Compassion is the cornerstone principle in all of yoga. Even though the principles of presence and focus appear first in the Sutra, if you don’t have compassion for yourself and others, the integration of presence and focus will be incomplete.
Compassion is a principle that we must apply to ourselves and with others. It might be easier to be kind to others and more challenging to exercise kindness toward yourself. We need both because we all know that you can’t truly be kind to others if you’re unable to be kind to yourself first.
There is more to compassion than just kindness. This principle also relies on empathy, listening, and being considerate of differences. You might think you’re being nice, but if your world-view is one in which everyone must be just like you it will be impossible to offer compassion to those who have different beliefs. Cultivating compassion requires several other principles: faith, possibility, and potential.
My own journey cultivating compassion
I was not always the most compassionate person in the world. In fact, I still feel I have a long way to go in truly integrating this principle in my everyday life. I was incredibly fortunate to grow up in a very loving, kind family but my family was also very suspicious of people who were not like them. For example, my parents could never understand why neighbors wouldn’t take care of their lawns. This seems like such a minor detail, but much later in life I was able to parse this sentiment out. My parents had the financial means and time to take care of their lawn or pay others to do it. The outward appearance of their house was very important to them because it was important to take pride in where they lived. And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, it ignores the fact that many people without means don’t have the time or resources to take care of the exterior of their home. That doesn’t make someone lazy or wrong and it doesn’t even mean people don’t want to take pride in their home. It just means they have other things to worry about, like putting food on the table.
It took me a long time to get to the point where I could start to view the world (and others) with more compassion. It took me moving away from my family and community for college and immersing myself in a completely new place and culture. It took me leaving the United States several times to see how other parts of the world live. It took me seeing the world and finally figuring out that there was no such thing as “perfect” even though I somehow always though the adult world was just that (yes, I was very disappointed when I entered adulthood).
After starting my yoga practice, I quickly learned I needed more compassion. It was not innate in me. I picked up books on accessing more of my heart, and while they helped somewhat, it was hard to find much information about developing compassion that didn’t quickly veer off into what I sometimes call airy-fairy land. I’m a pretty practical person and, while I can appreciate the magic and mystery of the energetic world, I’m also very skeptical of these practices. For example, I intellectually understand the power of reiki, but for the life of me I just can’t get into it. There’s some major energetic blockage deep within me that just doesn’t allow me to believe. I’m sure it would help if I got on a reiki table and let someone work that energy blockage out of me but I just can’t bring myself to do it yet. Point being, so much of the work on developing compassion relies on getting in tune with your inner energy and that was, and remains, a challenging practice for me. I’ve also learned over the years that the more something challenges me, the more I need to lean into it.
For me the path toward compassion has been long and slow. It’s been a practice of gradual softening and letting go. Letting go of old belief patterns that I’d adopted but were never mine. Letting go of old desires that no longer fit in my life path. Letting go of the need to be perfect, to be seen as perfect, and to control everything in my life. Funnily enough, the practice that has taught me how to do this more than anything else is the practice of being in relationship. My relationship with my husband, my child, my parents, my friends, my colleagues, my students, my teachers. Being in relationship with others has taught me how to open up to my own heart and cultivate more compassion. I thought I had to cultivate it first and then go out into the world and live. But it’s the opposite. I had to live to cultivate more compassion.
The Sutra
Ahimsa, the first Yama, is a Sanskrit word commonly translated as non-violence. But I prefer the translation of compassion. One of the reasons why the Yamas can be hard to integrate into daily life is because of the negative orientation of many translations. You’ll often get a higher success rate when you tell people to be compassionate rather than telling them to be non-violent.
After Patanjali introduces the Yamas and Niyamas in the Yoga Sutra, he goes on to give examples for when we can know that we are progressing in our practice of each principle. I’ve included several translation below to give you a feel for the nuances of the different translations of sutra 2.35, which speaks to how you benefit from cultivating compassion.
Sutra 2.35 reads:
“The more considerate one is, the more one stimulates friendly feelings among all in one’s presence.”
Desikachar
“When (the yogi has) firmly established (in himself the principle of) non-violence; in his presence (there accrues a natural) loss of enmity (from the minds of others).”
Arya
“Abstinence from killing being confirmed, there is suspension of antipathy in the presence of him (who has acquired the virtue).”
Dvivedi
“As a Yogi becomes firmly grounded in non-injury (ahimsa), other people who come near will naturally lose any feelings of hostility.”
Jnaneshvara
“In the presence of one firmly established in non-violence, all hostilities cease.”
Satchidananda
“When you live from the seat of compassion, all hostility towards you disappears.”
Ashley Zuberi
The first time I read this sutra I was a bit confused because it seems so obvious and basic. (I thought the Sutra was supposed to be a repository of deep wisdom).
The way I understand sutra 2.35 in its most basic translation is as follows: if you are not mean to other people, they won’t have any reason to be mean to you…Duh. Don’t we learn this in Kindergarten? And yet, here we are today in 2021 witness to grown adults killing others daily across the world. This basic wisdom, no matter how basic it seems, serves as a great reminder to us.
You might recognize this wisdom from somewhere else too.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Matthew 7:12
Or, in plain English for 3-year olds:
“BE NICE!”
Most mothers everywhere
The subtleties of compassion
There is something deeper implied in sutra 2.35 though.
If this sutra is meant to be a measurement from which one can gauge his or her progress in implementing compassion, then recognizing when others are kind to you can help you track your progress. But it’s not about whether Jack and Jill were nice to you today — it’s about whether or not you deserved their kindness!
When we are compassionate with others on a daily basis we sow seeds of compassion rather than enmity. This comes back to us in the form of others feeling safe and kind in our presence. This is basic psychology/neuroscience. When you feel unsafe, you are more concerned about survival and you will do anything, including mean and violent things, to survive. But when someone in your presence is exuding compassion and you feel completely safe, it’s much, much harder to be mean and hurtful.
There is magic in compassion. Exhibiting it transforms those around you. If you approach a person or situation with the intention of compassion, if you are ready to listen and empathize, if you are open and transparent and ready to give, then the person you are in relationship with will equally be transformed on a subtle, energetic level and reciprocate (eventually).
Integrate
One of the many reasons why the Yoga Sutra is so powerful is because it was written to be distributed to the masses. It was written as a distillation of the varied and disparate yoga practices that existed at the time, thousands of years ago. It was perhaps Patanjali’s intent to codify and simplify the practices of yoga so that the layman could practice too. Throughout its history up until the point of the Sutra being written, Yoga was mostly a practice reserved for the elite. (For more information about the history of the Sutra, I suggest reading Georg Feuerstein’s The Yoga Tradition).
To bring the practices of yoga to the masses, Patanjali not only had the task of curating, synthesizing, and distilling practices from many lineages but also he had to make them relevant to his audience — a group of people potentially unfamiliar with the ways of yoga and potentially without easy access to a teacher (hence the purpose of the Sutra in the first place).
This better explains why the Yamas come first in the 8 limbs. The Yamas are the pre-pre-work and the Niyamas are the pre-work before you get to asana. These ethical guidelines, like compassion, set the foundation for how you approach everything in life.
Working with the yamas and niyamas are like building any new skill. Take music for example. First you must learn to play the basic scales. Then you need to learn how to read music. Then the fun begins as you learn the nuances and details of performing a song and creating your own music. The same is true for writing. First you must learn to write the letters, then you must learn the grammatical rules that allow you to write sentences, and then you can start constructing a story. In yoga, you must learn the principles first. Then you can have fun with the poses, the breathing, meditation, and all the techniques. Then you can truly live well.
The easiest way to integrate compassion into your life is to infuse it into all your practices. Practice compassion when you move on the mat. Practice compassion when you make a mistake. Practice compassion when you meet new people, see someone struggling, or get triggered by a colleague at work.
As yoga teachers, we can use compassion and all the yamas and niyamas as springboards from which to sequence our yoga asana classes. For ahimsa specifically, focus on giving people experiences to be in relationship with themselves and with others. Give students new, but safe and supportive, things to do in class as a way to get to know their bodies, minds, and Selves better. Offer techniques from a different lineage, fresh viewpoints on a current event, or examples from your personal life about how you practice compassion.
There is no perfect way to practice compassion. You just have to try.
Put compassion in action
Here are some things you can do right now to practice compassion in your life, in your practice, and in your teaching.
- To bring the practice of compassion into your daily life try active listening. Active listening means you are not constantly thinking about what you’re going to say next in a conversation. Instead, you are present with what someone is saying. Bringing awareness to how it feels to have your feet on the ground can help you stay present in the moment.
- Are you ready and open to experience vulnerability and discomfort? Are you willing to be present with discomfort? It is from this place of confidence in your Self where you can create strong boundaries and safe spaces for others to experience the same. The only way to practice this is to constantly put yourself in uncomfortable (but safe and supportive) situations where you can experience and reflect upon your discomfort. Go learn something new today. Try a new route to work. It’s okay if you get lost! Talk to a stranger on the street. Challenge yourself to be a little uncomfortable and see how you handle it. If it’s scare and it doesn’t go well, you have the tools to bring your nervous system back down (breathe!).
- Do you try to understand all sides of a story? Are you putting yourself in the shoes of the person you’re in relationship with? Compassion builds from understanding and understanding requires you to open your eyes, mind, and heart to different truths. Take a class in a different lineage. Read a book from an author who has different viewpoints than you. Watch a different news channel. Talk to someone who you know has different beliefs than you. Try to build broader understanding rather than staying trapped in your own bubble.
What are your favorite ways to practice compassion in your life? How do you bring this skill with you wherever you go? Spend some time reflecting on compassion and then make a pact with yourself to implement one of the action steps above today!
Namaste!
