Tag Archives: Yoga

BIKRAM YOGA

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Bikram Yoga is a style of Hatha Yoga imported to the United States by Bikram Choudhury in the middle 1970’s. It is the forerunner of the ‘hot yoga’ becoming broadly popular. High heat is used to limber the muscles. Bikram Yoga is practiced in studios heated in excess of 110 degrees F.

The exact same twenty-six postures are performed in the same order, for the same length of time, each ninety minute class session; starting and closing with a breathing exercise, and finishing with ‘deadman posture.’ Instructors are taught a dialogue that is repeated almost verbatim. Mirrors are surrounding the participant, so they can observe their performance.

I will discuss some of the benefits of the practice, having participated in four to five sessions a week, while still doing more conventional Hatha practice in addition, for over a dozen years. Entering the studio, at times, your first impression is you’ve entered a too hot sauna — the heat does limber the body at a very deep level. When practicing Bikram, you should be cautious performing the same postures without the heat. You can harm yourself because of reduced flexability. Doing the same postures, in the same order, for the same duration, while under exacting instruction, it is easy to observe and appraise your performance. The postures have unique subtle differences from conventional Hatha practice, and are very effective. They are sequenced in a very logical and complementary order. The high heat causes sweating, the skin being our largest organ, this can get rid of toxins, is purifying and good for the skin.

Bikram instructors have been known to tout the very one dimensional ‘physical’ nature of the practice. “This ain’t no incense, candles, and chanting–gazing at your navel yoga.” No mention or claims of spiritually are made. Because it is yoga, and because of the nature of yoga—a Bikram practice can be very spiritual. Its demanding nature forces the participant to explore their relationship with themselves, pushing through great exertion and exhaustion. The ‘sameness’ of the session frees the mind from thought. It’s a common to experience altered states through extreme exertion, what athletes call entering a ‘zone’. Think of the altered consciousness sought by swirling dervishes. During practice you are encouraged to focus on a spot between the brows on your image reflected in the mirror. It’s easy to lose subjective awareness and meld with the field. Exerting the will to accomplish a very difficult arduous task, one moment at a time, can be very educational and gratifying. It can be possible to have a glimpse of our more than human nature.

Some aspirants can’t take the heat and a person should know some yoga and be in pretty good shape, with a well hydrated body, before attempting a class. In all the thousands of classes I participated, only once did I see an ambulance have to cart someone away.  Bikram Yoga’s greatest detractor is Bikram Choudhury himself. Why his guru, who developed the sequence, chose Bikram to bring the teaching to America is interesting to speculate on. Bikram projects a public persona of arrested development at around twelve years of age. He flaunts his narcissism and materialism. His ego appears to have no consideration for the feelings of others. Maybe there is a lesson here too. We’re all human and with fault— learn to look beyond the messenger and evaluate the message on its own merits?

Feel the Heat – WALKING STICK

Feel the Heat – WALKING STICK

 

 

SEX AND YOGA

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The lessons we are learning on the physical plane are the reasons for our existence on this plane. Those lessons can only be learned here. Our physical form is the utility for the necessary experiences. We are divided into gender, male and female. Sex shouldn’t be treated as a hindrance to enlightenment or spiritual wholeness, but recognized as a microcosmic expression of the macrocosmic duality that animates our universe. The relationship represented by the yin yang symbol shows the ‘one’ being made aware of its self through interaction with the ‘other’, forming the whole.

The word for sex in Sanskrit is ‘kama’, as in Kama Sutra, the classic seventh century manual on lovemaking. Kama translates as ‘love-sex together’. Sex and love are entwined in one concept. Kama is also the name of the Hindu goddess of love. The early appeal of yoga in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was imbued with sexual titillation. Generally modern followers of Hinduism in India are even more sexually repressed than most Westerners. That’s saying a lot, since many of us live in a state of frustrated sexual over-stimulation. The sacred is perverted to the carnal and our unfulfilled natural desires are subverted to marketing tools.

Sexual frustration is an expression of imbalance that the mind often attempts to correct with the intake of food. The fallacy of this is obvious when recognized. The love-sex expressed by ‘kama’, as opposed to rutting, has that most important of all elements—love. Touch, as an expression of love, is so important to our being, that infants can wither and die without it. Studies in nursing homes have discovered that even the touch of a pet can foster healthier wellbeing. We live in a wasteland of disconnection. Prakriti, everything but the divine, is always in a state of change. Through yoga, we can give positive direction to that change.1013031_276309269182407_1837971221_n

VIBRATION

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The fundamental sound is ‘OM.

Everything is vibration. When you chant “OM,” your voice resonates across the universe like the ripples created when a stone is dropped into a pond. This goes on forever.535854_230431267103541_1087258781_n

Each octave of vibration (comparable to do re mi fa so la ti do) flows out of the preceding octave and into the following one: each octave (including both the ‘do’ notes) has half the frequency of the octave above it, and twice the frequency of the octave below it.  This too is a continuum, stretching beyond the limits of hearing and finally beyond the limits of measure. All is a progression along infinite scales. Frequency determines the mode of existence — the manifestation of all phenomena.

 

Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus        page 67

YOGA AND GRACE

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SEVENTH (DIMENSION) CHAKRA

Ultraviolet floods consciousness — Seventh Chakra — weight loss through yoga

Ultraviolet floods consciousness — Seventh Chakra

Yoga thinks of this seventh dimension as an alter where spiritual energy, processed up through the chakras, is offered to the Divine and accepted with unqualified love.The intensity of that acceptance, or love, further stimulates the spiritual oscillations, further refining them, causing their ascent. Imagine love so great, our concept of love does’t begin to approach it: Completeness, understanding, beauty and joy so transcendent, it surpasses our cognition.

Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus        page 157

PRANAYAMA

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Pranayama is used to control, direct, and measure breath through various techniques. Because prana, the life force energy, rides the breath, pranayama has remarkable powers of transformation.

weight loss through yoga

weight loss through yoga

Many body functions are directed by the autonomic nervous system and operate without our control. Other physical actions are consciously directed by our thoughts and intentions. Breath is one function that is in between, straddling both the automatic and conscious systems. The body breathes perfectly well without any conscious direction, but we can also intervene and control our breathing. This gives us the potential to influence the life force energy within our bodies.

The Yoga Sutras consider pranayama, along with asana, to be the most effective means of purifying the body and mind. Both produce heat (tapas) the inner fire of purification. The subtle energy channels of the body, the nadis, are cleansed of obstructions to the vital force. This promotes healthy balance within the body and stimulates the higher centers of consciousness. Pranayama soothes and calms the mind. This reduces cravings.

 

BODY POSTURES — ASANA

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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.line-02-web

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

YOGA CODEX

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We should talk about the yogic worldview a little. Many aspects of modern science are rediscovering some of the concepts yoga revealed long ago. A yoga master sees everything as part of an Absolute, Supreme Awareness, Universal Consciousness. At some point this Absolute shattered into innumerable particles so minute and so broadly dispersed that the individual parts no longer recognize themselves as part of the whole. This mirrors modern science’s Big Bang Theory, verified by the Hubble Telescope.

WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS

WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS

What modern science recognizes in the evolutionary processes of life forms, yoga sees at all levels. Energy turns into matter and matter becomes more complex. Matter aggregates as life forms evolve, until that consciousness finally becomes aware of its origin and the grand process it has experienced. This is where you are at this moment.

WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS

WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS

 

Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus        Pages 9 & 10

MEDITATION I

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Meditation can take many forms. Indeed, each time you meditate it is original, even if you employ a technique again and again. As we practice meditation, our meditation evolves. There are many ways to meditate. The technique employed with this teaching is an efficient method of accomplishing the goals set forth in the teaching. You are encouraged to try other techniques and experience what they have to offer.

weight loss through yoga

weight loss through yoga

The natural result ot the meditation suggested with this teaching is that the total being comes into healthy balance and obstructions to the flow of life force energy are cleared. As a result, the body is able to correct irregularities such as excess weight, as it is no longer obstructed from its optimum expression.

YOGA — Where did it come from?

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67522_481705151902938_535352354_nWhere did it come from, this yoga that is going to answer all my questions, tune me to the universe, and 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 our selves, 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 is required.

Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus,    pages 8 and 9.