Yoga

9/24/13 Yoga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 1/14
Yoga (Sanskrit: listen (helpinf o)) is a generic term for the physical, mental, andspiritual practices or disciplines
which originated in ancient India with a view to attain a state of permanent peace.
[1][2]
Yoga is a Sanskrit word which
means "union" and is interpreted as "union with the divine".
[3]
One of the most detailed and thorough expositions on
the subject is the Yoga Stras of Patajali, which defines yoga as "the stilling of the changing states of the
mind"
[1]
(Sanskrit: : -
:). Yoga is also interpreted as the yoke that connects beings to the machine
of existence.
[4]
Various traditions of yoga are found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
[5][6][7][8]
InHinduism, yoga is one of the
six stika ("orthodox") schools of Hindu philosophy.
[9]
Post-classical traditions consider Hiranyagarbha as the originator of yoga.
[10][11]
Prephilosophical speculations and
diverse ascetic practices of first millennium BCE were systematized into a formal philosophy in early centuries CE by
the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
[12]
By the turn of the first millennium, hatha yoga emerged from tantra.
[13][14]
It along
with its many modern variations, is the style that many people associate with the word yoga
today. Vajrayana Buddhism, founded by the Indian Mahasiddhas,
[15]
has a parallel series of asanas and
pranayamas, such as cal
[16]
and yantra yoga.
[17]
Hindu monks, beginning with Swami Vivekananda, brought yoga to the West in the late 19th century. In the 1980s,
yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world. This form of yoga is often
called Hatha yoga. Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as a complementary intervention
for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma and heart patients.
[18][19][20][21]
In a national survey, long-term yoga practitioners
in the United States reported musculoskeletal and mental health improvements.
[22]
Contents [hide]
1 Terminology
2 Purpose
3 History
3.1 Prehistory
3.2 Vedic period
3.3 Preclassical era
3.3.1 Upanishads
3.3.2 Bhagavad Gita
3.3.3 Mahabharata
3.4 Classical yoga
3.4.1 Early Buddhist texts
3.4.2 Samkhya
3.4.3 Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
3.4.4 Yoga Yajnavalkya
3.4.5 Jainism
3.4.6 Yogacara school
3.5 Middle Ages
3.5.1 Bhakti movement
3.5.2 Tantra
3.5.3 Vajrayana
3.5.4 Hatha Yoga
3.5.5 Sikhism
3.6 Modern history
3.6.1 Reception in the West
3.6.2 Medicine
Statue of Shiva in Bangalore, India,
perf orming yogic meditation in
thePadmasana posture.
3.6.2.1 Potential benefits for adults
3.6.2.2 Physical injuries
3.6.2.3 Pediatrics
4 Yoga compared with other systems of meditation
4.1 Zen Buddhism
4.2 Tibetan Buddhism
4.3 Christian meditation
4.4 Islam
5 See also
6 References
6.1 Notes
6.2 Citations
6.3 Bibliography
7 External links
Terminology [edit source]
In Vedic Sanskrit, the more commonly used, literal meaning of
the Sanskrit word yoga which is "to add", "to join", "to unite", or "to
attach" from the root yuj, already had a much more figurative sense, where
the yoking or harnessing of oxen or horses takes on broader meanings
such as "employment, use, application, performance" (compare the
figurative uses of "to harness" as in "to put something to some use"). All
further developments of the sense of this word are post-Vedic. More
prosaic moods such as "exertion", "endeavour", "zeal" and "diligence" are
also found in Epic Sanskrit.
[citation needed]
There are very many compound words containingyog in
Sanskrit. Yoga can take on meanings such as "connection", "contact",
"method", "application", "addition" and "performance". For example, gu-
yoga means "contact with a cord"; chakr-yoga has a medical sense of
"applying a splint or similar instrument by means of pulleys (in case of
dislocation of the thigh)"; chandr-yoga has the astronomical sense of
"conjunction of the moon with a constellation"; pu-yoga is a grammatical
term expressing "connection or relation with a man", etc. Thus, bhakti-yoga means "devoted attachment" in
the monotheistic Bhakti movement. The term kriy-yoga has a grammatical sense, meaning "connection with a verb".
But the same compound is also given a technical meaning in theYoga Sutras (2.1), designating the "practical"
aspects of the philosophy, i.e. the "union with the Supreme" due to performance of duties in everyday life
[23]
In Hindu philosophy, the word yoga is used to refer to one of the six orthodox (stika) schools of Hindu
philosophy.
[note 1]
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are often labelled as Rja yoga.
[25]
According to Pini, a 6th-century
BCE Sanskrit grammarian, the term yoga can be derived from either of two roots, yujir yoga (to yoke) or yuj
samdhau (to concentrate).
[26]
In the context of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the root yuj samdhau (to concentrate)
is considered by traditional commentators as the correct etymology.
[27]
In accordance withPini, Vyasa (c. 4th or
5th century CE), who wrote the first commentary on the Yoga Sutras,
[28]
states that yoga
means samdhi (concentration).
[29]
In other texts and contexts, such as the Bhagavad Gt and the Hatha Yoga
Pradipika, the word yoga has been used in conformity with yujir yoge (to yoke).
[30]
Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy with a high level of commitment is called
a yogi or yogini.
[31]
Male f igure in a crossed legs posture on
a mold of a seal f rom the Indus valley
civilization
Purpose [edit source]
Generally put, yoga is a disciplined method utilized for attaining a goal.
[24]
The ultimate goal of Yoga
is moksha (liberation) though the exact definition of what form this takes depends on the philosophical or theological
system with which it is conjugated. In Shaiva theology, yoga is used to unite kundalini with Shiva.
[32]
Mahabharata
defines the purpose of yoga as the experience of Brahman or tman pervading all things.
[33]
In the specific sense of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, yoga is defined as citta-vtti-nirodha (the cessation of the
perturbations of the mind).
[24]
This is described by Patanjali as the necessary condition for transcending discursive
knowledge and to be one with the divinely understood "spirit" ("purusha"): "Absolute freedom occurs when the lucidity
of material nature and spirit are in pure equilibrium."
[34]
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali indicates that the ultimate goal
of yoga is a state of permanent peace or Kaivalya.
[2]
Apart from the spiritual goals the physical postures of yoga are used to alleviate health problems, reduce stress and
make the spine supple in contemporary times. Yoga is also used as a complete exercise program and physical
therapy routine.
[35]
History [edit source]
Prehistory [edit source]
Several seals discovered at Indus Valley Civilization sites, dating to the
mid 3rd millennium BCE, depict figures in positions resembling a common
yoga or meditation pose, showing "a form of ritual discipline, suggesting a
precursor of yoga," according to archaeologist Gregory
Possehl.
[36]
Ramaprasad Chanda, who supervised Indus Valley
Civilization excavations, states that, "Not only the seated deities on some
of the Indus seals are in yoga posture and bear witness to the prevalence
of yoga in the Indus Valley Civilization in that remote age, the standing
deities on the seals also show Kayotsarga (a standing posture of
meditation) position. It is a posture not of sitting but of
standing."
[37]
Some type of connection between the Indus Valley seals
and later yoga and meditation practices is speculated upon by many
scholars, though there is no conclusive evidence.
[note 2]
Many scholars such as Marshall associated Pashupati seal with Shiva
because We would discuss these features under the following heads : (1)
three faces (2) the attitude of yoga (3) ithyphallicism (4) connection with
animals (5) pair of horns.
[45]
The standing yogic position in Hindu scriptures is associated with Shiva and has in earliest occurrences been
mentioned as the sthanu asana. Shiva has repeatedly been called Sthanu in several scriptures.
[46]
That Shiva's
standing pose is a meditative penance is clear from the pose being associated in Kalidas' literature as "Tapasvinah
Sthanu"
[47]
and tapasvin is the term for a mendicant. Also Shiva as Sthanu in Kalidas' literature has been described
as "Sthanu sthira-bhakti-yoga-sulabha" meaning "attainable through devotion yoga."
[48]
In modern Hindu yoga too the
standing yoga asana is applied and called samabhanga asana
[49]
and tadasana.
Shiva's association with the 'Pashupati seal' is that the seal reads "Lord of the Cattle" and "Lord of the animals" and
Shiva has been described as both the lord of cattle and animals. The Pashupati seal also depicts the mendicant in
the yogasana which is another attributed associated with Shiva from scriptures.
In reference to the bulls that appear on the Indus Valley seals, archeologists have linked them to Shiva as the bull is
associated with him in scriptures. In the Rig Veda, Shiva (Rudra) is termed Vrishaba or "bull."
[50]
Shiva connection with the three heads on the Indus Valley yogi seal is that Shiva has been described and portrayed a
three-headed in certain parts of history. For example, in the an Elora temple he is depicted with three heads.
[51]
Vedic period [edit source]
Ascetic practices (tapas), concentration and bodily postures used by Vedic priests to conduct yajna (Vedic ritual of
fire sacrifice) might have been precursors to yoga.
[note 3]
Vratya, a group of ascetics mentioned in the Atharvaveda,
emphasized on bodily postures which probably evolved into yogic asanas.
[52]
Early Vedic Samhitas also contain
references to other group ascetics such as, Munis, the Kein, and Vratyas.
[54]
Techniques for controlling breath and
vital energies are mentioned in the Brahmanas (ritualistic texts of the Vedic corpus, c. 1000800 BCE) and
the Atharvaveda.
[52][55]
Nasadiya Sukta of the Rig Veda suggests the presence of an early contemplative
tradition.
[note 4]
The Vedic Samhitas contain references to ascetics, and ascetic practices known as (tapas) are referenced in
the Brhmaas (900 BCE and 500 BCE), early commentaries on theVedas.
[58]
The Rig Veda, the earliest of
the Hindu scripture mentions the practice.
[59]
According to David Frawley, verses such as Rig Veda 5.81.1 which reads, "Seers of the vast illumined seer yogically
[yunjante] control their minds and their intelligence,"
[60]
show that "at least the seed of the entire Yoga teaching is
contained in this most ancient Aryan text".
[61]
According to Feuerstein, breath control and curbing the mind was practiced since the Vedic times.,
[62]
and yoga was
fundamental to Vedic ritual, especially to chanting the sacred hymns
[63]
While the actual term "yoga" first occurs in the Katha Upanishad
[64]
and later in the Shvetasvatara Upanishad,
[65]
an
early reference to meditation is made in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the earliest Upanishad (c. 900 BCE).
[note 5]
Yoga
is discussed quite frequently in the Upanishads, many of which predate Patanjali's Sutras.
[67]
Preclassical era [edit source]
Diffused pre-philosophical speculations of yoga begin to emerge in the texts of c. 500200 BCE such as the middle
Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and Mokshadharma of theMahabharata. The terms samkhya and yoga in these texts
refer to spiritual methodologies rather than the philosophical systems which developed centuries later.
[68]
Upanishads [edit source]
Alexander Wynne, author of The Origin of Buddhist Meditation, observes that formless meditation and elemental
meditation might have originated in the Upanishadic tradition.
[69]
The earliest reference to meditation is in
the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, one of the oldest Upanishads.
[54]
Chandogya Upanishad describes the five kinds of
vital energies (prana). Concepts used later in many yoga traditions such as internal sound and veins (nadis) are also
described in the Upanishad.
[52]
Taittiriya Upanishad defines yoga as the mastery of body and senses.
[70]
The term "yoga" first appears in the Hindu scripture Katha Upanishad (a primary Upanishad c. 400 BCE) where it is
defined as the steady control of the senses, which along with cessation of mental activity, leads to the supreme
state.
[54][note 6]
Katha Upanishadintegrates the monism of early Upanishads with concepts of samkhya and yoga. It
defines various levels of existence according to their proximity to the innermost being tman. Yoga is therefore seen
as a process of interiorization or ascent of consciousness.
[72][73]
It is the earliest literary work that highlights the
fundamentals of yoga. Shvetashvatara Upanishad (c. 400-200 BCE) elaborates on the relationship between thought
and breath, control of mind, and the benefits of yoga.
[73]
Like the Katha Upanishad the transcendent Self is seen as
the goal of yoga. This text also recommends meditation on Om as a path to liberation.
[74]
Maitrayaniya Upanishad (c.
300 BCE) formalizes the sixfold form of yoga.
[73]
Physiological theories of later yoga make an appearance in this
text.
[75][76]
Krishna narrating the Gita to Arjuna.
While breath channels (nis) of yogic practices had already been discussed in the classicalUpanishads, it was not
until the eighth-century Buddhist Hevajra Tantra and Carygiti, that hierarchies of chakras were
introduced.
[77][78]
Further systematization of yoga is continued in the Yoga Upanishads of
the Atharvaveda (viz., ilya, Pupata, Mahvkya)
[clarification needed]
.
[79]
Bhagavad Gita [edit source]
Main article: Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita ('Song of the Lord'), uses the term "yoga" extensively
in a variety of ways. In addition to an entire chapter (ch. 6) dedicated to
traditional yoga practice, including meditation,
[80]
it introduces three
prominent types of yoga:
[note 7]
Karma yoga: The yoga of action.
[note 8]
Bhakti yoga: The yoga of devotion.
[note 9]
Jnana yoga: The yoga of knowledge.
[note 10]
In Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishnaexplains to Arjuna about the
essence of yoga as practiced in daily lives:
T:
6 4
qIqI: 7
(yoga-stha kuru karmani sanyugam tyaktv dhananjay
siddhy-asiddhyo samo bhutv samatvam yoga ucyate)
- Bhagavad Gita 2.48
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada translates it as "Be steadfast in yoga (yoga-stha), O Arjuna. Perform your
duty (kuru karmani) and abandon all attachment (sangam) to success or failure (siddhy-asiddhyo). Such evenness
of mind (samatvam) is called yoga."
[85]
Madhusudana Sarasvati (b. circa 1490) divided the Gita into three sections, with the first six chapters dealing with
Karma yoga, the middle six with Bhakti yoga, and the last six with Jnana (knowledge).
[86]
Other commentators
ascribe a different 'yoga' to each chapter, delineating eighteen different yogas.
[87]
Aurobindo, a freedom fighter and
philosopher, describes the yoga of the Gita as "a large, flexible and many-sided system with various elements, which
are all successfully harmonized by a sort of natural and living assimilation".
[88]
Mahabharata [edit source]
Description of an early form of yoga called nirodhayoga (yoga of cessation) is contained in the Mokshadharma
section of the 12th chapter (Shanti Parva) of the Mahabharata epic. The verses of the section are dated to c. 300200
BCE. Nirodhayoga emphasizes progressive withdrawal from the contents of empirical consciousness such as
thoughts, sensations etc. until purusha (Self) is realized. Terms like vichara (subtle reflection), viveka (discrimination)
and others which are similar to Patanjali's terminology are mentioned, but not described.
[89]
There is no uniform goal
of yoga mentioned in the Mahabharata. Separation of self from matter, perceiving Brahman everywhere, entering
into Brahman etc. are all described as goals of yoga. Samkhya and yoga are conflated together and some verses
describe them as being identical.
[33]
Mokshadharma also describes an early practice of elemental meditation.
[90]
Classical yoga [edit source]
During the period between the Mauryan and the Gupta era (c. 200 BCE500 CE) philosophical schools
of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism were taking form and a coherent philosophical system of yoga began to
Amitabha (Buddha) depicted as a yoga
practitioner, Kamakura, Japan.
emerge.
[91]
Early Buddhist texts [edit source]
Werner notes that "only with Buddhism itself as expounded in the Pali
Canon" do we have the oldest preserved comprehensive yoga practice:
"But it is only with Buddhism itself as expounded in the Pali Canon
that we can speak about a systematic and comprehensive or even
integral school of Yoga practice, which is thus the first and oldest
to have been preserved for us in its entirety"
[92]
Another 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.
[93]
Most of the other contemporary yoga systems alluded in the Upanishads
and some Pali canons are lost to time.
[94][95][note 11]
The early Buddhist texts describe meditative practices and states, some of which the Buddha borrowed from the
ascetic (shramana) tradition.
[97][98]
One key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative absorption must
be combined with liberating cognition.
[99]
Meditative states alone are not an end, for according to the Buddha, even
the highest meditative state is not liberating. Instead of attaining a complete cessation of thought, some sort of
mental activity must take place: a liberating cognition, based on the practice of mindful awareness.
[100]
The Buddha
also departed from earlier yogic thought in discarding the early Brahminic notion of liberation at death.
[101]
While the
Upanishads thought liberation to be a realization at death of a nondual meditative state where the ontological duality
between subject and object was abolished, Buddha's theory of liberation depended upon this duality because
liberation to him was an insight into the subject's experience.
[101]
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.
[102]
However there is no mention of the
tongue being inserted into the nasopharynxas in true khecar mudr. The Buddha used a posture where pressure is
put on the perineum with the heel, similar to even modern postures used to stimulate Kundalini.
[103]
Samkhya [edit source]
Further information: Samkhya
Samkhya emerged in the first century CE.
[104]
When Patanjali systematized the conceptions of yoga, he set them
forth on the background of the metaphysics of samkhya, which he assumed with slight variations. In the early works,
the yoga principles appear together with the samkhya ideas. Vyasa's commentary on the Yoga Sutras, also called
theSamkhyapravacanabhasya (Commentary on the Exposition of the Sankhya Philosophy), brings out the intimate
relation between the two systems.
[105]
Yoga agrees with the essential metaphysics of samkhya, but differs from it in
that while samkhya holds that knowledge is the means of liberation, yoga is a system of active striving, mental
discipline, and dutiful action. Yoga also introduces the conception of god. Sometimes Patanjali's system is referred
to as Seshvara Samkhya in contradistinction to Kapila's Nirivara Samkhya.
[106]
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali [edit source]
Main articles: Raja Yoga and Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
In Hindu philosophy, yoga is the name of one of the six orthodox (which accept the testimony of Vedas) philosophical
schools
[108][109]
founded byPatanjali. Karel Werner, author of Yoga And Indian Philosophy, believes that the process
of systematization of yoga which began in the middle and Yoga
Traditional Hindu depiction of Patanjali as
an avatar of the divine serpent Shesha.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
[107]
Pada (Chapter) English meaning Sutras
Samadhi Pada On being absorbed in spirit 51
Sadhana Pada On being immersed in spirit 55
Vibhuti Pada On supernatural abilities and gif ts 56
Kaivalya Pada On absolute f reedom 34
Upanishads culminated with theYoga Sutras of Patanjali.
[note 12]
Scholars
also note the influence of Buddhist and Samkhyan ideas on the Yoga
Sutras.
[110][111]
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras reminds us of Buddhist
formulations from the Pli
Canon, Sarvstivda Abhidharmaand Sautrntika.
[112]
The yoga school
accepts the samkhya psychology and metaphysics, but is more theistic
than the samkhya, as evidenced by the addition of a divine entity to the
samkhya's twenty-five elements of reality.
[113][114]
The parallels between
yoga and samkhya were so close that Max Mller says that "the two
philosophies were in popular parlance distinguished from each other as
Samkhya with and Samkhya without a Lord...."
[115]
The intimate
relationship between samkhya and yoga is explained by Heinrich Zimmer:
These two are regarded in India as twins, the two aspects of a
single discipline. Skhya provides a basic theoretical exposition
of human nature, enumerating and defining its elements, analyzing
their manner of co-operation in a state of bondage ("bandha"), and
describing their state of disentanglement or separation in release
("moka"), while yoga treats specifically of the dynamics of the
process for the disentanglement, and outlines practical techniques
for the gaining of release, or "isolation-integration"
("kaivalya").
[116]
Patanjali is widely regarded as the compiler of the formal yoga
philosophy.
[117]
The verses ofYoga Sutras are terse and are
therefore read together with the Vyasa Bhashya (c. 350450 CE),
a commentary on the Yoga Sutras.
[118]
Patanjali's yoga is known
as Raja yoga, which is a system for control of the mind.
[119]
Patanjali defines the word "yoga" in his second sutra,
which is the definitional sutra for his entire work:
: - :
(yoga citta-vtti-nirodha)
- Yoga Sutras 1.2
This terse definition hinges on the meaning of three Sanskrit terms. I. K. Taimni translates it as "Yoga is the inhibition
(nirodha) of the modifications (vtti) of the mind (citta)".
[120]
The use of the word nirodha in the opening definition of
yoga is an example of the important role that Buddhist technical terminology and concepts play in the Yoga Sutras;
this role suggests that Patanjali was aware of Buddhist ideas and wove them into his system.
[121]
Swami
Vivekananda translates the sutra as "Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Citta) from taking various forms (Vrittis)."
[122]
Patanjali's writing also became the basis for a system referred to as "Ashtanga Yoga" ("Eight-Limbed Yoga"). This
eight-limbed concept derived from the 29th Sutra of the 2nd book, and is a core characteristic of practically every
Raja yoga variation taught today. The Eight Limbs are:
1. Yama (The five "abstentions"): Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (Truth, non-lying), Asteya (non-covetousness),
Brahmacharya (non-sensuality, celibacy), and Aparigraha (non-possessiveness).
2. Niyama (The five "observances"): Shaucha (purity), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (austerity), Svadhyaya
(study of the Vedic scriptures to know about God and the soul), and Ishvara-Pranidhana (surrender to God).
A sculpture of a Hindu yogi in
the Birla Mandir, Delhi
Yoga Yajnavalkya
[124]
3. Asana: Literally means "seat", and in Patanjali's Sutras refers to the seated
position used for meditation.
4. Pranayama ("Suspending Breath"): Prna, breath, "yma", to restrain or
stop. Also interpreted as control of the life force.
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. Samadhi ("Liberation"): merging consciousness with the object of
meditation.
In the view of this school, the highest attainment does not reveal the experienced
diversity of the world to be illusion. The everyday world is real. Furthermore, the
highest attainment is the event of one of many individual selves discovering itself;
there is no single universal self shared by all persons.
[123]
Yoga Yajnavalkya [edit source]
Main article: Yoga Yajnavalkya
The Yoga Yajnavalkya is a classical treatise on yoga attributed to the Vedic
sage Yajnavalkya. It takes the form of a dialogue between Yajnavalkya and his
wife Gargi, a renowned female philosopher.
[125]
The text contains 12 chapters and
its origin has been traced to the period between the second century BCE and fourth
century CE.
[126]
Many yoga texts like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Yoga
Kundalini and the Yoga Tattva Upanishads have borrowed verses from or make
frequent references to theYoga Yajnavalkya.
[127]
In the Yoga Yajnavalkya, yoga is
defined asjivatmaparamatmasamyogah, or the union between the individual self
(jivatma) and the Divine (paramatma).
[124]
Jainism [edit source]
According to Tattvarthasutra, 2nd century CE Jain text, yoga is the sum of all the activities of mind, speech and
body.
[7]
Umasvati calls yoga the cause of "asrava" orkarmic influx
[128]
as well as one of the essentialssamyak
caritrain the path to liberation.
[128]
In hisNiyamasara, Acarya Kundakunda, describes yoga bhaktidevotion to the
path to liberationas the highest form of devotion.
[129]
Acarya Haribhadra and Acarya Hemacandramention the five
major vows of ascetics and 12 minor vows of laity under yoga. This has led certain Indologists like Prof. Robert J.
Zydenbos to call Jainism, essentially, a system of yogic thinking that grew into a full-fledged religion.
[130]
The five
yamas or the constraints of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali bear a resemblance to the five major vows of Jainism,
indicating a history of strong cross-fertilization between these traditions.
[131][note 13]
Mainstream Hinduism's influence on Jain yoga is noticed as Haribhadra founded his eightfold yoga and aligned it with
Patanjali's eightfold yoga.
[133]
Yogacara school [edit source]
Main article: Yogacara
In the late phase of Indian antiquity, on the eve of the development of Classical Hinduism, the Yogacaramovement
arises during the Gupta period (4th to 5th centuries). Yogacara received the name as it provided a "yoga," a
framework for engaging in the practices that lead to the path of the bodhisattva.
[134]
The yogacara sect teaches
"yoga" as a way to reach enlightenment.
[135]
4
sayogo yoga ityukto jvtma-

paramtmano
Union of the self (jivtma) with
the Divine (paramtma) is said to
be yoga.
Tirthankara Parsva in Yogic
meditation in
the Kayotsargaposture.
Middle Ages [edit source]
Middle Ages saw the development of many satellite traditions of yoga. Hatha yoga
emerged as a dominant practice of yoga in this period.
[136]
Bhakti movement [edit source]
Main article: Bhakti Yoga
The Bhakti movement was a development in medieval Hinduism which advocated
the concept of a personal God (or "Supreme Personality of Godhead"). The
movement was initiated by the Alvars of South India in the 6th to 9th centuries, and
it started gaining influence throughout India by the 12th to 15th
centuries.
[137]
Shaiva and Vaishnava bhakti traditions integrated aspects of Yoga
Sutras, such as the practical meditative exercises, with devotion.
[138]
Bhagavata
Purana elucidates the practice of a form of yoga
called viraha(separation) bhakti. Viraha bhakti emphasizes one pointed
concentration on Krishna.
[139]
Tantra [edit source]
By the turn of the first millennium, hatha yoga emerged from tantra.
[140][141]
Tantrism is a practice that is supposed to alter the relation of its practitioners to
the ordinary social, religious, and logical reality in which they live.
Through Tantric practice, an individual perceives reality as maya, illusion, and the
individual achieves liberation from it.
[142]
Both Tantra and yoga offer paths that
relieve a person from depending on the world. Where yoga relies on progressive
restriction of inputs from outside; Tantra relies on transmutation of all external
inputs so that one is no longer dependent on them, but can take them or leave them at will. They both make a person
independent.
[143]
This particular path to salvation among the several offered by Hinduism, links Tantrism to those
practices of Indian religions, such as yoga, meditation, and social renunciation, which are based on temporary or
permanent withdrawal from social relationships and modes.
[142]
During tantric practices and studies, the student is instructed further in meditation technique, particularly chakra
meditation. This is often in a limited form in comparison with the way this kind of meditation is known and used by
Tantric practitioners and yogis elsewhere, but is more elaborate than the initiate's previous meditation. It is
considered to be a kind ofKundalini yoga for the purpose of moving the Goddess into the chakra located in the
"heart", for meditation and worship.
[144]
Vajrayana [edit source]
Main article: Vajrayana
While breath channels (nis) of yogic practices had already been discussed in the classicalUpanishads, it was not
until the eighth-century Buddhist Hevajra Tantra and Carygiti, that hierarchies of chakras were introduced.
[145][146]
Hatha Yoga [edit source]
Main articles: Hatha yoga and Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Hatha yoga emerged from tantra.
[147][148]
The earliest references to hatha yoga are in Buddhist works dating from the
eighth century.
[149]
The earliest definition of hatha yoga is found in the 11th century Buddhist text Vimalaprabha,
which defines it in relation to the center channel, bindu etc.
[150]
The basic tenets of Hatha yoga were formulated by
Shaiva ascetics Matsyendranath and Gorakshanath c. 900 CE. Hatha yoga synthesizes elements of Patanjali's Yoga
An early illustration of Indians
perf ormingYoga Asana in 1688
Sutras with posture and breathing exercises.
[151]
Hatha yoga, sometimes referred to as the "psychophysical
yoga",
[152]
was further elaborated by Yogi Swatmarama, compiler of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika in 15th century CE.
This yoga differs substantially from the Raja yoga of Patanjali in that it focuses on shatkarma, the purification of the
physical body as leading to the purification of the mind (ha), and prana, or vital energy (tha).
[153][154]
Compared to the
seated asana, or sitting meditation posture, of Patanjali's Raja yoga,
[155]
it marks the development of asanas (plural)
into the full body 'postures' now in popular usage
[156]
and, along with its many modern variations, is the style that
many people associate with the word yoga today.
[157]
It is similar to a diving board preparing the body for purification, so that it may be ready to receive higher techniques
of meditation. The word "Hatha" comes from "Ha" which means Sun, and "Tha" which means Moon.
[158]
Sikhism [edit source]
Various yogic groups had become prominent in Punjab in the 15th and 16th century, whenSikhism was in its nascent
stage. Compositions of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, describe many dialogues he had with Jogis, a Hindu
community which practiced yoga.
[159]
Guru Nanak rejected the austerities, rites and rituals connected with Hatha
Yoga.
[160]
He propounded the path of Sahaja yoga or Nama yoga (meditation on the name) instead.
[161]
The Guru
Granth Sahib states:
Listen "O Yogi, Nanak tells nothing but the truth. You must discipline your mind. The devotee must
meditate on the Word Divine. It is His grace which brings about the union. He understands, he also
sees. Good deeds help one merge into Divination."
[162]
Modern history [edit source]
Reception in the West [edit source]
Yoga came to the attention of an educated western public in the mid 19th
century along with other topics of Indian philosophy. As part of this
budding interest N. C. Paul published his Treatise on Yoga Philosophy in
1851. The first Hindu teacher to actively advocate and disseminate
aspects of yoga to a western audience wasSwami Vivekananda, who
toured Europe and the United States in the 1890s.
[163]
The reception
which Swami Vivekananda received is inconceivable without the active
interest of intellectuals, in particular the New England Transcendentalists,
among them R. W. Emerson, who drew on German Romanticism and the
interest of philosophers and scholars like G. F. W. Hegel, the Schlegel
brothers, Max Mueller, A. Schopenhauer and others who found Vedanta in agreement with their own ideas and a
cherished source of religious-philosophical inspiration.
[164]
Theosophists also had a large influence on the American public's view of Yoga.
[165]
Esoteric views current at the end
of the 19th century were a further basis for the reception of Vedanta and of Yoga with its theory and practice of
correspondence between the spiritual and the physical.
[166]
The reception of Yoga and of Vedanta are thus entwined
with each other and with the (mostly Neo-platonically based) currents of religious and philosophical reform and
transformation throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. M. Eliade, who was rooted in the Romanian currents of
these traditions brought a new element into the reception of Yoga by the strong emphasis on Tantric Yoga in his
seminal book: Yoga: Immortality and Freedom.
[note 14]
By introducing the Tantra traditions and philosophy of Yoga
the conception of the "transcendent" to be attained by Yogic practice shifted from experiencing the "transcendent"
("Atman-Brahman" in Advaitic theory) in the mind to the body itself.
[167]
In the West, the term "yoga" is today typically associated with Hatha yoga and its asanas(postures) or as a form of
A western style Hatha yoga class.
exercise.
[168]
In the 1910s and the 1920s Yoga suffered a period of bad public will largely as a result of backlash
against immigration, a rise in puritanical values, and a number of scandals. In the 1930s and 1940s it began to gain
more public acceptance as a result of celebrity endorsement. In the 1950s there was another period of paranoia
against yoga,
[165]
but by the 1960s, western interest in Hindu spirituality reached its peak, giving rise to a great
number of Neo-Hindu schools specifically advocated to a western public. During this period, most of the influential
Indian teachers of yoga came from two lineages:Sivananda Saraswati (18871963) and Tirumalai
Krishnamacharya (18881989).
[169]
Among the teachers of Hatha yoga who were active in the west in this period
were B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, and Swami Vishnu-devananda, and Swami
Satchidananda.
[170][171][172]
Kundalini Yoga was brought to the United States by Yogi Bhajan in 1969.
[173]
A second "yoga boom" followed in the 1980s, as Dean Ornish, a follower of Swami Satchidananda, connected yoga
to heart health, legitimizing yoga as a purely physical system of health exercises outside of counter
culture or esotericism circles, and unconnected to a religious denomination.
[163]
Numerous asanas seemed modern
in origin, and strongly overlapped 19th and early 20th century Western exercise traditions.
[174]
Since 2001, the popularity of yoga in the USA has been on the constant rise. The number of people who practiced
some form of yoga has grown from 4 million (in 2001) to 20 million (in 2011).
In 2013, for the White House,
Yoga has become a universal language of spiritual

exercise in the United States, crossing many lines of
religion and cultures,... Every day, millions of people
practice yoga to improve their health and overall well-
being. That's why we're encouraging everyone to take
part in PALA (Presidential Active Lifestyle Award), so
show your support for yoga and answer the challenge.
At this time some schools in America are against its practice inside
educational facilities, saying it promotes Hinduism in violation of
the Establishment Clause.
[175]
The American College of Sports Medicine supports the integration of Yoga into the exercise regimens of healthy
individuals as long instruction is given by properly trained professionals, citing its promotion of "profound mental,
physical and spiritual awareness" and its benefits as a form of stretching, and as an enhancer of breathe control and
core strength.
[176]
Medicine [edit source]
Main article: Yoga as exercise or alternative medicine
Potential benefits for adults [edit source]
Long-term yoga practitioners in the United States have reported musculoskeletal and mental health improvements, as
well as reduced symptoms of asthma in asthmatics.
[22]
Regular yoga practice increases brain GABA levels and has
been shown to improve mood and anxiety more than some other metabolically matched exercises, such as
walking.
[177][178]
The three main focuses of Hatha yoga (exercise, breathing, and meditation) make it beneficial to
those suffering from heart disease. Overall, studies of the effects of yoga on heart disease suggest that yoga may
reduce high blood pressure, improve symptoms of heart failure, enhance cardiac rehabilitation, and lower
cardiovascular risk factors.
[179]
For chronic low back pain, specialist Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs has been found
30% more beneficial than usual care alone in a UK clinical trial.
[180]
Other smaller studies support this
finding.
[181][182]
The Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs programme is the dominant treatment for society (both cheaper
and more effective than usual care alone) due to 8.5 fewer days off work each year.
[183]
A research group from
Boston University School of Medicine also tested yogas effects on lower back pain. Over twelve weeks, one group of
volunteers practiced yoga while the control group continued with standard treatment for back pain. The reported pain
for yoga participants decreased by one third, while the standard treatment group had only a five percent drop. Yoga
participants also had a drop of 80% in pain medication use.
[184]
There has been an emergence of studies investigating yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer patients.
Yoga is used for treatment of cancer patients to decrease depression, insomnia, pain, and fatigue and increase
anxiety control.
[185]
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs include yoga as a mind-body technique
to reduce stress. A study found that after seven weeks the group treated with yoga reported significantly less mood
disturbance and reduced stress compared to the control group. Another study found that MBSR had showed positive
effects on sleep anxiety, quality of life, and spiritual growth in cancer patients.
[186]
Yoga has also been studied as a treatment for schizophrenia. Some encouraging, but inconclusive, evidence
suggests that yoga as a complementary treatment may help alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia and improve
health-related quality of life.
[19]
Implementation of the Kundalini Yoga Lifestyle has shown to help substance abuse addicts increase their quality of
life according to psychological questionnaires like the Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale and the Quality of
Recovery Index.
[187]
Yoga has been shown in a study to have some cognitive functioning (executive functioning, including inhibitory
control) acute benefit.
[188]
Physical injuries [edit source]
Main article: Sports injury
Since a small percentage of yoga practitioners each year suffer physical injuries analogous to sports
injuries;
[189]
caution and common sense are recommended.
[190]
Yoga has been criticized for being potentially
dangerous and being a cause for a range of serious medical conditions including thoracic outlet syndrome,
degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine, spinal stenosis, retinal tears, damage to the common fibular nerve, so
called "Yoga foot drop,"
[191]
etc. An expos of these problems by William Broad published in January, 2012 inThe
New York Times Magazine
[192]
resulted in controversy within the international yoga community. Broad, a science
writer, yoga practitioner, and author of The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards,
[193]
had suffered a back
injury while performing a yoga posture.
[194]
Torn muscles, knee injuries,
[195]
and headaches are common ailments
which may result from yoga practice.
[196]
An extensive survey of yoga practitioners in Australia showed that about 20% had suffered some physical injury while
practicing yoga. In the previous 12 months 4.6% of the respondents had suffered an injury producing prolonged pain
or requiring medical treatment. Headstands, shoulder stands, lotus and half lotus (seated cross-legged position),
forward bends, backward bends, and handstands produced the greatest number of injuries.
[189]
Some yoga practitioners do not recommend certain yoga exercises for women during menstruation, for pregnant
women, or for nursing mothers. However, meditation, breathing exercises, and certain postures which are safe and
beneficial for women in these categories are encouraged.
[197]
Among the main reasons that experts cite for causing negative effects from yoga are beginners' competitiveness and
instructors' lack of qualification. As the demand for yoga classes grows, many people get certified to become yoga
instructors, often with relatively little training. Not every newly certified instructor can evaluate the condition of every
new trainee in their class and recommend refraining from doing certain poses or using appropriate props to avoid
injuries. In turn, a beginning yoga student can overestimate the abilities of their body and strive to do advanced poses
before their body is flexible or strong enough to perform them.
[192][196]
Vertebral artery dissection, a tear in the arteries in the neck which provide blood to the brain can result from rotation
of the neck while the neck is extended. This can occur in a variety of contexts, for example, in a beauty shop while
your hair is being rinsed, but is an event which could occur in some yoga practices. This is a very serious condition
which can result in astroke.
[198][199]
Acetabular labral tears, damage to the structure joining the femur and the hip, have been reported to have resulted
from yoga practice.
[200]
Pediatrics [edit source]
Yoga can be an excellent training for children and adolescents, both as a form of physical exercise and for breathing,
focus, mindfulness, and stress relief.
Many school districts have considered incorporating yoga into their P.E. programs. The Encinitas, California school
district gained a San Diego Superior Court Judge's approval to use yoga in P.E., holding against the parents who
claimed the practice was intrinsically religious and hence should not be part of a state funded program.
[201]
Yoga compared with other systems of meditation [edit source]
Zen Buddhism [edit source]
Zen (the name of which derives from the Sanskrit "dhyaana" via the Chinese "ch'an"
[note 15]
is a form of Mahayana
Buddhism. The Mahayana school of Buddhism is noted for its proximity with yoga.
[203]
In the west, Zen is often set
alongside yoga; the two schools of meditation display obvious family resemblances.
[204]
This phenomenon merits
special attention since yogic practices have some of their roots in the Zen Buddhist school.
[note 16]
Certain essential
elements of yoga are important both for Buddhism in general and for Zen in particular.
[205]
Tibetan Buddhism [edit source]
In the Nyingma tradition, the path of meditation practice is divided into nine yanas, or vehicles, which are said to be
increasingly profound.
[206]
The last six are described as "yoga yanas": "Kriya yoga," "Upa yoga," "Yoga yana,"
"Mah yoga," "Anu yoga" and the ultimate practice, "Ati yoga."
[207]
The Sarma traditions also include Kriya, Upa
(called "Charya"), and Yoga, with the Anuttara yoga class substituting for Mahayoga and Atiyoga.
[208]
Other tantra yoga practices include a system of 108 bodily postures practiced with breath and heart rhythm. The
Nyingma tradition also practices Yantra yoga (Tib. "Trul khor"), a discipline that includes breath work (or pranayama),
meditative contemplation and precise dynamic movements to centre the practitioner.
[209]
The body postures of
Tibetan ancient yogis are depicted on the walls of the Dalai Lama's summer temple of Lukhang. A semi-popular
account of Tibetan yoga by Chang (1993) refers to caal (Tib. "tummo"), the generation of heat in one's own body,
as being "the very foundation of the whole of Tibetan yoga."
[210]
Chang also claims that Tibetan yoga involves
reconciliation of apparent polarities, such as prana and mind, relating this to theoretical implications of tantrism.
Christian meditation [edit source]
Main articles: Christian meditation, A Christian reflection on the New Age, and Aspects of Christian meditation
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.
[211]
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.
[212][213][214]
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.
[215]
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.
[211]
The letter also says, "one can see if and how [prayer] might be enriched by meditation
methods developed in other religions and cultures"
[216]
but maintains the idea that "there must be some fit between
the nature of [other approaches to] prayer and Christian beliefs about ultimate
reality."
[211]
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.
[217]
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."
[218]
Islam [edit source]
The development of Sufism was considerably influenced by Indian yogic practises, where they adapted both physical
postures (asanas) and breath control (pranayama).
[219]
The ancient Indian yogic text Amritakunda ("Pool of Nectar)"
was translated into Arabic and Persian as early as the 11th century. Several other yogic texts were appropriated by
Sufi tradition, but typically the texts juxtapose yoga materials alongside Sufi practices without any real attempt at
integration or synthesis. Yoga became known to Indian Sufis gradually over time, but engagement with yoga is not
found at the historical beginnings of the tradition.
[220]
Yoga is a growing industry in Islamic countries (Two Bikram Yoga studios in Iran). Also, yoga is used in developing
countries like Palestine to help the population manage stress. This article is a comparative study of yoga and Islam,
showing their similarities.
[221][222][223]
Malaysia's top Islamic body in 2008 passed a fatwa, which is legally non-binding, againstMuslims practicing yoga,
saying it had elements of "Hindu spiritual teachings" and that its practice was blasphemy and is therefore haraam.
Muslim yoga teachers in Malaysia criticized the decision as "insulting."
[224]
Sisters in Islam, a women's rights group
in Malaysia, also expressed disappointment and said that its members would continue with their yoga classes.
[225]
The fatwa states that yoga practiced only as physical exercise is permissible, but prohibits the chanting of religious
mantras,
[226]
and states that teachings such as the uniting of a human with God is not consistent with Islamic
philosophy.
[227]
In a similar vein, the Council of Ulemas, an Islamic body in Indonesia, passed a fatwa banning yoga
on the grounds that it contains "Hindu elements"
[228]
These fatwas have, in turn, been criticized by Darul Uloom
Deoband, a Deobandi Islamic seminary in India.
[229]
In May 2009, Turkey's head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ali Bardakolu, discounted personal development
techniques such as yoga as commercial ventures that could lead to extremism. His comments were made in the
context of yoga possibly competing with and eroding participation in Islamic practice.
[230]

Yoga

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Descrição original:

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Yoga

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

9/24/13 Yoga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

sayogo yoga ityukto jvtma-

Yoga has become a universal language of spiritual

Você também pode gostar