8 Essential Yoga Concepts

by Nina

Bird Gathering Fruit by Melina Meza

Here at last is the list of basic yoga concepts that Baxter and I think everyone practicing Yoga for Healthy Aging should understand. We’ve always said that an essential part of healthy aging was cultivating equanimity to help us deal with the difficulties of life that will inevitably arise (see The Pains Which Are To Come). And this list, which Baxter and I worked together on, briefly describes the yoga concepts that we believe will assist you in that journey. We’re intentionally keeping this list limited to eight concepts in order to keep it manageable (not because we think this list covers everything valuable in the yoga scriptures!).

We’ll be discussing most of these concepts in more detail in the weeks to come. But we thought it would be fun to put the list out now in an abbreviated form to see what kind of feedback we get from you (anything super important that we’ve been missing?). Plus, you know—lists.

1. Ignorance

The Yoga Sutras tells us that ignorance or misapprehension (avidya) is the major cause of suffering.

2.4 Lack of true knowledge is the source of all pains and sorrows whether dormant, attenuated, interrupted or fully active. —Iyengar

2.4 Misapprehension is the source of all the other obstacles. They need not appear simultaneously and their impact varies. Sometimes they are obscure and barely visible; at other times they are exposed and dominant. —Desikachar

The solution is to pursue wisdom and dispel ignorance by studying all eight branches of yoga (see Ignorance About Ignorance), not just asana and/or meditation. That includes studying the scriptures, which is what we're doing today.

2. Equanimity

The Bhagavad Gita defines yoga as “equanimity.” Cultivating equanimity allows you to face difficulty with a “steady and quiet” mind. This is a yogi:

He who hates no light, nor busy activity, nor even darkness, when they are near, neither longs for them when they are far. 

Who unperturbed by changing conditions sits apart and watches and says “the powers of nature go round”, and remains firm and shakes not. 

Who dwells in his inner self, and is the same in pleasure and pain; to whom gold or stones or earth are one, and what is pleasing or displeasing leave him in peace; who is beyond both praise and blame, and whose mind is steady and quiet. 

3. Detachment 

The path to equanimity is to practice “detachment” in everything we do. We do our work—whatever it is—with dedication but without attachment to the outcome of our actions. 

You have a right to your actions, 

But never to your actions fruits

Act for the action’s sake

And do not be attached to inaction.

Self-possessed, resolute, act

Without any thoughts of results, 

Open to successor failure.

This equanimity is yoga. —Stephen Mitchell

The Yoga Sutras also recommends the practice of detachment.

1.12 Practice and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness.

1.15 Renunciation is the practice of detachment from desires. 

See Acceptance, Active Engagement, and the Bhagavad Gita and What We Need to Practice. 

4. Quieting the Mind 

The Yoga Sutras defines yoga as the quieting of the mind. By eliminating (or reducing) the busyness of the mind—including regrets about the past and worries about the future—you can be fully alive in the present and see the world as it is, clearly. 

1.2 Yoga is the cessation of the movements in the consciousness. — Iyengar 

Yoga mindfulness techniques enable you to quiet the mind through focusing on an object of meditation. 

1.2 Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively toward and object and sustain that direction without any distractions. —Desikachar 

5. Practice 

How do we achieve equanimity or any other goals of yoga? With regular practice (abhyasa), done with the right attitude (detachment, or vairagya, from the results of practice). 

1.12 Practice and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness.
1.13 Practice is the steadfast effort to still these fluctuations.

1.14 Long, uninterrupted, alert practice is the firm foundation for restraining the fluctuations
1.15 Renunciation is the practice of detachment from desires. —Yoga Sutras

See Practice for information about the importance of practice.

6. Yamas & Niyamas

In the eight-fold path of yoga described in the Yoga Sutras, yoga practice begins with the practice of the yamas and niyamas (not asana or meditation). 

Interacting with the outside world according to the yamas brings peace of mind and contentment because the conflict in our lives (drama) is reduced. See The First Branch of Yoga: Yamas and Yama Drama.

“Non-violence (ahmisa), truth (satya), abstenstion from stealing (asteya), chastity (brahmacarya), absence of greed for possessions (aparigrahah) are the five pillars of yama.”

The niyamas are, as Ram says, our “to do” list to cultivate equanimity and dispel ignorance. See The Second Branch of Yoga: Niyamas. The niyamas include practicing with zeal, studying of the scriptures as well as the self (see Self Study, Part 1 and Part 2), and cultivating contentment. 

2.32 Cleanliness (sauca), contentment (santosa), zeal (tapas), self-study (svadhyaya), and surrender of the self to the supreme Self (or God) are the niyamas.

7. Contentment/Happiness

The Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita tell us that true happiness attained from contentment. 

1.41 From contentment, the highest happiness is attained. —Yoga Sutras

“For the pleasures that come from the world bear in them sorrows to come. They come and they go, they are transient: not in them do the wise find joy. 

But he who on this earth, before his departure, can endure the storms of desire and wrath, this man is a Yogi, this man has joy. 

He has inner joy, he has inner gladness, and he has found inner Light.” —Bhagavad Gita

See Yoga and the Pursuit of Happiness and Yoga Philosophy: Contentment.

In addition to cultivating contentment by learning to be comfortable with what we have and what we do not have (santosha), we can cultivate contentment in our relationships: 

1.33 In relationships, the mind becomes purified by cultivating feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy, compassion for those who are suffering, goodwill towards those who are virtuous, and indifference or neutrality towards those we perceive as wicked or evil. —Yoga Sutras

8. More Than One Path 

Although the eight-fold path of yoga (see Ashtanga Yoga: Following the Eight-Fold Path) recommended by the Yoga Sutras tends to get the most attention these days here in the west, it is not the only path to achieve yogic goals. The Bhagavad Gita tells us explicitly there are two main paths: 

In this world there are two main paths:
the yoga of understanding,
for contemplative men; and for men
who are active, the yoga of action. 

The Gita later describes devotional yoga as a third path. In the nineteenth century, Swami Vivekananda explicitly identified four paths. 

Yoga philosophy prescribes four spiritual paths to attain knowledge of the Self: karma-yoga, the path of selfless action; bhakti-yoga, the path of devotion; raja-yoga, the path of concentration and meditation; and jnana-yoga, the path of knowledge and discrimination. —Swami Adiswarananada

The particular path you take can depend on your natural disposition or your particular phase in life. The point is: there is no one way, and you should find the path that works for you. 

Each seeker is called upon to decide which yoga best corresponds to his or her natural disposition. Karma-yoga is advised for the active, bhakti-yoga for the devotional, raja-yoga for the strong-willed, and jnana-yoga for the rational. —Swami Adiswarananada 

See There Are Many Yoga Paths for more information.

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