Patanjali's framework for yoga, written around 200 BCE and still the most influential system in the practice today. Asana, the postures, is one of eight.
The text
Patanjali compiled the Yoga Sutras around 200 BCE. The text consists of 196 short aphorisms in Sanskrit, organised into four books. The second book sets out the eight-limbed system, Ashtanga, that has shaped every serious yoga lineage since.
Crucially, the system is not a hierarchy where you complete one limb before moving to the next. It's an integrated practice. The ethics (Yamas, Niyamas) inform the body work (Asana), which prepares the breath (Pranayama), which sets the conditions for the inner work (the final four). You work all eight at once.
The eight limbs
Five universal ethical commitments. Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacharya (right use of energy), and Aparigraha (non-greed). These are how a yogi treats the world.
In practice. Asked of every yoga student before they ever step on a mat. Modern Western yoga often skips this; the classical tradition starts here.
Five personal disciplines. Saucha (cleanliness), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (disciplined effort), Svadhyaya (self-study), and Ishvara Pranidhana (surrender to a higher power). How a yogi treats themselves.
In practice. These are about cultivating internal conditions for practice. Daily mat work itself is a form of Tapas; consistent journaling is Svadhyaya.
Originally meaning a stable, comfortable seat for meditation, asana is the physical posture practice that has come to dominate modern yoga. Patanjali devotes only two of his 196 sutras to it. The Hatha tradition expanded it dramatically.
In practice. What you do in an R1SE class. Asana prepares the body to be still, breathe well, and sit for deeper work.
Conscious regulation of the breath, traditionally understood as the cultivation of prana (life force). Includes specific techniques like Nadi Shodhana, Ujjayi, Kapalabhati and Bhramari, each with distinct physiological and energetic effects.
In practice. Built into every yoga class through Ujjayi breath. The R1SE breathwork page covers the techniques in depth.
Deliberately turning attention inward, away from external sensory input. The hinge between the outer four limbs (preparation) and the inner three (the deeper practice).
In practice. The settling you feel in the first five minutes of savasana. Practised deliberately in Yoga Nidra.
Sustained focus of attention on a single point: a breath, a mantra, a candle flame, a chakra. The precursor to meditation.
In practice. What you are doing when you focus on a Tratak candle or count your breath cycles.
Sustained, effortless awareness. Where Dharana required deliberate focus, Dhyana is the state that arises when focus becomes natural and absorptive.
In practice. The meditative quality that arises in long-held Yin poses, in deep Savasana, or in formal seated meditation practice.
The state described as the dissolution of the boundary between practitioner and object of meditation. The end goal of Patanjali's system, presented less as a destination and more as a fully integrated way of being.
In practice. Reported in rare moments. Not a feature of any normal yoga class, but the orientation of the whole tradition.
The five Yamas
Non-violence in thought, word and action
How you speak to yourself in difficult postures, how you treat the person on the next mat, the ethical decisions about diet, work and relationship.
Truthfulness, integrity, alignment between word and action
Telling your instructor where you actually are in your practice; being honest in everyday life rather than the social version of honest.
Non-stealing
Includes not just material theft but stealing time, attention, ideas, energy from others, or from yourself.
Right use of vital energy
Traditionally interpreted as celibacy in monastic contexts; in modern lay practice, the cultivation of energy rather than its depletion in sexual, social, or digital distractions.
Non-greed, non-grasping
Practising letting go: of postures you can't yet do, of outcomes, of the body you used to have, of the props you've accumulated, of identities you cling to.
The five Niyamas
Cleanliness, purity
Physical hygiene, internal purification (food, alcohol, screens), the cleanliness of your practice space, the order of your home.
Contentment
Not the absence of desire but the cultivation of sufficiency. The practice of being present with what is, rather than fixated on what could be.
Disciplined effort, the heat of practice
The willingness to do hard things consistently. Showing up to the mat when you don't feel like it; the literal heat of a 35°C R1SE hot yoga class.
Self-study
Studying the classical texts (the Sutras, Gita, Hatha Yoga Pradipika), but also studying yourself. Journaling, therapy, meditation, honest self-observation.
Surrender to a higher power
Interpreted across traditions as devotion to the divine, surrender to the universe, or simply the recognition that your individual will is not the only force in your life. Practised in Savasana as a daily act.
Reading about the Eight Limbs is good. Working them into a daily life of breath, posture and attention is better. R1SE classes in Sheffield run on these principles.
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