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Eight-Limbed Yoga, also called Ashtanga Yoga (different from the physical practice of the same name), Raja (Royal) Yoga, or the Eightfold Path (particularly in Buddhism), to name a few titles, is a spiritual model that expresses and maps the natural progression that one undergoes when evolving from a karmically-bound and suffering ego-centric conditioned homo sapien into a fully Self-aware human being who is regulated and self-mastered in body-mind, connected to spirit, and liberated from attachments and ignorance in the world.
The Eight-Limbed path, having been observed, studied, and tested for thousands of years by numerous seekers and finders of the Truth of Reality and the Self in different regions of the world over large spans of time, is a phenomenological, ontological, experiential, and practical Spiritual Science, and art of living, that marks, and/or guides, human inner evolution from its lowest state of animal existence to its highest potential to connect to, and rest in, its divine and eternal/limitless nature beyond temporary/limited form.
Working with awareness/consciousness, and all that you are on multiple levels, as your tool, vehicle, material, and platform (among other things) for coming into your full unbounded Self expression beyond form (while existing in physical form), Eight-Limbed Yoga practice consists of mastery of (you guessed it) 8 specific skillsets that, once developed and integrated, create the optimal conditions for Self-Realization that comes, naturally, inevitably, and effortlessness, after fully clearing away illusory perceptions/projections/performances of/in Self and Reality.
Walking this path and developing the fitness and understanding that it brings is what makes it possible for you to become liberated in body-mind and spirit in this lifetime.
The path is as follows: Yamas and Niyamas balance your basic conditioned animal nature in relationship to others and the world. Asanas/physical postures release tension/stagnant energies, regulate your biological systems, and support you to begin developing basic awareness of your inner landscape and your ability to effect it so that you can relax enough to sit comfortably in meditation. Pranayamas connect you with clearer and subtler awareness of your life-force energy and your ability to channel, use, and transform it in your body-mind and the world. Pratyaharas draw your energy/attention within to create deeper forms of awareness and self-control. Dharanas support you to develop focus that you can then use to gain greater control over your mind and entire being. Dhyanas/meditations support you to gain mastery over your mind and to put your mental modifications aside to be in the silence and tranquility that is reflective of your True nature. Samadhi supports you to settle into your nature as the True Seer/Self beyond your body-mind, and this prepares you to remove yourself from attachment to illusions and forms that keep you bound to Karmic suffering and entanglement in the world, after which, you can merge back into the Absolute liberation/union/connection of Kaivalya.
Though the word “path,” often creates a limited/limiting image in many people’s mind, one in which the practical application of the eight principles explored above has a rigid, carbon-copy blueprint attached to it, an image where “path” means a regimented set of practices performed by all who walk it, this is not so. Though the principles are the same for all, the practice is not. The term “Eight-Limbed path” (which, again, one can connect to the Eightfold Path described in Buddhism–that emerged and diverged in key ways from Hinduism in ethical/moral and religious politics) not due to its cultural nor religious application, but due to its essential and fundamental purpose and the underlying Truth that it points to, is simply referring to a framework that has the above eight principles (among others) incorporated into it. This means that the term Eight-Limbed path is descriptive as opposed to prescriptive.
Your unique Eight-Limbed path, due to the irreplicable context of your manifested existence and the unique makeup of your personal being, will look, feel, and be different from others.
Although the general skill-sets to master on your personal “journey” to Yoga/Union may be the same, there is no one way to master and or to apply these skills, and everyone’s journey will inevitably be different, because everyone and their different life/practice is different.
In fact, if you were to look closely into any spiritual or religious tradition where there is a goal of salivation, liberation, etc., most inevitably look different in practice although they all fundamentally include these principles in their practice in one way or another. “Thou shall not kill,” for example, is the spirit of Ahimsa (a Yama) by another name/manifestation.
When endeavoring to explore the Eight-Limbed path and to incorporate it into your Yoga/spiritual practice, therefore, it is best to see the “path” as exactly what it is first mentioned to be in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: eight limbs of Yoga practice. Eight limbs that support the manifestation/expression of Yoga, Union that sets the groundwork for Liberation (Moksha, Nirvana, Salvation, etc.), in one’s life.
As you move up the Eight-Limbed path to higher states of awareness (because it is arguable that the structure of skills mastery for Yogic development build upon, and support, one another in a sequential manner), you gain deeper knowledge and understanding of who/what you are (and by the extension of our shared oneness, who/what everyone/everything else is as well).
Coming Into Your Self
Walking this Eight-Limbed path supports you to break free of your animal conditioning, move beyond your socially constructed false-sense-of-self called the ego, learn that you can (and learn how to) impact and manage your body-mind vessel and your life force energy/power within you–channeled through/by your breath and other subtle/tangible aspects of your being.
This path empowers you to break away from the illusion that anyone or anything else controls your personal world or has ultimate control over you or the ability to define “you,” or how you are expressed in the world. It also further breaks through the illusion that your, or anyone else’s, “value” is determined by external or temporary factors and not by your innate eternal essence that is unchanged/unbounded by form or experience.
This path is how you come into your Self as eternal spirit and pure awareness, and break free from the illusion that you are only a personal body-mind, or a social construct fabricated in/by dysregulated minds, destined to suffer for objects and fleeting illusions in/for this temporary, ever-changing, world. This path brings you back into your nature as an expression/aspect of the infinite/divine.
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Investigating multi-dimensional holistic wellness as an inter-disciplinary artist and Yoga-Meditation writer, thinker, and practitioner. Doing experientially-based self-agency work grounded in research, reflection, and practice.