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Eight Branches of Yoga as Tweets

As PoetOfZen on Twitter, I once tweeted the eight branches of Yoga. The original eight branches were recorded nearly 2,000 years ago by the Indian sage, Patanjali, in a text known as the Yoga Sutras. They provide a tool to help people lead better lives, regardless of their religion or worldview.  Here is my take on the eight branches of Yoga as 140-character tweets (based on my 1993 transliteration of the Sutras):

  • There are 8 branches of Yoga. 1st Yoga Branch: Social ethics. Be harmless, truthful, don’t steal, be sexually responsible, don’t be greedy.
  • 2nd Yoga Branch: Personal ethics. Be clean, content, streamlined, know yourself, surrender to your idea of a Higher Power.
  • 3rd Yoga Branch:Take care of the body. Have good posture, take regular, gentle exercise; know that body/spirit/mind are integrated & whole.
  • 4th Yoga Branch: Breathe. Be grateful for breath, which sustains us all our days. Be aware: respect the breath we share as living beings.
  • 5th Yoga Branch: Our senses are our servants. Don’t let them tell you what to do. Be a loving master: know when to turn them off.
  • 6th Yoga Branch: Learn to concentrate. Sunlight focused through a lens can set a field on fire. Power lurks in concentration.
  • 7th Yoga Branch: Meditate. Go beyond concentration on a single object. Clear your mind, open your heart: be there.
  • 8th Yoga Branch: Experience the unity of your own soul with something great. Call it God, Nature or Humanity: this is the goal of Yoga.
Posted on Sunday, December 25, 2011 at 11:10AM by Registered CommenterLinda Brown Holt | CommentsPost a Comment | References1 Reference

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  • Response
    Response: Mary He
    at Mary He on January 23, 2012
    I really like and appreciate your blog post. Great.

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