The Eight Limbs of Yoga, or Asta-anga (Ashtanga) yoga
Yama | Niyama | Asana | Pranayama | Pratyahara | Dharana | Dhyana | Samadhi
Pratyahara:
II.54 Withdrawing the senses, mind and consciousness from contact with external objects, and then drawing them inwards towards the seer, is pratyahara. – Iyengar.
While this is sometimes translated as “restraining” the senses, it is more a channeling, or turning inward of the senses. Truthfully, “restraining” the senses and the mind’s response to sensory input is like telling a river to stop running.
But you can build up the banks and teach it a new path. So through the focus of asana and pranayama, and the self-study and surrender, the sense organs, or organs of perception, turn in on themselves (sva: own, their own) not focusing on external objects.
The mind is given something with which to busy itself.
II.54 svavisaya asamprayoge cittasya svarupanukarah iva indriyanam pratyahara
yogaNexus by Karl Erb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
RSS: Subscribe to entries or
Subscribe to comments
Powered by WordPress |
Theme by Graph Paper Press |
Design by HelloARI | Log in
