Hartha yoga Flashcards
What is hartha yoga?
A set of willful and active practices aiming to achieve harmony and balance in the mind, body, and spirit. Often called “the forceful path” it includes the practice of physical postures and breathing techniques. It seeks to purify the body through yoga.
What are asanas?
Yogic positions designed to ease the flow of spiritual energy around the body and prepare for spiritual effort.
What is pranayama?
Breath control, slow and deep breathing has a calming effect on the mind, whilst anger is characterized by short rapid breaths.
What is kundalini?
A form of primal energy at the base of the spine, kundalini awakening results from deep meditation and leads to enlightenment and bliss.
What is kundalini awakening?
Kundalini energy moves up the central channel of the body to reach the crown chakra at the top of the head.
What does kundalini awakening feel like?
A feeling of an electric current running along the spine, hartha yoga focuses on awakening kundalini through pranayama.
What is the subtle body?
It is made from prakriti in a refined form and is the motivating force behind the physical body, it has a central axis which follows the spine and has chakras located along it.
What does yoga mean?
Discipline, it is used in different ways and can refer to the paths to moksha, one of the six orthodox schools of hindu philosophy, beliefs designed to bring about moksha or a system of exercise.
What is control applied to?
Hartha yoga is about transcending the self and experiencing the divine, this is done through applying control to the mind, breathing or body.
Who first codified hartha yoga?
The nath sect in the 9th century CE, they were founded by matsyendranath.
What is Samhadi?
The highest state of mental concentration, it can be achieved when kundalini energy reaches the crown chakra.
How does hartha yoga enable liberation to occur?
Through gaining control of the body and breathing, the body is purified by yoga, this makes it perfect and allows it to realize its true self which will result in unity with the divine.
How has yoga changed in India?
As India has developed, it has become practiced by more and more castes, this has meant tht a lot of its underlying philosophy has been discarded in favor of its postures and breathing practices.
How did yoga come to Britain?
There was large scale immigration from India sin the 1960s, it became known as a health exercise, removed from its philosophical ideas.
What is happening in Britain today?
A growth amongst westerners of a genuine interest in the philosophy of yoga and more western teachers introducing philosophical and spiritual elements to classes.
