I walk in a strip mall parking lot which has a yoga studio. Yoga is very popular in the U.S. and has been incorporated into many healthy exercise regimens. I have found free yoga lessons on YouTube. Plus at the start of the pandemic, a yoga instructor from the Addison Athletic Club which I am a member of — at the astoundingly low one-time fee of $10 if you are an Addison, TX resident — posted a 30-minute video on the athletic club’s Facebook page which I have used in the last few months about twice a week. The instructor’s name is Zan. Could there not be a more perfect name for a zen yoga instructor than Zan!?! Anyway, she does lots of yoga positions, but also some core exercises like planking and bird dog which I appreciate. I always feel better when I finish her video. However, I must warn you against “hot” yoga. I took a “hot” yoga class in Tyler, Texas. I think it was called hatha yoga. It was summer and over 100 degrees outside. The instructor TURNED OFF THE AIR CONDITIONING!!! This is what proponents of this type of yoga do. I thought I would die! There were about 15 people in a small, cramped, very humid room. I could not breathe. I know there are many people who swear by this type of yoga, but I will never do it again. Let’s find out more about all the different types of yoga.
According to Wikipedia, yoga is a group of physical, mental and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. Yoga is one of the six Āstika or orthodox schools of Indian philosophical traditions.
There is a broad variety of yoga schools, practices and goals in Hinsuism, Buddhism and Jainism. The term "yoga" in the Western world often denotes a modern form of hatha yoga and yoga as exercise, consisting largely of the postures or asanas.
The practice of yoga has been thought to date back to pre-vedic Indian traditions; possibly in the Indus valley civilization around 3000 BCE. Yoga is mentioned in the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns, and also is referenced in the Upanishads — late Vedic Sanskrit texts of religious teaching and ideas still revered in Hinduism — though it most likely developed as a systematic study around the 5th and 6th centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic and Śramana movements. The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga practices is unclear, varyingly credited to the Upanishads. The “Yoga Sutras of Patanjali” date from the 2nd century BCE and gained prominence in the West in the 20th century after being first introduced by Swami Vivekananda. Hatha yoga texts began to emerge sometime between the 9th and 11th century with origins in tantra.
Yoga gurus from India later introduced yoga to the West, following the success of Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th and early 20th century with his adaptation of yoga tradition, excluding asanas. Outside India, it has developed into a posture-based physical fitness, stress relief and relaxation technique. Yoga in Indian traditions, however, is more than physical exercise; it has a meditative and spiritual core. One of the six major orthodox schools of Indian philosophy is also called Yoga, which has its own epistemology, ontology and metaphysics, and is closely related to Samkhya philosophy.
Etymology The Sanskrit noun yoga is derived from the sanskrit root yuj "to attach, join, harness, yoke." The word yoga is cognate with English "yoke." The spiritual sense of the word yoga first arises in Epic Sanskrit, in the second half of the first millennium BCE, and is associated with the philosophical system presented in the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali,” with the chief aim of "uniting" the human spirit with the Divine spirit. The term kriyāyoga has a technical meaning in the “Yoga Sutras”, designating the "practical" aspects of the philosophy i.e., the "union with the supreme" through performance of duties in everyday life.
According to Sanskrit philologist and revered scholar Pānini, the term yoga can be derived from either of two roots, yujir yoga (to yoke) or yuj samādhau ("to concentrate"). In the context of the “Yoga Sutras,” the root yuj samādhau (to concentrate) is considered by traditional commentators as the correct etymology. In accordance with Pāṇini, Vyāsa who wrote the first commentary on the “Yoga Sutras,” states that yoga means samādhi (concentration). Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy with a high level of commitment is called a yogi (may be applied to a man or a woman) or yogini (a woman).
Goals The ultimate goal of yoga is moksha or liberation, although the exact form this takes depends on the philosophical or theological system with which it is conjugated. In the classical Astanga yoga system, the ultimate goal of yoga practice is to achieve the state of samādhi or meditative consciousness and abide in that state as pure awareness. According to Jacobsen, yoga has five principal traditional meanings:
1. A disciplined method for attaining a goal.
2. Techniques of controlling the body and the mind.
3. A name of a school or system of philosophy.
4. With prefixes such as "hatha-, mantra-, and laya-, traditions specializing in particular techniques of yoga.
5. The goal of yoga practice.
According to David Gordon White, from the 5th century CE onward, the core principles of "yoga" were more or less in place, and variations of these principles developed in various forms over time:
1. A meditative means of discovering dysfunctional perception and cognition, as well as overcoming it to release any suffering, find inner peace and salvation. Illustration of this principle is found in Hindu texts such as the “Bhagavad Gita” and “Yogasutras,” in a number of Buddhist Mahāyāna works, as well as Jain texts.
2. The raising and expansion of consciousness from oneself to being coextensive with everyone and everything. These are discussed in sources such as in Hinduism Vedic literature and its epic Mahābhārata, Jainism Praśamaratiprakarana and Buddhist Nikaya texts.
3. A path to omniscience and enlightened consciousness enabling one to comprehend the impermanent (illusive, delusive) and permanent (true, transcendent) reality. Examples of this are found in Hinduism Nyaya and Vaisesika school texts as well as Buddhism Mādhyamaka texts, but in different ways.
4. A technique for entering into other bodies, generating multiple bodies, and the attainment of other supernatural accomplishments. These are, states White described in Tantric literature of Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as the Buddhist Sāmaññaphalasutta. James Mallinson, however, disagrees and suggests that such fringe practices are far removed from the mainstream yoga's goal as meditation-driven means to liberation in Indian religions.
White clarifies that the last principle relates to legendary goals of "yogi practice," different from practical goals of "yoga practice," as they are viewed in South Asian thought and practice since the beginning of the Common Era, in the various Hindu, Buddhist and Jain philosophical schools.
Pre-Vedic India
Yoga may have pre-Vedic elements. Some state yoga originated in the Indus Valley Civilization. Marshall, Eliade and other scholars note that the Pashupati seal discovered in an Indus Valley Civilization site depicts a figure in a position resembling an asana used for meditation, Mulabandhasana. This interpretation is considered speculative and uncertain by more recent analysis of Srinivasan and may be a case of projecting "later practices into archeological findings."
Vedic period 1700-500 BCE Early references to practices that later became part of yoga, are made in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the earliest Hindu Upanishad. For example, the practice of pranayama (consciously regulating breath) is mentioned in hymn 1.5.23 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. 900 BCE), and the practice of pratyahara (concentrating all of one's senses on self) is mentioned in hymn 8.15 of Chandogya Upanishad (c. 800–700 BCE). The Jaimniya Upanishad Brahmana teaches mantra repetition and control of the breath.
Preclassical era 500-200 BCE The early Buddhist texts describe yogic and meditative practices, some of which the Buddha borrowed from the śramaṇa tradition. The Pali canon contains three passages in which the Buddha describes pressing the tongue against the palate for the purposes of controlling hunger or the mind, depending on the passage. However, there is no mention of the tongue being inserted into the nasopharynx as in true khecarī mudrā. The Buddha used a posture where pressure is put on the perineum with the heel, similar to even modern postures used to stimulate Kundalini. Some of the major suttas that discuss yogic practice include the Satipatthana sutta (Four foundations of mindfulness sutta) and the Anapanasati sutta (Mindfulness of breathing sutta). The chronology of completion of these yoga-related early Buddhist texts, however, is unclear, just like ancient Hindu texts. Early known Buddhist sources like the “Majihima Nikāya” mention meditation, while the “Anguttara Nikāya” describes jhāyins or meditators that resemble early Hindu descriptions of muni, kesins and meditating ascetics, but these meditation practices are not called yoga in these texts. The earliest known specific discussion of yoga in the Buddhist literature, as understood in modern context are from the later Buddhist Yogācāra and Theravada schools.
A yoga system that predated the Buddhist school is Jain yoga. But since Jain sources postdate Buddhist ones, it is difficult to distinguish between the nature of the early Jain school and elements derived from other schools. Most of the other contemporary yoga systems alluded in the Upanishads and some Buddhist texts are lost to time.
Macedonian historical texts Alexander the Great reached India in the 4th century BCE. Along with his army, he took Greek academics with him who later wrote memoirs about geography, people and customs they saw. One of Alexander's companions was Onesicritus, quoted in Book 15, Sections 63–65 by Strabo, who describes yogins of India. Onesicritus claims those Indian yogins practiced aloofness and "different postures — standing or sitting or lying naked — and motionless." Onesicritus also mentions his colleague Calanus trying to meet them, who is initially denied audience, but later invited because he was sent by a "king curious of wisdom and philosophy." Onesicritus and Calanus learn that the yogins consider the best doctrine of life as "rid the spirit of not only pain, but also pleasure," that "man trains the body for toil in order that his opinions may be strengthened," that "there is no shame in life on frugal fare" and that "the best place to inhabit is one with scantiest equipment or outfit." These principles are significant to the history of spiritual side of yoga. These may reflect the ancient roots of "undisturbed calmness" and "mindfulness through balance" in later works of Hindu Patañjali and Buddhist Buddhaghosa respectively, states Charles Rockwell Lanman; as well as the principle of Aparigraha — non-possessiveness, non-craving, simple living — and asceticism discussed in later Hinduism and Jainism.
Classical era 200 BCE – 500 CE Patañjali's “Yoga Sutras” are widely regarded as the first compilation of the formal yoga philosophy. Patañjali's writing defined an Ashtanga or “Eight-Limbed” Yoga in Yoga Sutras 2.29. They are:
1. Yama (The five "abstentions"): Ahimsa (Non-violence, non-harming other living beings), Satya (truthfulness, non- falsehood), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacharya (celibacy, fidelity to one's partner) and Aparigraha (non-avarice, non-possessiveness).
2. Niyama (The five "observances"):
Śauca (purity, clearness of mind, speech and body), Santosha (contentment, acceptance of others and of one's circumstances), Tapas (persistent meditation, perseverance, austerity), Svādhyāya (study of self, self-reflection, study of Vedas) and Ishvara-Pranidhana (contemplation of God/Supreme Being/True Self).
3. Asana: Literally means "seat", and in Patanjali's Sutras refers to the seated position used for meditation.
4. Pranayama ("Breath exercises"): Prāna, breath, "āyāma", to "stretch, extend, restrain, stop."
5. Pratyahara ("Abstraction"): Withdrawal of the sense organs from external objects.
6. Dharana ("Concentration"): Fixing the attention on a single object.
7. Dhyana ("Meditation"): Intense contemplation of the nature of the object of meditation.
8. Samādhi ("Liberation"): merging consciousness with the object of meditation.
In later Hindu scholasticism — 12th century onwards — yoga became the name of one of the six orthodox philosophical schools or darsanas, which refers to traditions that accept the testimony of Vedas.
Christianity Some Christians integrate yoga and other aspects of Eastern spirituality with prayer and meditation. This has been attributed to a desire to experience God in a more complete way. In 2013, Monsignor Raffaello Martinelli, servicing Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, having worked for over 23 years with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — Pope Benedict XVI — said that for his meditation, a Christian can learn from other religious traditions (zen, yoga, controlled respiration, mantra), quoting “Aspects of Christian meditation”: "Just as the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions," neither should these ways be rejected out of hand simply because they are not Christian. On the contrary, one can take from them what is useful so long as the Christian conception of prayer, its logic and requirements are never obscured. It is within the context of all of this that these bits and pieces should be taken up and expressed anew." Previously, the Roman Catholic Church and some other Christian organizations have expressed concerns and disapproval with respect to some eastern and New Age practices that include yoga and meditation.
In 1989 and 2003, the Vatican issued two documents: “Aspects of Christian meditation” and “A Christian reflection on the New Age,” that were mostly critical of eastern and New Age practices. The 2003 document was published as a 90-page handbook detailing the Vatican's position. The Vatican warned that concentration on the physical aspects of meditation "can degenerate into a cult of the body" and that equating bodily states with mysticism "could also lead to psychic disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations." Such has been compared to the early days of Christianity, when the church opposed the gnostics' belief that salvation came not through faith but through a mystical inner knowledge. The letter also says, "one can see if and how [prayer] might be enriched by meditation methods developed in other religions and cultures" but maintains the idea that "there must be some fit between the nature of [other approaches to] prayer and Christian beliefs about ultimate reality." Some fundamentalist Christian organizations consider yoga to be incompatible with their religious background, considering it a part of the New Age movement inconsistent with Christianity.
Another view holds that Christian meditation can lead to religious pluralism. This is held by an interdenominational association of Christians that practice it. "The ritual simultaneously operates as an anchor that maintains, enhances and promotes denominational activity and a sail that allows institutional boundaries to be crossed."
תגובות