There’s a version of yoga instruction that goes like this: master the ethics first, then the postures, then the breath, then the senses, then the concentration, then the meditation, then the union. Eight rungs. Bottom to top. Do the lower ones right and eventually you earn the higher ones. Most people have heard some version of this. Most people implicitly believe it. And it produces a specific, persistent problem: students spend years waiting to be advanced enough to access the states that practice is supposed to generate. They’re waiting to meditate until they’re good enough at asana. Waiting for sustained concentration until they’ve mastered breath. Waiting for presence until they’ve fixed their ethics. The ladder frames the higher limbs as rewards for the lower ones….