104 ■ FLOWis worth reviewing some of its highlights, because it corresponds in
several areas to what we know about the psychology of flow, and there
fore provides a useful model for anyone who wishes to be in better
charge of psychic energy. Nothing quite like Hatha Yoga has ever been
created in the West. The early monastic routines instituted by Saint
Benedict and Saint Dominick and especially the “spiritual exercises” of
Saint Ignatius of Loyola probably come the closest in offering a way to
control attention by developing mental and physical routines; but even
these fall far short of the rigorous discipline of Yoga.
In Sanskrit Yoga means “yoking,” which refers to the method’s
goal of joining the individual with God, first by uniting the various parts
of the body with one another, then making the body as a whole work
together with consciousness as part of an ordered system. To achieve
this aim, the basic text of Yoga, compiled by Patanjali about fifteen
hundred years ago, prescribes eight stages of increasing skills. The first
two stages of “ethical preparation” are intended to change a person’s
attitudes. We might say that they involve the “straightening out of
consciousness”; they attempt to reduce psychic entropy as much as
possible before the actual attempts at mental control begin. In practice,
the first step, yama, requires that one achieve “restraint” from acts and
thoughts that might harm others—falsehood, theft, lust, and avarice.
The second step, niyama, involves “obedience,” or the following of
ordered routines in cleanliness, study, and obedience to God, all of
which help to channel attention into predictable patterns, and hence
make attention easier to control.
The next two stages involve physical preparation, or development
of habits that will enable the practitioner—or yogin—to overcome the
demands of the senses, and make it possible for him to concentrate
without growing tired or distracted. The third stage consists in practic
ing various asana, ways of “sitting” or holding postures for long periods
without succumbing to strain or fatigue. This is the stage of Yoga that
we all know in the West, exemplified by a fellow in what looks like
diapers standing on his head with his shanks behind his neck. The
fourth stage is pranayama, or breath control, which aims to relax the
body, and stabilizes the rhythm of breathing.
The fifth stage, the hinge between the preparatory exercises and
the practice of Yoga proper, is called pratyahara (“withdrawal”). It in
volves learning to withdraw attention from outward objects by directing
the input of the senses—thus becoming able to see, hear, and feel only
what one wishes to admit into awareness. Already at this stage we see
how close the goal of Yoga is to that of the flow activities described in