Friday, March 2, 2007

Niyamas and Saucha

The niyamas are the next limb of Patanjali's overview of yoga, and are another set of principles for living a healthy, happy life, but contrasted to the yamas, they are more directed internally.

Saucha, or cleanliness, is interesting because of the multiple levels it can be readily applied to; an obvious, physical aspect is in terms of hygiene, which directly relates to one's happiness and health, and also to being tuned externally like a yama, in interacting with other people. In a converse, abstract sense, cleanliness of one's self in an internal manner can relate to almost all the other principles, in not being swamped by, say, anger or jealousy or condescension.

In a more subtle, intermediate sense, something as simple as holding a mudra with one's hand might be interpreted as an expression of saucha, as opposed to twiddling thumbs or wringing hands nervously (the former is more calming and healthy, in the long run). Or, keeping a clean desk at work, which extends into and connects to a whole school of thought (feng shui), or similarly, a clean diet (ayurveda). Another example in this manner I've read of is the idea of organizing mats in a yoga class in clean, sensical lines or a circle, as (and one can readily recognize this upon experiencing it) somehow there is a synergistic effect of the people in the class coming together through that unity, as opposed to the separateness and disconnectedness of disorder.
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"Time is simply God's way of keeping everything from happening at once." - a bit flippant, but perhaps related

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