Bernd’s weekly blog No.9 : The Quest Begins
Hi everybody!
My most recent entry in this weekly blog introduced the concept of needing a quest in our life in order to really have fulfilment and richness as we meander through the pathways of our days. If you haven’t had a look at that yet, it's probably worth a read to make a little more sense of the coming words…
If you have chosen the yogic quest, the question is where to begin. Having decided to take our proverbial backpack and closed the door of seeming safety and cloying so-called security, which way do we turn? How do we begin the ascent toward the dizzying heights of the limitless expanse of human potential?
If you are following the classical yogic path, a very logical step would be the yamas and niyamas.
What are they? Essentially preparing yourself for the actual intensive practise elements that go along with the yogic system, such as working actively with body, breath and awareness in very particular ways (we will get there in these blogs in time!). In the usual formulation, as for example expounded by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra, there are five yamas, to do with how we relate to the outer world, and ourselves to some degree, and five niyamas, all about how we prepare ourselves for the oncoming storm of yogic endeavour. However, I would like to present a far less known, and a great deal more comprehensive list, offered up by other yogis in their various texts, most famously the great Yajnavalkya and Carandas. Both of these yogis wrote their own treatises on practise, and expanded the list of yamas and niyamas to ten of each!
Moreover, no longer can we easily separate yamas as “external observances” and niyamas as “internal observances.” The simplest way to look at this is to simply think of the twenty individual teachings as a very comprehensive list of teachings around yogic lifestyle and approach, and thoroughly getting us ready for the fire of practise. Some of them will be familiar to those who have studied the Yoga Sutra, some of them will be new, some may even be rather surprising! Starting next week, I’ll go through them one at a time.
In preparation for the preparation (!!!), here’s a question for you. How can you at this time set up your life a little better to actually have room for yogic practise? Look at all angles if you can. How much and when do you eat? What are your sleeping patterns? What do you do in your spare time, who do you spend time with, what kind of work do you do, and so on. Examine every detail of your life, and ask yourself the question of whether, in all these facets, you are feeling a wholesomeness, a forward momentum, or is any particular aspect pulling you back?
This kind of stocktake of the way you currently live your life can be very effective! It has often been noticed that the one thing that will impact your meditative practises massively is reorganising your daily life. If you are utterly exhausted when you sit to meditate, or work with breath, or get into an asana practise, it won’t be such a fruitful practise. If you are plagued with constant anxiety based on your lifestyle choices, there really isn’t that much point trying to dive into the yogic work without first at least making an attempt to make some shifts.
Even if you are not trying to be a yogi, this advice holds. Whatever your primary quest is at this time, how can you set up your life in a way that makes the journey possible? Even more than possible, naturally unfolding?
If you have no idea, look deeper, and if you are still clueless, well, the list of twenty yamas and niyamas coming right up should surely help!
In the meantime, have a wonderful week, everyone. I shall see you soon!
With love,
Bernd.
