Yoga?

[The White Belt]

Hey guys!

Could any of you beautiful humans tell me a little about yoga? 

I did a little kundalini session using YouTube as a guide, but what I want to know is this following;

What is yoga? Is yoga conducive to awakening? Can it replace 'strenuous' physical exercise? Why is it 'spiritual' (if it is)?

What are the types of yoga I should seek out?

And any links to some YouTube practices I could  use would be great.

Of course, I could google all of this, but I can't refute and ask for further details.

Appreciate it! 

[Prabhaker]

3 hours ago, BeginnerActualizer said:

What is yoga? Is yoga conducive to awakening?

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ramdev+english

Edited November 13, 2016 by Prabhaker

[The White Belt]

@Prabhaker Thanks for your response! I have been using some yoga from Sadhguru's yoga app so far. It doesn't seem to be western yoga as it isn't full of very difficult poses, it is very minimalistic. 

[Awomanaware]

@BeginnerActualizerI practice ashtanga yoga to get in the present moment. For me, it's a meditation technique. I use my body (asanas) and breath (in asanas and pranayama) as tools that get me in meditative state of the mind. Also, few years ago when I was just starting my practise, I had huge emotional breakthroughs after doing my asanas... Yoga is a therapy. 

Edited December 2, 2016 by Martina

[Dodo]

Yoga with adriene on youtube is a nice place to do simple yoga that makes you feel good in your body. Yoga for me is advanced stretching. Its awesome, but ive been lazy lately and i just meditate.

[The Monk]

@BeginnerActualizer  Karma Yoga, Bakta Yoga, Nyata Yoga/satsangs, raja yoga. 

Don't know if I spelt them correctly . But, that's besides the point. 

Good luck!