What is Yoga?
Dear friends,
When the vast majority of people hear the word “yoga” they think of postures. The meaning of “yoga” from the original Sanskrit, however, is “to yoke or unite.” But unite what? Our small self with the greater Self.
To be precise, postures is called hatha yoga. It was designed millennia ago to calm the body. An agitated nervous system cannot merge with Spirit. Doing hatha alone is, however, a bit like spending your whole life tuning your instrument. To explain further...
The three forms of yoga—when speaking of true union—are bhakti yoga, karma yoga, and jnana yoga (pronounced nyana or gyana):
Bhakti yoga is the yoga of devotion. Opening the heart and seeing Spirit in everyone and in all things is necessary for true union and connectedness.
Karma yoga is selfless service. Our deep habit is to think of ourselves. Serving others gets us out of that groove in the brain. If we start thinking, “They sure are not showing much gratitude!”, then we are thinking of ourselves again, so it is the mental state, not the act, that purifies. It is actually virtually impossible to be in a bad mood or experience stress unless we are focused on ourselves. It’s why we always feel good after helping someone in trouble. Karma yoga strengthens our ability to live outside our own little egos.
Jnana yoga is the yoga of discrimination. It is the study of the nature of the self and coming to understand the goal of life being to transcend the ego.
Each of these paths of yoga has a purpose and tends to appeal to different personal natures. But we each have multiple parts of us, regardless of whether one personal aspect is stronger or more appealing than another.
The yoga approach that combines them all is called Raja Yoga—"The Kingly Path." It covers everything mentioned above, including postures, study, the heart, service to others, and learning how our minds operate (nice to finally get a manual!).
May we each progress in our own way, but may we seek also to strengthen those parts of us that are more challenging and hidden, rather than those that are easy and comfortable.
Blessings,
David G, manager
For the gang at East West