Sensible Yoga
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Yoga Teachings
Yoga in the West
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| Probe to see how things are going - and relax as thoroughly for it as you can. |
Thus, millions have learnt yoga postures, yoga breathing and yogic meditation, in part due to documented effects in certain ways. For example, yoga has been shown to bring on good relaxation, and to alleviate several chronic health conditions: stress, anxiety, arthritis, diabetes, pain, hypertension, and asthma.
Yoga exercises (poses, postures, asanas) comprise a series of slow, gentle and sloven-looking stretches that gradually may increase in complexity as the student becomes firmer and more flexible. Experts advise people to go easy to avoid injury. Most yoga classes may consist of 9-12 gentle poses, follow up with a little gentle breathing practice, and end with meditation. A Sanskrit word for meditation, dhyana, is meditation (see glossary).
Many take up yoga postures, and some go on with added meditation practises.Sources: A - B
Catlike Conduct
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Much yoga can be learnt from studying a friendly cat.
Yoga and Its Benefits
Scores of worthwhile research studies on yoga have shown that practice of yoga can bring many benefits. In the West, yoga programmes have been used most often to enhance health and well-being, regardless of the origins of postures, breathing exercises and meditation methods.A typical yoga session in the United States may last twenty minutes to an hour. To practice daily at home will be fit for many, although beginners normally do well to attend classes and get favourable instructions through them. There are things that are more easily accomplished that way. One should have an effective yoga program and stick to it for ten months, for example.
Easy, gentle postures may pave the way for more difficult ones. Movements are to be slow, calm and well contained. One is not to stretch beyond what is comfortable. Along with the poses, it is very good to learn to breathe deep in the abdomen. There are very simple, beneficent methods.
After the possible breathing program comes the relaxation or meditation drill. There are many ways of meditation. We suggest you learn the most efficient of the beneficent ones, if you can find them.
Two Aims so far
Yoga can be used for general relaxation and/or for combating some sorts of chronic diseases. The first benefit from good beginner's yoga could be reduction of the
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| "There are . . . higher aims". |
There are several further levels of yoga instruction and so-called deeper aims (higher aims) too. We leave such aims and postulated levels aside for now, in order to furnish a survey.
Deep meditation is fit for many, and there are deeper (higher, more central) aims than relaxation too.Sources: A
Yoga as Exercises, Lore, and Living
'Yoga' is a Sanskrit word. It means literally 'yoking' and is akin to Latin jungere, to join, and denotes 'union'. Today the word represents:- A system of exercises for attaining bodily and/or mental
control and well-being. This practical aspect of yoga involves hatha yoga, mantra yoga, kriya yoga and other yogas.
The exercises (poses or asanas) are a series of slow, gentle and painless stretches that gradually may increase in complexity as the student becomes stronger and more flexible. A program of well composed and administered poses are accompanied by deep, steady breathing that soothes the nervous system, improves blood circulation and may be beneficial on the whole system.
Gentle breathing programs can increase vitality for a while and calm down the mind and body too.
Contemplation may be practised on top of (and after) the other two yoga steps of (posture and breathing). A deep and wonderful relaxation may ensue. And "practice of deep relaxation elements leads to a calm, focused state of mind and a great feeling of vitality," it is said. - A Hindu theistic philosophy that teaches the calming down of
body, mind, and will so that that the self may realize itself more or less, for shorter
or longer periods, and go on from there.
- Ways of living: It is characteristic that specified ways of life are called yogas. They are methodical ways, in that they focus on one or more set of values and methods to the relative preference of others. Karma yoga (the way of works) is one such yoga. Jnana (gyana) yoga is of thinking and deliberating, and so on. In actual practice they tend to blend much.
The best yoga teachers teach a series of essential methods. Inferior teachers make you grovel and fatten with indoctrination, and some flounder by it.Balancing Methods, Lore, and Dispensers
Yoga consists of (1) methods, (2) lore and teachings, and (3) givers (dispensers) of methods and likely interpreters of traditional teachings.- Yoga methods are hinted at above. The good methods are considered universal in that they tie in to the human organism wherever it is on the planet.
- Yoga lore consists of very many books and instruction works
from a possibly alien culture (old and recent Indian), from times and climes that could
be much different from ours. Then the question of adaptations arises in many. Basically,
one should strive to glean and adapt the best from various sources into a cogent and good
enough routine fit for one's daily life. That could work well.
The tradition of yoga teachings and beliefs consists old primers, ancient works, old and recent commentaries, and recent additions of other kinds. You may find excellent adaptations made by Westerners that don't call themselves yogis or roshis, but tackle the adaptation without bothering you a lot. We recommend some good books of the latter kind first, if you can find them. - Givers can be honest, good givers of boons, or "massas" eager to lord it over a following, desiring money or wealth, power or whatever. It may show up in time, but for some enrolled followers it could be too late if it happens. So it should work well to question the teacher, the said effects of his or her teachings, inspect the documentation closely to see if it is fair enough (not all yoga reports are). It is part of the old yoga tradition to be very circumspect in choosing a teacher. Such a standard helps one to derive benefit and avoid future calamities.
Enculturation and Good Yoga Practices
If you get ill after you take up meditating, it is easy to blame the method, the teachings, or the teacher - or yourself. But the loom of the large society could be the biggest culprit at the bottom. Few think of that. Kahlil Gibran says these memorable words in The Prophet:When the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also. [xx ]Often the yoga teachers hold views and interpret lore to confirm their own prestige or power over followers in the end. In some circles there is a demand for a different enculturation (enculturation: the process by which an individual learns the traditional content of a culture and assimilates its practices and values). When the enculturation that goes on, deviates considerably from the enculturation of the large society the dissonance may cause problems or bring into the open the suppressed problems of some members of the large society.
One should take into account more than one possible cause of problems. The individual's state, his or her general adaptations, and the stances taken by the group that teaches yoga - all three tend to work together. In any case severe troubles may be due to one or more of these three. It is too superficial to blame it all on the techniques, the teachings, the effects of one's niche in the large society (country and culture), and on oneself wholly. Discernment is a boon against being fooled by troublesome and superficial reports too. One should not jump to conclusions.
It stands to reason that it is good to take advantage of one's opportunities and long-range possibilities, getting a decent education, acquire skills and methods that help good living, to bulwark and prevent and go against stress and results of stress. Neat meditation and yoga do fit in - they are mainstream in the United States by now. The art of living consists in finding out how to fit them in to greatest benefit.
If a meditator experiences great trouble from doing his or her methods, we suggest a medical or psychological examination, dropping the meditation for some time - or meditating less - till the problems are solved. There are many mentally unhealthy guys in Norway: One fifth of the population could need to be hospitalized, and a brief stay in a mental hospital might do good to another another twenty percent, and many of the others are not completely well eithers, is a current estimate by professor Nils Retterstøl. Abaham Maslow has studied what marks healthy persons, unique guys. They differ from the average, but not all that differ from the average do it in a healthy, normal way. To the contrary. To sum it up: Mad guys - undiagnosed or otherwise - are to refrain from meditation to be on the safe side and avoid that latent diseases break out and so on. Safety first is a neat slogan. And there are not as few mentally troubled guys as formerly thought. It should pay to study Maslow's research findings.
It may NOT pay to give up independence and valuable assets if the guru you have put your trust or faith in, talks of power, adheres to power and goes for power. It might mean power over you too, and lessening your worth.
Along with methods and teachings, you should deal with what surrounds or comes along with the beneficent teachings and methods. Getting involved with a guru dynasty, guru followers and an enforced enculturation of outlooks and regulations that bring on difficulties later, may not be all right. You have to learn to inspect, thus. Don't find out too late, like the women who got married to a werewolf husband [madman] in a recurrent folk tale.
Ein rechter Narr, der sich selbst vergißt (It is a fool indeed who forgets himself) [Sl 417].
A - Exercises and Methods
Many yogis advocate a systemic build-up of practices. The most known system is found in an old work, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. We bring it on-line, allied with a practical commentary: [LINK]. We also give detailed instructions on how to meditate.B - Yoga Philosophy
In ancient India there were many schools of philosophy. Six of them are called orthodox, and the yoga philosophy is one of them. It closely resembles the Sankhya philosophy, with one difference: The Yoga philosophy has room for a God, in the form of Iswara, (Light-Lord), whereas Samkhya does not include anything about a God. These two systems may be handled together for practical purposes.These two philosophies purport to delineate how the universe is made from inside out. In so doing they use constructs (concepts) that are beyond methodical investigations, and call for faith: gunas, deep abstract qualities, are three of them, ether, akash may be another. Hence these philosophies postulate things that may not be proved or falsified. One should be made aware of that.
In ancient India there were other lines of thinking too. Non-orthodox philosophies include the Carvaca school of materialism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The six orthodox Hindu philosophies that recognised the authority of the Vedas [Puh; Wo]
In our days, many yoga practices and outlooks of the ancient days have been "brushed aside" to the preference of Vedanta teachings. Vedanta, which means "the end of the Vedas", is another orthodox Hindu philosophy, with very many forms and facets.
C - Yoga Modes or Yoga Ways
In whatever yoga practice, there is an element of training. One may profit much by keeping it up in culinary ways, minding the ways of athletic training, where progress may be a "fruit" of methodical and good enough traning over some time. Focus and accuracy is thought to work well. A little practice may help too.- Mantra yoga, or "sound yoga" is involved in hatha yoga, raja yoga (and kriya yoga), and is also held to be an OK, independent yoga branch alone. A good meditation posture is much recommended along with it. RECOMMENDED
- Hatha yoga is a quite all-round yoga system of body discipline, postures aka asanas, and pranayama (breathing methods) that are aimed at mastery of the vital force, called prana in Sanskrit. Mental techniques of concentration and meditation may be involved too, so hatha yoga may give the same benefits as raja yoga. The difference between them is a difference of focus and what methods predominate, in some cases. We may advocate gentle hatha yoga that is geared to the persons over and above any system. CAN BE RECOMMENDED.
- Raja yoga is called 'kingly yoga'. It incorporates hatha yoga asanas (postures), breathing training, concentration and meditation (dhyana) methods. There are many of them. The focus is more on mental techniques and pranayama than in hatha yoga. The practice may be draining, that sort of 'tough'. MAY BE RECOMMENDED, DEPENDING ON WHAT MEDLEY OF METHODS AND INSTRUCTIONS ARE USED
- Jnana yoga is thought of as 'wisdom's way'. The discriminative faculty of the mind is used thoroughly, but the full fruit is not one of echoing phrases to oneself or others, but of realization(s). We don't advocate jnana yoga, because it is ineffective for almost everyone; it is said to work only for a few. FOOL'S PLAY FOR MOST PART
- Karma yoga is a yoga of work. The words 'karma' stems from Sanskrit kri, do, and stand for (some sort of) work. A thoroughly detached attitude is promoted. But where you are instructed to work for unselfish ends so that you neglect catering to the fruits of what you have been working with, maybe you have been misguided. Maybe you should have followed up and seen projects through more and better. You could do well to think about it. TRY FOR GAINING MERITS, RATHER
- Bhakti (love) yoga is intended to fit persons of a more or less devotional nature. Various devotional stances are pinpointed in the yoga literature. You may love love, love someone or even something as a lover, a miser, a mistress, a child, a parent - in short, you make use of normal human attitudes and strive on more or less taken in, perhaps. For essential yoga is aimed at rising above human emotions of relating. That is a basic teaching. And you don't have to be devotional in order to go for yoga training. MISUSED.
This briefing is intended to make yoga study sound and
helpful. Very little yoga theory is needed for essential practice,
though.Yoga Adaptations
There are good adaptations and not good adaptations. In between them are many adaptations without much value. Adaptations are also of many degrees. It is too easy for a newcomer to respond in not good enough ways, once he has conformed to the organization that presents the ways of yoga and promises results -- He strives fervently to adapt himself to whatever yoga he has come across. He may seek to enrol a group too.
- He tries to adapt yoga to himself, his background and basic cultural premises, and favourable sides of his family history too.
- Goldsmith ways are in part like that of Indiana
Jones. He plucks the finest specimen he may lay hands on from alien cultures, and later
he may remake them. The British queen and many others have jewels from other
places. They were hardly found in the UK terrain. To make the best use of insights and
methods from afar, live with them for some time, polish and cut them as expertly as you
can master after learning the trade, and assemble and reassemble. The results could be
astounding, shining, much coveted.
- Gardener ways can be much more favourable, frankly, for they are
linked to living and growing. A gardener judges various imported seeds and learns to
consider if the seedlings can have a future in the new homeland. Does the climate and
other general conditions agree? Will a hothouse be needed? And so on. Thus, learn to
consider "the soil" that methods and tenets are rooted in. Do we have near-identical
conditions here? Will it be worthwhile to invest time and energy in plants that may be
awfully hard to produce?
The principal advantage of "gardener yoga" is that you may enrich your life by clever appropriations of good ideas and methods from other parts of the world. Maybe some cultivation helps too. In fact, very much good food in Scandinavia is imported. Potatoes, tomatoes, and on, on.
You have to know how to handle the new items too. For example, if you expose potatoes to much light, they become green and hence poisonous. If you don't, you may eat them and be happy. Apply gardener thinking to ideas and ways you come across, and much may become different, to your benefit.
Elementary and sanity-helping yoga knowledge is not
barred from a beginner.Hindu Yoga and Other Yogas
Yoga is found in other religions than Hinduism. Zen comprises yoga too. One does not have to be a believer to practice beneficent methods of yoga and Zen. Old Taoism had methods of meditation too, but they were largely destroyed during the reign of a certain emperor of China. Some think they are confluent with the better Zen teachings.It is possible to blend good methods from different cultures. For example, one does not have to be a Buddhist to profit from Buddhist meditation methods [cf. Ns, Sim, etc.]. Much depends on what sorts of yoga you come across to begin with, and what yoga teachers and teachings.
Be careful: Rise to inspect before committing yourself, to
avoid future distress: Hindsight may not always help, and advances are different from hindsights too.
Rising above Yoga
Profitable Strides
Yoga has a historical background, and is from a culture that in some respects are different from ours. Different values are often advocated, including renouncing this and that. Society today is not very helpful for those who turn themselves into beggars or monks through old yoga injunctions. Many of the injunctions are not helpful in general, either. Thus, if you love onions, keep up having them for dinner, no matter what one old yoga book, the Hatha-Yoga Pradhipika [Hat], says in the matter.There is another side to yoga that may be good to consider. Let us say someone, Jeder, is stressed and lonely in a big city. He learns that yoga helps against stress and promotes well-being, so he attends the nearest yoga class and finds that it benefits him. He is now able to endure more.
Could there be any possible negative side to that?
- If conditions overtax us, one thing we may do is to become tougher.
- Another is to become more skilled in coping with our challenges, and getting things done very well. Sound education may be for that.
- Stressors (stressful events) and hazards very often need to be reduced in the long term for the sake of one's health, or that of others.
- The general focus had better be on wise steering towards good environments that matter too, some that increase benefits.
- Shielding (it is a wide term) could be good and work well too - and could be necessary.
So we say,
Let becoming self-esteem aided by sensible enough self-help yoga go on against all too many possible abuses; they are not just cognitive ones.Cults find their ways into the lives of persons who are not on guard against losing control. Some leader abuse can grow by strong-looking but self-help maiming decrees from the onset. There is that nasty risk.
Some ways of living may rise above isolated yoga
practice in general, but it should not be an either-or matter but a both-and matter
ideally. Thus, incorporate sensible yoga ways in your life through free will, adjusting
well, and things could become different.Good Suggestions
WE BRING you essentials far above common yoga - they are meta-suggestions that may lessen the need for yoga as therapy, at least:- Go for profitable unions and live very well from the onset, instead of messing around.
- Beware of patience; it often suggests having to cope in unfavourable conditions. If you are in a setting where there is a need for lots of patience - unrewarding in the long run, it suggests you're trapped in a setting - something like that. Look to the cat.
- Link up to those others in such ways that help you to remain, remain firm, while you "listen in" to the pulls of your own heart somehow. There are many ways to do it. Not everything can be regulated from above or outside.
- Don't link up to shy manipulation, unwanted confusion and pleasures that are facets of plots that go against long-range life, thank you.
Learning to calm down can be a good gate in itself in this context.
Hope little, attain instead. Hope, unjustly called the light of the world, can be
the nurse of misery—and perhaps bring on many evils by prolonging the torment of
man. |
At any rate, make less of the over-bossy statements and tenets in your life. Then it could be time to yodel through this material; it could prepare your kin for the jungle. Then again, a terse, lucid style is hardly welcome from verbiage-jungle victims either. Such phenomena tie in with psychological defence mechanisms that make some people neurotics! Better take care. You need a good standing too, and why not a place to rest? Let it be one of the boons that status can bring. Study well, be both as smart and classy as you can, and if you don't end up as a nuisance it often pays, just like being artful lots of times.
Sheared sheep
Cordell Hull was an extremely cautious speaker, striving always for scientific
accuracy. One day on a train, a friend pointed to a fine flock of sheep grazing in a
field."Look, those sheep have just been sheared," he said.
Hull studied the flock. "Sheared on this side, anyway," he admitted.
Hull shows the realistic spirit that tends to
make sane enough attainments possible in yoga and otherwise.
The clever realist could have to show his good sides in
daily life as well.
Widening Interests
"A Divine force shall flow through tissue and cell
And take the charge of breath and speech and act
And all the thoughts shall be a glow of suns
And every feeling a celestial thrill...And common natures feel the wide uplift,
Illumine common acts with the Spirit's Ray
And meet the deity in common things.The Spirit shall take up the human play,
This earthly life become the Life Divine."- Aurobindo, "Savitri" (Excerpts)
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| "Every feeling a celestial thrill -" |
And you may find more delight in nature and health stuff - many beginners in good yoga do. A more genteel way of life may appeal to you, gently at first, and maybe pressing after some time. It may happen too.
One of the avenues is books. Some books on yoga and meditation are good, others not very good, and so on downwards. Much depends on the food you eat; and much depends on your food for thought. It is good to seek quality food for thinking.
There are many sorts of books: Adventure books for thrills; fiction literature for respite and discussions; comic books for relief and humour; and OK self-help books or how-to books for prospering and advancing or catering to hobbies, to name a few of them. It seems to be natural for a beginner yogi or meditator to want to learn about yoga and meditation after some time. Libraries and shops and friends may have some, and if you are not careful, you may get stuck in reading things you don not practice, contrary to the adage "A gram of practice can be worth more than a kilogram of theory".
It could happen you get thrilled by some authors on yoga and a lifestyle that conforms to your new-won genteel wisdom, and wish to join ranks with them. But the near-ideal world that some authors portray or wish to encourage, is not here, after all. Or is it merely hard to find?
And there is a good chance that "the more glorious the portrayals you come across in books or otherwise, the more disappointment is in store". It has happened to many guru followers, so learn to think twice and be markedly reluctant to commit yourself in any major way. It is an ancient and recommended yogi way, and the bet is you risk less by that. An alterative is to be taken in and slowly lose enjoyments:
If you think good things in life depend on joining some group, depend on affiliations, you could have been misled away from maturing family living, which is generally better than living in conform cliques or groups. It often shows up. There are, of course, differences among alternative groups, cults, sects, and so on, but in general it may pay to be guarded and think twice. One alternative to that is to get marred - in not a few cases.
A large part of this archive section studies teachings by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952). Through SRF (Self-Realization Fellowship), that is headquartered in California, the cult's guru has quite a following: What once started as an alternative fellowship in or around Boston in 1920, was changed by steps and degrees into a registered, Californian church in 1935, and in time headed by monastics the monk trained. The church publishes books by its founder. There are some great claims and promises there, such as a method of yoga (kriya-yoga) that allegedly is able to take the practitioner into Godhood a lot quicker than much else -. Wathch out for the goading: Quick, Terrific Gains - but there are strings attached, and maybe it is not as quick as Yogananda decides either.
Now there are many New Age societies that may conform a lot to facets of the coming depictions. We will teach you to take care. That's about it.
Literature
Gyl: Berne, Eric: Games People Play. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967.
Hat: Svatmarama. Hathayogapradipika. Madras: Adyar, 1972.
Hom: Berne, Eric: What Do You Say After You Say Hello? The Psychology of Human Destiny. New York: Bantam, 1973.
Ns: Merton, Thomas: New Seeds of Contemplation. New rev. ed. New York: New Directions Corp, 1972.
Pr: Gibran, Kahlil: The Prophet. On-line. www.tcp.ca/Joshua/welcomeprophet.html
Puh: Deussen, Paul: The Philosophy of the Upanishads(Reprint of Clark's 1906-ed). New York: Dover, 1966.
Sim: Johnston, William: Silent Music. New York: Harper and Row, 1976.
Sl: Beyer, Horst, und Annelies Beyer. Sprichwörter Lexikon. Weyarn: Seehamer, 1996.
Suc: Jongeward, Dorothy, and Philip Seyer. Choosing Success: Transactional Analysis on the Job. New York: Wiley, 1978.
Wo: Chatterjee, Satischandra, and Dhirendramohan Datta. An Introduction to Indian Philosophy. 7th ed. Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1968.
Notes
[2] Good books by Dr. Eric Berne - eminent psychiatrist of North America - What do
you say after you say hello? (Bantam) [Hom] and "Games people
play (Penguin) [Gyl]. Also about TM: Choosing
success by Dorothy Jongeward and Philip Sayer [Suc].
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