American Yoga
Toward the end of the 20th Century a new kind of exercise began to spread like wildfire across the American cultural landscape. From Hollywood to New York this hot new trend became known as Yoga.
American Yoga almost always comes in the form of challenging aerobic workouts. What makes these workouts unique is the emphasis on deeply stretching each and every muscle of the body through a series of different poses. Yoga classes typically last for two hours and tend to leave students in a state of deep relaxation.
For most Americans the word Yoga continues to only conjure up images of exercise. This is unfortunate because physical workouts are really just one piece, one aspect, of the classic path of Yoga.
Raja Yoga: The Ancient Practice
Yoga is an experience and the path that leads to that experience. To experience Yoga is to experience one’s identity without the veil of belief, imagination, and the habitual mental and physical reactions that arise due to birth in a preexisting species and culture.
The experience of unconditioned identity is referred to as Samadhi, or Enlightenment. Enlightenment is where you end up when you successfully navigate the Eight Limbs of Raja Yoga, which are as follows:
- Yama (Ethics)
- Niyama (Poise)
- Asana (Physical Postures)
- Pranayama (Breath Control)
- Pratyahara (Withdrawal of the Senses)
- Dharana (Concentration)
- Dhyana (Meditation)
- Samadhi (Union/Enlightenment)
As with any training program, the temptation to skip steps and rush all the way to the end is an ever present detriment to meaningful progress. The order of these eight steps is no coincidence.
Ethics is the foundation, the cornerstone, of the entire process. Lacking consistency in how we react to the world, its’ inhabitants, and ourselves, we remain in a state of constant wavering; sometimes acting this way, sometimes acting that way, forever being dragged into successive states of distraction.
Having somewhat transcended the death grip of distraction by using the anchor of ethics, we are then able to develop a poise of character which is attracted to productive habits, and repulsed by destructive habits. As we begin to settle into a grounded way of being, we soon realize how utterly and horribly distracting the human body can be.
It is at this point that American Yoga enters the picture. Asana, as this systematic practice of stretching poses is traditionally referred, is used to bring the body into a state of deep relaxation. Without relaxing the body as fully as possible, the mind will habitually find itself distracted by aches and pains from our daily activities. These physical distractions upend any chance of relaxing into a deep state of meditation.
As our practice of conscious physical relaxation advances we will inevitably come to notice the unique relationship between our breath and the content of our mind. As our mind becomes distracted we become self-involved in thought, and actually lose awareness of breathing. However, by focusing the mind on the breath we learn to achieve a state of relaxation that goes deeper than any stretch could ever take us. Also, by experimenting with conscious rhythmic breathing we learn how to effect our energy levels in a variety of ways.
Having used up all the avenues of relaxation our body has to offer, we naturally begin to search for a deeper peace that can only be found by exploring how deep our mind actually goes. With every attempt to dive into the unknown territories of our identity, we repeatedly find ourselves being pulled back by the five outer senses. As ignorance wanes and self-knowledge waxes, our inner experiences evolve a certain sense of magnetism. One begins to feel an irresistible pull towards self-exploration that becomes harder and harder to ignore as the practice deepens.
When our identity finally starts to transcend the world created by our senses, then begins the last stage of Yoga. The final three limbs – concentration, meditation, and union – are actually one huge spectrum, with each limb seamlessly leading into the other. By prolonged concentration on external and internal objects we come to realize that the lines of demarcation we have used to differentiate ourselves from the world are nothing more than taught illusions, self-deception of the highest order.
As this realization grows within us we spontaneously begin practicing meditation, which is nothing more than the deepening experience of unconditioned identity. When an individual has fully settled into the experience of unconditioned identity, they are said to have reached the end of Yoga.
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Image used in this Post
boipeba_yoga2 photo courtesy of Flickr user roney’s published under the CC license.
Tree Meditation photo courtesy of Flickr user erix! published under the CC license.
I just had my first interview today (these guys are in Las Vegas now) and was so...
8 Comments
Without going into too much detail since you mentioned you will be discussing the history of Yoga next week I just wanted to confirm the notion that I have always had. Did Yoga originate within the practice of Hinduism?
That’s a very hard question to answer without going into too much detail….
The problem with your question is that there is no one set practice of Hinduism. Hinduism should be thought of as an umbrella, containing within itself a vast diversity of different approaches towards religious experience. Though many of these approaches actually contradict each other on the surface, they are all grounded in the underlying belief that the Source of the Universe is both the Identity of the Universe and the Identity of all the Universe’s inhabitants.
Yoga takes this belief and turns the Source into something you can subjectively experience as your self rather than objectively worship as a diety separate from your self.
In my opinion, the ultimate yogi was Buddha, and yes he started out as a Hindu before he rejected all belief and dogma.
Yeah, I figured it was some hybrid of the two. And as with Hinduism, Buddhism has numerous practices with no set method for spiritual enlightenment.
Now where did I put that bodhi tree….
The fundamental practices taught by the Buddha are basically the last three limbs of Yoga: Concentration, Meditation, and Samadhi.
The difference between Yoga and Buddhism is that Yoga has been kept relatively unchanged for almost 5000 years due to it’s being contained within a lineage of gurus and disciples.
Buddhism on the other hand has become elaborated and distorted due to it being purposely spread around the world for the last 2000 years; much like Christianity. (A perfect example of this distortion is in Japan where they worship the Buddha as a God and look forward to living with him in a heaven they call the Pure land)
regarding the topic whether yoga originated from Hinduism, i guess it’s never ending debate.
Eileen, thanks for stopping by!
Food for thought…
At some point in history, almost every organized religion witnessed the development of a discipline similar in aim to Yoga, and with a focus on meditation or inner contemplation, rather than external ritual. These kind of disciplines are referred to as Gnostic.
Yoga emerged within Hinduism, Sufism within Islam, Kabbalah within Judaism.
The big debate is whether Gnostic practices, disciplines focused on inner experience, predate organized religion.
It is certainly possible…after all, meditation is an innate ability of the human brain, and could have been discovered or experienced at any point in human history.
It’s certainly possible.
nice to emeet you :~)
Good JOB! Keep the exploration up….and let me see you soon on your mat!
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