Foundations of Yoga Flashcards
religion as different from spirituality
community, organization
o the word religion doesn’t exist in Sanskrit, the closest word to religion is “Dharma”
• Hinduism: complicated relationship (debatable whether Hinduism is even a religion - so many variants, lacking in structure )
yoga contains ancient techniques of meditation, focusing attention, calming the mind, using sound and vibration to elevate your being = useable in most religions
o internal resistance to the rules: if you don’t choose it you’ll resist it and if you resist it you’re “sinning”
spirituality
points at the spirit (essence), bringing it back to your inner life
o it’s definition is less and less on others and focuses more on your core self
the Gita
o when it first came out it was considered to be the most “irreligious book” because it was about individual thoughts and action while minimizing “intermediary” aspects of religion
o it’s about Dharma: duty
Dharma in the Gita
= duty
• what kind of duty? (close to responsibility)
duty to yourself, to others, to your society, to your family
not in stages, it all comes together
if you understand what the duty to yourself (keep yourself healthy –> choose friends) is then the other duties will flow much easier
all starts from a deep sense of self
- stems from your own understanding of what’s going on with you
- observation and then acceptance, especially within the asana practice
- without consciousness, your world wouldn’t exist: we’re immersed in the process of being: just by being you’re changing the whole universe
Ancient India
o hotbed of innovative thought
o incorporated different cultures within their own
o osmosis
o one of the most sophisticated ways of answering the quest for self: Yoga
• india’s gift to the world
Yogis saw a need
A need that humans have to be fulfilled: they want to belong, there’s a point
- this kind of understanding is having a deep sense of who you are
- according to the Yogis there’s not much else that’s worth you’re time
- THE QUEST FOR SELF: once you come to a certain understanding everything else seems transitory
o is there another way of looking at things, that will give you lasting satisfaction? that will give you a sense of knowing/being?
==> YOGA
POV of the West
- controlling nature, control our external environment: electricity, farming
- material technology: manipulate external world more intensely
• fallacy of this approach: it doesn’t last, security is fleeting
dehumanizing condition: feel that our own creations (jobs, cities, etc..) don’t fit us: it’s not that comfortable, we feel alienated
- millions living very isolated lives
- goes against the grain of being human
- imbalance in our psyche: we know we’re not satisfied, things aren’t working, BUT WE DON’T HAVE ANY OTHER ANSWERS BECAUSE THIS IS ALL WE KNOW: DISINTEGRATION
- psychological destruction
- IMBALANCE
POV of the East
- this desire to change/know yourself becomes a desire to master the EGO
- transcend limitations of the mind: change yourself not the external
- Level Of Mind
- technology to manipulate our own psyche
- find security by working with your own psyche
- Yoga gives us some tools to look for values in tune with your own psychic (essence, spirit) needs
what I really need based on the internal sense of “me”
MAKING US REALIZE THAT WE NEED TO INTEGRATE OURSELVES: BALANCE: INTEGRATE WITH EACH OTHER, WITH OUR ENVIRONMENT
sense of connection with the wholeness
• obligations or “dharma” becomes clear
• as you integrate you have a sense of what does and doesn’t work
• focus on intent:
o being aware: am I trying to get closer to this person or push them away?
**Key Yogic Ideals - Foundations
o knowledge cannot be reduced to words
o reality includes everything
o definitions impose limitations
o real knowledge is in internal process of consciousness
o knowledge is a state of mind that you develop, not something you can learn from a book
o truth must be experienced:
• how do you know if you really love someone if you’ve never experienced it
• truth can’t be described: it’s useless
• truth must be sought out and experienced: you have to be part of it, otherwise it’s nothing but a limiting concept
o respect for complexity
o it’s difficult to separate religion from philosophy
yoga is not uniting
it’s about realizing that you’ve been disuniting yourself. it’s about recognizing there’s an underlying unity, it’s never been not united
consciousness has slowly but surely built the whole universe
o we cannot conceive of anything without our own consciousness interacting with the universe
o “if a tree falls in a forest without no one around does it still make a sound? ” sound is by definition a perceptual, conscious process, and without that perception it cannot exist
o “as we process, we’re making it up as we go along”
o things are connected because the whole process is an interaction
o gives us the whole yoga program, yogic thought
the value of silence
- words tend to be limiting, and separating: “your problem, my problem”
- stopping the train of talk on your head: stop that which is separating us
paradoxical learning
- straight stories limit, simplify, limit
- makes you’re consciousness have to pull back and forth: makes you a participant
- why the yoga sutras are not clear at all: they were not meant to pretend to have a truth: meant to have you look at it and question and engage
what is our guiding principle?
o inner sense of awareness
o the practice of looking and consulting other that have “been through it before”
• close teacher-student connection
5000 years ago it was more of a Shamanic practice
where ecstatic states where transformation is possible
