The Eight Limbs of Yoga: Part 1: Your Complete Guide to Conscious Living & Spiritual Growth

Welcome to Part One of a comprehensive nine-part series exploring the foundational Eight Limbs of Yoga as outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. 

This series dives deep into the core principles that form the basis of Ashtanga Yoga and many other traditions, guiding you to live a conscious, purposeful, and connected life.

In this episode, learn about the Eight Limbs of Yoga and their transformative power:

• Yamas: Ethical guidelines for how we relate to others — Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacharya (right use of energy), and Aparigraha (non-possessiveness).
• Niyamas: Personal disciplines for self-conduct and inner growth — Saucha (cleanliness), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (discipline), Svadhyaya (self-study), and Ishvara Pranidhana (surrender).
• Asana: Physical postures that prepare the body for meditation by building stability and comfort.
• Pranayama: Breath control techniques to harness and balance life energy.
• Pratyahara: Sense withdrawal that helps turn attention inward.
• Dharana: Concentration practices to focus the mind.
• Dhyana: Meditation for sustained, undistracted awareness.
• Samadhi: The ultimate state of union and spiritual bliss.

The Eight Limbs are interconnected practices that deepen and support each other, making yoga a holistic path for mind, body, and spirit, perfect for applying in everyday modern life.

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Chapters

• 0:12 Introduction to the Eight Limbs
• 3:20 The Yamas: Ethical Guidelines
• 12:36 The Niyamas: Personal Disciplines
• 20:09 Asana and Pranayama Practices
• 25:37 Advanced Limbs: Pratyahara to Samadhi
• 34:22 Integration and Next Steps

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hello everybody and welcome back to the daily practice with me Benita episode. We will dive into the eight limbs of yoga as proposed by a canonical yoga text called the yoga sutras of Patanjali. This is also the practice or the basis for Ashtanga Yoga, which is a very popular yoga lineage and that's also my personal lineage that I have grown up with when it comes to yoga. So when most people think of yoga, they think of stretching or downward dog or maybe incense or relaxing music. But actually it's really important to remember that the postures which we call yoga, asana or yoga postures are actually just a very, very tiny part of a much bigger practice or picture, part of a much bigger practice or picture. So a couple of thousand years ago there was a person named Patanjali who wrote down what's called the Yoga Sutras and with this kind of ancient text is also really useful to remember that, even though the texts are attributed to Patanjali, this was probably a practice that was more or less popular or quite commonplace, and he is the one who just wrote it down and kind of systematized it in a written text. In a written text. So inside this eight-part map of living a conscious, purposeful and connected life, we are taught the steps or the limbs or parts of a practice that is called yoga. And, like we know from the fact that yoga has become supremely popular in recent years, we know that it's not just for monks or ascetics or yogis in caves, it's for everybody. And this episode is about how you can implement each of the yoga yogic limbs in your everyday life. And this episode is the first of a nine-part series into the yoga practice as taught by Patanjali. So today, and then the following eight weeks, I'll be focusing on this text. So today is a brief outline of what the limbs are, and then in subsequent weeks we're going to look at each one in a lot more detail.

Speaker 1: 3:18

So let's begin. First. I'm going to give you an overview of each of the eight limbs, and you can think of these limbs as steps or threads woven together, so it's not that you practice one first and then you move to the next one. It's like by starting to practice one, you kind of naturally begin the path to complete each of the limbs. So first we have Yama how we treat others, our conduct in our social lives or in our relations. Then Nyama is about how we treat ourselves or our conduct towards ourself.

Speaker 1: 4:09

And then what most people think of as yoga is Asana, which is the posture and taking care of the body and finding a Stira Sukham Asana, which is a stable, steady posture, followed by pranayama. This is also something that a lot of people have become more familiar with. It is the control or extension of the breath, which also translates to extension or expansion of life force. So prana can mean breath and or life force. Next is Pratyahara, which means turning inward, turning our attention inward and withdrawing the senses. Sixth is Dharana, which is meditation or kind of becoming absorbed in the thing that we're focusing on, followed by Samadhi, which is some kind of union, bliss, or it's the ultimate culmination of the yogic practice, where we actually become one with the universal self. So Atman, the personal self becomes one with the universal awareness or consciousness, or God, if you so will.

Speaker 1: 5:41

So first I'm going to or next I'm going to, outline the Yama, which are the ethical guidelines for conduct with others, how we relate to others. First one is Ahimsa, nonviolence or non-harming. A lot of people when they hear this, they might think of Mahatma Gandhi, who was a practitioner of ahimsa, nonviolence. So this is about choosing kindness in thought, word and action. So this is about not saying words to intentionally harm others. This is not to conduct violence towards others. Some people interpret this as oh, you have to be vegan in order to be a yogi, but I think there are differing approaches to this and I think that, in some ways, actually consuming ethically raised animal products is a far less violent way of nourishing your body. Of course, fasting is one great way to practice ahimsa, where you're just nourishing yourself through breath, through sun gazing or just getting nourishment, energy, directly from the universal energy field. But that's a whole other story and a discussion about what is a good and appropriate yogic diet. But ahimsa at its core is nonviolence not intentionally harming yourself or others, including plants, animals and all other living beings.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Next is satya, which means truthfulness. So this is an honesty with compassion. So this is being honest to yourself, being honest in your speech, but also refraining of saying the truth if you know it's going to hurt or if it's going to harm. So talking with compassion, mindfulness. And the interesting thing is that in yogic texts we'd also talk about the fact that once you start embodying the practice of yoga, you naturally speak the truth that the alignment in your physical body, in your energy body makes you an instrument for truth and peace, and there is no way that, uh, an accomplished yogi could even speak an untruth. And, like I said, we're going to go way more into detail into each of these in the following weeks.

Speaker 1: 8:46

Third is asteya, which means non-stealing, or not taking something that has not been given. So this is integrity. This is like yeah, yeah, literally, don't steal, don't take stuff that doesn't belong to you, but also don't claim that an idea is yours if it comes from somebody else. Or don't steal somebody's time if, if, if somebody's trying to set a boundary, don't take away their time or attention if they are not willingly giving it to you. So it's about respect of other people's time, ideas, things and all of that.

Speaker 1: 9:37

And fourth is brahmacharya, which is roughly translated as the right use of energy, or managing your attention and life force wisely. Some people interpret this as celibacy, and there are, for sure, yogic traditions which recommend that. Personally, in the past I have interpreted this as such, and in certain other yogic texts beyond Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, there are appropriate times and relations where sexual activity is appropriate, and I guess it's up to each practitioner to evaluate how am I best directing my energy, my sexuality, my life force and my creative energy. Is it in casual sexual relations? Maybe for some people, at some points of their life, that may be fulfilling, but I would bet that most people would benefit from directing and using their creative sexual energies far better. And obviously I think porn has been a big distraction for a lot of people and it would seem quite clear that kind of wasting your sexual life force by engaging with pornographic imagery is a waste of your sexual life force, creative juices. So once again we're going to go into more detail in the following weeks.

Speaker 1: 11:40

The fifth yama is aparegara, which means non-possessiveness, which is letting go or just releasing things that no longer serve you. Also releasing things, grudges from the past that are weighing you down. Sometimes it's letting go of habits that no longer serve you. Also letting go of physical possessions that might be draining your physical energy, keeping only those things that actually truly serve your highest purpose. That is the practice of aparigara. Purpose, that is the practice of aparigara letting go, giving away, selling or donating things that no longer serve you, that are just taking up space, taking up energy in your life. So those are the five yamas.

Speaker 1: 12:36

Now we'll move on to the niyamas, which are personal disciplines, how to relate to ourselves, how to conduct ourselves towards ourselves. First one, saucha cleanliness. So it's pretty self-explanatory. This is the practice of keeping our body, mind and environment clear and pure. And that's an interesting thing I've really experienced personally where if I do, uh, yoga practice, first of all I try to make sure that my body is clean, my hair is brushed, my yoga mat is tidy before I begin my practice and that's like a really good way of actually setting up yourself for success and having clear energy field when you're doing your posture practice. But I also notice when I've actually done that, then I just naturally clean up my space after I'm like I notice more and I it just kind of naturally flows that I place things in order, clear surfaces, and there's just like a natural alignment towards cleanliness and this is a really a great service for yourself because that's what they say cleanliness is next to godliness. So we know that intuitively that in a clean space, in a clear space, things just flow better and we feel more aligned and coherent.

Speaker 1: 14:21

Next niyama is called santosha, which translates to something like contentment, and that is a certain level of gratitude and peace with what is before us Finding gratitude, finding contentment in the little things in life. So one way I practice Santosha is I keep a gratitude journal. So each morning, upon waking, I'll write three things that I'm grateful for. They might be little things, they might be the cup of coffee I'm enjoying, or they might be the beautiful nature I get. Might be little things, they might be the cup of coffee I'm enjoying, or they might be the beautiful nature I get to be surrounded by, or it might be having had a beautiful night's rest and just finding those little things to be grateful for and finding contentment in the present moment.

Speaker 1: 15:14

Third, niyama is called tapas, which translates to something like discipline, has nothing to do with spanish small dishes, which are also great but unfortunately not directly a part of the yoga practice. So tapas is the discipline of committing to growth even when it's uncomfortable, so showing up for your practice even when you don't feel like it. And this is something I've talked about a lot and I've really started to learn and embody and grow wise to, is that discipline doesn't mean overriding your natural cycles, your natural cycles. So, as women, we obviously are invited to stick to the plan, stick to our our our spiritual, physical, emotional, social, financial whatever goals through a practice, through a discipline, but also honoring that. That will look different different times of the month. So my yoga practice or my physical exercise is dramatically different, uh, the week leading up to my period or during my menstruation than it is during my ovulation. So really not holding you, holding yourself, to the same standard throughout your cycle. Also, in my lineage which it was, uh, for many years, I was a very devout ashtanga yogi. Even including in that practice, women are encouraged to take their moon days off. So the days that you're bleeding, you actually refrain from doing your intense physical posture practice, instead opting for rest, maybe some light pranayama, maybe some light stretching. But there's no need to think that, oh, I'm practicing yoga, so I have to be disciplined and I have to do the same thing every day. No, it's especially for women. Honoring your body, honoring those cycles, is super important.

Speaker 1: 17:28

Okay, fourth niyama is svadhyaya, which is self-study. So this can be reading the spiritual texts that resonate with you, whether that's the Bible, whether that's the Upanishads, whether that's the Quran or whatever it is that you are actually in coherence with, what that is true for you. But this can also mean studying your own mind. Maybe that is keeping a dream journal, maybe that is another kind of journal just about your day, in the morning or the evening, just jotting down how you feel and reflecting on how and why that might be. Why are you feeling a certain way, getting to know yourself profoundly, spiritually, energetically, understanding cause and effect in your life. And for me this is definitely also or it also includes study of scientific journals, because through understanding science and understanding things at a molecular level, how foods impact us, and of course, for me a big thing is also Ayurveda and linking modern science with Ayurvedic wisdom, looking at how studies support or sometimes contradict how I feel or what my lived experience is, this is all a part of svadhyaya.

Speaker 1: 19:08

Then fifth niyama is Ishvara Pranidhana, and that is roughly translated as surrender, letting go slightly in a distinct way than Aparigara. This is like a surrender to the God, or letting go of all that stuff that you've done, all that self-study, all that discipline, all the other aspects, and allowing the fruits of your labor to unfold and just witnessing. So Ishvara Pranidhana is letting go of controlling the outcome. You've done your best, you've showed up, you've studied, you've done the practice and now the job is just to let go and then next day start again.

Speaker 1: 20:09

So the fourth limb of yoga is probably the one that most people are most familiar with, which is asana, and these are the physical postures. And what is said about the physical postures? Stira Sukham Asana is a stable, steady posture. So, doing a downward dog, doing a headstand, doing a forward fall, doing a backbend, these are all great practices and I do them almost daily in a varying form. But actually, ultimately, to practice yoga, you don't need to do all that. Those postures are essentially preparation for just sitting, and sitting in a comfortable seat, stable, steady posture. Sthira Sukham Asana.

Speaker 1: 21:06

And we are living in a society where a lot of our days are spent sitting down at a computer, sitting down in a car, where a lot of our days are spent sitting down at a computer, sitting down in a car, whatever it is. So it is, pretty much without exception, quite necessary for most people to stretch, to do these all these different shapes and practices, to be able to sit comfortably for an extended period of time, to then move on to the next limbs of the yogic path. So that's why we want to stretch our hips, we want to stretch our back, just so we can be soft, steady, comfortable in a simple seated posture. I have a video on YouTube I could link it here in the show notes where I have some simple tips on how to sit in meditation, because we are aware of the fact that a lot of people struggle with sitting for an extended period of time in a cross-legged position. So there are ways to do that. But, of course, asana yoga postures, doing a yoga practice daily or at least several times a week, even a short one, will help you tremendously to sit comfortably. But asana can be something as simple as integrating short stretches after a walk or in between if you're working, if you're sitting at a desk, doing some short neck stretches or back stretches, so that your body stays soft, flexible, supple. So trying to integrate some aspect of asana in your daily life, even if it's not in a formal yoga class or on the mat at home. There are ways to practice asana.

Speaker 1: 23:05

Okay then, the fifth limb of yoga is called pranayama, or breath control or expansion of the breath, extension of the breath or expansion of the breath, extension of the breath or expansion of life force. So prana can be breath or life force. So this is the practice of harnessing the breath to influence the mind and the body. So for a lot of people it's much easier to start with something that's more. In yoga we call it gross not gross like disgusting, but gross like tangible. So it is easier to start practicing the postures rather than the breath, because the breath is more subtle, so it is.

Speaker 1: 23:51

For a lot of people, actually learning to control and extend the breath is a lot trickier than to try to place your body in a certain shape. But pranayama is often integral to the asana practice, a practice. So if you go to a yoga class, if you watch my videos, you will see that I'll talk about, okay, inhaling, exhaling, doing things with your breath to help your body get into these different shapes and to relax. But pranayama is really also the practice of just sitting down and breathing. But in your daily life, what this can also look like is just actually taking three slow breaths before you need to do something that's maybe a little bit stressful whether that's giving a presentation or maybe you're feeling overwhelmed in your family life and just stopping, taking three controlled, slow breaths and you will notice that just by doing that you're shifting your mental state, your physical state, and it's easier to proceed with life. So pranayama is super important, super simple, but often neglected, and I do that too, I forget to breathe. And neglected, and I do that too, I forget to breathe. And then when I do remember to breathe and I make sure that I make it a daily practice upon waking, I might just do three, four minutes of controlled long breaths and the day unfolds so much better. Okay, moving on.

Speaker 1: 25:37

So the next limb is called pratyahara, which is the withdrawal of the senses or turning the senses inward. So this can be in our yoga practice. There are specific pratyahara practices and in certain yogic traditions people go into, for instance, dark rooms or for extended periods of time to to kind of close out the visual input, to turn more inward. And there are certain yoga, yoga shapes, yoga poses that also are the practice of or help in the practice of pratyahara, where you actually physically close or block the senses, whether it's hearing, eyes, smell, or yeah, basically those, yeah, basically those. Um. Also in, for instance, in the ashtanga yoga lineage, pratyahara is also practiced by the drishti.

Speaker 1: 26:45

So in yoga asana practice, this will be that we're directing our gaze to a specific point in our body or in the space that we're practicing in, in order to direct our energy or keep our energy, our senses, contained and keeping our awareness within our own practice and our own energy In your daily life. You might practice pratyahara simply by turning off your phone. Leave your phone at home, go for a walk and try to focus only on walking. You know that is a walking meditation feeling your foot against the ground and not being distracted by anything external, instead just withdrawing the senses and only not allowing any other distractions to interfere with whatever you're doing. Right then? Distractions to interfere with whatever you're doing, right then.

Speaker 1: 27:51

Okay, so I already slipped the next limb, which is called Dharana, which is concentration. So, like I said in the beginning, all these limbs are intertwined and they are not steps in the sense that, like you practice one and then you move on to the next one. It's, these are all interconnected and by practicing one you will kind of naturally progress in the others. So, dharana, concentration is training the mind to focus on one thing at a time. So, like I said, drishti is uh is a great tool in our yoga. Asana practice is where we focus in a posture on a certain point, a gazing point sometimes it's the navel, sometimes it's the third eye, sometimes it's the fingertips and just by really becoming focused, concentrated on just that will help our concentration. Dharana in your daily life might look something like actually being 100%, fully present when you're doing the dishes. You're not listening to music, necessarily, or you're not having a screen on in the same space. You're just fully focusing on the thing that you're doing.

Speaker 1: 29:16

And the Dharana practice flows naturally into the next limb, which is called Dhyana, and this is meditation, which is called dhyana and this is meditation. So this is sustained awareness without distraction. And for a lot of people, this might be interesting that the dhyana word, which is all these words uh, I maybe didn't mention it in the beginning, but it bears mentioning that all these words that I'm saying that might sound foreign to you are in the Sanskrit language. So dhyana is meditation and it actually has this. It is the root for the word, or the origin of the word, zen. So Zen meditation, zen Buddhism, is essentially Dhyana meditation, dhyana Buddhism.

Speaker 1: 30:09

Okay, so Zen meditation or Zen Buddhism is the practice of meditation where you have a sustained awareness of a single object without distraction, and that's what they do In Zen Buddhism. They'll sit facing a wall, staring at the wall for several hours at a time. That is dhyana, that is a sustained awareness without distraction. And you can practice dhyana Like. One common practice in yoga is that you might look at a flame. So looking at a candle, flame, and just allowing your eyes to settle and keeping your entire focus on that candle, on that fire, not allowing anything else to come into your conscious awareness, back to the flame. Another obviously common point of attention is the breath. So focusing on the inhalation, focusing on the exhalation, perhaps it is watching the breath at the tip of the nose or the nostrils and allowing your mind to be fully absorbed in witnessing the inhale and the exhale. So that's a great practice, even for one minute, two minutes, five minutes, at any point in your day, just allowing yourself to watch the natural breath. That is Dhyana meditation.

Speaker 1: 31:48

And from Dhyana, which is the seventh limb of Ashtanga yoga or Patanjali's yoga, we come to Samadhi, which is the culmination of yogic practice. It's the union, it is the absorption of the small self, of the atman, the individual self, into the universal self, brahman or god, or universal consciousness, or whatever you want to call it, the source. And here is a deep sense of connection and peace. And okay, this can be a whole other episode and a whole other conversation is like there are actually outlined the different kinds of samadhi and kind of stages of it, but essentially samadhi is a full immersion of the human body, mind, energy, field into the universal all. And when you experience this there's a sense of timelessness of everything and nothing existing all at once and there's no individuation. And I guess some people report and me personally too like you become one. You can experience this kind of ego dissolution, uh, on certain substances, on certain hallucinogenics, psychedelics, uh, uh, but often, like I've talked about it before, it's often very short-lived, so, but through the practice of yoga we can actually achieve those states of becoming one with everything, experiencing, experiencing a bliss, a union with the all. So I guess that was it in a nutshell, so I'm going to repeat them one more time.

Speaker 1: 34:02

So the eight limbs of yoga yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and finally samadhi. Remember that these eight limbs of yoga, as outlined by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, are interconnected. The yoga sutras are interconnected. They are not steps in a program, they are connected and interwoven. I struggle with that word. So practicing one of these, practicing asana, makes pranayama easier. Practicing the yamas and the nyamas make focus, make, make dharana easier.

Speaker 1: 34:50

So sometimes you might wonder okay, why are these like moral concepts, like put into this, like practice? It's like if you have something on your conscience or if you've done harm, or if you're not living with integrity, doing a meditation practice becomes hard because it's like there will be intruding thoughts, or or if you've, if your space is cluttered, it's going to be hard to focus, it's going to be hard to, you're going to be easily distracted. So there are so many little ways in which all the yamas, niyamas and all the practices and all the limbs are connected that just starting with one is perfect and then starting to integrate the others and noticing how they kind of naturally flow and become easier as you master others. And that's why, for instance, in Ashtanga yoga schools, or a lot of yoga schools, a lot of the practice to begin with is physical, is with the asana, because it's kind of like the easiest entry point. And then you start talking about maybe some of the more philosophical or moral concepts and ethical conduct. But those are also in a in a, in a more limber, flexible, clear energy field that you create through the posture practice. When you clean, clean the body of impurities, those moral, ethical principles become easier to embody. Okay, so I guess that was a lot and plenty. So next week we're going to do a deep dive, more into the yamas how to relate to others, how to show up in the world if we're following the yogic path.

Speaker 1: 36:59

In the meanwhile, of course, my youtube channel, daily practice with Benita, has quite a few already practice videos on how to sit in meditation, short meditation practices, yoga videos and there are, yeah, just small ways in which you can start practicing today, so go check those out. So yoga or our practice videos are posted each Friday morning and this podcast is live every Monday morning at 10 am on Mountain Time. Am on mountain time, uh, and obviously you can also reach me through uh x. So, uh, I'm noticing that it's not the ideal place for me to spend a lot of time. I get caught up sometimes, but I do, um, I do keep posting there.

Speaker 1: 38:04

So Daily Practice with Benita or BSM Bird is the handle, and I have taken steps to open up my Patreon community, so feel free to check that out and join me there. I have different tiers and each tier will allow for you to access these podcasts earlier than the schedule, and there's a bunch of other perks that I invite you to check out. So thank you so much for joining today, and I hope you found some food for thought and wisdom in today's podcast about the eight limbs of yoga, and I am excited for next week to dive into the first limb of yoga in much more detail. So I will hopefully connect with you then. So that's all for this week. Thanks so much, and remember, as always, a good practice is the one you do you.