Lyrics

Before I learned to quiet my mind,
before I knew the names,
there was something in the way I lived
that practice had to change.

Not in reaching for perfection.
Not in leaving life behind.

But in how I meet another,
and what I choose to leave unkind.

Ahimsa in the open hand,
the strength to do no harm.
Satya in an honest word,
spoken with a softer heart.

Asteya in the space I leave
for what was never mine.
Brahmacharya in the way I spend
the energy of my life.

Aparigraha, loosen the hold
on everything that fades.
I thought the path began in silence,
but it begins in how I behave.

Not higher, not holier,
just more aware of what I choose.
Every step I take within
changes how I move toward you.

Eight steps home,
from the way I live to the way I see.
Through the body, through the breathing,
through the space inside of me.

Eight steps home,
not a road that leads away.
Every step is an invitation
to meet this life awake.

Not somewhere beyond the world,
not a place I have to find.
Eight steps home,
and the journey starts inside.

Saucha clears the crowded mirror.
Santosha lets enough be enough.
Tapas keeps a steady fire
when the road becomes too rough.

Svadhyaya turns the pages inward,
learning what the patterns show.
Ishvara pranidhana,
letting go of what I cannot own.

Then asana, a steady body,
sthira holding, sukha breathing.
Not a shape to make me worthy,
just a place to practise being.

From the choices to the body,
from the body to the breath.
What was once a distant teaching
finds a place in every step.

Eight steps home,
from the way I live to the way I see.
Through the body, through the breathing,
through the space inside of me.

Eight steps home,
not a road that leads away.
Every step is an invitation
to meet this life awake.

Not somewhere beyond the world,
not a place I have to find.
Eight steps home,
and the journey starts inside.

Pranayama, breath unfolding,
learning how the rhythm flows.
Pratyahara, senses settling,
less compelled by what they know.

Dharana, a single candle,
attention gathering in one place.
Dhyana, like a river flowing,
without the effort of the chase.

Samadhi, where the separation
between the seeing and the seen
grows quiet in the stillness,
beyond the need to name a thing.

I used to think awakening
would take me somewhere new.
Beyond the body, past the thinking,
far from everything I knew.

But practice brought me closer
to the life already here.
To the words I choose in anger,
to the things I hold in fear.

To the way I meet a stranger.
To the patience I can give.
To the quiet understanding
that the path is how I live.

Ahimsa — in the kindness.
Satya — in the truth.
Santosha — in the moment
when enough is enough.

Abhyasa — I return.
Vairagya — I release.

Not a life without its struggles,
but a different way to meet them.

Eight steps home,
from the way I live to the way I see.
Through the body, through the breathing,
through the space inside of me.

Eight steps home,
not a road that leads away.
Every step is an invitation
to meet this life awake.

Through the choices, through the silence,
through the things I cannot own.
Every step becomes the practice,
every step a way back home.

Eight limbs.
One practice.

Not eight ways to leave the world.

Eight ways
to meet it
more awake.