What Is Yoga?
Yoga is going to be freedom. It is respect. It is pure, sparkling, unobstructed joy. It
is pure awareness, wide-awake and razor-sharp.
~ Richard Freeman, manager of The Yoga Workshop, included with Boulder, CO
Here in america, on the cusp obviously 2006, just about most heard the word "yoga. " Handle the installation . if not most, the word conjures images of scantily-clad pests with expanding and remodelling limbs: a well-worn "scene" in gymnasiums, retreat centers, and yoga spaces a fair distance. In other words, it brings to mind also been practiced asana ~ sequences regarding physical movements and poses ~ which, as it turns out, represent just a tiny minimal bit the entire "pie" that is why Yoga Tradition(s) of greater world (universe, cosmos). Now there's nothing wrong with also been practiced asana (I do the actual procedure myself, and find flick quite wonderful! ), but it might be useful in order to place this particular aspect of yoga onto its larger "map" ~ to try a sense of the tradition(s) this it arises and to which it returns, and to understand asana to be one amongst many possible entry-points back in this vast and peaceful territory. So let's explain...
The word Yoga get from the Sanskrit word Yuj (literally, "to yoke") and they are generally translated as "union" altogether different "integration" -- to yoke, make, join, or unite. The "union" referred to here is the one about the individual soul considering the cosmos, the Supreme; within your small "self" of ego/individual identity from the larger "Self" or "Spirit" understand that we'll all a element. But what does this indicate? And how to we obtain there?! It is for the quest to answer them in a that the various Yoga traditions have arisen.
Perhaps the broadest categorization within the field of Yoga is along the lines of the great spiritual traditions around the world, and in particular, with their mystical wings/branches: Those during these traditions who identify as "mystics" are searhing for yoga, or direct (unmediated) love, with the Divine. Most of the Yoga at this slope include: Buddhist Yoga (e. big t. the "six Yogas almost all Naropa"); Taoist Yoga (commonly after that Qigong ~ the basis its the martial & the treatment of arts with origins during China); and the Yogas a so-called "Hindu" traditions american native.
The practice of asana, since it is best known in united states, falls into the last these particular categories: the Hindu Breathing traditions. But this principle itself has numerous benefits. One way of looking at it is through the actual usage of lens of "The 6 Yoga Systems, " which can be understood as six varieties of doorways, entry-points, portals, or vehicles just where a practitioner might exercise, engage with, and enter the territory of Yoga.
The 6 Yoga Systems
1. Hatha Yoga is definitely the category under which asana pops. One way of translating the concept "Hatha" is to break it into two parts: "ha"=sun and "tha"=moon. Ultraviolet and moon, in doing this context, refer to very opposite currents that regulate all processes with the current economic body: the "masculine" knowning that "feminine, " or ~ regarding subtle anatomy, the pingala knowning that, the two nadis, or channels of your time, whose union within the central channel connected with an shushumna nadi is ~ for those who are practicing in this convention, the very definition of Yoga. Aside from determining, in the way revealed, a vehicle for unexplainable union, the asanas ~ for a more mundane level ~ are perfect for improving health & strengthening the central nervous system... and this is thought as the first and an integral step along this way. Forms of Hatha Yoga being practiced on the earth today include: Ashtanga Vinyasa, Iyengar, Kripalu, Bikrams, and Anusara (to name a few! ).
2. Raja (royal) Yoga is often referred to as the "crown of Hatha Health. " What makes it is meaning the "crown" is its addition ~ regarding physical practices of Hatha Yoga ~ of a sort of mental training intended to further improve concentration to just where it flows into yoga exercise and, finally, samadhi (which holders, for this tradition, quintessential definition of Yoga). Raja Yoga recognized also as Ashtanga (eight-limbed) Health. These eight limbs cowl:
1. Yamas, or Limitation (harmlessness, truthfulness, non-stealing, charge of senses)
2. Niyamas, or Disciplines (cleanliness, purification of descent shape, mind and nervous method, study of metaphysical the thing that was, contemplation on God)
3. Asanas ' Postures
4. Pranayama, or Un-binding almost all breath and life-currents
5. Pratyahara, or Turning the main focus within, by reversing the way to obtain the energy of the opinion organs
6. Dharana, or Concentration
7. Dhyana, ' Meditation, i. e. frustrating periods of perfect your memory and contemplation
8. Samadhi, ' Mystical Union
The exposition of training Raja Yoga is found, most famously, in the sage Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.
3. Bhakti Yoga is definitely the Yoga of Devotion, of love for the Divine in its bristling embodied forms. Radha and something Gopis are ~ as part of his relationship to Krishna ~ throughout archetypal, quintessential Bhaktas, for it is a lot less than their love and dedication and delight in the existence of Krishna that they be grateful for themselves as Divine. Selfless love, compassion, humility, so i purity, along with this desire and heavy intention to merge perfect for businesses that God, are qualities that have been cultivated along this track. (Amachi, Shree Ma, and Karunamayi are three contemporary Teachers aided by the path. )
4. Jnana Yoga (the Yoga of Knowledge) is a type of Yoga that uses our intellect as a tool to remember that our true Self is behind and beyond this process mind. It is, consequently, a path which uses the power of the intellect to ~ rather ~ free us from conceptual elaboration in all forms, and allow us unwind within the space in the vicinity of all concepts of mind. For the purpose of might Self-discovery, Jnana Yoga probes the nature of the Self under the question "Who am I JUST NOW? " Thus Jnana Meditation is sometimes called the quest for the Self or some kind of Inquiry into "who i enjoy. " (Shankara ~ particular yogi "claimed" by the Buddhist choosing the proper Hindu traditions ~ and straightforward, more recently, Ramana Maharshi the form of two well-known practitioners that have been Jnana Yoga. )
5. Kriya Yoga is a yogic system covering virtually every techniques, including mantras and techniques of meditation for control of the life-force (prana). The term "Kriya" is often used in relation to (intended or spontaneous) actions which free your whole body and/or mind of prevents. The goal ~ as in any form of Yoga ~ is to blend with pure Awareness (God). For pure Awareness is female's original condition, it are, within this system, often called Self-awareness. (Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship is certainly one example of a the current organization devoted to this style of practice. )
6. Karma Yoga is definitely the Yoga of work/action, who selfless service. Practitioners of Karma Yoga engage whole-heartedly away from your "mundane" work around the globe, for the benefit on most fellow human (and non-human) monsters, and devote the fruits to their labors to the Luxurious. In this action of stopping hope/fear around future monetary, attention is brought that a great many completely into the at that point moment, which is emotions of the Divine. Which means in giving away all fruits at work, the practitioner ~ paradoxically ~ receives, continuously, how of gifts, the a full wealth: the treasure-house dialed Yoga, the radiant "aliveness" each Present Moment.
Yet one way of dividing the Yogic cake (so delicious! ) is into the two categories of many (1) Yoga as engine vehicle, which including all different sadhanas (techniques & practices), health spas & historical traditions; so i (2) Yoga as fruition, which includes the a large number of siddhis, accomplishments or vegetables, of practice, as well as your ultimate "fruit" of Inexplicable Union itself ~ the final goal ~ which, once we received, transcends even that your path/fruition polarity. At that point ~ the realized Masters inform us ~ one finds oneself a place both new and practically familiar... a place eluded to, perhaps, by the Sufi mystic/poet, Jelaluddin Rumi, in this poem of his:
Out finished ideas of right-doing and gratification wrong-doing,
there is a field. I'll meet you you could expect.
When the soul lies down utilizing this grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the concept of a each other
doesn't make any sense.
Hope this overview (my Karma Yoga during the day! ) is useful and/or interesting into your arms... And if you'd like for more information on these and other Meditation Traditions, one great resource is Georg Feuerstein's workbook The Yoga Tradition.
Namaste! (the spark of Divinity in me bows to the spark of Divinity in your soul! )
Elizabeth Reninger, BIG T. S. (Oriental Medicine) had been exploring Yoga/Qigong - rolling around in its Daoist, Buddhist and Hindu varieties - for more than twenty-five years. She maintains a private acupuncture practice inside the house Boulder, Colorado, and is a type of published poet. For more of Elizabeth's writing, on correlated topics, please visit taoism. about. com taoism. about. com
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