Yoga On Yoga Project Methodology

Project Goals

The Yoga on Yoga project provides objective analysis of class materials, publications, and publicly reported information on yoga, mindfullness, and meditation teachings based on the indigenous source material they purport to be drawn from. By employing agentic AI we sidestep preconceived notions from colonialism to wokeness. The only criteria used to evaluate teaching lineages are the universally offered and public domain indigenous teachings that all later iterations should be measured against. Once completed, seekers can use the evaluations however they choose.

Evaluations do not judge the fitness, safety, legality, morality, or authenticity of any of the lineages included in the index. We make no original claims, and all of our source materials will be made available here on the website.

The Evaluation Criteria: Patanjali's Yamas & Niyamas

The Yamas and Niyamas are foundational ethical codes whose roots predate the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, with significant forerunners appearing in early Jain scriptures like the Ācārānga Sūtra (c. 350 BCE) and the Mahābhārata. While Patañjali’s fivefold classification is the most recognized in modern contexts, a tenfold classification for both Yamas and Niyamas was historically more common across a wide range of later Sanskrit literature. Although these ethical restraints were frequently omitted from the formal auxiliary lists of early Tantric and Hatha Yoga systems—which often favored a sixfold path beginning with physical techniques—moral conduct remained a mandatory prerequisite to ensure the practitioner became a purified vessel capable of reflecting spiritual light. In the evolution of modern lineages, these precepts function as a strategic moral infrastructure, designed to attenuate the five afflictions (kleśas) and stabilize the internal state for the successful practice of meditation and absorption.

Yamas (Bans)

• Ahiṁsā अहिंसा: Non-violence, non-killing, non-injury. Never causing harm in any way to any creature at any time through action or inaction. It is the foundational vow; all other rules and observances are rooted in it and practiced to perfect it.
  A lineage fails this value if it normalizes suffering as purification or karma, or uses fear and pain as tools of control.
• Satya सत्य: Truthfulness, realism, authenticity. Speech and mind must conform to reality. Speech should be used to benefit all beings, not to injure them. If truth is spoken solely to harm, it not virtuous.
  A lineage fails this value if it spreads misinformation, engages in false claims, or fails to clearly distinguish between scripture, innovation, and marketing.
• Asteya अस्तेय: Non-stealing, refraining from theft. The rejection of unlawfully taking possessions from others. It is an internal state of desirelessness.
  A lineage fails this value if it extracts South Asian technology while erasing the people who preserved them or presents inherited teachings as personal discoveries. It also prohibits stealing intellectual pride through uninspired book learning.
• Brahmacarya ब्रह्मचर्य: Continence, chastity, sexual non-expressiveness. The restraint of the "hidden organ" (the genitals).
  A lineage fails this value if it sexualizes bodies or frames sexual access to a teacher as initiation or grace. It represents the strategic management of life force (vīrya) to build internal stability.
• Aparigraha अपरिग्रह: Non-possessiveness, non-greed, non-receiving. Refraining from acquiring sensory objects due to seeing the inherent faults in possessing, protecting, and losing them.
  A lineage fails this value if it develops proprietary versions of traditional practices, including redefining key Sanskrit terms or esoteric cues.

Niyamas (Habits)

• Śauca शौच: Cleanliness, internal and external purification. External purity is achieved through water and earth; internal purity involves cleansing the mind of impurities.
  A lineage possesses this value if it keeps its spaces physically and ethically clean and does not use ritual purity to shame marginalized bodies.
• Saṅtoṣa संतोष: Contentment. Not desiring to acquire more than the means at one's disposal; being at peace with one's lot.
  A lineage fails this value if it exploits practitioners' insecurities to sell enlightenment or creates feelings of spiritual inadequacy to market products.
• Tapas तपस्: Austerity, self-discipline, rigor. The ability to endure extremes (hunger/thirst, heat/cold, silence) to destroy impurities and perfect the body and senses.
  A lineage possesses this value if it values discipline without cruelty and does not glorify burnout, starvation, or deprivation.
• Svādhyāya स्वाध्याय: Self-study, recitation of sacred texts. The study of scriptures concerning liberation or the repetition of the sacred syllable Om.
  A lineage possesses this value if it encourages the study of history and commentary and does not replace self-inquiry with blind loyalty.
• Īśvarapraṇidhāna ईश्वरप्रणिधान: Surrender to the a higher power, devotion to a higher power. Offering up all actions to a higher power or renouncing the fruits of one's labor.
  A lineage possesses this value if it remembers that surrender to the Divine is not surrender to abuse and respects all religions.