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Our Yoga for Beginners book takes you through the basics of practicing yoga and then teaches you the poses in the context of a yoga practice sequence. |
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Check out our sister site, JapaMalaBeads.com for beautiful prayer beads to enhance your meditation and yoga practice. |
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| From the Editor |
Self mastery is the ability to harness and control your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. The attainment of self-mastery can be used to produce right action (dharma) and desired personal changes at will. Self-mastery also creates a deep satisfaction with life, and a strong sense of self-confidence.
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
— Tao Te Ching
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Namaste,
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Timothy Burgin
Founder & Executive Director
YogaBasics.com |
| Intelligence and the Body-Mind |
| Does listening to your body facilitate addictive behaviors? Blogging last week in Part 1, we disputed yoga instructor Maya Georg’s contention to this effect. Some research actually suggests the body, left to its own devices, demonstrates a keen aptitude for self-regulation. Relatedly, yoga philosophy posits that addictive behavior emerges, not from listening to one’s body, but rather through samskara, ingrained habits or conditioned patterns that underlie thoughts, behaviors, and experience. These interweave the body-mind continuum and cannot be attributed mind or body in isolation. |
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| Learning To Listen: Embodied Wisdom |
| When most people think of the body, “divine” isn’t the first term to come to mind. Most major philosophies and religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and classical yoga, view embodiment as a distraction, requiring control and transcendence through spiritual practice. Yet, some forms of tantra posit the manifest world to be an expression of God. These lineages contend that each facet of the self, or kosha—body, breath, mind, intuition, soul—is qualitatively distinct, yet simultaneously reflective of the same vast diamond of God-consciousness. |
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| Do You Need a Guru? |
| “Who needs a guru anyway?” It’s a question Western yoga students often ask. But in the wake of yet another guru scandal, maybe we need to change the question to “What is a guru anyway?” |
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| The Gayatri Mantra: Let Your Light Shine |
| What verse has been chanted daily for nearly 4,000 years? If you answered the Gayatri mantra, familiar to fans of Deva Premal and entered into pop culture by Cher , you’d be right. No doubt you’ve sung along, chanted it in an asana class, or even studied the Sanskrit words: Om bhuh, bhuvah, swaha/Tat savitur varenyam/Bhargo devasya dhimahi/Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat. |
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| Coming Soon To A Theater Near You... |
| Mark your calendars, and get ready to pass the popcorn. On May 8, One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das, a documentary about chant master Krishna Das, is set to open in movie theaters across the U.S. Directed by Jeremy Frindel (cofounder of the Brooklyn Yoga School) and distributed by Zeitgeist Films, One Track Heart has already screened at a film festivals, earning a couple of awards for Best Documentary. Yogis are sure to flock to the film but, now that KD has rocked the Grammy Awards , it’s fun to imagine even larger audiences getting in line to see a movie about the yoga path. |
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| Letting the Child (Pose) Be the Teacher |
| If someone handed out awards for “most unappreciated asana,” the winner might be Balasana (Child’s Pose). In many yoga classes, this basic pose is used only for transition or rest. Often dismissed as “babyish” by asana enthusiasts, Balasana almost never gets the spotlight. And yet, it’s one of the most powerful poses in the yogi’s tool kit. |
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| Bring Nature Indoors With Vastu Shastra |
| Is spring fever making you yearn to take your asana outdoors? If blustery weather is keeping you inside, consider adding nature to your indoor environment with the ancient science of vastu. Consultant Kathleen Cox, one of the first to introduce vastu to the West, calls it “yoga for your home.” |
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| The Fourth Sutra: Identifying With Ego |
| How do you see yourself? Are you a human being having a spiritual experience … or pure spirit playing at being human? One way to regard the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali’s 2,000-year-old compilation of aphorisms about yoga, is as a travel guide for the yogic journey. In Sutras 1:2 and 1:3, Patanjali tells us that the essence and purpose of yoga is to calm the turbulence of the mind so that we can see our true nature. Sutra 1:4, Vritti svarupyam itaratra, reminds us that when the mind isn’t still, we are identifying with the mind waves or ego. |
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| Finding OM Away From Home |
| Have you ever traipsed around an airport terminal in search of a discreet corner for Sun Salutations between flights? Do you shudder at the thought of coming face-to-face with hotel carpeting during Down Dog? Then take heart, because it’s easier than ever to plan a summer getaway without getting too far away from your daily practice. Hotels and airports, recognizing that what’s good for you is also good for business, are rolling out the yoga mat to welcome enlightened travelers. |
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