Yoga asanas create balance in the body through developing both strength and flexibility, as well as activating the endocrine glands and the nervous system to function properly. This is done through the performance of poses or postures, each of which has specific physical benefits. The poses can be done quickly in succession, creating heat in the body through movement or more slowly to increase stamina and perfect the alignment of the pose.
Yoga asana practice places emphasis on alignment, on the 'how to do' and not the 'how much', involving the whole body in the physical work, and not just isolated areas. Attention is also given to correct and controlled breathing while forming the different poses. In this way the body becomes relaxed and energized at the same time. Pranayama, breathing exercises, may be done in association with yoga poses or while sitting and directly focusing on the breath.
In the integrated courses we will practice yoga asana as well as pranayama, the variety and amount of depending on the individual course and relevance. Some may find that the physical practice of yoga can be a gateway into a personal spiritual inquiry, while for others it is purely a physical practice that makes them feel good with their body. Anyone can begin practicing yoga asana, even if you don't feel like you are especially flexible or strong. This will improve the longer you practice, you will find the poses that suit and benefit you most and create your own routine practice. With time it will develop into your individual experience with yoga.
Meditation
The word meditation is derived from the Latin 'meditatio', from a verb 'meditari', meaning "to think, contemplate, devise, ponder". The term meditation was introduced to the west as a translation for Eastern spiritual practices, referred to as ' bhavana' and 'dhyāna' in Buddhism and Hinduism, which comes from the Sanskrit root 'dhyai', meaning 'to contemplate or meditate'.
Meditation refers to a set of practices in which the practitioner trains the mind or enters a self-induced and regulated mode of consciousness to realize benefit. It is an inwardly oriented, personal practice, which individuals do by themselves for developing mindfulness and concentration. The practitioner focuses on training the attention and awareness in order to bring mental processes under greater voluntary control and thereby foster general mental well-being and development of mental capacities and qualities such as calm, clarity, and concentration. All these characteristics are cultivated towards the attainment of a higher goal, which is the acquisition of wisdom which liberates the mind from all unwholesome mental states.
In yoga, or dhamma (dharma), two important mental qualities that arise from wholesome and proper meditative practice are:
- serenity, or tranquility (samatha) - which steadies, composes, unifies and concentrates the mind;
- insight (vipassana) - which enables one to see, explore and discern phenomena for what they actually are.
Through serenity one is able to suppress obscuring hindrances and, with the suppression of the hindrances, it is through the development of insight that one gains liberating wisdom.
