Collective Application of the Yamas and Niyamas as a Call to Social Justice Action | Christiane Brems, PhD, C-IAYT

Collective Application of the Yamas and Niyamas as a Call to Social Justice Action

Speaker bio: Christiane Brems, PhD, C-IAYT

This session offers a collective understanding of the yamas (wise restraints), using this societal application as a collective call to social justice action and reflective, intentional, and disciplined engagement (guided by the niyamas, or personal observances). We will discuss expressions or omissions of the yamas’ social ethics of ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, and aparigraha. For example, when collectively expressed, ahimsa refers to a commitment to equity and nonharming in the form of equal human rights and access to services and goods that support health, well-being, food and shelter, and opportunity.

Nonviolence does not mean sitting idly by when we witness injustice. Quite the opposite, it means consciously recognizing violence in our communities and feeling personally responsible for helping to challenge and resolve it. It means speaking up in the face of harm, not by swinging an axe against the individual who is violent, but by entering into a dialogue with a heart of peacefulness, inquisitiveness, and openness. The niyamas come into the conversation as life commitments and disciplined action that further move us toward taking responsibility for the greater good, for taking intentional and compassionate action.

The practice offered to precede this discussion involves a guided meditation on our individual biopsychosociocultural contexts to begin to appreciate how these contexts have uniquely shaped, supported, nurtured, and perhaps failed us. We will conclude this meditative exploration with a reflection on our personal reverberations back into our collective, with a lens on how we apply our existential imperative to contribute to the greater good through dedicated practice on and off the mat.