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36 Search Result for 'yoga'

Light on the Language of Yoga — Variances in Sanskrit Pronunciation

October, 2015

Sanskrit, the language of yoga, is often a mystery to many students of yoga. Yet, it would be correct to say that most students of yoga commonly use Sanskrit terms and the language has permeated the nomenclature of everyday English; as many people are familiar with terms such as OM or Namaste, Guru, Karma or a host of other terms which are from the Sanskrit language. read more

Yoga in Palestine

December, 2015

Many teachers and students who are practicing Muslims and Christians have said that yoga has helped them connect with or deepens their own spirituality. For example, in various trainings and workshops, women and men have spoken about the similarity between the bowing and kneeling in Muslim prayers and the yoga postures, and found themselves more flexible for the five-times daily prayers. Many have said that they benefit from the focus and stillness of the meditative aspect of yoga, bringing.. read more

Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Part Five

May, 2016

Dr. Miller has translated several classical Indian texts from Sanskrit into English. This is the fifth part of Richard's translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, along with his rich insights and incisive commentary. read more

Eternal Yoga

December, 2015

Eternal Yoga, a term given to me at the end of a winter retreat in the Himalayas, is a set of practices where we go above our head to discover our eternal nature beyond conceptualization and individuality, while at the same time increasing our individual definition. This brings forth a conscious continuum where we know for ourselves what is our spirit, our soul, and the weaving into our embodiment. read more

Marshall Govindan on Thirumandiram and the Tamil Yoga Siddhas

July, 2016

Marshall Govindan (or Yogacharya M. Govindan Satchidananda) is a Kriya Yogi, author, scholar and publisher of literary works related to classical Yoga and Tantra and teacher of Kriya Yoga. He is the President of Babaji's Kriya Yoga and Publications, Inc., and the President of Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Archaryas, a lay order of more than 25 Kriya Yoga teachers operating in more than 20 countries. read more

The Role of Devotion in Yoga

August, 2015

What do the classic yoga texts teach about the role of devotion in yoga practice? Is devotion to a higher force, deity or divine principle considered optional? What are the forms of devotional practice that are relevant to yoga? Answers to these questions are clearly stated in the Yoga Sutras, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Ramayana as well as less well known yogic texts such as the Yoga Yajnavalkya, and the Gheranda Samhita. read more

Krishnamacharya’s Yoga Rahasya

July, 2016

Many students of the yoga tradition know that Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888 - 1989) is credited with being the father of modern yoga, but most remain foggy about the details of his life and even foggier about the books he wrote. read more

The Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Part Three

February, 2016

Dr. Miller has translated several classical Indian texts from Sanskrit into English. This is the third part of Richard's translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, along with his rich insights and incisive commentary, published here as a four part series. read more

Yogavasistha II: Reflections on Action and Dispassion

October, 2015

Near the end of the Mahabharata (MB), the author Vyasa says, Whatever is found elsewhere in other texts is also found in this book. Whatever is not found in this book is nowhere else to be found. The Yogavasistha (YV) falls in the genre of MB in terms of the wisdom contained therein. Instead of the historical narratives and genealogies in which these nuggets of wisdom are embedded in the Mahabharata, the YV chooses parables and fanciful stories ... read more

The Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali

December, 2015

Dr. Miller has translated several classical Indian texts from Sanskrit into English. In the last issue we published a seminal text of Advaita Vedanta - Drg-Drsya-Viveka: An Inquiry into the Nature of the Seer and the Seen. We now bring you Richard's translation of Patañjali's Yoga Sutras as a four part series along with his rich insights and incisive commentary. read more

An Introduction to the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha

August, 2015

What exactly is real? What is the nature of reality? What is the purpose of any particular life? These are some of the questions that the YogaVāsiṣṭha (YV) explores in tales that are epic in size and minute in their detailed storytelling, interlocking tales of kings, sages, and people from the entire spectrum of occupations. read more

Yoga Meditation

July, 2016

In the beginning there was only the one yoga, sometimes referred to as Maha Yoga, the great yoga. Before the one greater yoga broke apart into small factions, Hatha Yoga was the physical school through which all yogis had to pass. read more

Yogacharya Ellen O’Brian (Podcast)

December, 2015

Yogacharya is the Spiritual Director of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment in San Jose CA. Ordained to teach by Roy Eugene Davis, a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, she is the author of several books, a frequent speaker at conferences worldwide, a leader of service projects and host of The Yoga Hour on the Unity FM network. We spoke about her work, her unique background and her observations of the contemporary spiritual scene. read more

Interview: Anneke Lucas - Liberation Prison Yoga

August, 2015

Sutra Journal Editor Vikram Zutshi interviewed Anneke Lucas on her compelling life story and powerful work at Liberation Prison yoga. What followed was heart rending, uplifting and humbling. Without much further ado, here is their conversation ... read more

Yoga and the Four Aims of Life

August, 2015

In the context of the Indian civilization Yoga is a path to Moksha, or Self realization. Moksha is itself one of the four aims of life, along with Dharma/Virtue, Artha/Prosperity and Kama/Enjoyment. read more

The Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Part Two

January, 2016

Dr. Miller has translated several classical Indian texts from Sanskrit into English. In the last issue we published a seminal text of Advaita Vedanta - Drg-Drsya-Viveka: An Inquiry into the Nature of the Seer and the Seen. We now bring you part two of Richard's translation of Patañjali's Yoga Sutras four part series along with his rich insights and incisive commentary. read more

The Globalization of Yoga: An Argumentative Approach

July, 2016

Over the last century and a half, yoga has become a global phenomenon. In the process, lines of tension have emerged over what constitutes authentic practice versus what has been transformed to be “digestible” by a western audience. read more

The Role of Yoga in Bengali Shaktism

February, 2016

The love of deities may be passionate or obedient, wide-ranging or focused, ordered or wild. As Friedhelm Hardy has shown, there is intellectual bhakti which emphasizes loyalty and obedience, and there is ecstatic, emotional bhakti which is overwhelming and intoxicating. read more

The Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Part Four

March, 2016

In this chapter, Richard Miller presents further six sutras from Patañjali's YS, which differentiate ever subtler states of meditation that enable us to go beyond what normally binds attention (prakṛti), in order to attain a glimpse of Essential Nature (puruṣa) and the flowering of freedom from suffering. read more

Kriya Yoga in the Light of Recent Findings in Neuroscience

January, 2016

If we consider that the mind is an embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information, we can use the mind to change the brain. By focusing our attention, intentionally directing the flow of energy and information through our neural circuits, we can directly alter the brain’s activity and its structure. To do so, we must know how to promote well-being through awareness. Mental activity actually creates new neural structures. Hence, even fleeting thoughts and emotions can leave read more

The Divine Mother's Yoga

July, 2016

Mother Nature is an intelligent force that that has experimented with her Earth laboratory for 4.5 billion years. If Earth is out of balance as a result of human technology, waste and over-population, why would we imagine that Mother Nature does not have a means nor the intention to bring the system back into balance? read more

Shakti, Bhakti, Yoga and Darshan: Practice and Experience in the Religious Art of India (Video)

July, 2016

The Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Part Six

June, 2016

Enlightenment is supported by our ability to maintain sustained intention and attention for recognizing our underlying and unchanging Essential Nature. The tendency of the mind to get involved with, and distracted by changing phenomena (vikṣepaḥ) needs to shift so that we are able to sustain self-inquiry (antarāyaḥ), no matter what else may be arising in the body, mind, or world. read more

Malathi Iyengar on Dance, Yoga and Rasa

January, 2016

Malathi Iyengar is a Los Angeles based choreographer, dancer, teacher, writer, and visual artist. Iyengar holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Choreography and Performance from University of California, Los Angeles. Iyengar studied Bharatanatyam (classical dance of India) with guru Narmada of Bangalore, India and choreography and improvisation under the mentorship of Marion Scott. read more

Developing a Continuity of Practice

August, 2015

Most of us reading this journal are more or less engaged in a spiritual practice, such as meditation, which as it becomes a daily practice is formally called sadhana. However, despite the best of intentions, there is often dramatic variations of clarity over the days, such that sometimes it is just like starting again from scratch. I will share some tips to better carry forth a momentum from one sitting to the next, and in the process develop a greater integration... read more

How Deepest Tantra Saves the World: Part 3

December, 2015

In this issue of Sutra Journal, Dr. Stuart Sovatsky concludes a discussion on the nature and the impact of the Scientia Sexualis, the sex-desire-centric ‘liberated sexuality’ based in Freudian theories and supported by modern birth control methods, which has also appropriated Indic Ars Eroticas of Kundalini-Tantra and Hatha Yoga in Scientia modes of ‘neo-tantra’ and ‘neo-yoga’. read more

Sally Kempton (podcast)

December, 2015

Sally Kempton was a well-known journalist in the early 1970s when she met Swami Muktananda and began working closely with him. She was initiated into the Saraswati order of monks and taught in the Siddha Yoga lineage as Swami Durgananda for 20 years. After leaving the monastic life in 2002, she became a highly popular teacher, workshop leader and author whose books include Meditation for the Love of It, Awakening Shakti and Doorways to the Infinite. We spoke about her fascinating life and work... read more

Consciousness: The Ultimate Reality

May, 2016

Mathematics is the golden key to communicable truth of reality of the natural world-maybe even beyond our limited bandwidth. The key to non-communicable truth is the mystic experience through yoga and meditation. read more

Towards a Theory of Tantra-Ecology

May, 2016

In the highly coded environs of Tantric practice the final aim is the realization that the body of the sādhaka and the body of divinity are united in a holographic universe whose constituent parts contain within themselves the whole, “this all” (sarvaṃ idaṃ). The Śiva Saṃhitā, a Nāth Siddha guide to Haṭha Yoga (ca. Tenth century), describes the body of the yogin as the seat of the entire universe. read more

Vettaveli: vast luminous space

May, 2016

Yoga isn’t only about letting go of own false identification with what we are not but also remembering who we are at the ground of our being in Self-realization and God-realization. read more

Piety, Puja, and Visual Images Part Two

July, 2016

The earliest evidence for yoga is found not in texts but rather in art, in the material remains of the Indus, or Harappan, civilization. Much later it was this renunciate /ascetic tradition that was predominant in the philosophical literature known collectively as Upanishad, out of which—and in antagonism to Vedic sacrificial rituals—emerged Jainism and Buddhism, as well as theistic Hinduism. read more

A Conversation with Christopher Chapple (podcast)

November, 2015

Dr. Chapple is a professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The author of numerous academic articles and books, he has taught Sanskrit, Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, and in 2013 established the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies program. We spoke about his own spiritual history, his distinguished academic career and his experience creating the first ever masters degree program in Yoga Studies. read more

How Deepest Tantra Saves the World - Part I

October, 2015

In this and the next two issues of Sutra Journal, Dr. Stuart Sovatsky discusses the nature and the impact of the Scientia Sexualis, the sex-desire-centric liberated sexuality based in Freudian theories and supported by modern birth control methods, which has also appropriated Indic Ars Eroticas of Kundalini-Tantra and Hatha Yoga in Scientia modes of neo-tantra and neo-yoga read more

Christopher Tompkins on the Origins of Vinyasa

November, 2015

Well, to date I don't know of a single publication on the history of yoga, including the recent BRILL Encyclopedia entry on Yoga, which has recognized and accurately depicted the fundamental and critical place of Yoga in the thousand year long tradition of Tantra, so revolutionary for its major contribution to the yoga tradition, including the Hatha based innovation of non-seated Asana sequencing. Instead Western scholarship in particular has simply skipped over it, and has... read more

A Conversation with Dr. Richard Miller

October, 2015

Yoga Nidra is an ancient and comprehensive approach to meditative self-inquiry, awakening, and enlightenment that leads to the fundamental realization of our essential nondual nature that we share in common with all of life. The aim of this practice is to enable us to realize, or awaken to the Mystery that all life - sentient and insentient - arises from and into which it dissolves and remains not-separate. read more

Critics Corner: Mat, Block and Bolster

November, 2015

Thinking that simple asanas are Yoga is a mistake that has proliferated as thousands of different styles in teacher trainings worldwide. Thousands, maybe millions, live under the misguided notion that they are yogis and what they are doing and teaching is Yoga. This arguably comes down to one organization: Yoga Alliance of America read more

36 Search Result for 'yoga'

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