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| No philosophy posts for long? I just noticed on the home page of the yoga.com the following statement:
Yoga has undeniable benefits to the body and physical health. However, yoga practice also nurtures mental, emotional and spiritual health.
This statement is actually false, and should be reversed.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
  
Location: A Blue State |
Yes, I think that that statement is a bit backward, but that seems to be the
way a lot folks get involved in yoga...first the physical side, and only later
the mental/spiritual side. I agree that this in not quite correct.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Another sidenote to this is that Philosophy and dealing with the mind and the spirit is something that has almost become absolete in our society - our world, not to mention - lack of mentors, guides and guru's with authentic expertise, is totally lacking, therefore, it is rather difficult to maintain the growth in this very important area of Yoga. Another words Neelbhai, there ain't too many of you around anymore,  |
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| Cyndi, if Brother Neel's guru queue is too long, I'll take you on as a disciple. |
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| Hey Big Brother Bruce:
I always pray for your blessings. You are my big brother and I never forget that. Now, coming to your Jalaneti, let me tell you a surprising thing. Let me know whether you already knew it:
Jalaneti, as understood by many today, has NOTHING to do with sneezing removal, asthma cure, and all that B.S. Jalaneti is a purification process to keep the nasal passage clean and also affect the nasal nerves in such a way, that later Pranayama can be practiced without difficulty.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| Well, I kinda got into this backwards from most people, (philosophy then asanas) which is the reason I seldom post questions about the asanas. I agree with you Neel the "gym" yogis as I like to call them are really starting to bother me.
So why don't you post some interesting questions in this section, and we'll all chime in?
kulkarnn - 2005-11-09 12:07 PMJalaneti, as understood by many today, has NOTHING to do with sneezing removal, asthma cure, and all that B.S. Jalaneti is a purification process to keep the nasal passage clean and also affect the nasal nerves in such a way, that later Pranayama can be practiced without difficulty.
Okay, is it a physical purification process, or is there something else? If it's physical, then curing various problems of the physical body would seem to be part of the purification.
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| Curious various problems with physiology is NOT exactly needed for Pranayama as it is commonly misunderstood as well. Pranayama requires this: Firm and Comfortable Steady posture, sufficiently disciplined person, that is proper diet, proper rest, proper mental behavior (NOT getting excited, not getting dull, not loosing interest, etc.), and then one who has developed an interest in staying at one place for practice, that is one who does NOT travel too much, ETC. Also, the nervous system has to be trained in a disciplined way so that when one starts the Pranayam, one can focus in a steady way without loosing the focus and knows one's limit. While doing all this Nasal Breathing, if obstructed can cause problems. Also, the nerves open into the top part of the nose, and when one drinks water by nose, it addresses the nasal cleaning, but more over interaction with the olfactory nerves. This helps the person later in Pranayama.
For cleaning nose only, or for removing cold, and asthma, Jalaneti is NOT the way. For this one should go for a) Correct Diet (first priority), b) Proper exercise c) Proper Rest. And, that should solve the problem. This does not need any Jalaneti.
To make a very generalized statement: NO Yoga Exercise is necessary if one is interested in Physical Health. Yoga is required only when one is interested in Mental Health which later leads to Spiritual Opening. To give a bad and silly example: A T Shirt can be used for cleaning the nose and face. But, T Shirt is actually meant for wearing as a top. One can wipe the face using any clothes and should not waste money in purchasing a T Shirt, which is expensive.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| "To make a very generalized statement: NO Yoga Exercise is necessary if one is interested in Physical Health. Yoga is required only when one is interested in Mental Health which later leads to Spiritual Opening. To give a bad and silly example: A T Shirt can be used for cleaning the nose and face. But, T Shirt is actually meant for wearing as a top. One can wipe the face using any clothes and should not waste money in purchasing a T Shirt, which is expensive."
This is very true and yoga can be an overkill for a lot of things and sometimes people use it to cover over the root of the problems. People want to gain a general sense of peace and stability and they take to yoga - this is fine, but sometimes it is approached incorrectly. I would like to tell my own experience about this, since I think it might be helpful for some people.
Initially when I got interested in yoga, liberation and other such ideas I started reading a lot and assimilated a lot of knowledge on these matters. I learned about a lot of practices and theories and understood them quite well theoretically. When I first got interested in meditation practice seriously, I really always wanted to do the most advanced meditation I could find. I might have practiced some normal type of meditation for two days but then I thought "there are all these advanced techniques, what good will such a simple meditation do?" So then I took to super-advanced meditation and extremely super-advanced meditation and even more super meditation, etc... In some traditions it says that striclty holding yamas/niyamas is a limitation and so on, all these are meant for extremely advanced practioners who recieved very special initations of course. However, I thought "well this is important for people doing inferior practices, but for me, I am doing superest-advanced meditation, so the yoga will automatically bring about the changes needed". So I practiced with this kind of arrogance for several months.
What I finally came to notice was that it created more problems than before! It is not that I had problems with symptons from meditation or so on - this could have easily happened but I did have good theoretical understanding which allowed me to avoid that (thank God!). The problems were much more fundamental. For the 10 minutes or so after I meditated, things were quite good and fun - it gave a great mood elevation. However, most of the time, the mood would be much lower than in post-meditation. These times (the rest of the 24 hours), become far more difficult because now I am missing those 10 minutes - "why can't I always be in such a mood?"
I thankfully came to understand in not too much time, that trying to get rid of all problems by just doing some special technique sitting down for a few minutes everyday, and then just doing random things the rest of the day was a silly thing indeed!
Through all this, I learned that by far the most important, simple and unimaginably effective practice was santosha - contentment. Asana, pranayama, pratyahara, even bhakti!, are all just footnotes to santosha. Without the latter, they are just a brand of mental flirtation.
I hope this resonates with everyone,
Regards. |
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| Thanks belovedofGod:
santoshaadanuttamasukhalaabhah....
from santosha comes the supreme happiness. Whereas people think happiness lies in getting more, actually happiness lies in being content with what one gets after a reasonable try, and not excessive try.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| belovedofthegod - 2005-11-09 9:42 PMI thankfully came to understand in not too much time, that trying to get rid of all problems by just doing some special technique sitting down for a few minutes everyday, and then just doing random things the rest of the day was a silly thing indeed!
This is a very good realization. I think this is part of the reason that it's refered to as practice. Practice for what? For the rest of the day/life. I think that a good practice should give you the wisdom to know how you should act, and give you the courage and serenity to do so.
Through all this, I learned that by far the most important, simple and unimaginably effective practice was santosha - contentment. Asana, pranayama, pratyahara, even bhakti!, are all just footnotes to santosha. Without the latter, they are just a brand of mental flirtation.I hope this resonates with everyone,Regards.
I have problems with santosha, it's a pretty constant struggle with me, same with ahimsa.
Personally I find that Satya or truthfulness resonates with me, and that everything else is subordinate to it. Hopefully as things develop I'll get better at the others. I do think that they tend to overlap or work together in a lot of ways, though sometimes they also seem to be in conflict.
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| ok, just to pour some chocolate syrup onto the ice cream...
asana is FUN !!!!!!
Joyful dance move! breathe fire, pause cooling wind, listen to my heart, reach up to God, root down into earth, breathe in God's gift of life, breathe out gratitude (and a little something for the plants :-), go go go go, pause, shoulder loop, heart lifting up to God, getting taller with joy, growing more stable with love. Riding the edge, can I go farther/stronger/higher? Surfing the breath, riding the light, JUMP BACK, tech time - open, oh sit bones of mine! Guard my SI joint, oh my inner spiral.
Fun is good !
Like chocolate :-).
When you are hungry, you should eat :-) :-) :-)
Cheers.................Dale
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| I think I'll have a piece of dark chocolate now. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | An Organic French Truffle for me, please
Edited by Cyndi 2005-11-14 4:15 PM
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Observation
