Yoga Definition

Meditationtime Forum Post

Date:  Posted 5 years before Apr 10, 2018

MiBeloved 5 years ago

I repeatedly ask students to stick to the definition of Patanjali when speaking about yoga and not to use spurious meanings which are created in the modern era by this meditator and this yoga asana expert.

I coined the term inSelf Yoga which means the same Patanjali system with focus on what Patanjali called Samyama which are the three highest stages of yoga in one sequential practice.

If we keep insisting on the childish notion of making up new meaning for the word yoga, we will add to the confusion and misunderstand about it and also cause the original definers of the term to be minimized.

You can consider that Krishna also stuck to the same definition which later was given by Patanjali. So there is no reason to scrape up some other definition of the term. As a matter of respect and honor to Patanjali we should stick to his term. Even Gorakshnath Mahayogin stuck to the same definition which Patanjali used, except that he did not mention the first two processes of yama moral restraints and niyama approved behaviors. Gorakshnath, the classic Hatha Yogi listed the 6 higher stages of yoga only but he was teaching a hard core process for very severe ascetics.

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There was a question on LinkedIn this morning:

Is there a relationship between yoga, such as Iyengar, and TM? I learned to do TM many years ago, and I find yoga much different.

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My reply was this:

The classic definition for Yoga is given by Patanjali. Unless we agree on a definition, our discussion will just be a discussion with confusion.

It is not a matter of Iyengar or TM because these are recent systems. If everyone coming out of India brings a new definition then how will there be a discussion that makes sense.

Here is the definition of Patanjali (My translation):

Yoga Sutras Chapter 2 Verse 29

यमनियमासनप्राणायामप्रत्याहारधारणाध्यानसमाधयोऽष्टावङ्गानि॥२९॥

yama niyama āsana prāṇāyāma pratyāhāra

dhāraṇā dhyāna samādhayaḥ aṣṭau aṅgāni

yama – moral restraints; niyama – recommended behaviors; āsana – body postures; prāṇāyāma – breath infusion; pratyāhar – sensual energy withdrawal; dhāraṇā – linking of the attention to higher concentration forces or persons; dhyāna – effortless linkage of the attention to higher concentration forces or persons; samādhayaḥ – continuous effortless linkage of the attention to higher concentration forces or persons; aṣṭau – eight; aṅgāni – parts of a thing.

Moral restraints, recommended behaviors, body posture, breath infusion, sensual energy withdrawal, linking of the attention to higher concentration forces or persons, effortless linkage of the attention to higher concentration forces or persons, continuous effortless linkage of the attention to higher concentration forces or persons are the eight parts of the yoga system.

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Can we accept this or is it necessary to establish different meanings for the term yoga? This definition includes meditation, both novice and expert types.