Eight Limbs of Yoga

Yoga can be defined

as the disciplining of fluctuations of the mind.

Controlling mental modifications

allows the witness of these perceptions to be with its real and most fundamental nature.

Otherwise, there is false identification of the seer with the seen.

This attachment leads to pain.

This detachment leads to freedom from pain.

The eight limbs of yoga,

are techniques of control.

They are the categories of discipline that a yogi trains

to detach from suffering and

reside in his/fundamental nature of Truth-Consciousness-Bliss.

Modifications of the mind fall into certain categories, be they painful or pleasurable:

Correct knowledge is based on correct perception, deduction or testimony.

Incorrect knowledge, imagination, sleep, memory

Obstacles on the path are:

Disease, laziness, indecision, carelessness, lethargy, craving sense-pleasure, erroneous perceptions, lack of concentration and unstable attention.

They are known by a sense of sorrow, worry, restlessness and irregular breathing

Overcome these obstacles by concentrating on their opposites and following the eight disciplines of yoga.

The first category of discipline is proper ethical conduct:

So that one is not visited by the demons of past karma.

These ethical consideration require restraint from:

violence, lying, stealing, lusting, and greed.

The second is proper moral observances,

so that ones future karma remains clean:

These include:

Cleanliness, contentment, aspiration, self-study and surrender to the most High.

Next comes the discipline of posture.

Taking a proper posture

allows us to be comfortable and to begin to pay attention.

This puts us face to face with our breath.

Control of our breathing regulates the thought waves of the mind

so that concentration is possible.

Through stillness of breath comes stillness of the mindstuff.

Now it is necessary to withdraw from the senses,

or else they will remain a distraction.

Attention can now be paid to the source of the light that comes from within.

When attention is focused for even a moment,

on the source of perceptions,

We call this concentration.

When concentration is sustained this is called meditation;

This discipline still has a sense of a subject and object.

This is meditation with seed

When there is complete control, and the subject and object disappear.

When time and change have no place,

Multiplicity comes to oneness

This control is called absorption.

This is where the seer, itself is reflected in the mindstuff.

And there is no distinction between the seer and the seen.

From this perspective, one is with the ultimate eternal truth of the Oneness of Reality.

Evolution has reached its fulfillment.

True freedom is at hand.