Yoga and Spirituality

[louvar]

What correlations are there between the two? What makes a good yoga instructor and is it mainly up to the individual to make a  deeper connection through yoga.

[HollyV]

My favorite yoga instructor spent half of the first class on breathing.  Thereafter, the topic of breathing always began the yoga flows and she mentioned it every few minutes, at least, during all classes.  To me, that was her way of sneaking in the spirituality part of it.  It was also why I soon became addicted to yoga.  Apparently, I had not been breathing most of my life.  We stop breathing/have irregular breathing, when we have strong emotions.  The deep breath, along with the movements, is a meditation for sure.  Meditation is getting connected to yourself, your higher self.  Meditation is a pathway to spirituality.  I'd say it's definitely up to the student to make the deeper connection.  In my experience, instructors rarely mention spirituality verbally.      

[Leo Gura]

You know... original old-school Yoga had nothing to do with physical body training. The West has turned yoga into something very different than it used to be in India. Not to say that physical yoga is bad in any way.

But the connection between yoga and spirituality is much clearer in the old-school formulation of yoga. Yoga actually means -- union -- which refers to the dissolving of ego, merging you and reality into one. Which basically means Enlightenment.

As Patanjali says in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali -- a classic 2,000 year old text -- the sole aim of yoga is the cessation of the mind.

Old-school yoga simply involved sitting still and learning special techniques for breathing and calming the mind and training concentration enough so that union became possible and one entered into ever higher states of Samadhi (union). Yoga is literally like having sex with reality using your mind!

So if you're gonna do physical yoga, good.

But if you really want to take your spirituality to the next level, you should really research and start practicing mental yoga too. Otherwise known as: meditation!

[Arman]

I think most Yoga in the west is has been diluted to something closer to calisthenics than to its original form. From my understanding, true yoga is spirituality in action. Reading the sutras of patanjali that Leo mentioned is a good idea to gain an understanding of it. It's the principle text upon which most of modern yoga is formed. It's actually really short and will provide a lot of insight. When most people hear the word, they think of physical movement and contorting your body into certain postures but these are called Asanas and it's just one branch of yoga. In some traditions, asanas are really just a way to limber up the body physically and energetically in anticipation of the more intense meditative practices. Practices can range from meditation to self inquiry, taking action and 'doing your duty' in life (called karma yoga) or even pretty mind-altering breathing exercises.

Here's a good pdf translation of the sutras:

http://www.swamivenkatesananda.org/clientuploads/publications_online/Enlightened_Living_by_Swami_Venkatesananda.pdf

Edited February 7, 2016 by Arman

[FinnishJon]

I had a yoga instructor who was very much into religious talking during our hour long classes.  I think it was Astanga yoga.  Anyway, I struggled alot with yoga back then because I was pretty fat.  It's damn hard to do yoga with a fat belly that gets in your way...   And he insulted me by calling me "big guy"... he never remembered my name, even though I (from the USA) was the only other foreigner, like him (he was from UK) and we were in Finland.  Quite full of himself.  So the spirituality stuff really turned me off.  Luckily there were other Yoga flow classes at our gym which concentrated on physical yoga.

I've since gotten myself into shape and been more open to spirituality/meditation, but I still can't shake the feeling that a lot of the spiritual yoga stuff is a bunch of BS.  There was a documentary on netflix that had an atheist journalist going around trying all kinds of Yoga, even travelling to India to taste the different classes and his conclusion was that the spiritual yoga tended to be cultish, whereas physical yoga really had great fitness benefits... healing back problems, building muscle strength, breathing, etc...

 

[Pierre]

Yoga gives you energy and calm, connects you with your body, and makes you aware of mental noise. Priceless stuff on the Way...

[Mantra Yoga]

Very beautiful question, ( Yoga) means Union and unity , these are very popular terms but what is beyond. Connection of Individual to divine consciousness.We are energy body and cosmic energy is all around us. All the cycle. Water cycle or life cycle is a Karma charka or Karma Wheel.

What is Karma - any action which is done by senses. Mind which keep of generating 1000 and 1000 of thoughts all the times is an illusionary material and everything is on the earth is a nature or Atom..which you can only experience through senses.But there are things which is beyond to experience and those you can only experience under Mind your complete control and sense as well. Yoga is a way to perceive the higher perception beyond senses or Mind.but if you are not able to work on your body,mind,senses and effects of intellectual Siddhis, how do you think going to experince it. 

Hatha Yoga - says - If you wish to attain liberation, Samadhi -- First work on Body so that you can let me control and work with it to reach higher goal.

Ashtanga Yoga says- If your mind and seneses are under complete control and then you can reach to experience higher consciousness. 

Read more here - https://mantrayogameditation.org/understanding-the-basic-difference-between-hatha-and-ashtanga-yoga/

If you simply understand that there are things which we can experience through senses and they don't exist as an atom.. Example Love, Feeling, Emotion.. they are invisible social animal and they live within mind and heart. Same way with a normal life practice you can only experience, visible and keep the impression but if you wish to deal with divinity you need to choose a path that is Yog or Yoga. 

Thank You 

Sarvottam

https://mantrayogameditation.org

https://yogateachertrainingindia.org