Begin Again

With the start of a new year it is important to restate the intention or meaning behind the practice of ashtanga yoga.   The practice is meant to sharpen the razor of discrimination. With sustained practice we develop razor-like attention that can be used to slice through karmic attachments both latent and active.  The discrimination developed enables one to see through the four primary forms of ignorance, these are: 1) confusing the temporary for the eternal, 2) mistaking the impure for the pure, 3) experiencing misery as happiness, and 4) believing that the limited ego self is the true Self.  Essentially discrimination allows for subtler forms of introspection which in turn shed light on why we suffer.  The first five stages or limbs of yoga hone the razor edge of discrimination, these are: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara.  The final three stages or limbs of yoga put the finely sharpened tool of discriminating awareness into action allowing for direct unbiased experience. Yoga, much like modern day psychology, is a systematic method for understanding the perceptual flow of the mind.  At its most basic level, discrimination is a process of sorting this from that.  The sorting process usually begins at the most primary level with our relationship to the external world.  We begin to develop discrimination as we practice principles such as non-injury, truthfulness, compassion and contentment.