Have anybody met famous Yoga Guru Unity?
In his words,
Yoga works as the medicine to our body to keep it healthy and away from stress and tension. Also, it is a way to find inner peace and identify strength of our body, mind and soul.
[QUOTE=Quetzalcoatl;30009]Hi CityMonk,
in case you’re talking to me: No. 
.[/QUOTE]
No, I meant the link in the original posting, that talks about that something like if we are to buy plastic staff, we will contaminate rivers, contaminated rivers produce unhealthy fish and by eating that fish we will become sick. The article in original postings talks about similar things but on the global or even cosmic level
I just found ancient Indian Yoga definition which is,
Yoga is a Sanskrit word. It has many meanings. It is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj meaning ‘unite’. Union of Jivatma (Individual soul) with paramatma (Universal soul or God) is called Yoga. Meaning of Yoga is very vast.
Now days the word “Yoga” is more associated with physical exercises and yogasanas which have therapeutic use. The word “Yoga” is mainly associated with Hathayoga and Yogasanas (Postures).
A beginner in the path of Yoga is called Yogarudha.
An advanced practitioner of Yoga is called “Yogi”(masculine gender) and “Yogini” (feminine gender)
[QUOTE=CityMonk;29991]The article you posted link to is more about karmic effect.
OM![/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=CityMonk;30226]No, I meant the link in the original posting, that talks about that something like if we are to buy plastic staff, we will contaminate rivers, contaminated rivers produce unhealthy fish and by eating that fish we will become sick. The article in original postings talks about similar things but on the global or even cosmic level[/QUOTE]
Yes, yes it does.
But it still left me with the thought what does ?Yoga? mean
Yes, yes it does.
But it still left me with the thought what does “Yoga” mean
Do you mean on the level of Consciousness, or trans-literally?
[QUOTE=core789;30261]Do you mean on the level of Consciousness, or trans-literally?[/QUOTE]
Don’t know
I am only as far as “What is Yoga” if I go further it brings me to why do I have such a strong underlying feeling that I need to start taking yoga again. But like I said before I am the only one that can answer that question.
[quote=Yulaw;30259]
But it still left me with the thought what does “Yoga” mean[/quote]
Yulaw,
What does the sun mean?..or the moon?
siva
[QUOTE=siva;30267]Yulaw,
What does the sun mean?..or the moon?
siva[/QUOTE]
The Sun is the star at the center of our Solar System and it has a diameter of about 865,000 mi
The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite and it is a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass.
And if I approach what is Yoga from the same point of view I get excatly what my western trained brain says it is; a traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India that is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism
But there is more there that I just can’t put my finger on… and… I realize at this point, as I type this, I am doing what I do best…. Over thinking this question.
Thank You
The meaning of yoga will continue to elude you (and me!) when approached solely with the thinking mind. You can define the sun and moon as spheres with a certain diameter. But how would you describe the sun to someone who had lived in a cave all his life? How would you describe your experience of the sun? Similarly, how would you describe the experience of Chinese martial arts to someone who had never seen or practiced them? The inner experience of these arts?
You see, life and yoga are like that. The meaning of life is life and the meaning of yoga is yoga. You can only truely come to know yoga through its practice. To some extent, something can be said about the outer limbs (ethics, poses, breathing, control of the senses). Describing the esoteric aspects (concentration, meditation, absorption) is already much more difficult. And, as Patanjali says (sutra III-8 ), even those three are external to samadhi without seed.
So yoga is about your experience. You can only know yoga through yoga.
[quote=Yulaw;30352]The Sun is the star at the center of our Solar System and it has a diameter of about 865,000 mi
The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite and it is a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass.[/quote]
Yulaw,
I would like to help you here, but you have an existential dilemma to overcome. As I have said, what a thing “is” and what it “means” are not the same. Simple as that.
Willem,
Experience is also not “Meaning.” “Meaning” is what we superimpose on an object or experience and is not intrinsic to them: it’s a construction of the Mind. For example, did the Sun have meaning before the mind and senses described it? Before there was any “experience” of the Sun, did it have meaning? What we give the sun is not what the sun is. You see?
Is this even worth contemplating?
siva
Siva
I do understand what you are trying to tell me, the lesson is not lost. I am just trying to break out of this Western view of things yoga, which I find rather ironic because I take a very non-western view of the Chinese Martial Arts I train and things Chinese.
The word Sun is just a word to which I apply a meaning as is the word moon and to a mandarin speaker moon would be yu?q?u which is again just a word and none would be understood by a Cantonese speaker. The word sun “is” a thing but the Word sun I apply the meaning to … it is a family name in China by the way. However at the moment all I have to work with is the definition made up of words that that I apply to Yoga which is another word.
As silly as this may sound I have thought more than once that is any animal could understand what I was saying it would have no idea what the word was that I use to describe it since likely it would call itself something else if it bothered to name itself at all…
Yoga is whatever it becomes to me and the word Yoga is a thing that has a meaning that may or may not be the same to everyone.
There is a quote form the Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee (likely he plagiarized it from Buddhism or Taoism)
“Can you look at a situation without naming it? Naming it, making it a word, causes fear.”
In the case of Yoga at the moment it is more like
Can you look at a situation without naming it? Naming it, making it a word, causes confusion.
I do believe what I am looking for here is a personal definition since the definition I get by looking it up does not seem adequate. But like I said I am fairly convinced I am doing something I am very good at here and that is over thinking this when the answer is likely not all that complicated
Or it cold be that I have missed the point all together
Hi Yulaw,
I have a background in Kung Fu too and am quite familiar with Daoism. That what cannot be named and described etc., that what, so to say, just is, unchanging, unaffected, is the Dao. Daoism teaches that the individual human being is seperated from the Dao and that it can be reunited with the Dao.
Yoga is not the Indian equivalent of the Dao. That one is called “Brahman”:
Brahman is the eternal, unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this Universe.
Samadhi, the goal of Yoga, is the same thing as being reunited with the Dao.
Yoga now can be compared to a tool. It is the very describable method to reunite the individual with the Dao/Brahman - that’s why it is called “Yoga”:
The Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings, and is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj”, meaning “to control”, “to yoke” or “to unite.” Translations include “joining”, “uniting”, “union”, “conjunction”, and “means”. [Wikipedia]
So once again: Yoga means to reunite the individual human being with the Brahman/Dao.
One of the highest authorities in defining Yoga is Pantanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutras. The first four sentences of the Sutras are:
What is Yoga?
1: Now, after previous preparation, begins yoga
2: Yoga is the mastery and integration of the activities of mind
3: Then the seer, the Self rests in its true nature
4: At other times, it is identified with subtle thoughts
[source]
or
1.1 Now, instruction in Union.
1.2. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.
1.3. Then the seer dwells in his own nature.
1.4. Otherwise he is of the same form as the thought-streams.
[source]
or
Now, the teachings of yoga.
Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness.
Then, pure awareness can abide in its very nature.
Otherwise, awareness takes itself to be the patterns of consciousness.
[source]
or
- OM: Here follows Instruction in Union.
- Union, spiritual consciousness, is gained through control of the versatile psychic nature.
- Then the Seer comes to consciousness in his proper nature.
- Heretofore the Seer has been enmeshed in the activities of the psychic nature.
[source]
or
Aum. The Following Instruction Concerns The Science Of Union.
2 This Union Is Achieved Through The Subjugation Of The Psychic Nature And The Restraint Of The Mind.
3 When This Has Been Accomplished, The Yogis Know Themselves As They Are In Reality.
4 Up Till Now The Inner Persons Have Identified Themselves With Their Forms And With Their Active Modifications.
[source]
That is Yoga, according to Patanjali. No sun, no moon, no art, no “just is”, but a science with a very certain purpose, that is the mastery and integration of the activities of mind to have the self rest in its true nature.
And by the way:
?Can you look at a situation without naming it? Naming it, making it a word, causes fear.?
If you do Kung Fu, if you fight, you have to react very quickly. It works best if you do not think, but just act, if you do not name, not judge, not reflect, not consider, not hesitate but adapt to the situation instantly, if you, so to say, flow with the Dao, are one with the Brahman or however you wish to express it.
You can say that Yoga just is, but then you refer to Yoga as the final state of union and use it as a noun (the union) and not a verb (to unite). This nounish state is “just being”, like the sun and the moon. But I’d say that’s misleading, as we, in tune with Patanjali, understand Yoga as something we do, Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.
[quote=Yulaw;30360]
Yoga is whatever it becomes to me and the word Yoga is a thing that has a meaning that may or may not be the same to everyone. [/quote]
Yulaw,
Yes. Kind of.
The “word” yoga is a symbol, and symbols have a hierarchy: symbol, sign, icon, idol, word, character, etc., all different forms of symbol with different functions ranging from purely objective, i.e., description, communicative, to deeply personal, ephemeral, but none of them are the “meaning” itself.
This is a worthwhile inquiry that represents not an insignificant cusp of realization. You’re a good sport and I hope this was helpful.
peace,
siva