.wiseattention.org/blog/2014/03/24/rude-awakenings-zen-at-war/
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War
- https://liveanddare.com/types-of-meditation