Niyama

Niyama (skt. नियम: niyama, "restraint", "observance", "rule", "restriction", (in abl.) "certainly", "necessarily"^[1]) generally denotes a duty or obligation adopted by a spiritual aspirant (or community of same), or prescribed by a guru or by scripture (notably, the niyamas of raja yoga). The semantic range above reflects the breadth of the term's application in practice, and in the Buddhist sense extends to the determinations of nature, as in the Buddhist niyama dhammas.

In Hinduism

In numerous scriptures including the Shandilya and Varuha Upanishads, Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Gorakshanatha, the Tirumantiram of Tirumular and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a set of prescribed actions are codified as niyamas, observances, requirements, obligations. In the above texts, these are ten in number, except in Patanjali's work, which lists only five.

The ten traditional Niyamas are:

1. Hri: remorse, being modest and showing shame for misdeeds;
2. Santosha: contentment; being satisfied with the resources at hand - therefore not desiring more;
3. Dana: giving, without thought of reward;
4. Astikya: faith, believing firmly in the teacher, the teachings and the path to enlightenment;
5. Ishvarapujana: worship of the Lord, the cultivation of devotion through daily worship and meditation, the return to the source;
6. Siddhanta shravana: scriptural listening, studying the teachings and listening to the wise of one's lineage;
7. Mati: cognition, developing a spiritual will and intellect with the guru's guidance;
8. Vrata: sacred vows, fulfilling religious vows, rules and observances faithfully;
9. Japa: recitation, chanting mantras daily;
10. Tapas: the endurance of the opposites; hunger and thirst, heat and cold, standing and sitting etc.

In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the Niyamas are the second limb of the eight limbs of Raja Yoga.
They are found in the Sadhana Pada Verse 32 as:

1. Shaucha: cleanliness of body and mind. in the traditional codification, this item is listed under Yamas; this word means purity.
2. Santosha: satisfaction; satisfied with what one has; contentment.
3. Tapas: austerity.
4. Svādhyāya: study of the Vedic scriptures to know more about God and the soul, which leads to introspection on a greater awakening to the soul and God within.
5. Ishvarapranidhana: surrender to (or worship of) God.

In Buddhism

In Buddhist commentarial texts (dating to about the 5th century CE) we find the pañcavidha niyama, fivefold niyama. It occurs three times: (i) in the Aṭṭhasālinī, the commentary attributed to Buddhaghosa on the Dhammasangaṅi, the first book of the Theravāda Abhidhamma Piṭaka;^[2] (ii) in the Sumaṅgala-Vilāsinī, Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the Dīgha Nikāya;^[3] (iii) in the Abhidhammāvatāra, a verse summary of Abhidhamma by Buddhaghosa’s contemporary, Buddhadatta.^[4]

1. kammaniyāma “the order of kamma”, i.e. good actions produce good results and bad actions produce bad results;
2. utu-niyāma “the order of the seasons”, i.e. in certain regions of the earth at certain periods the flowering and fruiting of trees, the blowing or ceasing of wind, the degree of the heat of the sun, the amount of rain-fall, some flowers like the lotuses opening during the day and closing at night and so on;
3. bīja-niyāma “the order of seeds or germs”, i.e. a seed producing its own kind as barley seed produces barley;
4. citta-niyāma “the order of mind”, i.e. the order of the process of mind-activities as the preceding thought-moment causing and conditioning the succeeding one in a cause and effect relation;
5. dhamma-niyāma “the order of dhamma”, i.e. such events like the quaking of the ten thousand world-systems at the Bodhisatta’s conception in his mother’s womb and at his birth. At the end of the discussion the Commentary decides that in this case the dhammatā refers to dhammaniyāma.’

In these texts the fivefold niyama was introduced into commentarial discussions not to illustrate that the universe was intrinsically ethical but as a list that demonstrated the universal scope of paṭicca-samuppāda. The original purpose of expounding fivefold niyama was, according to Ledi Sayadaw, neither to promote or to demote the law of karma, but to show the scope of natural law as an alternative to the claims of theism.^[5]

C.A.F. Rhys Davids was the first western scholar to draw attention to the list of pañcavidha niyama, in her little book of 1912 entitled simply Buddhism. Her reason for mentioning it was to emphasise how for Buddhism we exist in a "moral universe" in which actions lead to just consequences according to a natural moral order, a situation she calls a "cosmodicy" in contrast with the Christian theodicy.:^[6][7]

In Mrs Rhys Davids scheme the niyamas become:

• kamma niyama: ("action") consequences of one's actions
• utu niyama: ("time, season") seasonal changes and climate, law of non-living matter
• bīja niyama: ("seed") laws of heredity
• citta niyama:("mind") will of mind
• dhamma niyama: ("law") nature's tendency to perfect

This is similar to the scheme proposed by Ledi Sayadaw.^[8] Western Buddhist Sangharakshita has taken up Mrs Rhys Davids conception of the niyamas and made it an important aspect of his own teachings on Buddhism. ^[9]

See also: Karma in Buddhism

References

External links

Hindu

• Yama and Niyama, by Yogacharya
• Foundations of Yoga Analysis of Patanjali's Yama and Niyama
• Yama and Niyama Comments on the Patanjali’s Scheme.

Buddhist

• The Niyama-Dipani: The Manual of Cosmic Order. by Ledi Sayadaw
• The ‘Five Niyamas’, Sangharakshita, and the Problem of Karma. by Dharmacārī Dhīvan