Yoga’s inner four limbs

Many people meet yoga as a set of postures. The old text that lists yoga’s eight limbs, the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, puts posture third. It gives most of its attention to what comes after: the breath, the senses, attention, and the mind. This is a plain-language guide to four of those steps.

A word on counting. The eight limbs, in the traditional order, are ethical conduct (yama), personal discipline (niyama), posture (asana), breath (pranayama), withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana) and absorption (samadhi). Teachers differ about which are “inner”. The text itself (III.7) calls only the last three inner. We use “the inner four” as a teaching shorthand for the four steps that turn attention inward: breath, senses, concentration, meditation. We leave samadhi alone. The text describes it as a result, not a technique.

The four, one at a time

1. Breath (pranayama). The word is usually translated as the extension, or regulation, of breath. In the Sutras (II.49) it follows a steady posture and concerns the flow of the in-breath and the out-breath. For us it is simply slowing the breath and lengthening the out-breath. Try six slow breaths, in for four, out for six.

2. Withdrawing the senses (pratyahara). This does not mean shutting yourself off. The Sutras (II.54) describe the senses no longer being dragged along by their objects. In ordinary terms, the world gets quieter without going anywhere. Close your eyes and let the sounds in the room become background. You can still hear them. They are just no longer calling you.

3. Concentration (dharana). Binding attention to one place (III.1). Count five out-breaths. When the count slips, start again at one.

4. Meditation (dhyana). In III.2, attention flows toward one thing in an unbroken stream. This is what happens when concentration stops needing effort. Stop counting. Rest your attention on the breath for a minute or two, and see how long it stays on its own.

Why the order matters, and why it doesn’t

Teachers have long said to settle the body first, then the breath, then the mind. The body is the loudest, the breath is in between, and the mind is the quietest and the hardest to hold. Our classes follow roughly this order: release in the body, breathe, observe.

But do not take the order too strictly. A review of the yoga literature stresses that the limbs are linked like parts of one body, not stages to pass through in succession. You may meet the fourth on your first day and find the second hard for years. Neither is a failing.

On evidence: a US National Institutes of Health page notes that many reported benefits of yoga come from small or lower-quality studies. We offer this as a map of attention, not as a program for any health condition.

If you have only five minutes, you can walk the four in order. Take six slow breaths. Close your eyes and let the sounds of the room go to the background for a minute. Count five out-breaths. Then stop counting, and let your attention rest on the out-breath until the timer ends.

Take care

Some traditions teach breathing practices that involve long holds or forceful breathing. We do not teach these, and we would ask you not to try them from a book. If you meet them elsewhere, learn with a qualified teacher, and do not practise them if you are pregnant or have a heart, lung or blood pressure condition. Everything above is gentle: slow, easy breaths that you could do all day. If any exercise makes you dizzy, stop and breathe normally.