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Siddhasana
Siddhasana ( sa, सिद्धासन; ) or Accomplished Pose, is an ancient seated asana in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise suitable for meditation. The names Muktasana (Sanskrit: मुक्तासन, Liberated Pose) and Burmese position are sometimes given to the same pose, sometimes to an easier variant, Ardha Siddhasana. Svastikasana has each foot tucked as snugly as possible into the fold of the opposite knee. Siddhasana is one of the oldest asanas. It is described as a meditation seat in the early Hatha Yoga text, the 10th century '' Goraksha Sataka''. This states that Siddhasana ranks alongside Padmasana (lotus position) as the most important of the asanas, opening the way to liberation. The 15th-century ''Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' similarly suggests that all other asanas are unnecessary once Siddhasana has been mastered. Etymology The name comes from the Sanskrit words ''siddha'' (सिद्ध) meaning both "perfect" and "adept", and ''asana'' (आस ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asana
An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali'' define "asana" as " position thatis steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system. Patanjali ''Yoga sutras'', Book II:29, 46 Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English. The 10th or 11th century '' Goraksha Sataka'' and the 15th century '' Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' identify 84 asanas; the 17th century ''Hatha Ratnavali'' provides a different list of 84 asanas, describing some of them. In the 20th century, Indian nationalism favoured physical culture in response to colonialism. In that enviro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hatha Yoga
Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon. The oldest dated text so far found to describe haṭha yoga, the 11th-century ''Amṛtasiddhi'', comes from a tantric Buddhist milieu. The oldest texts to use the terminology of ''hatha'' are also Vajrayana Buddhist. Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onwards. Some of the early haṭha yoga texts (11th-13th c.) describe methods to raise and conserve bindu (vital force, that is, semen, and in women ''rajas –'' menstrual fluid). This was seen as the physical essence of life that was constantly dripping down from the head and being lost. Two early Haṭha yoga techniques sought to e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meditation Posture
Meditative postures or meditation seats are the body positions or asanas, usually sitting but also sometimes standing or reclining, used to facilitate meditation. Best known in the Buddhism, Buddhist and Hinduism, Hindu traditions are the Lotus position, lotus and kneeling positions; other options include sitting on a chair, with the spine upright. Meditation is sometimes practiced while walking, such as kinhin, doing simple repetitive tasks, as in Zen Samu (Zen), samu, or work which encourages mindfulness. Postures in the ''Yoga Sutras'' The ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali'' describe Ashtanga (eight limbs of yoga), yoga as having eight limbs, one being asana, the meditation seat. The sutras do not name any asanas, merely specifying the characteristics of a good asana, stating: The ''Sutras'' are embedded in the ''Bhasya'' commentary, which scholars including Philipp Maas now believe are by the same author; it names 12 seated meditation asanas, possibly all cross-legged, includin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meditation Seat
Meditative postures or meditation seats are the body positions or asanas, usually sitting but also sometimes standing or reclining, used to facilitate meditation. Best known in the Buddhism, Buddhist and Hinduism, Hindu traditions are the Lotus position, lotus and kneeling positions; other options include sitting on a chair, with the spine upright. Meditation is sometimes practiced while walking, such as kinhin, doing simple repetitive tasks, as in Zen Samu (Zen), samu, or work which encourages mindfulness. Postures in the ''Yoga Sutras'' The ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali'' describe Ashtanga (eight limbs of yoga), yoga as having eight limbs, one being asana, the meditation seat. The sutras do not name any asanas, merely specifying the characteristics of a good asana, stating: The ''Sutras'' are embedded in the ''Bhasya'' commentary, which scholars including Philipp Maas now believe are by the same author; it names 12 seated meditation asanas, possibly all cross-legged, includin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hatha Yoga
Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon. The oldest dated text so far found to describe haṭha yoga, the 11th-century ''Amṛtasiddhi'', comes from a tantric Buddhist milieu. The oldest texts to use the terminology of ''hatha'' are also Vajrayana Buddhist. Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onwards. Some of the early haṭha yoga texts (11th-13th c.) describe methods to raise and conserve bindu (vital force, that is, semen, and in women ''rajas –'' menstrual fluid). This was seen as the physical essence of life that was constantly dripping down from the head and being lost. Two early Haṭha yoga techniques sought to e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoga As Exercise
Yoga as exercise is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures, often connected by flowing sequences, sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises, and frequently ending with relaxation lying down or meditation. Yoga in this form has become familiar across the world, especially in America and Europe. It is derived from medieval Haṭha yoga, which made use of similar postures, but it is generally simply called "yoga". Academics have given yoga as exercise a variety of names, including modern postural yoga and transnational anglophone yoga. Posture is described in the ''Yoga Sutras'' II.29 as the third of the eight limbs, the ashtanga, of yoga. Sutra II.46 defines it as that which is ''steady and comfortable'', but no further elaboration or list of postures is given. Postures were not central in any of the older traditions of yoga; posture practice was revived in the 1920s by yoga gurus including Yogendra and Kuvalayananda, who emphasised its health benefits. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roots Of Yoga
''Roots of Yoga'' is a 2017 book of commentary and translations from over 100 ancient and medieval yoga texts, mainly written in Sanskrit but including several other languages, many not previously published, about the origins of yoga including practices such as āsana, mantra, and meditation, by the scholar-practitioners James Mallinson and Mark Singleton. Critics unanimously welcomed the book, noting that it was surprising given yoga's popularity that many of its key texts had never before been translated. They described the book as scholarly, unprecedented, and admirably unbiased, making available a wealth of material in far more accessible form than ever before, and revealing yoga to consist of many strands rather than having a single definite philosophy and interpretation. Book Publication ''Roots of Yoga'' was published by Penguin Classics in 2017 as a paperback volume of 540 pages; it was not preceded by a hardback edition. The book has no illustrations other than the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gheranda Samhita
''Gheranda Samhita'' (IAST: gheraṇḍasaṁhitā, घेरंडसंहिता, meaning “Gheranda's collection”) is a Sanskrit text of Yoga in Hinduism. It is one of the three classic texts of hatha yoga (the other two being the ''Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' and the ''Shiva Samhita''), and one of the most encyclopedic treatises in yoga.B. Heimann (1937)Review: The Ǧheraṇda Saṁhitā. A Treatise on Haṭha Yoga by Śrīś Chandra Vasu The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Cambridge University Press, No. 2 (Apr., 1937), pp. 355-357 Fourteen manuscripts of the text are known, which were discovered in a region stretching from Bengal to Rajasthan. The first critical edition was published in 1933 by Adyar Library, and the second critical edition was published in 1978 by Digambarji and Ghote. Some of the Sanskrit manuscripts contain ungrammatical and incoherent verses, and some cite older Sanskrit texts. It is likely a late 17th-century text, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shambhala Publications
Shambhala Publications is an independent publishing company based in Boulder, Colorado. According to the company, it specializes in "books that present creative and conscious ways of transforming the individual, the society, and the planet". Many of its titles deal with Buddhism and related topics in religion and philosophy. The company's name was inspired by the Sanskrit word Shambhala, referring to a mystical kingdom hidden beyond the snowpeaks of the Himalayas, according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Its authors include Chögyam Trungpa, Pema Chödrön, Thomas Cleary, Ken Wilber, Fritjof Capra, A. H. Almaas, John Daido Loori, John Stevens, Edward Espe Brown and Natalie Goldberg. The company is unaffiliated with Shambhala Buddhism, Shambhala International, or '' Lion's Roar'' (previously entitled ''Shambhala Sun'') magazine. History Shambhala was founded in 1969 by Samuel Bercholz and Michael Fagan, in Berkeley, California. Its books are distributed by Penguin Random H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nadi (yoga)
( sa, नाडी, lit=tube, pipe, nerve, blood vessel, pulse) is a term for the channels through which, in traditional Indian medicine and spiritual theory, the energies such as prana of the physical body, the subtle body and the causal body are said to flow. Within this philosophical framework, the nadis are said to connect at special points of intensity, the chakras. All nadis are said to originate from one of two centres; the heart and the ''kanda'', the latter being an egg-shaped bulb in the pelvic area, just below the navel. The three principal nadis run from the base of the spine to the head, and are the ida on the left, the sushumna in the centre, and the pingala on the right. Ultimately the goal is to unblock these nadis to bring liberation. Overview Nadi is an important concept in Hindu philosophy, mentioned and described in the sources, some as much as 3,000 years old. The number of nadis of the human body is claimed to be up to hundreds-of-thousands and even mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subtle Body
A subtle body is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, according to various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings. This contrasts with the mind–body dualism that has dominated Western thought. The subtle body is important in the Taoism of China and Dharmic religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, mainly in the branches which focus on tantra and yoga, where it is known as the ''Sūkṣma-śarīra'' ( sa, सूक्ष्म शरीर). However, while mostly associated with Asian cultures, non-dualistic approaches to the mind and body are found in many parts of the world. Subtle body concepts and practices can be identified as early as 2nd century BCE in Taoist texts found in the Mawangdui tombs. Although "evidently present" in Indian thought as early as the 4th to 1st century BCE when the Taittiriya Upanishad describes the Panchakoshas, a series of five interpenetrating sheaths of the body. A fully ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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