A well-respected yoga instructor, B.K.S. Iyengar, once said of the exercise, "Yoga teaches us to cure what needs not be endured and endure what can not be cured."
Though yoga has been around for at least 5,000 years, its popularity has grown immensely in the past decade as its health benefits have been advocated. The word yoga means "to join or yoke together" and its purpose is to unify the mind and body, which helps one better accomplish what Iyengar taught. Yoga today is based on:
- Breathing
- Exercise
- Meditation
Knowledge of yoga has been increasingly valued as the stresses of our hectic lifestyles have increased. I have enjoyed feeling rejuvenated after practicing yoga (although my experiences with yoga have been limited to the Wii Fit and various exercise videos). Yoga is a great opportunity to relax, no matter your age.
According to the American Yoga Association, the practice of yoga was created in ancient times as people desired greater personal freedom, health, long life, and heightened self-understanding. This practice was then passed down from instructor to the student, which means the knowledge we have today of yoga is from the cumulative experience of different students who learned yoga from their instructors for generations.
Something I found that I thought was interesting was that, anciently, yoga was based on the following eight steps:
- Restraint from sinful behaviors
- Observance
- Physical exercises
- Breathing techniques
- Meditation preparation
- Concentration
- Meditation
- Realization of one's nature
My high school AP World History teacher was a former yoga instructor. Once in a while, she would set aside a Friday as "yoga day." I don't think I would describe the experience as relaxing...more like exhausting! My favorite part was lying flat on the floor at the end! Yoga is a lot of work, and I appreciate the level of skill that's required to do it right.
ReplyDeleteJenna, although I have never practiced yoga I really enjoyed your post, and I was especially struck by the quote that you included at the beginning--"Yoga teaches us to cure what needs not be endured and endure what cannot be cured." When I thought about it, I interpreted it as meaning that we can practice yoga to cure ourselves of physical ailments that cause us suffering. However, if we are trying to heal an emotional scar, which might never really mend, we can practice yoga to focus our minds on peaceful thoughts which will help us reconcile with the past, with the things we cannot change. Millions practice yoga, and although many who practice it do not believe in its east Asian religious influence, it has become--in America at least--an arguably sophic practice that is focused mostly on physical exercise instead of spiritual well-being. When a participant practices yoga, he or she does try to channel positive emotions; however, people, particularly Americans, now only want to connect with themselves and not with a higher power. Although yoga has been able to adapt to the many changes that have taken place in this century, it has arguably lost many of its key elements that it was founded on.
ReplyDeleteJenna, I also have never participated In yoga before as I am not the most flexible of people. But I thought to have had a pretty solid basis of knowledge of what yoga is, but after reading your post I realize what I knew was just the modernized sophic view of Yoga. You opened my eyes to the fact that this ancient folk knowledge and practice has a higher meaning. The intent is to connect to a divine other worldly being or force through exercise. But the yoga I knew and our culture has publicized, is just a program to relax and regenerate your body in a social setting. It is unfortunate that as our society "progresses," we forgot that a mantic view on many things is lost and therefore so is valuable parts of folk knowledge.
ReplyDeleteVery cool tie-in to the sophic-mantic conflict! I think it's very important to see how things have changed over time, as well as what parts have been passed down.
ReplyDeleteI think that in the 'progression' of society, like Andrew said, we inevitably leave behind things that were more common knowledge before. Sometimes traditions get passed down with little or no basis behind them. I remember reading that the Masons today don't like discussing their ceremonies not because it's secret, but because they don't know what any of the symbolism behind them is since more emphasis has been placed on the actions than the meanings behind them. Maybe something like that is why some of the tenets of Yoga or other ancient arts were forgotten.
Really good post and really good comments. Sam, I love your reference to the Mason's. I find them fascinating. It does seem that as we progress, certain details are lost. There doesn't seem to be as much emphasis on the meaning of things as there is in simply getting the job done. For example, in schools growing up, I just memorized things and then spat them back out on the test because I was told that if I did that, I would get a good grade. So, as long as I received a good grade, who cared? I once went to a restaurant for Thanksgiving. So, did we technically have a "Thanksgiving dinner"? I guess technically we did, but the meaning behind it simply wasn't there. Similar shifts can be seen in many other areas of society and it does represent that shift from mantic to sophic. Mantics value those feelings and meanings behind things. Our society has definitely seen an overall shift from mantic to sophic. Whether it is yoga, school, or thanksgiving dinner, we are definitely heading in that direction.
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