Inside Yoga 8

Category : Philosophy 28th February 2011

(First published 5/5/2008)

So far I have introduced the first four parts from the eight limbs of yoga: yama, niyama, asana and pranayama.

The fifth limb is called pratyahara, which is usually translated as “withdrawal of the senses”.

This is either the silencing of the senses and keeping them in their position passively, or the drawing inward of the senses so that they may dwell on the core of the being.

Pranayama is the actual process of directing energy inward, making the mind fit for pratyahara or the detachment of the senses, which in turn becomes passive. Then the mind turns inward and is set free from what Iyengar call “the tyranny of the senses”. This is called pratyahara.

For example, when you sit in meditation, or in a yoga posture, by focusing on the body and the breathing, the awareness of sounds around you subside, withdrawing this sense of hearing to your core, to reduce distraction.

Another, more precise way of translating pratyahara, is “to withdraw oneself from that which nourishes the senses”. Normally the senses say to the mind “look at this, touch that, smell this”. These senses register an object and the mind is drawn to it at once.

In yoga we learn how to sever this link, when one needs to, allowing the senses to withdraw. In pratyahara it is as if things are spread out with all their attractions before our senses, but they are ignored; the senses remain unmoved and uninfluenced.

What is meant by pratyahara is that one creates a situation in which   my mind is so absorbed in something that the senses no longer respond to other objects.

We become able to direct our senses as opposed to being controlled by them. Precisely because the mind is so focused, the senses follow it, the senses become sharp. Under normal circumstances the senses become our masters, rather than being our servants, enticing us to develop cravings for all sorts of things. Pratyahara puts the senses in their proper place, but we do not cut them out of our actions entirely.

But is also worth noting that pratyahara a state that occurs spontaneously, pratyahara happens by itself – we cannot make it happen, we can only practice the means by which it might happen.

The eight parts of yoga can be seen as having three tiers: external, internal and innermost, or physical, mental and spiritual.

Yama and niyama are the social and individual ethical guidelines; asana, pranayama and pratyahara lead to the evolution of the individual, to the understanding of the self; and the last three, dharana, dhyana and Samadhi are the effects of yoga, or the fruit of yoga practice.

To be continued…



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