Understanding Yamas: Aparigraha

The Eight Limbs of Yoga: Yamas

Aparigraha is the final Yama, or moral code of the yogis. It is commonly translated as

non-grasping.

It can be a challenge to stay content and bold when everything around us, including our own mind, is screaming that we're "just not there yet." Because if we had this, or looked like that, or made more money, or lived somewhere else, or were someone else entirely...

THEN life would be right.

THEN happiness would be easy.

THEN we'd be worthy.

The problem with this thought pattern is just that-- it's a thought pattern. It's cyclical thinking, and it will keep repeating regardless of the success we experience. We get what we wanted and then we want something else. We get that and it's still not good enough! Because it was never the thing we wanted in the first place. It's just the way our mind has been programmed to think; we are addicted to wanting more. The concept of ownership strengthens the ego's identity, but it is never truly fulfilled. At least not for long.

Because it was a lie the whole time anyway.

Aparigraha is the abolishment of that thought pattern. It is facing the thoughts that say that outside forces define us, that the more we possess the more we matter, that if things were different we'd be happy, and then moving beyond them. Transforming them.

Through aparigraha, we stop chasing and start

joyfully being just as we are.

Beyond the matrix of thoughts lies divinity. Worthiness. Love. That is where you will experience limitless, soulful, gratification. That is who you are.

The Aparigraha Project.

Spend less time listening to the media and more time focusing on the physical world around and within you. Become aware of self-depleting thoughts and face them head on. What is it that you're really searching for? Where is this wanting coming from? Meditate on this. Journal on this. Talk about this. By doing so, you'll begin to reprogram your mental structures that constantly leave you unsatisfied and grasping for more, and you'll inspire others to do the same.

Stay tuned for the continuation of our Understanding the Eight Limbs of Yoga series!