Review of the Eight Limbs of Ashtanga Yoga - Pratyahara
Photo by Solstice Hannan on Unsplash
Over the years of practicing yoga asana (the physical yoga poses in a yoga class we work on), I realized that doing the yoga poses was only a small part of understanding what yoga is and teaching us. Yoga in Sanskrit means union. Gurus, monks, and spiritual aspirants throughout the centuries developed and passed down their knowledge and instructions with one goal: Through stilling the mind, we can find union with the divine source.
“Yoga is the cessation of thought waves in the mind” Sage Patañjali, Yoga Sutras.
The thought progression of the discipline of yoga is this: The practices of yoga (sadhana) purify the mind and body to develop concentration > Perfect concentration leads to a thoughtless mind and superconsciousness (samadhi) > Higher consciousness brings knowledge of reality and peace.
Sage Patañjali prescribed a process to achieve inner peace in a collection of writings called the Yoga Sutras. He described this process as having eight parts or “limbs”; thus, the system is called Ashtanga (ashta = eight, anga = limb) Yoga.
The eight limbs are:
Yama (restraints)
Niyama (observances)
Asana (posture, seat)
Pranayama (control of prana, breath)
Pratyahara (withdrawing the mind from sense perception)
Dharana (concentration)
Dhyana (meditation)
Samadhi (superconsciousness)
Pratyahara
image from sasint on pixabay
Translation: “The conscious withdrawal of energy from the senses.”
Reversing our senses from our external world is the fifth limb of the Eight Limbs of Ashtanga Yoga. I visualize it as the lynchpin between the practices we strive to work on in the first four limbs and achieving a level of peace that one needs to descend (or rise, depending on your perspective) into the last three limbs.
The practice of pratyahara uses many facets of the previous four limbs. Specifically, I find myself using pranayama to move energy and focus away from my senses instead of the more internal functions of the vayus (which I describe here). I concentrate on brahmacharya (harnessing desires) and santosha (contentment) to actively engage myself with a general sense of satisfaction in my life so that I can quiet my aspirations and aversions to things that try to attract my attention in daily life. This, I feel, helps calm my senses and magpie tendencies to be attracted to all the sparkly things. I think there is also a sense of surrender involved because we depend on our senses to survive. Disengaging from those senses requires a level of trust in believing that you are safe and sound without them.
The stages of practicing pratyahara:
Getting your head wrapped around drawing your perception inward can be simplified with four steps:
Opening your senses further - this may seem counterintuitive, but hear me out. If you can first isolate one of your senses, then extend that sense out as far as you can. Once you have isolated those distant observations, try to focus on drawing your senses closer to you. Take your sense hearing as the example: Wherever you are sitting, I would encourage you to focus on your hearing. Then I would ask you to focus on the sounds that are furthest away from you. Can you hear sirens in the distance? Can you hear construction or a lawnmower in the neighbourhood? If you move a little closer with your hearing, can you hear a car drive by, or children playing in the yard, or birds chirping outside your window? I would then ask you to move your hearing indoors - what do you hear? Then move into the room you’re occupying, then finally focus on the sounds your body makes. Can you hear your breath? Clothes rustling? Your heart? You can practice this with every sense you have.
Observing your reaction to your heightened senses - with the extreme focus you give each of your senses, you can also give yourself time to watch your mind’s reaction. Do you feel annoyed by the leaf-blower outside? Are you hungry because you smell dinner cooking? Do you feel dissatisfied or uncomfortable because your skin feels hot or cold? By first becoming aware of our reactions, we can learn to gain some equilibrium over our responses.
Withdrawing your senses - In the first point, I talked about fully extending our senses then drawing them inward. In the second point, you are encouraged to gauge your reactions and, hopefully, gain a bit of immunity to your attachments to this sensory input. So as your work your way inward, you can hopefully stay internalized with each sense, one by one, inside you.
Sinking into concentration (dharana) - Once you have soothed and internalized your senses, ideally, you enter a state where you can focus on one point of concentration. I will write a post about dharana and what those points of attention can be. To not leave you hanging, though: the most common and accessible point could be to follow the inhalation and exhalation of your breath.
Some of the long-term benefits of incorporating some pratyahara into your life are that you can:
Relax your autonomic sympathetic nervous system - you can switch off your fight/flight response, which can be challenging for many people in Western society.
Alleviate symptoms of depression, anxiety, phobia, obsession, aggression and inferiority by restricting input to our unconscious mind.
Achieve a state of samyama – a combined simultaneous practice of Dharna (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (union).
Relax the eye muscles and alleviate the physical and psychological effects of technostress.
Another excellent way to practise pratyahara is to attend or listen to a guided Yoga Nidra class. Many guided Yoga Nidra sessions are available through meditation apps. I occasionally incorporate Yoga Nidra into my classes for my students, often around Summer and Winter Solstices or focusing on pratyahara as my lesson. If you have a busy mind, pratyahara may help you to find some calm and quiet.