The notes below are designed to give prospective readers an idea of what to expect from the book, and to aid in making a decision on whether to buy it.
The Yamas & Niyamas, Deborah Adele
Introduction
The books starts slow but has many great stories. Skip the overview and start with Ahimsa is my tip.
What does it mean to be human?
Overview of yamas/niyamas:
Non-stealing is not just from others, but also yourself.
Non-excess is to walk with the Gods
Sacredness in all actions
Non possessiveness is not clinging to people or material objects
Purity is more than cleansing.
Concentration is not sought but found with the acceptance and appreciation of the now
Self-study one should look at stories to tell your own story
Surrender, devotion, trust, and active engagement
General Notes
Ahimsa (nonviolence):
Nonviolence to others come from being nonviolent to yourself.
Lowering fear will help you not hurt others. Find your inner courage. Create balanced space and time for your body, mind, and soul. Be quite and listen to your inner voice. Do not spread yourself too thin.
Reduce your powerlessness via gratitude, trust the moment, and think of others.
Self-love is how we treat our self, and it effects how we treat others. Perfect self love removes fear.
Do not help a fish by taking it out of the water.
Worry is a lack of faith and violence. Worry is when you don’t trust the journey.
Develop compassion.
Reclaim peach within yourself and bring it into the world.
Sataya (truthfulness):
Be real rather than nice. Real is trustworthy.
Do it right the first time. Cleanup is expensive.
Be honest with yourself and clean your own lens you use to view the world.
The four ashramic stages are: Brahmacharya (student), Grihastha (householder), Vanaprastha (retired) and Sannyasa (renunciate What are we afraid of?
Asteya (non-stealing):
Do not compare yourself with others. If you are positive about self produces arrogance. If you are negative you feel cheated.
Listen to others, don’t make discussions about you.
Be a forklift, lifting up others.
Don’t steal from the earth or future generations.
Stay within your competence, don’t steal from others who would do better than you.
Brahmachara (non-excess):
Overdoing food, work, exercise, sleep, or sex causes one to loose the sacredness of life.
Tell the difference between what the body needs and the state of our mind.
Pleasure without addiction.
Fasting lower the need for excess.
Walk with God and the sacred and avoid excess. Gratitude creates wonder in the heart.
Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what causes you to come alive.
Know what is enough and stop there having pleasure without excess.
Aparigraha (non-possessiveness):
Always be ready to drop all to go to the divine.
To ‘let go’
Pack lightly for the journey of life.
What we try to possess posses us.
Like breath, do not hold anything too long, or it will become toxic.
How many suitcases of expectations, plans, etc. do I carry with me?
Fewer attachments make us free to enjoy.
Engage your letting go muscle
Yamas Summary:
Letting go tells us where to make a U turn
Saucha (purity)
Purify thoughts, self physically.
Cleaning yourself allows you to meet a moment with clarity.
Lighten your load.
Purifying is more than cleansing, it’s transforming not just washing away.
Be pure with yourself and others. Leave your self alone and be here now (not past or future)
Lose heaviness of the waste that we all carry around. Your body is alive, your mind is clear, your heart is compassionate.
Santosha (being content):
Take refuge in your calm center. Have gratitude
Be non-seeking.
Live in the moment not in the future.
Reach within, not outside.
Seeking and avoiding are expensive uses of energy.
Be unattached to your preferences as possible.
When it rains, I let it.
Do not allow your self to be what is said by others.
Gratitude centers us and protects us from pettiness.
This moment is complete.
Fall in love with your life.
Tapas (self-discipline):
Engaging in self improvement via a controlled burn and rebirth.
Sadhana is daily spiritual discipline like water that shapes a rock very slowly.
Trust in crisis to deliver us on the other side.
Svadhyaa (self-study):
We cannot love or hat something that we don’t have within ourselves.
The universe dies when you do because we each create our own universe.
Trace back your belief system to understand your own reactions better.
Eyes and hear can open to disharmony too.
Examine own selfishness and greed and ego.
Step outside the ego and into the soul.
To witness is to watch yourself, including emotional disturbances, and to watch the ego and not identify.
A river is pure yet carries pollution, but it is not polluted. Our minds are pure and carry things but is not these things it carries.
Meditation and a beginner’s mind help
Ishvara Pranidhana (Surrender):
Presupposes a divine force is at work in our lives.
Shavasana is surrender. Stop fighting life, allowing ourselves to act skillfully.
Be carefree not just careful. Surrender is not passive.
Do what is yours, don’t do what is not yours. Pay attention to what life is asking of us.
Life knows what to do better than we do. Our job is to let go and receive each moment with an open heart.
Surrender asks each of us to observe each moment with integrity but allow the current of life to flow.
Surrender the ego but not the soul. As the ego surrenders the heart expands.
Niyamas:
How good can I feel?
Ending
Who are we as humans?
West East
Attaining Letting Go
Right and Wrong Cause and Effect
Either/Or Both/And
Rules/Answers Questions/Experiments
Mistake = Failure Mistake = Living
Let go. Love.
Nonviolence gives an aura of peace that protects self and others
Truth brings spoken words that will always be true
Non stealing brings abundance
Non excess brings great vitality
Non-possiveness brings knowledge of experience
Purity brings clarity
Contentment brings joy
Self-Discipline brings refinement
Self-Study brings freedom.
Surrender brings harmony.