A Closer Look At The Yamas
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A couple of posts ago, I did an introduction to the Eight Limbs of yoga, and promised to delve a bit more deeply into them. I’ve also written previously (last year at some point) about the Yamas individually, in terms of my personal experience with them. But I thought I’d examine them again, in terms of everyday life, and some of the current societal issues we’re facing in 2020. As a reminder, the Yamas are loosely defined as “restraints” with others, or one could look at them as a guide in how we interact with others. I touched on this in my last post about yoga not being all light and love and good vibes, but I thought I’d go a little bit deeper here.
Ahimsa: Non-harming, or non-violence
Of course, not physically harming people. I wish that would go without saying, but sadly, in so many instances it does not. But just because you aren’t physically harming someone doesn’t mean you’re practicing Ahimsa. It goes deeper than that. We can harm people with our words (saying harmful things either directly or indirectly) or our lack of words (not speaking out against wrongs, not supporting someone). We can harm people when we don’t believe them, don’t listen to them, or dismiss them or their experiences. We can harm someone by perpetuating stereotypes, biases, or misinformation. On a larger scale, we do harm when we support people, organizations, companies that do these. There’s this idea (in Western yoga/wellness) that Ahimsa is about “being nice”. But the issue with “being nice” is that nice often means not rocking the boat, not “causing a scene”, not confronting issues. Sometimes, the boat needs to be rocked. Sometimes we need to stand up against wrongs that are being done, against others or against ourselves. Sometimes, we do more harm by not speaking up and confronting situations (or people) than we do by not “being nice”. And that’s not Ahimsa.
Satya - Honesty or Truthfulness
Again, it seems simple (at least I hope it does) - don’t lie. But it isn’t always that straightforward. How many times have you told someone that something’s fine, but it’s not. Or you’ve told someone that you’re “ok” when you’re not? (As someone living with chronic illnesses including mental health conditions, I admittedly do this often.) We might do this out of wanting to “protect” the other person, or not cause any type of discord, but if we do it enough, or if the issue is serious enough, it could have negative effects in the long run. Or, have you ever shared something you heard at work or on social media or with a friend that you weren’t entirely sure was true? The “oh I heard… did you hear?” around the office (or wherever) seems harmless enough, but especially if the information turns out not to be true, it can have harmful effects. And while Yamas are primarily regarding our interactions with others, there’s one that I want to address here that I think is important, especially right now - honesty with ourselves about biases, prejudices, preconceived ideas about people and situations. I add this in here because I feel that if we cannot be honest with ourselves, it’s impossible to be honest with others. We often need to take a long look at the internal to be able to take a deeper look at the external - aka the world and others in it.
Asteya - Non-stealing
The first obvious place this comes up for me is cultural appropriation. Whether it’s the yoga and wellness world equating yoga to exclusive studios and $100 pants, or it’s taking another culture’s music, style, message, words, work, art, etc and turning it into your own without honoring and crediting (including openly acknowledging) the roots, it’s stealing. I acknowledge there can be a fine line between appropriation and appreciation, and appropriation isn’t always as obvious as “Namastay in Bed” tshirts. You may be trying to honor and understand the roots, and may have misinformation or not enough information. We don’t know what we don’t know, and until we learn further (often when someone from the culture points it out), we’re doing what we think is right. Furthermore, what one person from the culture of origin may think is appropriation, another may not. This doesn’t mean it’s OK to appropriate - it’s still harmful- it just acknowledges that appropriation isn’t always obvious or intentionally malicious. This is why, as yoga teachers, it’s always important to be students first and foremost. To always be learning, be open to knowing that we don’t know what we don’t know, be willing to listen to those who truly understand the roots and core of the practice, and to be willing to admit and then adjust the way we’ve been doing and thinking about things, where needed.
In a non-yoga related example, asteya can be as simple as making sure you credit someone’s post or art or words on social media. Or if you’ve been introduced to an idea that sparked further thoughts, acknowledge this - or at least ask the original poster if they want you to acknowledge them by saying something like “my friend *insert name and maybe link to their site/post* posted about this and it got me thinking”. (They may not want to be mentioned, and that should be honored too). There are plenty of other examples of ways that we steal without being obvious about it or possibly without even considering it stealing. To me, this is the Yama that can be the trickiest because it seems perhaps the most obvious - just don’t steal stuff! But especially in a world of technology where everything is so easily shareable and accessible, in a world where cultures can cross and intermingle and the lines between appreciation and appropriation, between inspiring and innovating and stealing can feel blurred, it’s perhaps the yama that slips under the radar the most.
Bramacharya - Right Use of Sexual Energy
Ah Bramacharya, everyone’s favorite yama to dive into, right? There are some super obvious applications of this, such as “No means no, and only yes means yes”. This shouldn’t have to be reiterated in the 21st century, but sadly it does so, I’d be remiss not to state what should be the obvious. In the world of yoga leaders, this yama has been coming to the forefront all too often, in the form of teachers either not respecting personal boundaries of their students, or outright sexually assaulting them. It’s sickening, and it’s definitely something that the industry needs to become better about acknowledging and addressing. As a teacher, in addition to not doing the things stated above, it’s also about making sure that you ask permission for hands on assists and adjust, and that you’re adjusting in a manner that’s appropriate to what you’ve learned and for the setting/situation. In life, it’s using common sense or what should be common sense. Don’t inappropriately comment on someone’s body. Don’t objectify others. Respect people’s boundaries. If you unknowingly overstep (because everyone’s boundaries and experience may be different and we can’t always know even if we try to), acknowledge and apologize, and most importantly, don’t overstep it again.
Aparigraha - Non-Grasping
2020 has been, quite honestly, a mess. But it has been a massive lesson in aparigraha. Think back to January 1, when we ushered in not only a new year but a new decade. Despite the fact that there’s nothing about the start of a new year or decade that actually changes much in our day to day lives, it feels like it could. It feels full of possibility and potential. And yet a couple of months into the year, life was flipped on its head. Virtually nothing - especially nothing external - that we held on to, that we were used to, stayed the same. People have lost jobs that they’d had for years or decades. They can’t see family members or friends or loved ones that they’d previously seen regularly. Businesses that were staples of communities closed. People have lost family members or watched them struggle with illness. People that were seemingly in great health became ill and may still be dealing with effects. Everyone who wasn’t deemed essential more or less had to work from home. Many still are. For that matter, we had to let go of much of what we thought essential was, and redefine it. Many jobs we normally consider essential weren’t. We found out how many essential people we often overlooked. So much that we held on to, that we grasped onto as part of who we are and what our life is, is no longer a solid place in our life to grasp.
Then there’s the social justice movements that are finally getting the attention from society that they deserve. The examination of ourselves and others, of ideas and beliefs, of institutions and companies and systems that we’ve had to dig deeper into. Our eyes are opening (meaning, we finally started listening) and realizing how much we didn’t know or understand. We have to stop grasping to what we thought we knew, ideas we’d learned as truths or facts, and begin to break them down and re-learn. As (white, western) yoga teachers (I include myself in this) we have to stop grasping at our idea of what yoga is, as we’ve learned in our world, and do a deeper dive into the roots, the culture, the history, the meaning, to understand what it really is. We then must work to make that transition not only in ourselves, but with our students, our practice, and our place in the yoga field as a whole.
And those are just the 2020 biggies. Those aren’t the everyday things we grasp on to - the “but that’s how we’ve always done it” in our companies or families; the “this is the right way to do xyz” that we’re so sure is the only option that we don’t entertain others. This doesn’t include the everyday hanging onto what was, while missing what presently is - whether it’s in the realm of friendships or relationships or life situations or job or family traditions or something else. In my own life, I encounter this type of grasping probably daily, and may not even realize it until I look closely. It’s important that we practice aparigraha or non-grasping when it comes to the big life events, or course. But it’s also important in these small day to day instances that make up our lives. If we’re always clinging to one thing, one way, one person, one situation, we don’t open ourselves up to possibility or change, or growth.
I want to be clear that the Yamas, like all of yoga, are a process and a practice. Some days certain yamas may feel more tangible than others. We are all human, and just like you don’t have to be able to do every pose perfectly to practice yoga, the same is true for the Yamas. Some days we might feel great about our practice, and some days we may stumble a bit more. The Yamas are one of the eight limbs of yoga, and they help to guide us in everyday life, in our practice off the mat. I like the Yamas as an intro to the other Seven Limbs (besides Asana/poses), because they incorporate concepts that we are generally familiar with, and they expand on them. They help us dig deeper to understand what ideas that we are generally familiar with like “non-harming” and “honesty”. They also help us to see that principles we often consider to be simple on the surface can be more complex, and that we can often be acting counter to these principles without realizing it. They help us to see the way that we interact with the world, other people, and even ourselves, in a different light.