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Yoga Philosophy

Namaste!

The roots of yoga

Yoga is a philosophy of life that has the potential to create a vibrantly healthy body and mind.

BREATH: The continuity of deep, even breathing cannot be overemphasized. When breath feeds action and action feeds posture, each movement becomes gentle, precise, and perfectly steady.

According to the teachings of Sri T. Krishnamacharya, "breath is life." Breathing is our most fundamental and vital act and holds a divine essence: exhalation is a movement towards self-realization and inhalation an inspiration from self-realization. Our last action in life is to exhale, which, in essence, is the final and total surrender to the self.

YogaJaya Vision
Integration/Awareness/Transformation

Click to learn more

YogaJaya Director Patrick Oancia speaks about the YogaJaya Vision in this short film


Directed and produced by award winning New York based Italian cinematographer, Marco Franzoni.

See YogaJaya Vision Short Film here.

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Current Workshops:

YogaJaya International Intensive Teacher Training
(Yoga Alliance 200 hours)

Tokyo 2009
Osaka 2009



Current Events:

Zeitgeist-The Movie(1hour 56 minutes.)
zeitgesit

Zeitgeist was created as a not for profit expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are.

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PRACTICE: It is said that where there is no effort there is no benefit. Strength and stamina are key aspects of traditional yoga, but seem contrary to Western perceptions of yoga. Yoga practice requires considerable effort and taps into and circulates a vital energy throughout the body, strengthening and purifying the nervous system. The mind becomes lucid, clear and precise.

THE EIGHT-LIMB THEORY: "Ashtanga" literally means eight limbs. They are described by Patanjali as: Yama (abstinences), Niyama (observances), Asana (postures), Pranayama (breath control), Pratyahara (sense withdrawal), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (super-consciousness, bliss). These branches support each other. Asana practice must be established for proper practice of pranayama and is a key to the development of the yamas and niyamas. Once these four externally oriented limbs are firmly rooted, the last four internally oriented limbs will spontaneously evolve over time.

The eight-limb theory still influences many modern schools of yoga.

For extensive online materials relating to Yoga Philosophy see:
http://www.santosha.com
http://www.sivananda.org
http://www.yrec.org

This page contains content from The Yoga Journal and ashtanga.com
 
 
Copyright 2004, yogajaya. All rights reserved. Photos by Kiyoto and Peter M. Cook