small steps first. When you have done those steps successfully, you feel ready to take the slightly bigger steps that come next. Each step slightly modifies your body, mind, ego, and intellect, preparing them for the next, bigger step. Once you have taken the prescribed eight steps, you are then ready to take the plunge. That plunge is the same one the Bhaktas and Jnanis take, but the Ashtanga approach helps you prepare, organically and holistically, for it.
Let’s take a closer look at the various steps or limbs of Karma/Ashtanga Yoga, focusing mainly on the higher limbs, as they are usually neglected in descriptions. For this purpose we return to the Russian-doll metaphor introduced in the Introduction.
YAMA — RESTRAINT
Yama comprises five restraints. Along with the second limb, niyama (observance), those restraints form the base of Karma Yoga. The five restraints are as follows:
1 Do not harm.
2 Be truthful.
3 Do not steal.
4 Have intercourse only with your lawful partner.
5 Do not give in to greed.
If your resolve to stick to these restraints is not firm, you may abuse the very great powers you gain through yoga. These are not just empty words. A significant number of practitioners in the long history of yoga have gone down that path.
NIYAMA — OBSERVANCE
Once you have made the transforming commitment to adhere to the yama, you adopt the following five niyamas (observances):
1 Inner and outer cleanliness
2 Contentment
3 Simplicity
4 Study of sacred texts
5 Surrender to the Supreme Being10
Of course, niyama will bring you progress only if it is adhered to within the context of the first limb, yama.
PADMASANA: SEAT OF POWER
It is no coincidence that rishis, yogis, deities, and siddhas are usually depicted in Padmasana. You won’t see paintings or carvings of them sitting in chairs. Why? Because Padmasana is the seat of power. Padmasana is named for the padma, or lotus flower, a symbol of divinity in Indian folklore. Indian scriptures commonly refer to the chakras — subtle centers of divine power in the body — as lotuses. Images of deities or sages sitting on lotuses or sitting in Padmasana suggest that the subjects are spiritually empowered. Padmasana is the ideal yoga posture to sit in while doing pranayama (breath retention and extension).
Modern meditation teachers hasten to point out that you don’t need to sit in lotus posture to meditate. That is true; you don’t have to. However, Padmasana seriously empowers all forms of meditation and pranayama. When sitting in Padmasana, the spine effortlessly assumes its natural double-S curve, which is necessary for the ascent of prana (divine energy), sometimes called kundalini. Padmasana also creates a solid tripod for the torso, which prevents the yogi from falling over during surges of prana. In Padmasana, the hands and feet are turned away from the Earth and up toward the sky, which makes them receptive to divine energy rather than conducting energy down into the receptive Earth.
ASANA — POSTURE
Once the practitioner has integrated yama and niyama into her life, she can begin the practice of asana (posture). There are hundreds of yoga postures; practicing them makes the body strong and supple, prepares it for the ascent of prana, and restores the natural balance of the body’s three constitution types, or doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha.11 It thereby removes the various obstacles listed by Patanjali, such as sickness and rigidity.12 Asana coupled with pranayama removes even more obstacles, such as doubt, negligence, laziness, and sense indulgence. Most important, though, asana serves as the bedrock of meditation proper: performing the postures prepares the body for extensive sitting in the main yogic meditation postures, which are Padmasana (lotus posture), Siddhasana, Swastikasana, and Virasana (note that the names of these postures differ slightly among the different schools of asana). Padmasana is by far the most important of these postures — see the sidebar above titled “Padmasana: Seat of Power.”
PRANAYAMA — BREATH CONTROL AND EXTENSION
Once the yogi is proficient in asana, breath extension can occur within the context of posture. In other words, the two are not separate practices; we assume asana to practice pranayama. The very significant effects of pranayama can be classed into three main groups:
1 Prana, which previously was scattered, is concentrated.
2 Pranic flow between the lunar and solar parts of the nadi system is harmonized.
3 Prana is arrested in the central channel of the nadi system, which leads to reabsorption of the mind into the heart.
PRATYAHARA — INTERNAL FOCUS
Pratyahara consists of a catalog of techniques used to focus the mind inward, thus forming the essential prerequisite for the arising of the higher limbs. It is ideally practiced in Padmasana or a similar potent asana and within the state of kumbhaka (breath retention). During kumbhaka we focus initially on locations within the gross body, which constitutes stage 1. Stage 2 is reached when we visualize the chakras of the subtle body and the mind is made to rest on them. This process is strongly intensified if it occurs within the framework of asana and pranayama. During this time of practice, the senses are prevented from “logging on” to their usual objects of desire, thus establishing inward focus.
The practice of pratyahara is based on the following concept: When the senses come into contact with objects in the external world (object being defined as anything that can be experienced by means of the senses), the objects arouse in the beholder reactions such as desire or repulsion, which all tend to ripple the surface of the lake of the mind. Some objects when presented to the mind will even bring about a downright storm. Once this has happened, it is difficult or impossible to use the mind as a tool for meditation. In pratyahara, you avoid the disturbances of the external world by settling the mind on something that is not in the outer world; you withdraw your senses into yourself “like a turtle withdraws its limbs.”13
There are several categories of suitable pratyahara objects, which are principally categorized according to subtlety. The practitioner starts with gross objects, those that are perceptible to the senses. Typically these are the so-called drishtis (focal points), such as the tip of the nose, the eyebrow center, the big toes, the tip of the tongue, the nostrils, the highest point of the palate, the navel, the ankle, or other body parts; and
