True Yoga: Practicing With the Yoga Sutras for Happiness & Spiritual Fulfillment

When we have a peaceful mind, a truthful heart, and a balanced body, we can more easily approach the stillness that expands our consciousness beyond daily reality.

According to yoga philosophy, enduring happiness can only come when we stop identifying with the incessant thoughts and feelings of the personality self (small s). This “I, me, mine” perspective is called the ego and it is what we normally associate with and think of as who we are. The Sutras proclaim that all of our struggles in life are because w

This Sutra warns that Satya is so powerful that when we dedicate ourselves to integrity, our thoughts, words, and actions gain the power to manifest. Truth is a dynamic state of mind in which infinite power is released.

Pranayama is the regulation and enhancement of the subtle Life Force currents (prana) through which we move into subtler realms of awareness.

The ability to differentiate between desires and needs is essential for the aspiring yogi. We can practice limiting desires and appreciating the things we do have as a custodian rather than as an owner so as not to build identification and attachment to material items.

Additionally, this Sutra indicates that true fulfillment and prosperity are impossible if we take more than we give on a regular basis.

Our lasting happiness is measurable by the sustained inner peace we feel and our ability to remain grateful and even-minded regardless of external circumstances. Then we are true yogis.

Yamas are moral qualities that are necessary for connection to our Soul nature.

Sad but true, humans rarely leave their comfort zone unless shaken from it.

Asana is the practice of right posture to create physical comfort and ease, eliminate restlessness, and prepare the body to be undistracted in meditation.