I.
Introduction
As we march into this bright new millennium, we’re
constantly reminded of the fusion of east and west. Whether it’s through satellite television
programming that beams in productions from different cultures, enjoying books
and music from distant lands that, only a generation or two ago, couldn’t be
accessed, and – of course – communicating with people across time and space
through the Internet and other telecommunications advancements, the world has
become a much smaller place. Indeed,
when Marshall McLuan coined the term Global
Village, even he probably didn’t
envision so much, so fast, so soon.
Riding the wave of informati
on that now crisscrosses our
tiny planet is something that has its roots in ancient history, yet is
experiencing a blossoming in the west that continues to gain momentum with each
passing year. Whether it’s at a local
YMCA or a lush spiritual retreat in the Everglades,
Yoga is establishing
itself as a mainstay in western culture; indeed, in
global culture.
However, many people are reluctant to experience the
physical, emotional, and psychological health benefits of yoga; and there is
really only one major reason for this: misinformation .
While many people might truly enjoy yoga and find it to be
the side-effect free answer to a lot
of their emotional and physical ailments, they just don’t know enough about the
subject to take that first step.
Furthermore, a stereotype out there that seems to persist
despite evidence to the contrary is that yoga is a religious following; and that to experience its many health
benefits somehow obliges one to renounce their faith or, worse, run away to
some commune and eat tofu in between chanting sessions.
While, yes, if you’d like
to go to a retreat and enjoy tofu and chanting, that’s probably possible
(almost anything is possible, as long as it’s legal and people want to do it,
right?).
Yet that vision of yoga – people with shaved heads and
handing flowers to strangers at the airport – is by no means the overall
picture. Yoga is really a very simple,
accessible, and in many countries around the world, ordinary thing to do.
In that light, this book is created with one goal in mind:
to demystify yoga for you, and
provide you with a clear, simple, and fun introduction to the topic.
If you’ve never been exposed to any kind of yoga (except for
what you might have seen on television), then this book is for you!
In addition, even if you have
experienced some kinds of yoga (perhaps a friend dragged you to a class at the
local recreation center all those years ago), this book will reignite your
interest in the topic and reattach you to a mode of body movement and mind
focus that has lived in ancient lands for millennium.
This book is conveniently organized
into five sections:
VIDEO
I.
What is Yoga
II.
Why is Yoga Beneficial?
III.Different Kinds of Yoga
IV.Yoga Positions For Beginners
V. Yoga Equipment & Accessories
As you read through these sections, please bear in mind that
there is absolutely no attempt here,
directly or indirectly (or in any other way possible!) to endorse or promote
any religious view. This is because the
view of this book is same view that is held by the world’s foremost authorities
on yoga: that it is not a
religion. It does not have a dogma.
While there are indeed different schools and streams of yoga
– there are actually thousands of
them – they have all managed to coexist quite peacefully because, for the most
part, yoga is not evangelical, which simply means that it does not seek to
spread itself as part of its mission.
Please note that the
statement above in no way criticizes or comments on evangelical orders, such as
Evangelical Christianity; the point here is simply that the overwhelming
majority of yoga movements does not consider spreading yoga to be a tenet of its identity.
Yet, while the yoga that is described in this book (and
experienced in most of the world) is not
a religion, it does very seamlessly
fit into many people’s existing religious framework.
In other words, if you are a Catholic, a Protestant, a Muslim,
a Jew, a Sikh, or anything else and identify yourself as being a part of any faith at all, yoga doesn’t ask you
to replace that faith with someone else, or offer you a competing or
contradictory view of what you already believe.
So please remember: yoga, as it is discussed and promoted in
this book (and in virtually every book worth reading!) is not a religion.
As we’ll begin to understand in the next section of this
book, yoga is really nothing more, and nothing less, than harassing the power
of human attention, and using it to benefit the body and mind. It is an approach to life, here and now.
II. What is
Yoga?
What
was I looking for that night in Bombay?
The same thing I had been looking for as long as I can remember. The same thing all of us seek in one way or
another. The “answer” to life, whatever
that might mean. The
“truth.”
The reason for living, dying, or being “here”at all.”
-
Beryl Bender Birch
Yoga can seem like a complicated concept; or, at the very
least, a dizzying array of physical manipulations that turn seemingly
happy-looking human beings into happy looking human pretzels .
Or even more disconcerting, as we have
alluded to in the Introduction, a stereotype does exist in places where the
term yoga is synonymous with cult , or
some kind of archaic spiritual belief that compels one to quit their job, sell
their house, and go live in the middle of nowhere.
In actual fact, Yoga is a very basic thing; and if you’ve
had the opportunity to visit a country where it has been established for
generations – India, Japan, China, and others – it’s really rather, well, ordinary .
The practice of yoga came to the west back in 1893 when one
of India’s celebrated gurus, Swami Vivekananda, was welcomed at the World Fair
in Chicago. He is now known for having sparked the West’s interest in yoga.
Literally, the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit term Yug , which means: “to yoke, bind, join,
or direct one’s attention”. At the same
time, yoga can also imply concepts such as fusion,
union , and discipline.
The sacred scriptures of Hinduism (an ancient belief system
from India that has a global presence) also defines yoga as “unitive
discipline”; the kind of discipline that, according to experts Georg Feuerstein
and Stephan Bodian in their book Living
Yoga , leads to inner and outer union, harmony and joy.
In essence, yoga is most commonly understood as conscious living ; of tapping into one’s
inner potential for happiness (what Sankrit refers to as ananda ).
(II.1)What Yoga Isn’t
Sometimes it’s helpful to understand things by what they aren’t ; especially when dealing with a
topic, like Yoga, that is quite easily misunderstood.
Authors and yoga scholars Feuerstein and Bodian help us
understand yoga by telling us what it is NOT:
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