Yoga, a brief historic perspective
Posted on March 29, 2008
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Some of the earliest traces of Yoga
A french Archeologist discovered and excavated a Neolithic (7000 BC) settlement in Mehrgarth, Pakistan, between 1974 and 1986. To quote Ahmad Hasan Dani, a Professor of Archeology, “Discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entire concept of the Indus civilization”. This is because cultural similarities were found between Mehrgarh, which was a Neolithic settlement and Modern Hinduism.
The shamanistic culture of Mergarh tends to show that it influenced Hindu ideals, symbols and rituals of the present. Ancient shamanism and early Yoga had so much similarity for the reason both wanted to go beyond the human condition. Figurines found at the Mehrgarth excavation site depict Yoga postures
Shamanism’s primary goal was to heal the members who were in their community and at the same time act as religious mediators. Archaic Yoga had the same objectives as it was community oriented and it aimed to determine the order of things through senses and inner vision, which then could be applied to daily living. As time went on, Yoga has progressed and has concentrated on the inner experience. Yogis then started focusing on how to attain individual enlightenment.
It is widely accepted today that many religions have their actual roots in shamanism, of which we know that it tried to act as a conduit between the known and the unknown. Shamanism could be seen as the belief system of people who lived during the Stone Age. Life on earth has alway been challenging. Even in modern times many people go hungry even though there is the technology to go into space.
This suffering is not easy to witness and an individual’s helplessness in regards to his own suffering and that of others remains extremely difficult to reconcile. This could be one of the many reasons the vast majority of humans living on earth have taken refuge in some or other form of faith or belief system.Yet taking refuge in a belief system or faith has its limitations. It will not prevent people from going to war with one another, in fact, quite the contrary, some of the most persistent conflicts that are raging to this very day are rooted in disputes around belief systems. This explains why Yoga evolved to distance itself from religion and modern Yoga as it is known today cannot be seen as a belief system or religion.
The first actual teachings of Yoga are to be found in the Vedas, which are ancient texts recorded by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization. The Vedas are reputed being the oldest scripture in the world and could be described as a compilation of hymns that commends a high power. They contain the first known descriptions of rituals aimed at going beyond the limitations of the mind in order to provoke divine revelation. They are referred to as Pre-classical Yoga.
The classical period of Yoga was introduced by the works of Master Patanjali who wrote his now universally famous Sutras. Scholar believe in general that this must have happened around 200 B.C. Sutras could be described in modern terms as “mind boggling expressions of truth”, or aphorisms. It is rumored that if one understands all the Sutras, divine revelation follows by default. There are several hundred Sutras.
This brief historic perspective of yoga is not complete if it stops at the classical stage of yoga. At the turn of the millennium, yoga spread in different forms. Theory states this occurred because of the need for standardization. Many different schools of yoga came into existence of which many continue to exist in our day and age, think of Hatha or Tantra Yoga, for example, or Kryia Yoga.
In his autobiography, Paramahansa Yogananda explains that he was the second master to have been given the task of making yoga known to western civilization. The first was Swami Vivekananda, the sanskrit term “swami” could be translated as “master”, who went to America in the late nineteenth century. In more recent decades, yoga has greatly and swiftly evolved. From being an occult science only accessible to the brahmin caste of India it has become a mainstream activity that can serve the purpose of helping every living individual evolve beyond maya.
Choosing from Ego or Choosing from Our True Self
Posted on March 27, 2008
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From “Fearproof Your Life”
Early on in our lives, most of us unknowingly chose to identify with our beliefs, memories, and habits—our egos. As we learned and accepted a limited view of ourselves based on others’ opinions of us and our own conclusions, we created an identity based on these beliefs. Seeing ourselves in this limited way led many of us to make the rest of our choices in life based on our limited belief systems rather than on the unlimited wisdom of our true Self. “That’s just the way I am, that’s my personality.” Whenever we make choices from the separated state of the ego, we inevitably make choices that take us out of balance with ourselves, each other, and the world around us. It is no wonder that so many human beings live lives of fear, unhappiness, boredom, and discontent. In my own life, as I became an adult I became increasingly serious, heavy hearted, and stressed. I lost the lighthearted innocence of my youth and the capacity to see beauty and unlimited possibilities.
The good news is that we all have the power to re-choose our lives. We can re-choose to live wholeheartedly from our true Selves. In so doing, we set in motion a new level of awareness of the infinite set of choices that come from the abundance of possibilities within each of us. This process may begin with our recognizing that we are stuck in our habitual belief system and choosing not to accept it. If we then choose “the other”—that is, our true Self—we will be open to discover what comes to mind. We will begin to develop an ear for when a thought is coming from the limited ego self or if it has the ring of truth and wisdom that is characteristic of our true Self.
As discussed in the last chapter, we start to listen to the guidance system of our feelings, which lets us know where we are coming from—from fear or from love. Each time we have a thought and begin to entertain it as a reality or possibility, the thought triggers a chain reaction of cascading chemical reactions called emotions. These emotions, in turn, trigger associations to our memories, further reinforcing the emotional reaction. As a result, our thoughts and feelings can begin to spin out of control. As this happens, our awareness level drops and we project our out-of-control thoughts onto the circumstances we are in. The key is to recognize the quality of our emotions. Recognizing the quality of our emotions enables us to enter the state of the observer—an objective awareness of our moment-to-moment use of thought. In other words, we regain consciousness and are able to pull back from our emotional reactions and thoughts.
Each choice we make from this aware state of the observer gives us additional feedback on the quality of the results of our choices. This observer state is emotionally neutral; it is objective. Thus it helps us to hone in on the power we have of making wiser and more intelligent choices. The more we make conscious choices that are in alignment with our true Selves, the more we realize the magnitude of our power as creators. As we do this, we return to our childlike view of the world—fresh and awe inspiring, but with the experience and knowledge base that comes from living our lives in the world.
When we realize our power to choose our experience, we no longer feel overwhelmed and powerless when watching the cable news or, for that matter, confronting any event in our lives.
Initially, when we become aware that we have a choice, we must be careful not to fill our heads with our preconceived notions of what we believe would be a wise choice. Instead, we simply choose not to accept the old habit and leave some space for a new idea to enter. Thus we allow some room for the unknown to do its work. Eventually, thoughts of wisdom will begin to flow to us naturally.
Author’s Bio
Joe Bailey’s life purpose is to help people find true happiness and peace of mind. Towards this end, he studied psychology at the undergraduate and graduate levels, eventually becoming a licensed psychologist. For the past thirty years, Joe’s desire to understand the connection between the psychological, physical and spiritual facets of human beings has pulled him into a deeper understanding of the whole person and away from the current fragmented view. His search led to a health-based approach to counseling, prevention programs, workplace wellness and the attainment of a personal life of peace, joy and fulfillment for all people. Learn more about Joe on his EXPERT page at selfgrowth.com
How Yoga Can Be Beneficial
Posted on March 27, 2008
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General facts in a nutshell.
How often do we find that we are unable to perform our daily activities properly or in a satisfying manner because of the confusions and conflicts in our mind that weigh down heavily upon us? Yoga
Stress is usually responsible for affecting all parts of our physical, endocrinal and emotional system. Through the regular practice of yoga, most of these irritating disturbances can be corrected.
At the physical level, practicing yoga and its resulting cleansing effects have proven to be radical remedies for various disorders.
Listed below are just some of the benefits of yoga that you can expect if you set out and decide that you will begin your journey, generally one states one is on the path.
Yoga practise benefits
- Yoga is known to increase flexibility; yoga has postures
- Yoga also increases the lubrication of joints, ligament and tendons. The well-researched yoga positions exercise the different tendons and ligaments of the body. It has also been found that the body which may have started doing yoga being a rigid one may experience a quite remarkable flexibility in the end on those parts of the body which have not been consciously worked upon.
- Yoga also massages all organs of the body. Yoga is perhaps the only exercise that can work on through your internal organs in a thorough manner, including those that hardly get externally stimulated during our entire lifetime.
- Yoga acts in a wholesome manner on the various body parts. This stimulation and massage of the organs in turn benefits us by keeping away disease and providing a forewarning at the first possible instance of a likely onset of disease or disorder. One of the far-reaching benefits of yoga is the uncanny sense of awareness that it develops in the practitioner of an impending health disorder or infection. This in turn enables the person to take pre-emptive corrective action.
- Yoga offers a complete detoxification of the body. It gently stretches the muscles and joints as we;; as massaging the various organs, yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to various parts of the body. This helps in the flushing out of toxins from every nook and cranny of your body as well as providing nourishment up to the last point. This leads to benefits such as delayed ageing, energy and a remarkable zest for life.
- Yoga is also an excellent way to tone your muscles. Muscles which have been flaccid and weak are stimulated repeatedly to shed excess fats and flaccidity.But these enormous physical benefits are just a “side effect” of this powerful practice. What yoga does is harmonize the mind with the body and these results in real quantum benefits.
It is now an open secret that the will of the mind has enabled people to achieve extraordinary physical feats, which proves beyond doubt the mind and body connection.
In fact yoga = meditation, because both work together in achieving the common goal of unity of mind, body and spirit which can lead to an experience of eternal bliss that you can only feel through yoga.
The meditative practices through yoga help in achieving an emotional balance through detachment. This in turn creates a remarkable calmness and a positive outlook, which also has tremendous benefits on the physical health of the body.
Namaste, Yoga adepts!
Posted on March 27, 2008
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There is a vast ocean of knowlege on the subject of Yoga
There are by default an equal amount of definitions on the subject of Yoga as there are individuals alive on earth and every single one of these definitions is the only correct one. Indeed, this very definition could be classified as a sutra
Indeed, truth is like a many facetted diamond: it changes when there is an infinitestimal difference of the angle from which one looks at it. Two people looking at the same diamond at the same time will definitely and invariably produce quite remarkably different descriptions of the same stone. No wonder diamonds are referred to as the masters of the mineral kingdom.
The first great Yoga master to use the technique of “mind bogling” expressions of truth (or Sutra) was Master Patanjali, who left us a treasure of sutras. They are also known as the Upanishads and are usually referred to as aphorisms. It is rumored by adepts of Yoga that if one manages to understand them all, and there are several hundred, illumination of the pupil happens automatically.
The people who are born and raised in the West are ill equiped to deal with Yoga, that is easily understood. The extremely competitve environment, the continual repression of non scientifically proven fact, the speed at which people need to live to keep up constitutes a formidable barrier to surmount if one is to start with the practice of Yoga.
The benefits one can derive from taking up the practise of Yoga are too numerous to be addressed here, a number of posts on this particular aspect of Yoga will follow.