Monthly Yoga Sanskrit: Satya

In a past blog post I discussed the meaning of 'Satya' within the context of the 8 branches of yoga, so I figured I do an official blog for the word. 

Satya means commitment to the truth. It is key step to living an ethical yogic lifestyle. 

For teacher training over the past month we were supposed to practice Satya in our everyday lives. I have to be honest (satya after all!), it was a challenge at time to follow truthfulness all the time. 

A fellow student in the YTT program shared the acronym T.H.I.N.K. with us, and I found it to be a very helpful tool. Before you speak you are always supposed to consider the T.H.I.N.K acronym that you can see in the image below. Basically you want to consider if the communication is true, helpful, inspiring, necessary or kind. 

Satya seems like such a simple idea, but it can be difficult to follow. It takes discipline, control and mindfulness- all of things which I know personally I need to work on. This month I censored and reconsidered my words more than a couple of times thanks to satya and T.H.I.N.K., and I have no doubt this benefited my personal relationships. 

If anything the T.H.I.N.K acronym and satya made me stop for a second before delivering perhaps unnecessary criticisms and judgement. This tool of mindfulness is invaluable, and anyone could benefit from the practice of satya. 

-Namaste 

New Years Eve Sankalpa

Last year in a yoga class one of my teachers suggested to set an intention for New Years rather than setting a specific resolution. I absolutely forget what my intention was or if I even made one. Regardless, I thought it was an interesting idea. In yoga this setting of a goal or intention is known as sankalpa. We can make a small sankalpa for every practice, or in this case an intention for the whole year.   

With our New Years resolutions, it seems often we are playing to our egos. "I would like to be more fit this year." "I would like to get that promotion." Most resolutions start with "I" than rattle on with a very specific goal. Why limit to yourself to something so specific? Why limit yourself to setting life changing goals once a year? What is so magical about the bridging of one year to the next? Generally, I think resolutions are a great thing, but I still am left with lots of questions.

I haven't thought about a resolution or a sankalpa this year, so I'm not going to make up one for the sake of a post. I do hope to find an intention or motivation make my impact on the Earth a more positive one. That goes for 2013 and for 2014. Now just to figure out what general word would apply to such an abstract idea? Perhaps the word "yoga" itself would be a good intention given it means the union of the mind and the body, or at least it can be interpreted that way in some yogic schools of thoughts. In other words, I want my actions to match my ideals. Perhaps, "genuineness" would be a good word for it then? 

Anyways, happy new years! Before things get too heavy, I'm going to go drink some champagne. Here is to an awesome 2014 for all of humanity!  

Monthly Yoga Sanskrit: Avidyā

The word Avidyā mean "ignorance" or "delusion" in Sanskrit. In terms of Buddhism it means you either do not understand the four noble truth, or like me, you just misunderstand reality in itself. As soon as I saw this word it attracted me, because I just feel connected with it when it comes to the "spiritual" elements of yoga. 

For example, in a yoga class the other day our teacher had us waving our hands and chanting as we lunged, and it really took every element of self-control not to burst out laughing. What is wrong with me? Why can't I take these types of things seriously? 

For the past, well forever, I've denied myself the exploration of the spiritual world (whatever that means). I'm about to commence into Yoga Teacher Training in January, so I think my lack of exploration into the spiritual realm is going to work against me. The cynic in me doubts my capacity to take in these lessons at all without scoffing at the false comfort that religion provides.  

I'm curious though. I think the Dalai Lama is generally a cool guy.  Buddhism even sounds pretty rad. Hopefully an open mind will help me to stray further away from Avidyā- if that is the appropriate path. I can't help but question if there is a secular way to approach yoga, and if you skip over the spirituality do you miss the point? 

Do we go into yoga to stretch or do we go into yoga for something more than that? I'm sure it varies from person to person. Even as the most cynical of participants I have to say that I've taken away more than just more open hips and shoulders. Generally I feel more at ease in the world and myself... well , at least some of the time.  

Anyways, it will be fun to become familiar with a non-Western religion, and I look forward to learning about some Buddhism and other tidbits in Yoga Teacher Training. Hopefully it will at least make me more capable in writing about Sanskrit words for y'all. 

Your Monthly Yoga Sanskrit

By Wonderlane [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Above is a picture of the ruins of a university that was based out of ancient India. It attracted students from as far as Tibet, China, Greece, and Persia, and it was absolutely free for students to study here. By legend it was the location Buddha designated to teach his first students.

It is the Nalanda University. Nalanda in Sanskrit means “giver of knowledge”. “Nalam” translates to lotus. The lotus represents wisdom and knowledge. “Da” means to give. Nalanda is a perfect name for a university, but also a perfect word to think of for yoga sanskrit.  

As students of yoga, we naturally receive the gift of Nalanda from our teachers. One can not look inward to find the poses, but first make take the guidance of outward forces. Those forces help us listen to ourselves to find a yoga path.  
Although Nalanda is not the name of an actual yoga pose, I thought it would be an interesting place to start in my "Yoga Sanskrit" series. The passing of knowledge is one subject that I personally find to be sacred. Even with more and more of the world gaining access to seemingly endless knowledge from the internet, there are still some things we cannot learn digitally. Yoga serves as a perfect example. 

We can learn the yoga sanskrit names for all of the poses if we really want to without Nalanda, but to achieve good form in yoga we must seek to find the Nalanda outside of the internet world by going to yoga classes. I am thankful to have the means to access Nalanda, and one day I hope to pass on the knowledge I've learned from others.