| 
				
				"Ashtanga Yoga" ("Eight-Limbed Yoga") 
 
 
 
 Yama (The five "abstentions"): non-violence, non-lying, non-covetousness, non-sensuality, and non-possessiveness.
 
 Niyama (The five "observances"): purity, contentment, austerity, study, and surrender to god.
 
 Asana: Literally means "seat", and in Patanjali's Sutras refers to the seated position used for meditation.
 
 Pranayama ("Suspending Breath"): Prāna, breath, "āyāma", to restrain or stop. Also interpreted as control of the life force.
 
 Pratyahara ("Abstraction"): Withdrawal of the sense organs from external objects.
 
 Dharana ("Concentration"): Fixing the attention on a single object.
 
 Dhyana ("Meditation"): Intense contemplation of the nature of the object of meditation.
 
 Samādhi ("Liberation"): merging consciousness with the object of meditation.
 
 
 
 
 
				 
 |