Yoga of Breath (eBook)

Richard Rosen (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2002 | 1. Auflage
320 Seiten
Shambhala (Verlag)
978-0-8348-2578-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Discover the basics and benefits of breath control—pranayama—and how to incorporate it into your yoga practiceFor several thousand years, yogis have drawn on the powerful practice of pranayama, a technique of controlling the breath to maximize prana or life energy. Pranayama has been practiced to rejuvenate the body and as a means of self-study and self-transformation. While most yoga practitioners today focus on asanas, or body postures, a growing number of people are learning the complementary practice of pranayama to deepen and enrich their practice. The Yoga of Breath is a guide to learning the fundamentals of pranayama and incorporating them into an existing yoga practice. Rosen's approach is easy to follow with step-by-step descriptions of breath and body awareness exercises accompanied by clear illustrations. The book also covers the history and philosophy of pranayama, offers useful practice tips, and teaches readers how to use props to enhance the exercises.

Textauszug

FromChapter 1: The Yoga of Breathing Alllife is yoga.—,Sri Aurobindo, TheSynthesis of Yoga Yoga Theclassical or literary language of India is Sanskrit. The word itself means'well or completely formed, perfected.' Sanskrit is indeed abeautiful and highly evocative language. Many of its words remind me of aRussian doll, which opens up to reveal a smaller doll inside, and which in itsturn opens to reveal an even smaller doll, and so on and on until the littlestdoll is exposed. Even though I don't know the language well, 1 can find my wayaround in a Sanskrit-English dictionary. I like to look up words in the yogalexicon and pull them apart to see what's inside. This often gives me newinsights into my practice. We'll be unraveling Sanskrit words as we go throughthis guide. Your practice will be enriched by the hidden meanings in thisperfect language. Let'sstart with a word that may already be familiar to you—,the Sanskrit verb yuj,whichmeans to 'yoke' or 'harness.' It's a relic of an age, manythousands of years ago, when Indian warriors rode into battle in chariots.These wagons typically carried an archer and his driver or charioteer and weredrawn by two horses, which had the reputation of being rather ferocious.'At his deep neigh,' sings one old hymn about the cry of a warhorse,'like the thunder of heaven / the foemen tremble in fear.' It was thecharioteer's task to hitch these barely tamed beasts to the chariot, no smallfeat in the days before the invention of the yoke. He needed both extraordinarybravery and skill, and as a consequence, his position was highly esteemed. Inthe everyday language, yuj assumed the sense of 'unite, connect, add,bring together,' as well as—,since the occupation of yoking or harnessingimplied that the charioteer had learned a particular technique that got thechariot up and running—,'make ready, prepare, set to work, employ,apply.' Two notions, then, of a desired end and its means are conveyed bythe verb yuj and its several derivatives, including the masculine noun yoga. Thepractice of yoga is very old. There were surely contemporaries of ourcharioteer who were engaged in some form of yoga, though it probably didn'texactly resemble what we call yoga today. In general, yoga has four goals: 1.Regenerationor health, and the end of suffering 2.Skillfulaction 3.Integrationor self-knowledge 4.Liberation Inmuch of the sacred literature of India, liberation (moksha) is explained as theyoking or joining of the embodied soul (jiva-atman) to the Great Self(parama-atman). Both yoke and join, by the way, are cognate with yuj and yoga.This is a pointed allusion to the charioteer, his horses, and the chariot. Oneof the most famous parables in the Upanishads recalls and plays upon this rootmeaning:Knowthou the soul (atman, self) as riding in a chariot, Thebody as the chariot. Knowthou the intellect (buddhi) as the chariot-driver, Andthe mind (manas) as the reins.Thesenses (indriya), they say, are the horses, Theobjects of sense, what they range over. Hewho has not understanding, Whosemind is not constantly held firm—,Hissenses are uncontrolled, Like the vicious horses of a chariot-driver. He,however, who has the understanding of a chariot-driver, Aman who reins in his mind—,He reaches the end of his journey, Thehighest place of Vishnu. Yokingis accomplished in a wide variety of ways, depending on which school of yogayou follow. In TheShambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga, thescholar Georg Feuerstein catalogues nearly forty...

Produkt-Details

• Vorwort: Rodney Yee
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Fitness / Aerobic / Bodybuilding
• ISBN-10: 0-8348-2578-3 / 0834825783
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8348-2578-9 / 9780834825789