In English, the term meditation comes from the Latin word “meditatio”, which means “to ponder” or “to reflect”. In the state of meditation, the mind is fully awake and clear, but at the same time calm and relaxed. In early historical traditions, mantras or chants were often the objects of meditation. Over the millennia, very different forms of meditation have developed – from breathing…
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than two billion people worldwide are considered overweight. That’s nearly one-third of the world’s population. One in ten people on earth is classified as obese to very obese. Even more frightening than the numbers, is the time span in which the number of overweight people has doubled: It’s only been 50 years! Never before has mankind gained as much weight as now. Looking …
Asana (yoga posture) practice is a process of being present in the moment with a permanent sense of freedom and wholeness that gives us the experience of being fully alive, energized and blissful. As a practice of self-transformation, yoga asanas give us a set of tools to untie those knots that bind us and create patterns of resistance and stagnation deep within us. Joel Kramer states that this ingenious practice consists of learning…
Every day of your life, you breathe in and out about 20,000 to 30,000 times. You’re probably not even aware of breathing – unless you have some kind of bronchial or lung problem. And like a close friendship, it’s the same with breathing: it’s so taken for granted and therefore ordinary. And in this self-evidence lies the danger. To put it bluntly, automatic breathing is not necessarily an advantage, because…
The etymology of the word mantra comes from Sanskrit, an Indo-European language of the Hindu and Buddhist religious texts, the translation of which is variable. The word is composed of the term “man” which means thinking and “tra”, which can be translated as a suffix designating an instrument or as the term meaning “protecting”. Mantra therefore means “instrument of thought”.…
The lotus position is one of the most useful and important asana. It is the preferred posture for meditation and the breathing exercises of pranayama. Even by those who don’t practice yoga, the lotus pose is arguably the most well-known yoga pose today. Many people believe it to be the “classic” yoga pose. Many yoga classes begin or end with the lotus pose, which is frequently used for meditation. For those who…
The origin of yoga is a matter of contention and difficult to trace historically, with varying perspectives. Some authors consider that it has an antiquity of more than 5000 years, that is to say that it would be previous to the Vedas, the oldest books of humanity. Others claim that yoga originated from the Vedas. Some scholars argue that yoga was practiced in the ancient Indus civilization, which existed from the third to second …
Yoga is an experiential science with the goal of integration (samadhi). Integration means to make the individual consciousness familiar with the experience of a higher, universal consciousness. In order for us to arrive at this experience, yogic teaching has developed a whole range of techniques and tested them over thousands of years, adapting the same to human development. At very early stages, the great sages of yoga science…
It goes without saying that both practices have their differences. While both meditation and yoga may incorporate similar practices, such as focused breathing and postures, there are distinct characteristics that define each one. Meditation is typically understood as a mental practice that aims to achieve a state of deep concentration and stillness of the mind, while yoga is a physical and spiritual practice that incorporates…
More than six million Americans practice one of the many variations of yoga on a more or less regular basis. In addition, there are millions of yoga devotees worldwide. Yoga originated somewhere in India about 5000 years ago, but only reached Europe and America about 100 years ago. And even younger is the modern yoga boom that began in the USA – essentially triggered by the successful TV series by Richard Hittleman – in the 1960s. This…
