pratyāhāra

withdrawal of the senses

Pratyahara is one of the eight limbs mentioned in the Yoga Sūtras, which points to its potency for introspection. We will dive deeper into this in the Philosophy section over time. However, the practice of pratyahara is beneficial, in numerous ways, when it comes to deepening your practice, hence we want to mention it here as well.

APPLIED IN ASANA PRACTICE
What happens when you apply a steady drishti - gaze - and focus solely on your breath and bandhas, is that you get internalized to the degree where you start perceiving beyond the senses. The method of tristhana facilitates the process of pratyahara, in the sense that it brings you deep inside. The reason why we want to move beyond the senses, is so that we can observe that which never changes. Our external stimuli and input will affect our mind and responses, but if we go beyond this stimuli we get to observe at depth That which remains untouched by the sensory input.

Our senses create the world as we know it, a reflection of how we perceive it. So to go beyond the sense organs and the content of stimuli, nurtures a relationship with That which is eternal, and already within us. Nothing external is needed, if we are truthful with ourselves. We have everything we need inside us already. Enlightenment is not something to achieve or acquire, but rather a re-membering and unveiling of that which holds us back from seeing what is already here. Pratyahara is a practice that can be applied consciously as we move through our practice. After a while it happens on its own, as we drop our guard and dive into the routine of going deep inside.

STILLNESS IN THE MIDST OF MOVEMENT
Just like many other things that we start paying attention to by consciously nurturing them first, pratyahara spills over into the rest of one’s life after a while. It all depends how much we give of ourselves to the practice for the seeds to germinate and start to grow in all meadows of life. However, it is possible to find oneself in the midst of activity all the while rooted in stillness. All spiritual practices are in a way preparing the soil for this to happen.