Foundations · Reading
Ahimsa
Non-harming, the first yama.
Awaiting subject reviewWritten from our source material and not yet checked by a teacher of this practice. Read it as reference, and learn the practice from someone who teaches it.
Philosophy
Ahimsa is the first yama. It asks that we cause no harm in action, in speech or in thought. The commentaries treat it as the root of all the yamas.
Patanjali says that when ahimsa is established, hostility falls away in the presence of the one who keeps it. In practice it begins close to home: the breath that is not forced, the pose that is not pushed, the voice that does not wound.
Further reading
- Yoga Sutras 2.30
- Yoga Sutras 2.35
Ideas behind it
Sources and tradition
- YOG Union App Content Map, 2 November 2026, pp. 2–3
- Patanjali, Yoga Sutras, 2.30, 2.35