The Eight Limbs of Yoga

What it says

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras describe eight limbs of yoga — ashtanga. The diagram arranges them as a concentric progression from outer conduct to inner absorption. The rings are an interpretation of their relationship, not a diagram from the text itself:

1. Yama — restraints in conduct toward others
2. Niyama — observances in conduct toward oneself
3. Asana — steady, comfortable posture
4. Pranayama — regulation of breath
5. Pratyahara — withdrawal of the senses
6. Dharana — concentration on a single point
7. Dhyana — sustained meditation
8. Samadhi — absorption

The sequence changes what counts as practice. Posture is one limb, not the whole account of yoga. Conduct, study, attention, and contemplation belong in the same picture. Reading inward through the rings makes that breadth visible: the body and breath sit between ethical life and the training of attention. No single ring stands for the entire tradition.

Yama and niyama concern how a person lives, not only what happens during a practice session. Asana and pranayama bring posture and breath into view. Pratyahara marks a change in the relationship between the senses and attention. The final three terms make finer distinctions within contemplation: holding attention, its continuity, and absorption. These short English glosses are entry points. They do not exhaust the Sanskrit terms or replace a translation and commentary.

The image can be read in two ways. From outside inward, it suggests conditions that support increasingly subtle practice. Looking back outward, it reminds the reader that inward attention remains connected to ordinary conduct. A concentric picture should not imply that a limb is completed once and then discarded, or that every practitioner develops in an identical sequence.

This is a map from a philosophical and contemplative tradition, not an empirical claim that an inner experience is impossible until somebody has perfected every outer practice. It also offers no test for judging another person's attainment. Its value here is orientation: seeing the larger structure before reducing yoga to the part that is most familiar. For the details, return to the sutras, compare translations, and notice where a commentator's explanation goes beyond the short statement in the text.

How I use it

A personal note on this practice is still being written.

Where it comes from

The eight limbs are enumerated in Yoga Sutra II.29. See Swami Vivekananda's translation and commentary on chapter II, particularly II.29–32 for the list, yama, and niyama. The one-line renderings above are conventional English glosses; translations differ in emphasis.