|
Śiva Saṃhitā
''Shiva Samhita'' (IAST: śivasaṃhitā, also ''Siva Samhita'', meaning "Shiva's Compendium") is a Sanskrit text on yoga, written by an unknown author. The text is addressed by the Hindu ascetic Shiva to his consort Parvati. The text consists of five chapters, with the first chapter a treatise that summarizes nondual Vedanta (Advaita Vedanta) philosophy with influences from the Sri Vidya school of South India. The remaining chapters discuss yoga, the importance of a guru (teacher) to a student, various asanas, mudras and tantra. The ''Shiva Samhita'' is one of three major surviving classical treatises on hatha yoga, the other two being ''Gherand Samhita, Gheranda Samhita'' and ''Hatha Yoga Pradipika''. It is considered the most comprehensive treatise on hatha yoga, one that recommends that all householders practice and benefit from yoga. Over a dozen variant manuscripts of the text are known, and a critical edition of the text was published in 1999 by Kaivalya Dham Yoga Research ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Mallinson (author)
Sir James Mallinson, 5th Baronet, of Walthamstow (born 22 April 1970) is a British Indologist, writer and translator. He is Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford, and recognised as one of the world's leading experts on the history of medieval Hatha yoga. Early life Mallinson became interested in India by reading Rudyard Kipling's novel ''Kim (novel), Kim'' as a teenager; the book describes an English boy travelling India with a holy man. He was educated at Eton College and the University of Oxford, where he read Sanskrit and Old Iranian for his bachelor's degree, and studied the ethnography of South Asia for his master's degree at SOAS University of London. Mallinson is described as "perhaps the only baronet to wear dreadlocks"; he let his hair grow out from 1988 on his first visit to India during his gap year. He cut his hair in 2019 after the death of his guru, Mahant Balyogi Sri Ram Balak Das, who had initiated him into the Ramanandi Sampradaya at the Ujjai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lotus Position
Lotus position or Padmasana () is a cross-legged sitting meditation posture, meditation pose from History of India, ancient India, in which each foot is placed on the opposite thigh. It is an ancient asana in yoga, predating hatha yoga, and is widely used for meditation in Hinduism, Hindu, Tantra, Jainism, Jain, and Buddhism, Buddhist traditions. Variations include easy pose (Sukhasana), half lotus, bound lotus, and psychic union pose. Advanced variations of several other asanas including yoga headstand have the legs in lotus or half lotus. The pose can be uncomfortable for people not used to sitting on the floor, and attempts to force the legs into position can injure the knees. Shiva, the meditating ascetic God of Hinduism, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, and the Tirthankaras in Jainism have been depicted in the lotus position, especially in statues. The pose is emblematic both of Buddhist meditation and of yoga, and as such has found a place in Western culture as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siddhasana
Siddhasana (; ) or Accomplished Pose is an ancient seated asana in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise suitable for meditation. The names Muktasana (, 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'' () meaning both "perfect" and "adept", and () meaning "posture" or "seat". The name Muktasana comes from meaning "liberation". Ann Swa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mantra
A mantra ( ; Pali: ''mantra'') or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan) believed by practitioners to have religious, magical or spiritual powers. Feuerstein, Georg (2003), ''The Deeper Dimension of Yoga''. Shambala Publications, Boston, MA Some mantras have a syntactic structure and a literal meaning, while others do not. ꣽ, ॐ (Aum, Om) serves as an important mantra in various Indian religions. Specifically, it is an example of a seed syllable mantra ( bijamantra). It is believed to be the first sound in Hinduism and as the sonic essence of the absolute divine reality. Longer mantras are phrases with several syllables, names and words. These phrases may have spiritual interpretations such as a name of a deity, a longing for truth, reality, light, immortality, peace, love, knowledge, and action. Examples of lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chakra
A chakra (; ; ) is one of the various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, part of the inner traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. The concept of the chakra arose in Hinduism. Beliefs differ between the Indian religions: Buddhist texts mention four or five chakras, while Hindu sources often have six or seven. The modern "Western chakra system" arose from multiple sources, starting in the 1880s with H. P. Blavatsky and other Theosophists, followed by Sir John Woodroffe's 1919 book ''The Serpent Power'', and Charles W. Leadbeater's 1927 book ''The Chakras''. Psychological and other attributes, rainbow colours, and a wide range of correspondences with other systems such as alchemy, astrology, gemstones, homeopathy, Kabbalah and Tarot were added later. Etymology Lexically, ''chakra'' is the Indic reflex of an ancestral Indo-European languages, Indo-European form ''*kʷékʷlos'', whence also "wheel" and "cycl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kundalini
In Hinduism, kundalini (, ) is a form of divine feminine energy (or ''Shakti'') believed to be located at the base of the spine, in the '' muladhara''. It is an important concept in Śhaiva Tantra, where it is believed to be a force or power associated with the divine feminine or the formless aspect of the Goddess. This energy in the body, when cultivated and awakened through tantric practice, is believed to lead to spiritual liberation. Kuṇḍalinī is associated with the goddess Parvati or Adi Parashakti, the supreme being in Shaktism, and with the goddesses Bhairavi and Kubjika. The term, along with practices associated with it, was adopted into Hatha Yoga in the 9th century. Mallinson, James. "Śāktism and Haṭhayoga." In: Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism: History, Practice and Doctrine, edited by Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen London: Routledge, 2016. pp. 109–140. It has since then been adopted into other forms of Hinduism as well as modern spirituality and New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mudras
A mudra (; , , "seal", "mark", or "gesture"; ) is a symbolic or ritual gesture or pose in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. While some mudras involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers. As well as being spiritual gestures employed in the iconography and spiritual practice of Indian religions, mudras have meaning in many forms of Indian dance, and yoga. The range of mudras used in each field (and religion) differs, but with some overlap. In addition, many of the Buddhist mudras are used outside South Asia, and have developed different local forms elsewhere. In hatha yoga, mudras are used in conjunction with pranayama (yogic breathing exercises), generally while in a seated posture, to stimulate different parts of the body involved with breathing and to affect the flow of prana. It is also associated with bindu (symbol), bindu, bodhicitta, amrita, or consciousness in the body. Unlike older tantric mudras, hatha yogic mudras are generally internal acti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asanas
An āsana (Sanskrit: wikt:आसन, आसन) is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a meditation seat, 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 asanas, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali'' define "asana" as "[a position that] is steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the Ashtanga (eight limbs of yoga), eight limbs of his system.Patanjali ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Yoga sutras'', Book II:29, 46 Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English. The 10th or 11th century ''Goraksha Samhita, Goraksha Sataka'' and the 15th century ''Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' identify 84 asanas; the 17th century ''Haṭha Ratnāvalī, Hatha Ratnavali'' provid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moksha
''Moksha'' (; , '), also called ''vimoksha'', ''vimukti'', and ''mukti'', is a term in Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, liberation, '' nirvana'', or release. In its soteriological and eschatological senses, it refers to freedom from '' saṃsāra'', the cycle of death and rebirth. In its epistemological and psychological senses, ''moksha'' is freedom from ignorance: self-realization, self-actualization and self-knowledge. In Hindu traditions, ''moksha'' is a central concept and the utmost aim of human life; the other three aims are ''dharma'' (virtuous, proper, moral life), '' artha'' (material prosperity, income security, means of life), and '' kama'' (pleasure, sensuality, emotional fulfillment). Together, these four concepts are called Puruṣārtha in Hinduism. In some schools of Indian religions, ''moksha'' is considered equivalent to and used interchangeably with other terms such as ''vimoksha'', ''vimukti'', '' kaivalya'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atman (Hinduism)
Atman or Ātman may refer to: Religion * Ātman (Hinduism), ''Ātman'' (Hinduism), meaning "Self", a philosophical concept common to all schools of Hindu philosophy * Ātman (Buddhism), ''Ātman'' (Buddhism), ''attā'' or ''attan'', a reference to the essential self ** ''Anattā'' or ''anātman'' — "not-self", central concept in Buddhism * Ātman (Jainism), ''Ātman'' (Jainism), or ''Jīva'', a philosophical term used within Jainism to identify the soul * ''Atman jnana'' — "knowledge" in the context of Indian philosophy and religions Film * Ātman (1975 film), ''Ātman'' (1975 film), a Japanese experimental short film directed by Toshio Matsumoto * Atman (1997 film), ''Atman'' (1997 film), a documentary film directed by Pirjo Honkasalo People * Cynthia Atman, American engineer * Pavel Atman (born 1987), Russian handball player See also * Ataman, a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds * Atma (other) * Atta (other) * Divine soul (disambi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
