Eight Limbs and Daily Life with David Swenson
This lecture by David Swenson was on incorporating the 8 limbs of yoga into daily life. The 8 limbs are ethical precepts on how to live a good, meaningful, purposeful life, as written by Patanjali in the "Yoga Sutra".
He took us through the Yamas and Niyamas, the first and second limbs, with a discussion of such precepts as Ahimsa and Satya. Of Ahimsa, or non-violence, David asks, is it ever ok to be violent? "Yes", he says. "If someone is violent to my wife, should I stand by and watch, or is my violence justified in return?" Life, he says, is not so black and white.So the real question is, he says, how can we live the least violent life?
Or what about Asteya -- non stealing. "If your child was hungry,and you had no money, would you steal?" Most people in the class nodded their heads. His point was to look at how we try to follow these precepts in the real world.
He moves on to discuss the other limbs -- Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi.
He then tells us the abbreviated story of his life -- of growing up in Texas, discovering yoga at 13, and having to wear a short hair wig to school to hide his long hair.
He talks about meeting one of his teachers, David Williams, then studying with Pattabhi Jois in Mysore for 4 months. How he came back to Texas and lived on a farm, where he wrote this letter to Jois:
"Dear Guruji -- Questions seem to have arisen in my mind. Where are the 8 limbs. And while you're at it, who am I, and why am I hear?"
Jois never answered.
He tells of joining the Hare Krishnas for 5 years, then opening an art Gallery, of living on Maui, then back to Texas, then back to Hawaii. One day, he meets up with Jois again, who doesn't recognize him. But when Jois adjusts his body, he says, "David Swenson. Then he breaks out into a smile and says, "Om Hari Krishna" and starts laughing.
Suddenly, Swenson's life had come full circle. "I had been like a fish swimming in the Pacific Ocean, asking where the ocean is. I was in it all the time. Everything I had been looking for was in me all the time."