The eight limbs of yoga are outlined in the book by Deborah Adele The Yamas and NiYamas. They are taken from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. There are many Sutras close to 200 but the Yamas and NiYamas are thought to be "the good stuff".
I have heard the Yamas and NiYamas referred to as the "Heart of the Yoga Sutras". As there are other sutras but the Yamas and NiYamas are a "basics" for yogis.
I was so pleasantly surprised reading about the Eight Limbs of yoga. I expected some very harsh rigid rules and I know from much of my experience with religions that hard rules are just hard for me.
I think we are all human and we mess up the rules from time to time.
What I feel when reading about the Yamas and NiYamas is that these "Yoga Rules" come from a place of understanding and love rather than a place of dictatorship or force.
The point of the Yamas and NiYamas is to create deeper love, compassion, and connection within ourselves and others. To create deeper understanding in ourselves and in others. To have a gentle outline to "check ourselves" through life and to eventually created deep love and unity in ourselves and with others.
To me the we can compare ourselves to a machine. A machine needs certain things to run with integrity and to keep its integrity over the years of use and experience. Our mind and bodies need the same kind of up keep as a machine. If we will care for our internal self and external self we will have a machine and or body/mind that is able to run consistently and with integrity because we have properly care for our machine that is our self.
Not only do we care for this machine, say were a car, but we pimp it out (ha!). Like a car, we could add rims, tinted windows, and maybe a sweet bass system.
In our bodies and soul we can "pimp our rides"(am I really typing this?) by using the limbs of yoga to deepen our understanding of life through practice and meditation. If we stay consistent with these practices our machine will be better than just up-kept but we will have pimped out the body and mind so that we have lived this life not just staying the same but transforming our souls using the tools which are the limbs of yoga to grow, develop and learn.
At the end of life like a car that has earned its historical plates we will have learned/earned/ or allowed for Samadhi which is our ultimate goal of love for self and others creating unity as yogis.
