Niyama

Niyama (skt. नियम: niyama, "restraint", "observance", "rule", "restriction", (in abl.) "certainly", "necessarily") 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 Pāli the spelling niyāma is often used.