Ethical conduct is an essential part of any transformative practice.
Classical yoga recognises this and the first two limbs of Patanjali’s ashtanga yoga system are Yamas, five guidelines for conduct, which are seen as an essential protection from causing harm to oneself or to others and Niyamas, five qualities which spiritual aspirants seek to develop, and which are somewhat similar to the Paramis of Buddhism.
The Yoga Yajnavalkya lists 10 yamas and 10 niyamas, which are somewhat different from Patanjali’s, but the basic idea is the same: there can be no spiritual progress without a well-defined ethical framework.
In Patanjalli’s ashtanga yoga system, the five yamas are:
- Ahimsa, the practice of non harming, which helps develop kindness towards all being
- Satya, the practice of being truthful, which expresses the spiritual seeker love of the truth
- Bramacharya, the practice of using our energy (and particularly our sexual energy) wisely
- Asteya, the practice of non stealing, which helps develop non attachment to the material world
- Aparigraha, the practice of non attachment, which helps develop freedom
And the five Niyamas are:
- Sauca, cleanliness, whose practice leads to purity of mind, cheerfulness, and mastery of the senses
- Santosha, contentement, whose practice leads to happiness
- Tapas enthusiasm, whose practice leads to purity of body and mind
- Svadayaya, inquiry, whose practice leads to clarity and understanding
- Isvara Pranidhana, acceptance, whose practice leads to self realisation
It is useful to see yamas and niyamas as practices, rather than rules to be followed. Seeing ethical behaviour as a practice, and yamas and niyamasa as guidelines, we can be kind to ourselves when we fail, and keep working at perfecting them.
Michael Stone, author of Yoga for a World Out of Balance, teaching on ethics and social action, observed that ethics are one of the most neglected topics in our contemporary culture. It is regarded either as a purely intellectual, academic pursuit or as a moralistic, imposed system that tells us what not to do (and as highly individualized beings, we resent the restrictions and often push back).
Ethics are one of four pillars or foundations to the Sati Yoga approach and exploring the ethical basis of yoga through the integration of sati /mindfulness and the ethics-based teachings of Buddhism and yoga is an essential part of the Sati yoga path. We look from many angles and perspectives at the yamas and niyamas- the first and second limbs of Patanjalis eight limbed system. This latter focus is not unique to our training. Every credible teacher training covers the eight limbs in some form or another. All good yoga teachers are familiar with the yamas and how they relate to the eight-limbed system of yoga.
But can we truly say that ethics, not just as an intellectual pursuit or, in the case of Patanjali’s system, as an important historical context, figures in any meaningful way within the contemporary practice and teaching of yoga?
You probably don’t need to watch the documentary on Bikram Choudhary, founder of Bikram yoga – the trailer will suffice-- to observe what happens when there is no ethical foundation to an asana-only practice. But the high profile scandals in yoga are not confined to Bikram: a number of very high profile yoga teachers have been involved in such scandals; John Friend of Anusara yoga, Khaustaub Desikachar of Viniyoga and Pattabhi Joi, founder of the Ashtanga yoga system have also been criticised for engaging in behaviour with their students that are best described as unethical.
So for any serious yoga practitioner, it is imperative to explore the role of ethics within yoga and to incorporate ethics within their daily practice and their lives This is how we expand the definition of yoga beyond the confines of formal practice on the yoga mat. Ethics become something that we do, an embodied practice, a social and ecological practice.
“Can we announce that yoga is a political word as much as a spiritual one? Can we not say that yoga stands against division in all its manifestations: psychological, racial, economic? That yoga is the fact and flesh of interconnectivity?”
Coming at ethics from a different angle, George Feurestein implores yoga practitioners to step up to the ethical mark in relation to the global crises of climate change and species extinction:
“We are calling on all yoga practitioners to intensify their practice, to put the common weal before their own consumerist comfort and uninspired predilections. The time has come to live yoga with as much heartiness and genuineness as we can possibly muster. If yoga practitioners won’t respond to this unique and perilous crisis, who will?”