What the Yoga Sutras say about the body

Patanjali's yoga has eight limbs and posture is only one of them. He spends three lines on it, names no poses, and gives no alignment cues. What he does say about the body is harder than a pose list, because it applies to every position you are ever in. Here are eight concepts from the Yoga Sutras that concern the body, each with the sutra it comes from.

Sthira Sukham Asanam — The Definition of Asana

A posture, by Patanjali's definition, is whatever is steady and comfortable at the same time. A difficult shape held with strain does not qualify; a plain seat held with ease does.

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Prayatna Shaithilya — Effortless Effort in Asana

The method given for posture is the loosening of effort, not the addition of it. Force applied to the body creates the tension that keeps the posture out of reach.

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Ananta Samapatti — Absorption in the Infinite for Mastering Asana

The same line adds a second method: absorption in the infinite. A body felt as a bounded object strains against its limits, while attention rested in something boundless stops supplying the resistance.

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Sthite Dvandva Anabhighatah — Invulnerability to the Pairs of Opposites

The stated fruit of a mastered seat is that the pairs of opposites stop knocking you about: heat and cold, pleasure and pain. Physical steadiness is being trained here for its emotional use.

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Tapas — The Fire of Purification and the Perfection of Body

Tapas is disciplined heat, and its result is named as the refining of body and senses through the burning off of impurity. Willing discomfort is treated as a practice, not as punishment.

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Saucha — Purity of Body and Mind

Cleanliness is the first of the personal observances. One of the fruits Patanjali names is unexpected: a cooling of attachment to your own body, as it comes to be seen as a composite and temporary thing.

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Brahmacharya — The Conservation and Elevation of Vital Energy

Brahmacharya is restraint of the energy spent through the senses, and vigour is what the text says comes back. It is classically read as celibacy; the principle underneath it is conservation.

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Abhinivesha — The Fear of Death and Clinging to Life

Clinging to life is named as one of the five root afflictions, and the text says it holds even in the learned. It is the body's most stubborn claim on you, and agreeing that death is certain does not dislodge it.

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Two of these pull in different directions. Tapas is said to perfect the body and the senses, while cleanliness is said to loosen your attachment to the body altogether. The text keeps both without resolving them, which leaves the practice looking like this: look after the instrument, without mistaking it for yourself.