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Yoga > Ethics
Social and Personal
ethics are the rules which we must live by for our survival as a society or
civilisation and in yoga are known as Yama and
Niyama.
Yama:
- Peacefulness (ahimsa)
- Truthfulness (satya)
- Honesty (asteya)
- Continence (Bramacharya)
- Acceptance (aparigraha)
Niyama:
- Purity (saucha)
- Contentment (santosa)
- Ardor or Austerity (tapas)
- Self study(svadhyaya)
- Dedication to the Lord (isvara pranidhana)
Why Ethics? The
social ethics, when practiced, bring about a harmonising of the
community. They build trust and friendliness. Personal ethics
assist us to see our true colours, to experience through feeling
our innermost self.
Yama:
In community, the practices of Yama create and support a peaceful society.
- Peacefulness:
In a peaceful society, people feel safe, and when they feel safe are less
likely to suffer delusion and greed thereby channeling energy expended in self protection into
creative living.
- Truthfulness:
Being truthful with oneself and others leads to clearer
communication and real understanding between people.
- Honesty:
Helps
to develop community through trust.
- Continence:
To contain one's assets and power and act responsibly.
- Acceptance:
Non judgment of ourselves or others, for who am I to judge.
These are considered social ethics.
Yama at a Personal
level.
- The path of
non-violence, without force.
This is a way where we
come to accept and understand our limitations and
boundaries that we may progress in safety and surety of
knowledge. It must be seen both impersonally and
personally, or internally and externally.
- Truthfulness:
It is only in being truthful to ourselves that we may
become to experience our divinity. To see ourselves
as we really are. Here dawns understanding.
Here we come
to discover and appreciate our own unique truths.
- Honesty: with
ourselves, without this how can we be honest with others.
Be honest with both thought and feelings. This is
the path which leads to, or reveals, our own truth.
- Continence: Self
containment,
Not squandering our energy, thereby
remaining focused on our goals. This is an aid to tapas,
avoiding excess.
- Acceptance without judgement:
It is only though acceptance without any judgment in any
way, that growth or change is possible. By first
accepting the self, the experiencing of self is possible,
then self can be transformed, remade or healed.
Niyama:
Traditionally these are seen as the personal ethics.
- Purity: of
heart and mind leads to clarity of vision, purpose and
understanding. It raises our frequency, and the
range of our perception increases. Socially it is our
intent in the world.
- Contentment: is
cause of true compassion. It opens the eye to seeing the
relative truths of things. Here we see the nature of the
world's suffering.
- Ardor - Austerity:
this is a process of self discipline (not denial)
creating a heat which consumes our afflictions. The
middle way to the Buddha.
- Self Study:
Know thy self, in all thy ways and whiles. And as
we know the self the inner worlds are revealed.
- Dedication to the
Lord; All of one's thoughts actions and deeds need to
be thus directed, as the Lord is within us. This is
a process of serving the highest aspect of our True Self.
Yamas and Niyamas are mutually supportive. They must be practiced
simultaneously and without which yoga cannot be practiced.
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