I wonder if you’ve ever noticed – on many things to do with yoga or Buddhism, or even “New Age” – that there’s generally a picture or a symbol of a lotus flower? I don’t know if we have native
The lotus gardening show
It’s time to start playing!
The famous Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw said, “You don’t stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing”. I take “playing” to mean not only having “fun and a sense of humour”, but also “moving
Ishvara Pranidhana – gratitude
I sit here shuffling bits of paper on which I’ve written notes about this, the fifth and final niyama. These notes are all words of wisdom written by people who – I presume – know more about this topic than
Swadhyaya – studying the self
As with most of the yamas and niyamas, this week’s niyama has multiple layers of meaning. SWADHYAYA (often written as svadhyaya or svadyaya) is simply translated as self-study. It does NOT mean self-study in the egotistical sense of congratulating yourself
Tapasya – self-discipline
TAPASYA (sometimes written just as tapas) is the third of the niyamas (after saucha and santosha, and the five yamas: ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya and aparigraha). I have had a notice stuck on my fridge for eight or nine years,
Saucha – keeping it clean
Today we start on the NIYAMAS, the second of Patanjali’s eight stages or limbs, of yoga. While the yamas are about harmonising our relationships with others, the niyamas are about harmonising our relationship with ourselves. The first niyama is SAUCHA
Aparigraha – letting go
The most common meaning for APARIGRAHA is “non-possessiveness”. Other popular interpretations are “non-grasping” and “non-greediness”, or “greedlessness”. These definitions are generally thought of in relation to material things; however, aparigraha is much deeper than that. Aparigraha – the fifth and
Asteya – living without stealing
Continuing with our little investigation into Patanjali’s “Yamas” and “Niyamas”, we come now to ASTEYA, non-stealing and non-cheating. This third yama follows on from the theme of “truthfulness” in the previous yama, Satya. “Stealing” means to take something from somebody