Posted on 03/31/2013 3:29:28 PM PDT by Steelfish
Obama White House Embraces Yoga Amid Conservative Contortions Chidanand Rajghatta Apr 1, 2013, It is not the first time that Obama's residence has hosted a yoga garden for Easter, but this year's event is significant because of an ongoing lawsuit in California challenging the teaching of yoga in schools.
The White House announced last week that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will include a 'yoga garden' for children and their parents who attend the traditional Easter Egg Roll festivities on Monday. "Come enjoy a session of yoga from professional instructors," the White House exhorted thousands of workaday Americans parents and their kids from across the country who will troop into the Presidential lawns, reminding participants that the event's theme is 'Be Healthy, Be Active, Be You!'
It is not the first time that Obama's residence has hosted a yoga garden for Easter, but this year's event is significant because of an ongoing lawsuit in California challenging the teaching of yoga in schools. In fact, the case came up for hearing in a San Diego courtroom on Thursday with a mirthful opening.
In an indication of how deep-rooted mainstream yoga has become in the US, it turned out that the presiding judge himself is a yoga practitioner. "Does anybody have a problem with that?" San Diego Superior Court Judge John Meyer was reported asking at the start of the case.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofindia.indiatimes.com ...
Those who do not understand respond pretty much the way you have. Sorry if that’s offensive to you, but I stated a fact.
Yoga, so-called, as practiced in the West is nothing more nor less than a set of preposterous contortions engaged in by fitness nuts in leotards; it has nothing to do with actual yoga, which is the union of the individual self with the universal Self.
“it has nothing to do with actual yoga, which is the union of the individual self with the universal Self.”
You’re brave to say that on FR!
Yes, it’s mostly a marketing vehicle for other stuff in the West. But some elements of Yoga do remain in most of those meditation and exercise systems from what I’ve seen.
The key word being “meditation”. Exercise is for the gym.
Where I come from, we call it, “Stretching.”
Where I come from, we call any reference to yoga as exercises as a “stretcher.”
By “exercise” my reference is to being as physically fit as possible. Hatha Yoga helps in this.
Hatha Yoga is an oxymoron.
Exercises are NOT yoga.
> Hatha Yoga is an oxymoron.
Is there some latter-day thinking that differs from the following excerpt?
The most comprehensive text of hatha yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Yogi Swatmarama. This work is nonetheless derived from older Sanskrit texts on yoga besides Yogi Swatmarama’s own yogic experiences. It includes information about shatkarma (purification), asana, pranayama (subtle energy control), chakras (centers of energy), kundalini (instinct), bandhas (muscle force), kriyas (techniques; manifestations of kundalini), shakti (sacred force), nadis (channels), and mudras (symbolic gestures) among other topics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_yoga
Your comments will be appreciated.
Yoga is one of the six traditional systems of Indian philosophy - Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Karma Mimamsa, and Vedanta - and, despite what the “writer of the wikipedia” article says, the Yoga Darshana of Patanjali is the accepted text, and the ONLY accepted text, for this system.
Verse two of chapter one of this document states, “Yogaschittavriddhinarodhah,” which, translated into English from the original Sanskrit, is, “Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind.”
Period.
End of story.
Deep in the body of the text, yogasanas (flexibility positions)are mentioned as an ancillary technique - one of eight - for the achievement of this end.
They are NOT yoga, nor can they be equated with same; they are, at BEST, a more or less useful tool for exercising the body between bouts of meditation.
Please refer all further questions to this document, an excellent translation of which is offered by State University of New York Press; I’m getting a little tired of this (very) old thread.
That said, there are a couple of poses that if Michelle is doing them, I don't wanna be behind her.
> the Yoga Darshana of Patanjali is the accepted text, and the ONLY accepted text....
It is evident that is not so:
The Original Teachings of Yoga: From Patanjali Back to Hiranyagarbha
American Institute of Vedic Studies
Many people today look to Patanjali, the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, as the father or founder of the greater system of Yoga. While Patanjali’s work is very important and worthy of profound examination, a study of the ancient literature on Yoga reveals that the Yoga tradition is much older.
The traditional founder of Yoga Darshana or the ‘Yoga system of philosophy’ – which the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali represents – is usually said to be Hiranyagarbha. It is nowhere said to be Patanjali. The Mahabharata (Shanti Parva 349.65), the great ancient text in which the Bhagavad Gita of Sri Krishna occurs, states: “Kapila, the teacher of Samkhya, is said to be the supreme Rishi. Hiranyagarbha is the original knower of Yoga. There is no one else more ancient.”
Elsewhere in the Mahabharata (Shanti Parva 342.95-96), Krishna states, identifying himself with Hiranyagarbha: “As my form, carrying the knowledge, eternal and dwelling in the Sun, the teachers of Samkhya, who have discerned what is important, call me Kapila. As the brilliant Hiranyagarbha, who is lauded in the verses of the Vedas, ever worshipped by Yoga, so I am also remembered in the world.” Other Yoga texts like the Brihadyogi Yajnavalkya Smriti XII.5 similarly portray Hiranyagarbha as the original teacher of Yoga, just as Kapila is the original teacher of the Samkhya system. So do commentaries on the Yoga Sutras.
The vast literature of the Vedas, Mahabharata and Puranas speak of numerous great yogis but does not give importance to Patanjali, who was of a later period. Even the Yoga literature that is later in time than Patanjali, like that of Kashmir Shaivism or Hatha Yoga, does not make him central to their teachings.
Complete article:
http://www.vedanet.com/2012/06/the-original-teachings-of-yoga-from-patanjali-back-to-hiranyagarbha/
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