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OPEN MIND OPEN BODY Ideas for Your Yoga Practice |
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The 2006 San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference: A Panel Discussion on Yoga Ethics in Everyday Life
"What one practice or lifestyle change could I do every day to personally develop all of the yamas and niyamas?"
This question was posed by an audience member to a panel of Yoga Journal Conference presenters: Gary Kraftsow (Viniyoga), Judith Lasater (Iyengar yoga & restorative yoga), David Life (Jivamukti yoga), and Desiree Rumbaugh (Anusara yoga).
The yamas and niyamas are the ethical principles of yoga described in the classic text, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. They include: ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (moderation or conscious channeling of energy), aparigraha (non-attachment), shaucha (clarity or purity), santosha (contentment), tapas (discipline or focused action), swadhyaya (self-reflection), and ishwara-pranidhana (surrender).
Below are the panel members' responses. Because I was taking notes from the lively presentation, they are paraphrased and summarized.
Judith Lasater: Judith's iInitial response - "Savasana" - provoked audience laughter, but she was quite serious. Judith then went on to describe more introspective practices. The first: simply to notice in everyday life when you are not living or practicing one of the ethical principles. Awareness itself may be enough. Her second suggestion was to notice who you give the label "enemy" to - notice who you set up as wrong or unacceptable, who you judge - and to let that go. To notice and practice not judging.
David Life: David began by saying, "I don't know what the sanskrit word for 'shopping' is..." and proceeded to describe the many ways we can practice the yamas and niyamas through conscious use of our dollars: what we eat, what we wear, what forms of entertainment we support and consume, etc. He encouraged us to "Make your choices carefully - in the form of a dollar, in the form of a vote."
Desiree Rumbaugh: Earlier in the panel discussion, Desiree had mentioned that she had spent enough time in life trying to be "good", and that the point of her practice now was to be happy. She answered this question simply: "Ask yourself, am I truly happy?"
Gary Kraftsow: Gary echoed Desiree's point with a quote: "Your dharma is to be happy." He also encouraged the audience to ask themselves another question: "What are you doing this practice for anyway?" This clarifying of intention is essential.
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