Beginning Yoga - A Guide for New Students
July 23rd, 2009. Published under Yoga. No Comments.
Yoga is a method by which to obtain control of one’s latent powers. Those beginning yoga will soon be able to achieve this. It offers the means to reach complete Self-realization. This the Yogis achieve by turning their thoughts inward, away from the objective world. The literal meaning of the Sanskrit word Yoga is yoke.
Its earliest definition — a means for uniting the individual spirit with the Universal Spirit, or God if you will — may at first glance seem a contradiction of the other; but the confusion disappears once we take into account that realization of Self cannot be achieved without the recognition and acceptance of one’s place in and relationship to the universe as a whole.
Yoga is very definitely not a religion: some Yogis are deeply religious, others are not. Many of its aspects are profoundly mystical, as is inevitable with any form of spiritual contemplation. But how the Yogi interprets his beliefs is an entirely personal matter. There are Brahmins among the Yogis, there are Christians, and there are Moslems, to name only a few. There are also philosophically-oriented persons with no formal religion.
The schools of Yoga are numerous, and even in the East each student is generally attracted to that particular form of it which best answers his own particular needs. In many ways, too, the differences are largely a matter of emphasis for the various schools overlap to some extent.
The most widespread, as well as the one best known forms of Yoga in our hemisphere, is Hatha Yoga. The name, derived from the Sanskrit Ha, which stands for the female principle and Tha, the male principle, implies that this Yoga may be practiced by both men and women with the object of achieving complete control of the body.
One feature of Hatha Yoga practice involves a number of such drastic, sometimes even painful, forms of spiritual and physical purification so impractical and alien to us that no attempt shall be made here to discuss them.
The second important feature of Hatha Yoga is the practice of asanas or postures. Again, since many asanas are difficult and require endless application and practice, there is little need to concern ourselves with all of them. Suffice it to mention that the basic ones number 84, a great many of them a total impossibility for most of us, be we young or old, athletically gifted or even double-jointed.
But the fact that we cannot hope to emulate the Hindu poses, especially as we are beginning yoga, is of little import. The salient point here is that even a few of the simplest asanas, practiced daily together with a few mudras or contemplative poses, suffice to produce for us truly sensational results. Let me say a word about the difference between our own concept of exercise and that of the Yogis. To us exercise means exertion - the idea is to “work up a good sweat.”
The Yogis have a concept almost diametrically opposed to ours. Many of the asanas are named for animals: the lion, the fish, the tortoise, the peacock. This is because in devising them the Yogis based themselves on close observation of animal life. They borrowed from the animal world the secrets of alternate relaxing and tensing, something all living creatures save man seem to know how to do instinctively.
The underlying emphasis in all asanas and mudras, then, is on relaxation - one might even say repose. And while at first glance it might seem that standing on one’s head or sitting in the Lotus pose is anything but restful, this is only true of the initial stages of learning.
Bear in mind that the body is always first slowly prepared for each pose and that the limbering-up process, which each student pursues at his own pace, is geared in such a way as not to overtax his capacities. By the time he is ready to practice an asana, certainly by the time he has mastered it, it really is relaxing as well as beneficial. Then the profound balance achieved by the body makes it possible for the mind to soar.
Even as we are beginning yoga it can be a deeply relaxing and liberating activity.
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