BODY POSTURES — ASANA

Posted on October 28, 2024 by DonBothell

Moving into and holding various configurations of the physical body as part of the practice of yoga is called asana. When people in the West think of yoga, this narrow range of the total discipline commonly comes to mind. In Sanskrit, ‘asana’ translates as seat or ‘seat next to the teacher’, expressing the need to be comfortable in the body before other learning can commence. Asana practice improves health, strength, flexibility and balance. The lymphatic system of the body needs movement and the flexing of muscles to propel lymph fluids through the body. All the components of the body need to be exercised to maintain optimum function. Without stimulation they tend to atrophy.

Asanas help to clam the mind and temper emotions. Challenging the physical body helps the practitioner connect with the other levels of self. Because of the rapid ability of the physical body to reflect change, it demonstrates the capacity to change on deeper unseen levels. The physical body is our home in this reality. Memories can be stored in our tissues. Asana is a way of strengthening the will and exploring our psychological makeup, creating a balance between our material and spiritual existence.

Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus page 73

INTUITION — YOGA THOUGHT

Posted on September 24, 2024 by DonBothell

After doing yoga and meditating for a while — getting more acquainted with your complete self — many things are going to start to become clear. Living fully in all of your koshas will facilitate a new form of understanding. The Knowledge Body Kosha knows beyond sensory perception. What existed as concepts or murky theories suddenly becomes obvious.

A Higher Form of Thought — INTUITION — courtesy of Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

To the yogi, the highest form of thought is ‘intuitive’, but beyond the way the word is commonly used to describe having a ‘hunch’. In this context, intuition is an absolute understanding that just is. Suddenly it is so obvious, you wonder how you didn’t always have this understanding. Then you realize, of course, a part of you (your higher self) always did understand, but you didn’t consciously inhabit that part of the self. Now your increased awareness through yoga, simply sees and knows.

YOGA

Posted on September 2, 2024 by DonBothell

Where did it come from, this yoga that is going to answer all my questions, tune me to the universe, transform me, body mind, and soul? The historical answer is still a mystery. However, one explanation based on archaeological discoveries is widely accepted. In the 1920’s, ruins of a civilization were discovered along a no longer existent river system in the region that is now Northern India and Pakistan. Three thousand years before the birth of Christ, this civilization had complex urban centers with running water and underground sewage systems. Their language, Sanskrit, is the root of all the Indo-European languages.

Among the ruins were found many statues depicting what we now associate as being yoga postures. Postures are a part of the yoga tradition that asks the practitioner to look within. This yoga tradition believes the universe is mirrored in each of us. Nature has a working set of solutions that is used on ever greater or lesser scales for everything, as our recent appreciation of fractals demonstrates. To understand something on a scale within our perceptual range allows us to imagine solutions to questions above or below that range. The yoga postures, asanas in Sanskrit, are only a part of yoga. Yoga as practiced in the West has placed most of its emphasis on the practice of asanas. Most Westerners think of yoga as a system of physical exercise, but it is much more.

Yoga asks us to look within, to relax into ourselves, to know ourselves. With complete understanding of the self comes complete understanding. This ‘looking within’ is as old as the human ability to wonder. In that sense, our origin is the beginning of our embrace of yoga.

One broad definition of yoga is the art and science of living. Yoga practice allows understanding to unfold. Other people may help by suggesting techniques for self-exploration, or how and where to look, but all the insights come from your observations. All the answers are your answers. You diligently explore your own direct experience. No faith required.

Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus Pages 8 —9.

KUNDALINI — YOGA

Posted on August 7, 2024 by DonBothell

In the Hindu yoga tradition, Kundalini is a beautiful metaphor for unimpeded flow of energy from the lowest depths of the base of the spine to beyond the crown of the skull into the realm of the divine. The Kundalini experience relies on universal body structures and has been encountered by mystics throughout the ages. The imagery reflects the occult principle of the body as the microcosm echoing the large configuration of the macrocosm. Shakti, the cosmic feminine principle, combines in perfect union (yoga) with Shiva, the masculine cosmic principle to create perfect balance.

Yoga (Union) = Shakti/Shiva = Perfect Balance

YOGA REVERES BALANCE

Posted on August 5, 2024 by DonBothell

Yoga sees the human body is a finely tuned, finely balanced vessel for awareness. Multitudes of balanced chemical and functional relationships are requisite for our being. Just as the earth revolves in its perfect orbit without the coaching of our minds, so our infinitely complicated bodies draw upon a higher order.

“Yoga sees the body as a finely balanced vessel for awareness” — Weight Loss Through Yoga

YOGA’S KUNDALINI METAPHOR

Posted on June 2, 2024 by DonBothell

Latent Kundalini energy, potent negatively charged apana, reposes in the lowest esoteric center of the body. Pictured as a serpent coiled in the area analogous to the tailbone, it blocks the portal to liberation, the Sushumna.

The yogi entices Kundalini energy up the spine

The sleeping coiled serpent is awakened by the tapas (heat of devotion) of the yogi. The female goddess, in her serpent form, then begins to uncoil opening the door of the channel to the Absolute. The yogi, utilizing the skills learned through much sincere and diligent practice, entices the Kundalini energy up the spine through the Sushumna. Each successive chakra is entered and aroused, provoking full expression of each chakra’s distinctive attributes and further encouraging the ascent, until the crown of the head is pierced and the thousand petal lotus is entered. This is the locus of the static point of the positive, masculine psycho-spiritual energy, the male god, Shiva. This is complete union, the fullest expression of yoga, perfect and unique to yoga. Unlike other spiritual practices, it includes the body. Not only is the mind transcended, the body is illuminated and experienced as the body of the divine. The physical plane is entwined in the higher realms. The ideal of liberation combines with worldly enjoyment.

A LIFETIME OF YOGA

Posted on May 28, 2024 by DonBothell

Many people have told me they are the lightest they’ve ever been, and feel the best they’ve ever felt when they practice yoga. If you do yoga regularly with a group of people, you can watch them transform. This applies both to people who are just starting their practice, and to people who have done yoga for years, who seem to go on to ever-finer levels of beauty. It is not superficial. Rather, it is a peeling away of the meretricious constructs that cover the perfect expression of Divinity that is our true nature.

Good Yoga — Good Health — Good Life

If you practice yoga, even without focusing on weight loss, weight loss may occur if your body is carrying extra weight. An extremely thin person may gain weight. Imagine what can happen when we identify and utilize the processes that cause the body to seek its most perfect, natural physical expression? The yogic philosophy has an understanding of our bodies and the universe they inhabit that extends beyond the scope of our current popular science and medicine. We can use these insights to accelerate the realization of our our ideal form. This form is coiled inside each of us, anxiously waiting to be released.

Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus page 162 and 163

YOGA FIRST, Weight Loss Consequential

Posted on March 1, 2024 by DonBothell

HARMONY OF SPHERES

WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS was inspired by the realization many, because of their size, were effectively being denied access to yoga. Because in America, when people think yoga, they think asana or physical exercise; many of the other aspects of yoga, that make it a holistic science, are ignored. Of course exercise is good and should be encouraged, but humanity is entering a new stage of evolution… Spiritual Being. At one stage of our development, strength was the important factor determining success. Then mental intelligence. Now the definitive is spiritual development.

Just as a good weapon, devised with intelligence, can make brute strength laughingly ineffective — so spiritual acumen completely changes the game. Weight Loss was used a an example of how effective the techniques explained in the book are, how quickly everything can change, because overweight is such a big problem with no effective previous solution and the overweight were being ignored. The techniques work for everyone. Something very important is happening that changes everything you have learned to be reality. Many are coming to realize this shift is beginning to happen. If you get with the total holistic program that is yoga in its complete form — all mundane problems like overweight will correct themselves.

There are things to do to participate fully in this ‘New Age’. WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS is a simple, concise and complete manual for transformation — so you can “get with the program.” Effort is required on your part. It helps to know what to do. Get a book and read it. Perform the ‘work’ necessary for your self realization. It isn’t difficult and the rewards are overwhelmingly rich. I promise you love, joy, and understanding beyond your greatest dreams.