In part I of this article we talked about steps one through four of the eight fold path. In this article, we get to the more meditative, mental side of the yogic path and a suggestion of how we can use this path in our daily lives.

Steps five thru eight: Mental Discipline

Part five of the eight-fold path begins the deeper side of yoga, which is meditation and strengthening of the mind. Where the first two parts were about our conduct toward ourselves and others, they mostly address our material beings and daily, superficial interactions. Then, with steps three and four, we learned how to prepare our bodies for union through practicing yoga postures and increasing in the discipline of breath control.

In the next four steps, it becomes even more clear that this path is a whole, and not to be taken in parts. This is a life philosophy. Yoga, itself, is not a religion, but it is a spiritual path, or a way of encountering the divine.

Yoga means union. The way to union, in Yoga, is to bring the mental states under complete control. So, like a stronger form of breath control, or pranayama, pratyahara, step five, asks us to harness the senses so that we go inward to avoid distractions from smell, hearing, sight, etc. This is difficult and only comes through practice and concentration, or dharana, step six on the path.

Dharana is one-pointedness, channeling all of the mind's attention to one thing, shutting out everything else. Often the object of focus is the breath, but it can be a flame, any object, a mandala or the tip of the nose.

One pointedness, achieved, leads to dhyana, meditation, the seventh part of the eightfold path. In Meditation, we no longer need an object to hold the mind steady, silent and focused. The quieted, disciplined mind then produces unity.

Finally, at the highest level, mastery of the mind leads to samadhi: Oneness, or unity with the divine. Out of it comes sustained concentration, extreme clarity and total freedom from ego, desire, and kama (karma). All the channels in the mind and body are purified. Ignorance is gone and clear-seeing is attained.

Using the Eight-fold Path

Following one portion of the path may lead to another, but no point on the path is more important. A vigilant meditator would find it hard to concentrate if he or she was in poor health, or suffered guilt from treating others poorly; without asana, we miss an opportunity to train our minds and bodies to remain still, comfortable and focused; without practicing one-pointedness, meditation and discipline are not possible.

Many of us work with only asana, while some use asana and pranayama regularly. What if we let the other points on the path deepen our practice and thinking? We can work to slowly identify where we might bring more of the path into our daily lives, for instance, by setting time aside for simple meditations.

This doesn't mean we become strict religious Yogis, it simply means we can take Yoga from our mat into the world with us and let its ancient wisdom guide us toward ourselves and our dealings with people. This could be a wonderful way to start improving ourselves and helping those around us, without getting stuck in religious dogma, or using our beliefs to judge or try to change others.

After all, the eightfold path is a product of a certain time and a certain culture. It is not meant to be a definitive guide to life and morality, and I suggest not using it as such. Instead, we can let it be a part of a more complex, unified way of seeing and acting in the world around us. It is another lens through which to view and improve ourselves; a path to truth, and not the truth.