What Are Some Basic Yoga Practices That A Newbie Could Do?

[Joseph Maynor]

I wanna baby step me in some yoga practices.  

I was reading Leo's blog post and got sold on the importance of yoga.

https://www.actualized.org/insights/yoga-ftw

Edited July 14, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Prabhaker]

@Joseph Maynor

Yoga means union, the science of union. Meditation is the most supreme phenomenon as far as union with reality is concerned. Meditation is the god of yoga. But yoga has fallen into wrong hands, and not only recently – for centuries it has been in the wrong hands.

The original fault must be with the founder, Patanjali himself. Patanjali has divided yoga into eight parts. His division is clear-cut, very scientific, but he was not really aware of human stupidity. He started with the body – and that's the right way to start. The first part of yoga must be physiological because man lives on the circumference, in the body, so the work has to start there, only then can it reach the mind. And when one has gone beyond the body and beyond the mind, then the third, meditation, happens.

So according to Patanjali the first part belongs to the body. But he was not clearly aware that millions of people would remain entangled with the first part. Hence yoga has become synonymous with yoga postures: people standing on their heads and doing all sorts of contortions. That has become synonymous with yoga.

It is not a true yoga, it is just the preface, the introductory part; and the person who thinks the introduction is the whole book is idiotic. But Patanjali did not warn people. If he had warned people it would have been better. People like Patanjali believe in others' intelligence – which is not there! They trust. Their trust is immense, their trust is as immense as people's stupidity is! They respect people's intelligence. So he did not warn people, but the warning was absolutely necessary: 'Don't get entangled in the physiological part.'

A few people, only very few – if a hundred people become interested in yoga then only one person will get out of the physiological entanglement. And that one person will become entangled in the psychological. If a hundred persons are entangled in the psychological then only one person gets out of it...and only when you get out of the mind does the real yoga begin.

The physiological part of yoga will give you great physiological powers; it can make you live a really long, healthy life. But what are you going to do with a long life? If you are idiotic, instead of being idiotic for seventy years you will be idiotic for two hundred years. It is not going to help anybody; it will be a calamity.

Yoga can make a person live long, but what will you do? That physiological part should not be paid so much attention. Yes, a little bit is good to keep physically fit, but just a little bit; otherwise it is a vast jungle. One can be lost in its subtleties, in its complexities.

The second part is even vaster than the physiological. If you get into it you can have many psychic powers, you can read people's thoughts. But what is the point? Your own rubbish is so much, what is the point of reading somebody else's rubbish? He is tortured by his rubbish and you are reading his thoughts – and you think you are doing something great!

The real thing is to get rid of thoughts, not to read them. One even has to get rid of one's own thoughts; what is the point of reading other people's thoughts? And what is there? You can stand by the side of the road and you can see a man is walking along and thinking of his dog – so what?

If you listen to people's thoughts, what will you find? Somebody is thinking of his cow, somebody is thinking of his buffalo, somebody is thinking of his wife, somebody is thinking of somebody else's wife! And you are thinking what they are thinking! Maybe the other person is also a yogi and is reading somebody else's thoughts. Then things become very complicated!

The physiological part is ordinary, the psychological part is ordinary. Both can give power, but power is not the goal of meditation. Power is politics, all kinds of power is politics. And power corrupts – all kinds of power – it corrupts unconditionally and absolutely. It always corrupts.

Hence I say the only essential thing, the real core of all religion, of all yoga, of all methods of search, is meditation. One should put aside everything non-essential. You can use things as stepping stones, but not more than that – just like jumping boards. You need not bother too much about them. Your whole concern should be one-pointed; you should move like an arrow towards meditation. Only then in this small life, with so little time, power and energy available and with so many problems surrounding you, can you hope that the arrow will reach the target.

The moment you know something of meditation – not about it, but the very taste of it – a great release comes. a great relief comes. Suddenly all tensions disappear: anxieties, anguishes, are found no more. Even if you want them just for a change, you cannot find them. I have tried and failed! Sometimes I try very hard to find some anxiety but I cannot, it simply does not work. I have tried all possible ways, from this side and that side, but I come to the same end: it does not work.

Once you have tasted meditation it is impossible for you to be in any misery. Bliss becomes inevitable, a natural showering, and it goes on showering like flowers showering from the sky.

Osho, Nirvana: Now or Never 

[Toby]

I would have a look into "Five Tibetans". Pretty easy program, doesn't take a lot of time (5-15 minutes) and is very effective imo.

[OBEler]

Osho seems to hate yoga. He also said that breathing exercises in yoga damage your brain and makes you stupid. What do you think about this? Is something about this claim? Hyperventilation is indeed not healthy for your brain because your brain gets less CO2. But how about slow deep breaths? Any thoughts?

[Prabhaker]

14 minutes ago, OBEler said:

Osho seems to hate yoga.

Osho was not against yoga, he only warned about stupidities people are doing on the path of yoga. Osho has explained sutras of Patanjali in his discourses "Yoga, the alpha and the omega". 

https://www.google.co.in/search?q=yoga+alpha+and+omega+osho&rlz=1C1DFOC_enIN675IN675&oq=yoga+alpha&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.10829j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Osho lived in India, he was well aware of the fact that people are doing yoga to make their body strong and healthy, instead for spiritual transformation.

27 minutes ago, OBEler said:

He also said that breathing exercises in yoga damage your brain and makes you stupid.

He never said breathing exercises in yoga will necessarily damage your brain and makes you stupid, guidance and preparation is necessary for doing breathing exercises in yoga.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika, says "As lions, elephants and tigers are tamed slowly & systematically. So must be the case with prana, otherwise the practitioner is destroyed.

http://www.yogaxtc.com/pranayama.html

If you tell me the exact words of Osho about breathing exercises, I can explain it in right context.

[OBEler]

@Prabhaker

"Yoga has been used to kill the mind; breathing can be used to kill the mind. There are rhythms of breath, subtle vibrations of breath, which can be very, very drastic to the delicate mind. The mind can be destroyed through them. These are old tricks. " Osho

"Yogis are, more or less, stupid. Their bodies are healthy — that’s true — strong, but their minds are just dead. You will not see the glimmer of intelligence. You will see a very robust body, animallike, but somehow the human has disappeared." Osho

 

https://meditationawareness.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/osho-on-how-to-stop-thinking/

[Max_V]

Does sadhguru seem stupid to you?

I feel like when you do the right kind of yoga and be sensitive to your own responses, it can only be beneficial.

[Prabhaker]

4 minutes ago, OBEler said:

Yoga has been used to kill the mind; breathing can be used to kill the mind.

He is not saying that, " Yoga kills the mind", or "breathing (pranayama) kills the mind". It can destroy your intellect if you do them in wrong way or your only aim is to make your body stronger. 

 

[Prabhaker]

6 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

What Are Some Basic Yoga Practices That A Newbie Could Do?

Surya Namaskar Part-1 Right Postures

 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Prabhaker

[Prabhaker]

36 minutes ago, Max_V said:

Does sadhguru seem stupid to you?

No, he has done yoga in a proper way.

 

[OBEler]

Look at this site:

http://www.normalbreathing.com/CO2-deep-breathing-myth.php

it has some warnings on deep breathing exercises

[Leo Gura]

There is no purpose in debating the effectiveness of yoga. It clearly works. The only question is which kind you wanna do.

[Joseph Maynor]

@Leo Gura I'm interested in Kundalini Yoga and Chakra work.  That is really resonating with me.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Prabhaker]

36 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

I'm interested in Kundalini Yoga and Chakra work.

Kundalini Yoga in its essence is the most dangerous form of yoga. I am saying dangerous because it is the most potent also. What is most potent is always the most dangerous if improperly handled. Without the necessary preparation, without constant, expert guidance and observation, no one should ever attempt it. But the problem is books have been written about it and everybody wants to do the highest yoga. 

~ Sadhguru

http://isha.sadhguru.org/yoga/yoga_articles_yoga/kundalini-yoga-beneficial-or-dangerous/

[Leo Gura]

Confucius say: "When you go fishing, bring dynamite"

[Lynnel]

7 hours ago, OBEler said:

Look at this site:

http://www.normalbreathing.com/CO2-deep-breathing-myth.php

it has some warnings on deep breathing exercises

Lol we'll need more science to support this.

@Prabhaker Any advice on how to do your asana's not only for the physical aspect but as a more spiritual practice ?

[askdfjnak]

@Leo Gura In Australia, we give the fish a chance to catch us too. It's only fair. 
 

Edited July 15, 2017 by askdfjnak

[Prabhaker]

2 minutes ago, Lynnel said:

Any advice on how to do your asana's not only for the physical aspect but as a more spiritual practice ?

In Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, the eightfold path is called ashtanga, which literally means "eight limbs" (ashta=eight, anga=limb). You cannot drop any of them. Each follows the other, and they are in a deep relationship. The second cannot come before the first – the first has to be first and the second has to be second. And the eighth will come to be the eighth – it cannot be the fourth, it cannot be the first. So they are steps and they are an organic unity also.

The eight steps of Yoga are: yam, self-restraint; niyam, fixed observance; asan, posture; pranayama, breath regulation;  pratyahar,  withdrawal of the senses;  dharana, concentration; dhyan,meditation; samadhi, trance.

 

YAM's:

1. Ahimsa (Non Violence) by thought, word or deed.
2. Sat: Truthfulness in thought, word and deed.
3. Asteya: Never to desire or take away what is not ours.
4. Brahmcharya: Avoiding lustfulness, Conservation of sexual energy.
5. Aparigraha: Detachment and avoiding possession of unnecessary objects.

To Patanjali self-restraint does not mean to repress oneself. It simply means to direct one’s life...not to repress the energies, but to direct, to give them a direction.  If you move rightly, if you move consciously, if you move alert, gathering all your energies and moving in one direction, if you are not a crowd but become an individual. That is the meaning of yam. Self-restraint means to become a little more centered.

NIYAM's:

1. Souch: Cleanliness.
2. Santosh: Contentment.
3. Tap: Self-discipline by voluntary submission.
4. Swadhyaya: Self-study (of great books/ literature).
5. Ishwar Parnidhan: God-realization/ realization of (or to be one with) the
      Supreme Soul  as the ultimate objective of one's life.

The second is niyam, fixed observance: a life which has a discipline, a life which has a regularity about it, a life which is lived in a very disciplined way, not hectic. Only a man who has a regularity about him can become the master someday.

The third is posture. And every step comes out of the first, the preceding one: when you have regularity in life, only then can you attain to posture, asan. Try asan sometimes; just try to sit silently. You cannot sit -- the body tries to revolt against you.

Asan means a relaxed posture. You are so relaxed in it, you are so restful in it, that there is no need to move the body at all. In that moment, suddenly, you transcend body.

[Seeker_of_truth]

 

@Joseph Maynor Download sadhguru app. You'll get some basic practices. I've tried isha kriya and nadi shuddi in it and I've got decent results with isha kriya. I don't know what kind of result I'll get through nadi shuddi but I'm keeping up the practice... I've just started doing yoga namaskar but since it has some weird dietry condition, I'm not able to do it regularly. Give it a try. They also teach something called upa yoga (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjGF2MLdIz8). 

If you are interested in doing kundalini yoga i think you should sign up for their programs. They teach those things only through their programs. Check their website for more info.

2 hours ago, Lynnel said:

Lol we'll need more science to support this.

@Prabhaker Any advice on how to do your asana's not only for the physical aspect but as a more spiritual practice ?

Also check this blog : http://isha.sadhguru.org/yoga/yoga_articles_hatha_yoga_asanas/asanas-guide-align-divine-sadhguru/

[ajasatya]

@Joseph Maynor go out in a quest to find the best yoga teachers for you. that's what i did. that's what seekers have been doing for centuries.

luckily, you don't have to walk to another country on your own feet anymore. take the bus and stop by some yoga teaching center. there are plenty around us nowadays. they usually offer some free experimental class.

if you're interested in kundalini yoga, check this out!