Well, what I discovered was, you can do the same thing with prayer,duh
prayer and meditation are the same thing they all affect the same brain areas.
Each yoga stretch is symbolic of something and the average lay person doesn’t know what that something is, yoga and kundalini energy,
Even masters will tell you not to try to attain kundalini without their assistance, I know what can happen and it is terrifying.
“Without the practice of yoga, How could knowledge Set the atman (soul) free? asks the Yogatatva Upanishad. Yoga: union with the ultimate. Carl G. Jung the eminent Swiss psychologist, described yoga as ‘one of the greatest things the human mind has ever created.’ Yoga sutra consists of two words only: yogash chitta-critti-nirodah, which may be translated: “Yoga is the cessation of agitation of the consciousness.”
The word yoga is derived from the root yuj, which means to unite or to join together. The practice of yoga may lead to the union of the human with the divine - all within the self.”
Yoga is an integral part of the Hindu religion.
There is a saying: “There is no Yoga without Hinduism and no Hinduism without Yoga.” The country of origin of Yoga is undoubtedly India, where for many hundreds of years it has been a part of man’s activities directed towards higher spiritual achievements. The Yoga Philosophy is peculiar to the Hindus, and no trace of it is found in any other nation, ancient or modern. It was the fruit of the highest intellectual and spiritual development. The history of Yoga is long and ancient. The earliest Vedic texts, the Brahmanas, bear witness to the existence of ascetic practices (tapas) and the vedic Samhitas contain some references, to ascetics, namely the Munis or Kesins and the Vratyas.
“There is no Yoga without Hinduism and no Hinduism without Yoga.”
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Yoga_and_Hindu_Philosophy.htm
according to some Hindu literature, there are 330 million Hindu deities
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hindu_deities
Prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening for Him.
“Each yoga stretch is symbolic of something and the average lay person doesn’t know what that something is”
In Asian I’ve been to Buddhist temples which were 2000 years old. Several of them have small stone water fountains which were historically used by visitors to get a drink.
The fountain is set up so that as you bend down to get a drink you are also bowing to a Buddha. I would never have noticed it if someone hadn’t pointed it out to me.
If each yoga pose is symbolic of something, but the person doing the posing is ignorant of that symbolism, then does the pose have any benefit or detriment beyond the physical? I think not. The effect must be on a party who does know.