The Yamas of Yoga-Aparigraha

Study the Yamas of Yoga-Aparigraha

Since the Yamas of Yoga are applicable to our whole lives, we don't worry too much about the order here. Yama number five, Aparigraha, will be one that we as humans will constantly revisit. Aparigraha means non-possessiveness. Hmm....now this is an idea that can create a few different arguments!

Possessiveness, and the seemingly-noble pursuit of non-possessiveness is always a touchy subject. We can be possessive of material things, and we can be possessive of other people.

Sometimes, when we're possessive of people, it,s a control thing, other times, we feel insecure about ourselves and use other people to fill the void. Generally, we learn to temper our possessiveness of people, and of things by observing our own mistakes. That's a necessary part of developing wisdom and enlightenment.

Possessiveness of a concept, or of a perceived conception of what is ideal is the real challenge with the Yama of Aparigraha.

Holding onto an idea, or a concept you create in your head is a different, more-powerful form of greed that is as elusive as it is obvious. Maybe we see someone else in Yoga class who can do an asana in what we call "perfect" form, with perfect meaning "like the person in the Yoga magazine.

There's nothing wrong with seeing a picture of someone doing a pose and saying: "wow, I want to do that!" But we need to remember not to be too greedy when giving our own selves credit for the effort put fourth, no matter how our pose looks.

Even more important is not being too greedy with our sense of receiving goodness...stated more simply, if your heart can't be allowed to feel and receive goodness, it means we're not giving goodness to ourselves.

What on Earth does this have to do with doing a Yoga pose, like I was just talking about? Well, let's face it: stretching in any pose generally feels good. We release stress and open the chakras and start to feel energized at the same time we start to feel relaxed.

We have to be kind enough to ourselves to let that good stuff be felt. Being kind to ourselves is the opposite of being greedy with our own affection.

The same concept can be applied to people-not being too greedy to see the good being given to us-we'll never feel it if we shut it out. We can also start to see more goodness in our current net worth, whatever that may be, and

Says spiritual teacher Deborah Adele: "An unhealthy need to acquire material things drives discontent that’s similar to clinging to things you have...whenever we become possessive, we are in turn possessed”.

Blessings!

RETURN to Yamas Index

Sources:

Deborah Adele Spiritual Yoga Teacher and author of The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga's Ethical Practice

The Yoga Sutras of Pantajali

How to Succeed in Any Balancing Pose

Learn to Fall

This is something I tell every Yoga client in every class, no matter what. I don't mean hold the pose until you fall over. What you need to do do is practice falling out of the pose-properly. Take a pose such as Salamba Sirsasana, or supported headstand.

The obvious, and sage advice, is to practice the pose on a wall. The wall will prevent a major accident; but many students become physically capable of getting into the pose and holding it without needing the wall, but hesitate to move away from it. The issue they have is that they have not intentionally tought themselves how to fall.

What one needs to do is practice repeatedly dropping the feet back to the floor-a.k.a. falling properly. Also, one must talk herself through the whole process of movement.

Talk yourself through the movement

Talking yourself through the process of moving into a balancing pose, and falling properly out of the pose isn't any different than doing so in any other pose. You move slow enough that your conscious mind, and your consious heart have time to "see" the movement by way of feeling it. Before even trying a balancing pose, take a moment in a more-basic pose, such as Virabhadrsana-Warrior pose.

In Warrior pose, we distribute our body weight between our feet by adjusting every muscle from the toes, ankles and legs to the torso, right up through our shoulders and arms.

Go barefoot more often

For you to have good balance, your feet need to be able to assume their natural shape. Wearing shoes conmpresses the feet. The bones are pushed together and the muscles and tendons get squeezed out of shape and can't fully function. The resulting effect is instability in your stance and your walk, which will also lead to problems of the ankles, knees and hips. Even flat sandals such as flip flops can cause some drag on the soles of the feet and result in restricted movement.

The solution: go barefoot when you can. Whenyou get home from work, get out of your shoes and socks. If you have high atrches, you'll have to build a tolorance for being barefoot and you'll feel fatigue more quickly. You might need to put on your Birkenstocks or running shoes after you've been barefoot for a while.

Going barefoot will help most directly with standing balancing poses, but will help with all balancings, including handstands and arm balances. Tight muslces on one end of the body always affect the body elsewhere.

Danica Patrick-Better Known For Yoga?

Danica Patrick maybe best known for auto racing, but lately, she's made a bigger splash doing yoga on a boat. While the boat included a crew of partygoers, Danica's yoga is as serious as her racing.

Posted viaInstagram by Danica Patrick (left, in Wheel Pose) with Katylin Sweet (right, in Camel Pose)

Maybe its that the NASCAR crowd isn't so into Yoga, and that's why Danica gets so much attention. It doens't hurt that she did her latest yoga poses for the public in a bikini. She's posted pletny of Instgram pics of her posing in, well, regular Yoga clothes. 

She was described earlier this year as "rediculously good at yoga" by USA Today, and as far as the physical practice goes, the proof is in the pose pics. Of course, any practitioner of yoga knows there's more to it, and so does Danica, when she talks of breathign exercises being essential to her yoag practice. 

“Breath is the one thing that I really do use from yoga in the race car,” she said. “When things get tense it’s in through the nose, out through the mouth. Inevitably it calms your heart rate down. It calms you down. I by all means use breath in the car, which is something that I’ve used in yoga,” 

-Danica Patrick to USA Today Sports, Ferbuary, 2016.

She'll no doubt add the Yoga helps her avoid the aches and pains that come from all the sitting and driving.....Namaste!

The Yamas of Yoga...Brahmacharya

bramacaryapratisthayam viryalabhah

"When the sadhaka is firmly established in continence, knowledge, vigour, valour and energy flow to him"

Yoga Sutra 2:38

We're talking the fourth Yama, Brahmachara. The loose definition of this sanskrit word is continence. But the words abstinence and celibacy often also comes about in when yogis talk about this.

Excess of any kind corrupts us; that's why it is called excess.

Perhaps the biggest challenge here isn't giving up things or actions. Building a daily life pattern that gives us enough of what we truly need without going overboard, or stopping to soon, is indeed a bigger challenge. This, of course, is the challenge of living our yoga practice.

For each of us, our definition of brahmacharya is going to be a bit different. The ideas of restraint and moderation shouldn't call for us to inflict pain upon ourselves. We'll be much better off in seeking alternatives to what we may be restraining ourselves from. This also means that every so often, we have to acknowledge, have and experience what we're restraining ourselves from in order to truly understand the value that is the absence of whatever we abstain from.

Many Christians give up something for Lent each year. When they rescind from their abstinence, many will have more appreciation and willingness to moderate their future indulgences. Muslims fast each year during Ramadan. Jews fast for various holidays. This idea isn't owned by any particular spiritual practitioner; all that is needed to make it valid is for the practitioner to be sincere in her or his devotion.

Other notes...

The "sadhaka" is the spiritual practitioner who has chosen a path of devotion. A "sadhana" is one's consistent yoga practice on and off the mat. Brahman is a high state of spiritual being that develops through practice.

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The Yamas of Yoga...Asteya (Non-Stealing)

We study the Yamas of yoga; the order of study depends on the student, for the most part. Don't worry much about which one you choose when you start to study the Yamas. If you are drawn to one in particular, chances are it was meant to be.

asteyapratisthayam sarvaratnopasthanam

"When abstention from stealing is firmly established, precious jewels come."

Yoga Sutra 7:35

We're talking about the the third Yama: Asteya, or “non-stealing”.

We can go really deep with this simple idea. It’s obvious why we don’t steal from others; it makes bad karma and makes us lonely as we lose the trust of those with whom we share our world.

We also must remember this when it comes to Asteya:  Don’t steal from yourself, either.

To steal from others is disrespectful and creates mistrust and adversity.

Stealing from yourself does the same thing.

If you deprive yourself of your own compassion and understanding, then you are stealing from yourself.

If you deprive yourself of chill time, time to do yoga and so forth, then that is also like stealing from yourself.

When we do this, we end up feeling as if we are “stealing time” to relax later, and we see our actions as “being bad” because we’re “taking”, or “stealing” from ourselves; we feel like children stealing cookies, or maybe a bit more guilty, and tell ourselves we “need to grow up”, a.k.a. make ourselves into people who don’t need what we really need, which is our own understanding, compassion and downtime.

We know why it’s uncool to steal from others-let’s learn, and remember, why we also shouldn’t steal from ourselves.

What it really means to "learn" Yoga

Learning yoga is really about learning about yourself and your body. Each time you move in a yoga pose, you are learning how you personally connect with your body.

Your yoga practice is a very different way to get to know your own communication style. You also discover your body's comfort level and how it responds to your own voluntary actions. 

Moving in a yoga pose (a.k.a. "asana") inherently requires you to be very present in the moment so you can connect with all your muscles and the nerves that send them signals that them how and where to move.

Please join me for Yoga today and learn more, feel more and be more relaxed and in touch.

My classes today are at the Margaret Carpenter Rec Center in Thornton, CO at 10:15 am & 11:30 am.

My whole schedule is below, and I am also available for private instruction.

Yoga classes in Thornton, CO taught by Vincent

Monday 6:00 am Carpenter Rec. Center

Tuesday 7:00 pm Carpenter Rec. Center

Wednesday Morning 6:00 am Carpenter Rec. Center

Thursday Evening 6:00 pm* Thornton Senior Center

*this class runs monthly sessions; sign up under Adult Activities *

Saturday Morning 10:15 am Carpenter Rec. Center

**yoga Q & A from 11:15 to 11:30 am

Saturday Morning 11:30 am Carpenter Rec. Center

Namaste

New Yoga class Saturdays in Thornton

I'm happy to announce that a new Yoga class has been added in Thornton at the Margaret Carpenter Rec Center, Saturdays at 11:30 am.

Please see the whole Yoga schedule below

Yoga classes in Thornton, CO taught by Vincent Gerbino

Monday 6:00 am Carpenter Rec. Center

Tuesday 7:00 pm Carpenter Rec. Center

Wednesday Morning 6:00 am Carpenter Rec. Center

Thursday Evening 6:00 pm* Thornton Senior Center

*this class runs monthly sessions; sign up under Adult Activities 

Saturday Morning 10:15 am Carpenter Rec. Center

**yoga Q & A from 11:15 to 11:30 am

Saturday Morning 11:30 am Carpenter Rec. Center

Namaste