Fitness/Yoga 

What Is ASHTANGA YOGA?

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Before going with it, I wanted to share the difference between the Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali or Raja Yoga and the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga of Patthabi Jois (following this tradition we practice).

Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali or Raja Yoga is the path of the 8 steps of Yoga described in the Yoga Sutras by the wise hidu Patanjali.

In this sacred text of Yoga -Yoga Sutras- these 8 members or steps of Yoga are described, I will briefly describe them:

  1. YAMA: Observances of moral conduct to internalize and practice for ourselves and for the rest of beings. There are five of them:
  • AHIMSA: non-violence in thought, word, action.
  • SATYA: stay in Truth in thought, word, and deed
  • ASTEYA: Do not steal. This not only refers to not appropriating other people’s material things but extends to more subtle forms of « theft » in which we appropriate ideas, resources, energy, time, the trust of others. This Yama invites us to let go of this eagerness to want what is foreign, to want and love life, and to be true, we take care and are generous towards others.
  • BRAHMACHARYA: to establish oneself in Truth, in Unity. In Prana there is no gender-male or female-it is only one life force.
  • APARIGRAHA: No greed, no hoarding. Learning to live without the need to accumulate -from what is « mine »- and without being at the service of the desires that arise from sensory stimuli. Develop appreciation and gratitude for the simplicity of life and of what surrounds us.
  1. NIYAMA: observances or precepts to internalize and practice to develop self-knowledge and internal vision. There are five of them:
  • WILLOW: exterior and interior purity. Cultivate the cleansing of the physical body and thus also the cleansing of the mind by freeing it from impurities and contamination.
  • HOLY: state of contentment and continuous happiness experienced when we are able to direct the mind towards Being and experience with equanimity the errors, failures, disappointments, difficulties.
  • TAPAS: austerity. Techniques and actions that help us to observe the mind, purify it, and develop self-knowledge.
  • SVADHYAYA: self-study, self-awareness.
  • ISHVARA PRANIDHANA: Delivery to the Whole (Ishvara).
  1. ASANA: These are yogic postures. These are not just mere postures aimed at the physical body. Being performed correctly, under the guiding thread of breathing and concentration, they allow us to observe in our practice the development and natural unfolding of the other seven steps described by Patanjali.
  2. PRANAYAMA: control of « prana » (life force or energy. Techniques to activate and regulate the life force (prana) beyond the regular energy states to obtain a higher energy state and consequently expand the state of consciousness.
  1. PRATYAHARA: internalization of the senses in order to cultivate a deeper recollection of the mind. It occurs naturally as you begin to internalize the first four steps or members of Yoga.
  2. DHARANA: Maintain a calm, stable, and concentrated mind directed to the Divine.
  3. DHYANA: state of meditation. Meditation rather than a technique is a process in which the inner presence of the Divine is established and experienced.
  4. SAMADHI: Realization of Self. One comes to experience the true nature of Self.