YOGA 🕉‍

Yoga is a mind and body practice with a 5,000-year history in ancient Indian philosophy

Yoga comes out of an oral tradition in which the teaching was transmitted directly from teacher to student. The Indian sage Patanjali has been credited with the collation of this oral tradition into his classical work, the Yoga Sutra, a 2,500-year-old treatise on yogic philosophy. Giving guidance on how to gain mastery over the mind and emotions and advice on spiritual growth, the Yoga Sutra provides the framework upon which all yoga practiced today is based.

The texts of Yoga school of Hindu philosophy include both a theory of values through the observances of positive values and avoidance of negative. The values to be observed and followed are called Niyamas, while those to be avoided are referred as Yamas in Yoga philosophy.

The five Yamas (moral restrictions that should control our actions, speech and thoughts) listed by Patañjali in Yogasūtra are:

• Ahiṃsā (अहिंसा): Nonviolence, non-harming other living beings
• Brahmacarya (ब्रह्मचर्य): truthfulness, non-falsehood
• Asteya (अस्तेय): non-stealing
• Brahmacarya (ब्रह्मचर्य): celibacy, non-cheating on one's partner
• Aparigraha (अपरिग्रहः): non-avarice, non-possessiveness

The Niyamas (the rules for our habits, behaviors and observances) are:

• Śauca: purity, clearness of mind, speech and body
• Santoṣa: contentment, acceptance of others, acceptance of one's circumstances as they are in order to get past or change them, optimism for self
• Tapas: persistence, perseverance, austerity
• Svādhyāya: study of Vedas, study of self, self-reflection, introspection of self's thoughts, speeches and actions
• Īśvarapraṇidhāna: contemplation of the Ishvara (God/Supreme Being, Brahman, True Self, Unchanging Reality)

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