What is Yoga all about?
Summarising Part 1:
Yoga is an ancient body of knowledge, which is used to systematically transform one's being into realms of higher consciousness. It consists of Physical postures (Asanas), Cleansing techniques (Shatkarmas), breathwork (Pranayama), social code, personal code (Yama and Niyama), Concentration (Dharana), Meditation (Dhyana), Superconsciousness (Samadhi). It also includes working with the Kundalini and the Chackras, Mantra and Kriyas.
Are there many diffent types of Yoga?
Just as there are different types of people, there are also different forms of Yoga. The yogis in ancient times realized that the same type of practices do not work for all people.
Some people respond better to very physical practices while others respond better to more meditatative, while others require an intellectual investigative approach while others work best with devotion to God.
God? I thought that Yoga was not religious.
One needs to be careful when one uses the term God. It means many different things to different people.
In the context of Yoga, the whole universe is seen as one whole. It is a monist view point. The Universe just is. And it is the Universe which is referred to as God.
We as humans use our minds to categorize and divide things up, so that we can process things as thoughts in our mind. But this very process of separation and categorization separates us from the whole, and creates separations between everything.
So yoga is not a religion. It is a body of knowledge which is at least 6,000 years old and predates all modern religions. However it is a spiritual practice in that it helps one look inwards and helps one get to know oneself. All great spiritual teachers in the past have said
know thyself.
Yoga does not tell you what to know. It simply recommends that you look yourself, and it gives you practices and methods to help you look.
Is that why Meditation tries to quieten the Mind?
Exactly. If we can shut off the babble of the mind, the mind ceases to carve the Universe up into pieces for our thoughts. And it also ceases to separate ourselves from this one big Universe.
When the mind quietens, glimpses of this one big whole (which one Self is also) that one becomes aware of through meditation practices.
Why all these physical postures?
Most of us are not ready mentally for meditation. We have spent so many years with our thoughts untamed, and our attention wandering in many directites and have allowed ourselves develop so many likes and dislikes, desires and hates, that the mind first needs to be cleansed and disciplined in order for it to settle.
Equally well, often our bodies and our health has been allowed to deterierate from optimal healthy functioning. And in order for one?s mind to be at peace while one sits still for a long length of time, one?s body must be free from tension, free from aches and pains and also be quite strong in order to remain in a fixed meditation posture.
The physical postures
- help remove tensions from our bodies
- help our spines become more flexible
- improve our posture
- strengthen and tone the body
- stretch and remove tension from our muscles
- help to allow fuller deeper breathing
- force us to improve our discipline
- help remove laziness, sloth, excuses from our mind
- bring the body to a much more relaxed and healthy functioning state
What types of Yoga are there?
There are mnay types of yoga. These include
- Hatha Yoga
- Jyana Yoga
- Bakti yoga
- Karma Yoga
- Kundalini Yoga
- Tantric yoga
- Other forms
Hatha yoga includes Physical postures and also cleansing practices. This is the form of Yoga which is most popular in the western world. Astanga yoga and Iyengar yoga are both forms of Hatha yoga, but each has its own way of working with the body. Although many of the postures are the same, how they are practiced can be quite different.
Jyana yoga involves study of the ancient scriptures and also includes active daily investigation into one self and also the functioning of the mind, the senses, desires, attractions and repulsions. It involves an intellectual approach to get beyond our limited view of the Universe to help achieve a merging with the one.
Bakti yoga involves devotion to God, and often involves chanting and daily continious appreciation and reverence to the Universe.
Karma Yoga involves immersing oneself in tasks or work for others. The task does not have to be strictly for others, one simply emmerses oneself in whatever task one is doing and thries to do one?s best at it. However the attidude one has while doing the task is most important. One should not do the task while thinking of the rewards the task might bring one. One simply focuses 100% on the task and does one?s best. Neither thinking of reward or payment.
Kundalini yoga involves working with the esoteric knowledge and with one?s Chackras and raising up the inner spiritual energy which lies coiled up at the base of one?s spine. We will talk further about this in a future edition of Karnival.
Tantric yoga uses all aspects of one's self and one's experience to expand one's consciousness. It deserves a complete article to itself as it is not easily understood. It can include sexual Tantric practices but these practices are used to expand one's consciousness and to transform sexual energy into spiritual energy. 90% of all Tantric sexual practices in the west are publicity gimmics and are as far removed from yoga as is sensual gratification and indulgence.
Other forms. Just as there are different types of people each with their own strengths and weaknesses, there are also other paths which are best for them to follow.
What is tantric sex?
Tantra is an ancient body of knowledge which uses all aspects of our humanity to expand awareness.
Very evolved and highly experienced practitioners have been trained in the transmutation of inner sexual energy into spiritual energy. This is a very highly evolved practice and is dangerous to those experimenting with it who have not under gone many years of rigorous training and without the direct supervision of an expert teacher.
One of the dangers is that instead of evolving spiritually, one becomes more attached to sensual desires, and one can actually increase these desires so much that one has to come back in future lives to learn how to transcend these bodily desires.
Nowadays we often see workshops advertised in the west titled Tantric Sex workshops.
None of these workshops are working with the origional mechanisms for transforming inner energies.
However, some of these workshops can offer some techniques which can be useful in getting over inner conflicts in a psychological way if they are conducted by an experienced teacher in the right way.
What is the difference between Hatha Yoga and Ashtanga?
Hatha yoga is a term which is widly misused in the Western world, and very often misused by Yoga teachers. Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga are both forms of Hatha Yoga.
Because the term Hatha yoga is so widly misused and misunderstood, the next Yoga article will concentrate completly on Hatha Yoga.
Author:
Dave Brocklebank who runs the Burren Yoga and Meditation Centre in Kinvara, Co. Galway. 091-637680
Satyananda Yoga with Tadhg Ferriter and Dave Brocklebank
