Downward Facing Blog

Bring the mind home to yourself with the simple, yet often overlooked process of Pratyahara

The fifth aspect of the eight-fold path of yoga, Pratyahara is considered by many great teachers to be the most important of them all. Pratyahara is the yogic technique to stop the outgoing movement of mind and bring it home, inside to your true self. Sleep is a kind of pratyahara for example, and so are fasts of any kind, including ones you do from food and from stimulation.

Pratyahara is composed of two words: Prati- which means “in reverse, or against” and ahara which refers to “intake”, such as food. So a simple translation is “to go without food”. Food here means any intake, both physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Healing of the mind and body always entails a kind of rest, returning to the natural silence within. Healing begins with withdrawing from wrong intake (food, impressions) and opening up to the right input. We are taught to always engage with the outside, so it can be a surprise to come home and meet yourself. It always leads to greater peace and harmony and is of course, preparation for meditation.

The process of moving the mind inwards has an external aspect and an internal aspect: externally, you physically close the eyes or do certain mudras to externally shut off the five senses. Then you begin the internal process of withdrawing your prana into yourself and away from the gross five senses. There are a number of techniques to practice pratyahara, one delightful and easy one being “Shambhavi Mudra” which was posted a few days ago.

There are four main ways to practice pratyahara:

Sensory – You can practice this in four ways;

1) depriving the mind of sensations- Use Shambhavi Mudra or Shanmukhi Mudra and making the mind blank. See this post for instructions on Shambhavi Mudra.

2) focusing on uniform sensations- Another way to cleanse the mind and control the senses is to put your attention on a source of uniform impressions, such as gazing at the ocean or a clear blue sky. Just as the digestive system can benefit from going on a mono diet, your mind should go on a mental diet -which is a period of natural and homogeneous impressions.

3) creating sacred atmosphere- This is to deliberately meditate upon devotional images such as deities or even nature. This can be done by going to a temple or arranging one’s home and workplace in a sacred way.

4) create inner impressions- ultimately all devotional yoga can be performed inside the imagination, such as the way the Tibetans visualize deities in their meditation practices

Karmic – In the same way that the Bhagavad Gita advocates “your duty is to act, not to seek reward for what you do”, yogic advice is to detach from the results of your actions. While difficult to do, this always leads to better results. Think of someone doing their work because they just love what they do as opposed to working strictly for the money. Do your work and let the results follow naturally.

Pranic – Through the practice of pranayama we can gain Prana Siddhi, which means the ability to control the inner flow of prana. From this you can learn to move the energy within your body away from the senses and to certain points internally. Ramana Maharishi, (pictured above) a great saint in the yoga tradition achieved enlightenment by visualizing the death process, in which the prana withdraws from the body. He would visualize his body as dead, withdrawing his prana into the mind and then the mind into the heart. Try this the next time you practice Savasana.

Mental – The most difficult of all, is to rein in the mind from the five senses. The Yoga Sutras II:54 says: “When the senses do not conform with their own external objects but imitate the nature of the mind, that is Pratyahara”. What this means is, the mind takes the shape of whatever it is focused upon. Notice that as you read these words on the screen, you become the screen on some level. The person doing the observation is lost and the only thing present within the mind is the object which we look at. Notice it for yourself!
Pay attention to what has a mental hold over you and why: Sex? Gadgets? Food? Whatever it is, pay attention to where the mind flows to and why. Then, practice pulling the mind back and giving yourself a bit of equanimity.

As stated in the beginning, pratyahara is considered by many important yoga teachers to be one of the most important aspects of attaining success in yoga. It also helps the mind and body to heal. Practice not speaking for a period of time to see how this impacts you. This is a good place to experience pratyahara! OM

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