Yoga Sutras Week 8 - The Yamas
So—Patanjali now introduces the Yamas.
Now, the Yamas could be taken, if you deliver them in a certain way, as kind of yogic commandments. Rights and wrongs. “Behave like this,” you know—“Be a good lad.” Alright?
But I think we’d miss the juice of them if we deliver them that way.
Because each one can unlock us. Each one can set us free, if we know how to use it.
They’re not moral rules—they’re tools. Invitations.
So in order to live in accordance with what we know to be true within ourselves… in order to live as the love that we are… to allow the light of Life to move through us and shine out of us—Patanjali identified five mechanisms.
Mechanisms to make sure life can continue to flow through us. So we can continue to evolve as unimpeded as possible. So we can expand into life, rather than contract against it. So we can be in harmony with nature’s laws, rather than in hostility or conflict with it.
They’re really ways to stop fighting with life.
Ahimsa – Non-harming
Here. Take this pearl. Take this golden nugget and work with it.
Ahimsa is your first one.
So—Ahimsa. It means: cease to wish others harm. And instead, begin to wish others well. Wish all beings well—on their path, in their unfolding, in their process. In their life journey.
Cease to wish darkness on others.
Cease to wish a fall on others.
Cease to project hatred.
Cease to do voodoo.
Will you be able to do that? No—not all the time. Sometimes you’ll catch yourself doing it. Like we all do. Do we not?
And then ask the vital question:
“What is this voodoo doing to the voodooer?”
Because that should be enough for us to go—Ah… I cannot do voodoo on another without voodooing myself.
The poison I’m sending out to someone else is actually poisoning my own system.
I’m contracting in that relationship within myself—and so I’m blocking the light.
Love is always there. But now it’s impeded in its flow.
So we make this extraordinary choice inside ourselves—to unlock it.
And of course, we all know how challenging this can be.
Some of you might be feeling challenged right now.
Be patient with yourself.
Don’t harm yourself in becoming harmless.
Don’t bring violence to your own violence.
Do you see what I mean?
Put a space around it. Cut yourself some slack.
Understand—oh yeah, this is a process of becoming a lover of all beings, a well-wisher of all beings.
This might take a little bit of time.
But the work is here to be done and you can do it.
Cease to inflict harm on yourself.
Maybe it’s not toward others. Maybe it’s just toward you.
Maybe you have no patience with yourself, in your unfolding.
Maybe you come into Triangle Pose with an agenda.
And that agenda? It will cause harm.
All agendas cause harm.
Do you see it?
If I’m putting an agenda on you, am I loving you?
Let Life unfold. Life is not harming itself, it’s freeing itself. It’s liberating. Always.
Even when it kills something—because a tiger will kill a deer—still, it’s part of a bigger picture. A bigger process.
This is Ahimsa.
Satya – Truthfulness
Second one: Satya.
Satya means: being truthful.
Being honest.
Being legitimate with yourself.
Being authentic to the voice deep within yourself.
Learning to bypass all the voices in the psychology—the ones trying to get their own way, trying to manipulate the world around them—and going for truth.
But, don’t harm with your truth.
Deliver it with a certain love and sweetness, but deliver it nonetheless, in your own way.
Live in accordance with the truth within yourself—and it will set you free.
And it will set everyone around you free too, in good time.
Notice when we’re being a little dishonest.
Ask: what is that doing within oneself, as one lies?
Is it creating transparency? Vulnerability? Something the light can flow through?
Or is it creating a block?
Do you see?
And of course—it’s going to be challenging.
You might realise you’ve been lying a lot.
Maybe out of compromise.
Maybe out of a desire to get a certain outcome.
So many things distort this natural truth of being.
Start getting vulnerable.
Start getting honest.
You’ll set the whole world free with your honesty.
Have you noticed it?
When someone just says what’s going on inside them—that thing everyone else is keeping secret, thinking they’re the only one—have you noticed the wave of release that emanates around such a person when they are just honest about what’s going on in them?
When they’re not putting up a front.
We could just do away with our fronts.
Oh, it’s so freeing.
Try this.
It will set you free.
And it will put you in harmony with everything.
Asteya – Non-stealing
And then he says: Asteya.
Asteya means: non-stealing.
Not just stealing from others—but also, not stealing from yourself.
Not stealing your own unfolding.
By trying to live someone else’s life. Their process. Their image.
Is anyone else’s life really going to be a good replacement for yours?
Will it fit you?
It cannot.
You are a unique expression—whether you like it or not.
You are what you are.
Live through that, and your life will unfold. And it will be fulfilling.
Try and live someone else’s—society’s, your parents’, other people’s opinions—and you will rob your own life away from you.
And you’ll become very confused about who you are.
Isn’t that the worst confusion? When we forget who we are, just because we listened to everyone else?
Society is loud.
To walk your own path, you have to go deep.
But it will be yours.
And it will be fulfilling.
Absolute promise.
Better to have yours and totally fuck it up, than to have somebody else’s perfectly.
Yeah? That’s life, isn’t it?
Errors and corrections. Mistakes make better.
Get out there. Screw up.
Find your way.
Notice—when you’re trying to get things that really aren’t meant for you, you start accumulating baggage. It gets heavier. And heavier. And heavier.
You will carry worry. You will carry concern. Constantly.
And what will you be worried about?
The things you should never have had.
Because if something is really meant for you—you don’t worry about it.
That’s just how it is, no?
Oh, the amount of grand theft, in the human civilisation…
Everyone hypercautious.
Because—what’s not yours can be stolen.
But only because… you nicked it.
If it’s supposed to be with you, it will stay with you. Fear not.
Even if you try to get rid of it—it’ll come back.
But if you’re not supposed to have it, and you’re trying to keep it?
You’d better keep guard.
You won’t have enough burglar alarms.
Beep beep beep.
All over the shop.
Always trying to stop someone from taking it.
Brahmacharya – Right Relationship with Pleasure
Alright.
Brahmacharya.
He says—if you are trying to use other beings or things outside of yourself to gain pleasure… because you don’t think you already have it inside of you… you’re going to become very contracted.
And the light? The light won’t be able to flow.
Sex is one of the classics that gets attributed here. Using someone—objectifying them—to try and extract pleasure. Trying to feel better… but with no real consideration for the other.
But it doesn’t have to be sex.
It could be anything.
Where are you dragging joy from? Where are you extracting joy?
What if instead… you bring the joy?
Bring the pleasure. Bring the fullness.
Then—there’s a meeting. It’s reciprocal. It’s honourable.
But if I’ve got an angle… if I’ve got something I want to get out of this?
That’s not a respectful relationship.
That’s using.
And be careful with this—because it’ll really contract you.
It will close down the light. And we want the light to flow.
Aparigraha – Non-possessiveness
And finally—Aparigraha.
Non-possessiveness.
Come to terms with the fact that—you came in with absolutely nothing.
And you’ll leave with absolutely nothing.
Anything you had in between… was a gift from life. You were a temporary caretaker.
Your children included.
Everybody in your life has been gifted into your care. Into your love. Into your sphere.
But temporarily.
Nothing here belongs to you. And nothing ever will.
Try and get your body around that.
Because if you start to possess—you’ll have to grasp.
You put a coin in my open palm. That’s generosity. That’s flow.
But the moment I close my hand, clench it into a fist—what am I actually experiencing?
The tension of possession.
Can I use the coin? Can I enjoy it? Can I share it?
No. I’m just feeling the tension.
So instead, open your palm: be generous.
Practice generosity.
With your time.
Your energy.
Your love.
Your money.
Anything you have that would better serve someone else—rather than sitting in your cupboard, or gathering dust in your loft.
Let it move.
Let it flow.
Then your energy will move too.
Stay simple.
Stay easy.
Then you’ll be in a position to give.
And don’t doubt it—you have so much to give.
Every being does.
Because the entirety of Life is behind every being.
There’s no shortage.
“Ah, but I don’t have any creativity.”
“Ah, but I don’t have any money.”
“Ah, but I don’t have…”
Really?
Speak that into Life—and see if you get an affirmative response.
This Life—that’s created all of this?
You think it’s going to withhold love?
Love costs nothing.
Smiling costs nothing.
And a hug?
That’ll provide more joy than giving someone a million quid. Because God only knows what misery they might make with that.
So—Ahimsa. Non-harming.
Not harming ourselves or others with our actions and thoughts.
Satya. Honesty. Truthfulness.
With yourself, and with others.
Be transparent. Just a little bit more.
Asteya.
Stop stealing other people’s lives.
Come off of Instagram?
It’s designed to make you feel lack, isn’t it?
It’s a bit of a trick.
You can stay on it, of course—I’m only joking around.
You can do whatever you like.
But you can see the mechanism, can’t you?
“Not enough. Not enough. Not enough…”
Then you’ve got Brahmacharya.
Stop using people.
Don’t go looking for your fulfillment out there.
Be respectful in relationships.
And Aparigraha.
Be generous rather than possessive.
If you’ve got something that would better serve someone else—better it go to them than sit gathering dust in your bloody drawer.
Alright?
Does it make Life flow?
It brings light into the world.
It allows finances to move.
It allows energy to move.
It allows the abundance of our planet to circulate through natural mechanisms.
Can you feel it?
We’re the only buggers in the way, aren’t we?
Can you see it?
Rather than all this hoarding and fearing and closing in… please—upliftment.
Upliftment.
Do it with yourself first.
Because that’s where it starts.
So the yogis said—apply these principles to yourself in your life and practice.
Today: don’t harm yourself.
Today: don’t be dishonest.
Just be with what is.
Today: don’t steal the flow from yourself.
Experience what’s here.
Don’t try and get rid of anything. Just let it come.
Brahmacharya: Don’t look for pleasure in the practice.
Give it up.
Just look for truth.
And be generous.
Yoga Sadhana, without the Yamas—without the four principles—will only bring more bondage. We’ll tie ourselves up again in another identity.
A yogic identity, or whatever flavour we choose.
But when these principles—Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya, Aparigraha—start informing your breath, your mood, the way you walk through life…
Then they’re no longer concepts. They’re living instruments of freedom.
They keep setting you free.
They make you less defensive,
more giving,
more open to compassion,
and more committed to truth-telling.
You become an instrument of light.
And then he says:
“Tend to it well.”
Isn’t that what Patanjali said?
You're awakening a whole inner life inside yourself.
You’re giving birth to a future that’s entirely different from the one you could have had.
It holds more potential.
Why?
Because you’re doing the work inside.
So tend to it well. Like a good gardener.
Take care of it.
Keep nourishing it.
Keep feeding it.
Don’t forget to be in it, not just think about it.
Remind yourself to take refuge in it.
These small acts of tending—they change everything.
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