~ A H I M S A ~

Embodying non-violence in your life and in your yoga practice.

ahimsa

/əˈhɪmsɑː/

noun

1. (in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainist tradition) respect for all living things and avoidance of violence towards others.

Ahimsa and Asana - The "Edge"

Every so often one forgets that the point of this whole philosophy is to feel at one with the universe. One truly does not need to apply one's foot to the back of one's head to gain access to that experience. Asana simply transforms the "chore" of physical maintenance into an exploration of the body and its marvels. The more you practise, the more respect you have for this mysterious vessel and its potential. One of the most exciting potentials is the body's capacity to heal itself. Yoga can facilitate this, firstly by switching the operating system to rest and restore mode. When relaxed, the body can get to work on digesting and eliminating waste products, a process which is vital to maintaining overall good health. Secondly, deep breathing combined with particular movements and positions helps optimise the body's oxygen delivery system. According to the chemistry of our bodies, oxygen = energy. Energy is not mystical, it's chemical, and yoga really shows you how to generate and use it. When you choose to see yoga as a tool for health, you might find it easy to stay on the right side of the edge during the physical part of your practice. If holding a pose is making you tense, shaky or wound up in any way, you might be missing some of the major benefits available to you through a more calm and sustainable approach to the pose.

The famous sutra, sthir sukham asanam, should be a guiding light, no matter what your reason for practising yoga is. Translated to mean "a stable and easy posture", it strongly implies that being comfortable is important. Aside from vinyasa flows, it is often suggested to gradually increase the amount of time spent in a pose, so the body can relax more and more healing and restoration can be done on a cellular level. Pressing your body into agonising shapes for a few tortured breaths might improve your flexibility (in the short term anyway) but it won't give you access to your body's rejuvenating potential. This is why the edge is so important and why non-violence should be the baseline for your practice. Generally I find the best way to approach a pose, especially if it is one you have chosen for its therapeutic benefits, is to come into it at about 60% capacity and give yourself a few breaths to find your alignment and let the body relax where it needs to. Only then start working your way deeper into pose with each breath. When you get to the point where you're questioning if the next move might be a little bit too intense, then you've found the edge.

The best piece of knowledge I've ever been given was that most injuries happen coming out of the pose. It seems obvious once you've heard it, but it is important to remember and treat the body kindly when transitioning through the asana.

Ahimsa - Without and Within

The significance of ahimsa as the first of the yamas indicates that it is the seed from which every thought and action must sprout and grow roots. Primarily, our lack of aggression must infiltrate our self esteem. Allowing harmful thought patterns to develop, in which we become our own worst enemies, is the first "sin" of yoga. Once we are capable of finding this attitude of peaceful acceptance of ourselves, it is not so easy to create enemies on the outside. Ahimsa encompasses more than compassion and kindness. It is patience, it is restraint, it is knowing that to harm another is to harm yourself. Ahimsa is not about healing, it's about not creating the damage in the first place - knowing when to stop, knowing when you're working too hard, or giving too much of your time and energy to others. In terms of dealing with others, the approach best recommended by the Bhagavad Gita is equanimity: samatwam yoga uchyate - it is said that yoga is equanimity.

Putting the ahimsa filter on your life can lead to a lot of uncomfortable truths about the things we use on a daily basis. At this point, it's fairly common knowledge that behind all of the food, clothes and products we use, is an ugly story, conveniently distant enough for us to completely ignore. Yoga minimises that distance and leads us to make more mindful choices. There is much debate about how to incorporate this yama into our dietary lives, as it is impossible to ignore the act of violence innate in the killing and eating of animals. Such matters really are best left to personal choice, but what is important is that the food we eat is more healthy than harmful to us personally. If a restricted diet causes you to feel weakened or unhealthy, it is time to put your ahimsa first and eat what you need to feel good again.

One of the main points of ahimsa, is that it in itself should not be used as a weapon. It is quite often tempting to berate oneself for failure to adhere to one's principles, or acting in a way that might later be considered to be inferior somehow. This is just perpetuating an attitude of violence towards one's own inner being and ultimately getting in the way of feeling good about oneself. There's not a lot that can be said for sure about the meaning of life and what this experience is supposed to be about, but it is clear that with practise, humans are very capable of choosing to be happier and rate this experience of life as a fulfilling one.