🌳 Samadhi and the 8 Limbs of Yoga 🌳

Hello, my friends!

Today, I share another short section from my illustrated guide to energy anatomy.

This piece explores the yogic path in terms of the subtle energy centers within the being.

I hope you enjoy!

*

"Samadhi and the 8 Limbs of Yoga

The term enlightenment is used from time to time, and it describes something that people often don’t understand when using the term.

Essentially, we draw the idea of enlightenment from the experience (and concept) of samadhi.

Samadhi is a Sanskrit term used in the yogic and Buddhist traditions. It describes both a degree of inner development and an inner state that becomes available at this point.

Samadhi, in simplest terms, is the point when the meditator becomes one with the object of meditation.

*

In the context of yoga, as described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Samadhi is the eighth and final limb of the eight limbs of yoga.

Yoga means yoke, or union.

Yoke, in terms of joining together. And union, joining and becoming one.

All of the many forms of yoga are specific methods for uniting the personal consciousness, the little “I”, with the big “I” of universal consciousness.

*

Patanjali was a bit of a genius in this regard, because he created a curriculum out of the unstructured profusion of yoga systems present in his time.

Patanjali integrated and streamlined the extant practices to structure hatha yoga into eight steps.

Eight clear and measured steps that anyone can follow to return to wholeness and make their home in the I Am.

He was able to do this because the yogic science of subtle energy maps out in detail the human energy field, and with it, the natural template for human development.

So, the eight limbs of yoga can be seen as eight practices, one focusing on each chakra, from the root up. And one to integrate them all!

*

Each of the eight limbs of yoga is a practice, and each of the first seven is attuned to one of the chakras.

So, as we work up the eight limbs, we engage consciously with an area of our lives.

We work with a part of our inner experience, and cultivate consciousness in this space.

One by one, from root to crown.

And, as we do, we concentrate the light.

We activate each center in turn with more conscious awareness, more energy and life.

*

Here’s a quick overview of the Eight Limbs of Yoga:

Sanskrit Name Practice Chakra

Yama 5 Restraints Root Chakra

Niyama 5 Observances Sacral Chakra

Asana Postures Solar Plexus Chakra

Pranayama Breathwork Heart Chakra

Pratyahara Withdrawing Senses Throat Chakra

Dharana Concentration 3rd Eye

Dhyana Meditation Crown

Samadhi Becoming One With Integration of all chakras

*

You may notice that what is often called yoga in the West is the third limb, asana (postures). This is the practice attuned to the solar plexus chakra.

For the practice of asana to have the greatest effect, it is important to build a foundation first in the root and sacral chakras.

*

The first limb of yoga, the five yamas (restraints), is a practice of self-discipline and self-awareness.

It helps us to clear, activate, and balance our root chakra. In other words, to overcome fear and step into a place of grounded trust in life and our capacity to survive.

The five yamas are: nonviolence, non-stealing, truthfulness, non-hoarding, and not carelessly spending our creative energies (both in terms of sexual energy and in terms of the creative will.)

As we challenge ourselves to overcome these tendencies, we meet the guardian of the first chakra: fear.

And as we learn to release this fear, we naturally replace it with its opposite: faith. A simple trust that we will be met, and that there will be a way forward.

*

In the second limb of yoga, we refine the sacral chakra with the niyamas, the daily observances that cultivate discipline and health.

The five niyamas are: contentment, purity, continual growth, self-reflection, and devotion to the highest.

The sacral chakra is the point of will. This aspect of our field is linked with the forces that move us and move through us.

So, as we learn to moderate our actions, and to discipline ourselves to maintain these virtues, we refine the use of our will.

*

It is at this point that the practice of asana will yield the greatest rewards.

Posture becomes an extension of the discipline that has been cultivated in the two earlier limbs.

And, as we bring the journey more fully into the body, it becomes a medium for refining the consciousness to a knife-edge.

With this practice we bring the light up to the solar plexus and begin to refine awareness around our mental body.

*

Awareness of body and motion will then lead us to the fourth limb: pranayama.

This is the practice of the fourth chakra, the heart center, nestled in the center of the lungs.

Pranayama is the conscious control of breath to influence the body, mind, and being in specific ways.

It is incredibly powerful, primarily because human beings are incredibly powerful. And because the waking state of consciousness is but one of many states which are natural to us.

Each state of mind allows us to work with ourselves and the frame of our experience in a different way.

And breath is a beautiful internal key to shift our mindstate intentionally and at will.

*

Pranayama then leads to the fifth limb, pratyahara.

The conscious use of our breath (pranayama) helps us to withdraw our senses from the outer world to focus inward (pratyahara).

This practice is linked to the throat chakra, which is the point from which we express our will.

We engage with the world and make meaning. Which we can then share with others, telling stories that shape the world.

So, to withdraw the senses is to pause, for a moment, the habitual meaning-creation that accompanies our conscious experience.

In pulling our engagement from the outer world, we actually create inner space into which new and different meaning can flow.

*

The sixth limb, dharana, is a practice of concentration.

We learn to place the inner eye upon a chosen point and focus clearly, unwavering.

In the classical yogic approach, this is where we learn single-point focus in earnest, although each step leading up to it has been an essential strengthening of the concentration.

This is a practice for the 3rd eye, as it trains us to slow the swirl of inner images and tune in one intentionally chosen focal point.

And then maintain this focal point for as long as desired.

*

Now, once we have done all of this inner preparation, we are ready for the seventh limb: dhyana.

This is the practice of meditation. Which can be done in many ways, but which requires a steady inner focus, either on a single fixed point, or in a state of inner receptivity.

Prior to this point, the mind is often wild and untrained, and meditation can be achieved only with difficulty.

(All that means, though, is that we must be aware of the need to strengthen our focus in stages, and choose a meditative practice which is suited to our current level of focus.)

*

With the practice of meditation, we engage actively with the crown chakra, opening to receive the highest level of awareness available to us.

And, in the process, we begin engaging more vividly with what were previously vague inner objects.

Emotions, ideas, memories, qualities, all of these things come alive to us as we engage from this inner space.

And we begin to see that we are not as small as we thought!

*

Not a separate body, nor even a separate mind, but Consciousness, engaged for a brief and fleeting moment as a specific Being.

The bounds of our separate identity begin to loosen along with our belief in them.

And alongside the increasing use of our subtle senses to engage more deeply with the frame of our experience.

This is the inner state described as samadhi. This is the eighth limb of yoga, the state which reflects a balanced integration of all human faculties.

Activating, opening, balancing, and integrating all energy centers to form a single, powerful, and aligned human field."

*

I hope you have enjoyed this longer share.

If you would like to explore more like this, drop a line in the comments and I will share my full illustrated guide to energy anatomy with you free of charge.

Thanks and blessings!