Practice

by Baxter

Leslie Greinstein, Age 62, Practicing Mayurasana with a Prop

When my friends inform me that they have started to “practice” yoga, I am always pleased to know it. But the part of me that knows the true benefit of practicing regularly—what we here at YFHA refer to as “home practice”—always has to ask them how often they are doing yoga. Almost invariably, they are taking one, sometimes two, asana classes each week at a yoga studio. This is a great start, and I want to encourage those of you out there at this stage of practice to keep it going. At the same time, we know from the oldest of yoga philosophy texts that the fruits of yoga come partly from consistent, daily practice. 

The Sanskrit term for practice is abhyasa, which means, its simplest definition, “diligent, focused practice.” In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, about 2000 years old and one the most relied upon texts on the philosophical and practical basis of yoga, several passages are devoted to describing abhyasa and its relationship to other key concepts on yoga, such as vairagya, or detachment. The ancient yogis saw the negative effect an undisciplined mind can have on our overall happiness and contentment. Their solution was to train the mind and quiet the overly active thought processes that create so much suffering.

The Yoga Sutras tells us that regular practice (abhyasa), done with the right attitude (detachment, or vairagya), is what will quiet our minds:

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 —translation by B.K.S. Iyengar

Nicolai Bachman, one of my favorite contemporary translators of the Yoga Sutras, has a slightly different take:

1.12 The stilling of the mental fluctuations (i.e. quieting of the mind) is due to diligent practice and unattached awareness (vairagya).
1.13 Abhyasa is the effort put forth to maintain a point of focus.
1.14 Abhyasa becomes firmly established when pursued with eagerness, sincerity, and continuity for a long time.

So, the Yoga Sutras tell us what the goal of yoga is, as well as what the practical tools are to achieve the goal of a mind established in equanimity. I can’t help but recall the old joke about the concert-goer who stops a cabbie in New York City to ask, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” and the cabbie responds, “Practice, practice, practice.” Patanjali adds in certain important qualities of practice that increase our chances of success, whether our goals are purely physical, such as improved balance, are mental/emotional, such as resolving anxiety, or are loftier spiritual goals. Those are stated above as "eagerness, sincerity, and continuity" by Nicolai, and "long, continuous practice, with a quality of alertness" by Iyengar.

Abhyasa applied to asana practice could be simply directing our mind and attention to the breath, a particular body part, or even where the gaze is directed. Applied to meditation practice, it is the effort exerted to maintain a point of focus. The act of applying effort to maintain a point of focus could also extend to things not normally thought of as “yoga,” such as playing a musical instrument or even riding a bike.

When we consciously choose to “practice” in this way, we are also choosing to establish new habits that become stronger with time and consistency. We do this to overcome our old, unhelpful habits, or undesirable samskaras, and replace them with more desirable samskaras that move us closer to our goals (see Changing the Brain's Stressful Habits).

And although Patanjali describes other tools to help us achieve our goals, such as pranayama and cultivating the yamas and niyamas, abhyasa can be applied to all of them as the base practice to amplify all others. So let’s get cracking!

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