Yoga is a wonderful form of exercise to help tone your body and improve your strength. However, the thing that sets yoga apart from other forms of exercise is the spiritual aspect that comes with it.
While it is possible to practice yoga from a purely physical point of view, there is much to be gained from the spiritual teachings it has to offer. In this article, we are going to look at the 7 spiritual teachings of yoga and how they can help you to improve your life and mental well-being.
Law Of Pure Potentiality
The first spiritual teaching of yoga is the law of pure potentiality. This law states that the core of our being is pure consciousness or awareness. This area of pure awareness is a place of all possibilities or potential. It is also the area that underlies all creativity that we possess.
Pure awareness in yoga teachings is considered to be our spiritual essence and the source from which all the joy in our lives stems. The pure potentiality at our core is where our intuition, balance, bliss, and harmony reside.
If you are looking to be more in touch with these aspects of your spirituality, focusing your yoga practice on the law of pure potentiality is a great way to increase your inner awareness.
Law Of Karma
Karma is a term that you are probably quite familiar with. The law of karma is a teaching that focuses on the law of cause and effect. This means that every act of volition creates a certain result in the universe. The result is directly related to the original act in terms of intent and impact.
The general basis of this teaching is that the motivation of our acts plant seeds. For example, actions that are motivated by hatred, delusion, or greed, we are putting suffering out into the universe. However, when our actions are motivated by love, generosity, kindness, or wisdom, we are putting abundance and happiness into the world.
With the law of karma in yoga, we are taught that the things that we put out into the world through our actions and motivations are the things that we are going to get back.
Karma isn’t always instant but it will always repay us in kind. Therefore, it is important to make sure that all of your actions are backed by good motivations.
Law Of Giving And Receiving
Keeping focus on the universe outside of ourselves is the law of giving and receiving. This law refers to the constant flow and exchange of universal energy. The basic premise of this teaching is that in order to expand or multiply the things that you want in life, you need to give them to others.
This is a teaching that many people struggle with in their yoga practice. The idea of giving something away to make more of it can seem counterintuitive to many people, the more you give away, the less you have. However, when viewed through the lens of a universe in which the law of karma exists, it makes more sense.
When you are focused on being generous to people around you, giving other people the love that you want, the help that you want, or the support that you want, these things will come back to you in abundance. This teaching, along with the law or karma, is a lesson in trusting the universe and having faith in the teachings of yoga.
Law Of Least Effort
The law of least effort is a teaching that is focused on our attitude to the world around us and the events that happen in our lives. There are three main actions that can help us bring this law into our lives and benefit from it.
The first action is to practice total acceptance. When we forego the act of mentally resisting unwanted factors and events in our lives we can move through life much easier.
For example, if you are unhappy with your body, job, relationships, or life situation, learning to accept these things completely as facts of your life as it is can help you to move past them. Rather than focusing on your dislike of these factors, you can focus on changing them.
The second action is to take responsibility. This should be applied to all of the choices that you have made throughout your life. Part of accepting the unwanted parts of your life is accepting responsibility for them being there. This can help you to make changes and move through life more easily.
The final action of this teaching is to be defenseless. This means that you shouldn’t rise to arguments to prove a point or convince someone that you are right. Instead, be open to others points of view and learn to truly listen.
All of this will help you to move through life with much less stress and less conflict. This can also be described as being easy going.
Law Of Intention And Desire
The law of intention and desire is a teaching of yoga that refers to the idea that every intention or desire that you have contains the mechanics needed to fulfill it. This is a very internal act that involves the area of pure potentiality.
The teaching states that when you are quiet and still and purposefully introduce your intentions into the field of pure potentiality, you can harness the infinite organization of the universe. This allows the universe to manifest your desires easily by using the tools that are contained within the desires.
A simpler explanation of this teaching is that you already have the tools necessary to achieve your desires and by sending them to the universe through quiet contemplation or meditation, you can bring those tools into focus and make use of them.
Law Of Dharma
The word Dharma refers to your purpose in life. The law of Dharma states that everyone has a purpose in life or a Dharma. This teaching encourages you to express your unique talents and use them to help or serve others. When you do this you will receive abundance, love, and true fulfillment in your life.
With this teaching, your unique talent refers to anything that you can do that can help or serve others in some way. The way in which you can help others is your true purpose in life.
Law Of Detachment
The law of detachment is very similar to the law of least effort and is a teaching that can help you in similar ways. The teaching basically says that, on a spiritual level, everything will always unfold perfectly. In other words, everything will work out in the end.
The idea is that, if you know that the universe and your spirituality are in sync, there is no need to struggle or force certain situations or opportunities to go a certain way. Instead, you can sit back and trust that the universe will work things out the way that they should be. This leads you to a much more spontaneous and easy going life with much less stress.
Essentially, detaching from your expectations of when and how you should do things in your life and placing trust in the universe will help you to live a much happier, more fulfilled life.
Final Thoughts
The seven spiritual teachings of yoga are incredibly profound and when they are taken to heart and practiced regularly alongside your physical yoga practice they can have a significant impact on your life. Adopting the teachings of yoga into your daily life is a great way to remove stress from your life and achieve your goals more easily.
Frequently Asked Questions
We have often talked about the physical benefits that you can get from regular yoga practice.
However, there are also plenty of spiritual benefits that you can get too. The spiritual benefits stem from the teachings of yoga that are separate from the physical practice.
When you subscribe to the teachings and laws of yoga, you can experience significantly less stress in your life. This is because you learn to let go of attitudes and mental blocks that are causing you to resist what the universe has in store for you.
You can also bring your goals and desires to fruition through your intentions and actions. By putting positive energy out into the world or the universe, you will get the same energy back in abundance.
There are so many ways that you can learn more about the spiritual teachings of yoga. There is plenty of literature available that talks about the spiritual side of yoga.
Some of these books are written by prominent gurus such as Deepak Chopra and Paramahansa Yogananda. There are also plenty of retreats, classes, and webinars that you can attend to improve your understanding of the spiritual side of yoga.
I created this website to help newcomers to yoga and enthusiasts alike, and to share our common passions for yoga.
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