Yoga Sutras for Modern Life. Seventh Limb: Dhyana

Yoga Sutras for Modern Life. Seventh Limb: Dhyana

Our mini-series on the Eight Limbs of Yoga according to the ancient Sanskrit text Yoga Sutras of Patanjali has gotten to its seventh episode. Today we talk about Dhyana or “contemplation and meditation”. Dhyana builds on the previous limb, Dharana (one-pointed...
Yoga Sutras for modern life. Sixth limb: Dharana

Yoga Sutras for modern life. Sixth limb: Dharana

Have you ever been so fully focused on what you were doing that the rest of the world seemed to fall away? These ephemeral moments of intense absorption are glimpses of dharana, the sixth step on Patanjali’s eight-limbed path of yoga. In this sixth episode of the...
Yoga Sutras for modern life. Fourth limb: Pranayama

Yoga Sutras for modern life. Fourth limb: Pranayama

Praṇayama is the fourth limb of Yoga and brings us to the fourth part of my mini-series dedicated to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Pranayama is yogic breathing technique which is practiced to clear the physical and emotional obstacles in order to direct and expand the...
Yoga Sutras for Modern Life. First Limb: Yamas

Yoga Sutras for Modern Life. First Limb: Yamas

This month I would like to go back to a theme I briefly touched in a blog post in March – the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. This is a monumental text in yoga tradition, so often cited and so often misunderstood. It promises a healthy mind, healthy body, wisdom, and the...
What can we learn from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali?

What can we learn from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali?

Yoga is not only physical exercise. A big part of this ancient practice is spiritual and philosophical. Yoga philosophy is deeply woven into ancient Indian thought and ‘Yoga’ is in fact, the name of an ancient Indian school of philosophy. One of the most important...