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Pranayama
Pranayama (Sanskrit: प्राणायाम, "Prāṇāyāma") is the yogic practice of focusing on breath. In classical yoga, the breath is associated with '' prana'', thus, pranayama is a means to elevate the ''prana-shakti'', or life energies. Pranayama is described in Hindu texts such as the ''Bhagavad Gita'' and the ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali''. Later, in Hatha yoga texts, it meant the complete suspension of breathing. The pranayama practices in modern yoga as exercise differ from those of the Hatha yoga tradition, often using the breath in synchrony with movements. Etymology ''Prāṇāyāma'' (Devanagari: ') is a Sanskrit compound. It is defined variously by different authors. Macdonell gives the etymology as prana ('), breath, + ''āyāma'' and defines it as the suspension of breath. Monier-Williams defines the compound ' as "of the three 'breath-exercises' performed during (''See'' ', ', '". Monier-Williams, p706, left column./ref> This technical defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prana
In yoga, Ayurveda, and Indian martial arts, prana (, ; the Sanskrit word for breath, " life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is sometimes described as originating from the Sun and connecting the elements. Five types of prāṇa, collectively known as the five '' vāyus'' ("winds"), are described in Hindu texts. Ayurveda, tantra and Tibetan medicine all describe ''prāṇa vāyu'' as the basic vāyu from which the other vāyus arise. Prana is divided into ten main functions: The five Pranas – Prana, Apana, Udana, Vyana and Samana – and the five Upa-Pranas – Naga, Kurma, Devadatta, Krikala and Dhananjaya. Pranayama, one of the eight limbs of yoga, is intended to expand conscious awareness of prana. Etymology V.S. Apte provides fourteen different meanings for the Sanskrit word ' () including breath or respiration; the breath of life, vital air, principle of life (usually plural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga (; Sanskrit हठयोग, International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''haṭhayoga'') is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some hatha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Itihasa, Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon. The oldest dated text so far found to describe hatha yoga, the 11th-century ''Amritasiddhi, Amṛtasiddhi'', comes from a Tantra, tantric Buddhist milieu. The oldest texts to use the terminology of ''hatha'' are also Vajrayana Buddhist. Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onward. Some of the early hatha yoga texts (11th-13th c.) describe methods to raise and conserve bindu (vital force, that is, semen, and in women ''rajas –'' menstrual fluid). This was seen as the physical esse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoga As Exercise
Yoga as exercise is a physical activity consisting mainly of asana, postures, often connected by vinyasa, flowing sequences, sometimes accompanied by pranayama, breathing exercises, and frequently ending with savasana, relaxation lying down or meditation. Yoga in this form has become familiar across the world, especially Yoga in the United States, in the US and Europe. It is derived from medieval Haṭha yoga, which made use of similar postures, but it is generally simply called "yoga". Academic research has given yoga as exercise a variety of names, including modern postural yoga and transnational anglophone yoga. Postures were not central in any of the older traditions of yoga; posture practice was revived in the 1920s by yoga gurus including Yogendra and Kuvalayananda, who emphasised its health benefits. The flowing sequences of Surya Namaskar (Salute to the Sun) were pioneered by the Rajah of Aundh State, Aundh, Bhawanrao Shrinivasrao Pant Pratinidhi, in the 1920s. It and ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kumbhaka
''Kumbhaka'' is the retention of the breath in the yoga practice of pranayama. It has two types, accompanied (by breathing) whether after inhalation or after exhalation, and, the ultimate aim, unaccompanied. That state is ''kevala kumbhaka'', the complete suspension of the breath for as long as the practitioner wishes. Breath retention The name ''kumbhaka'' is from Sanskrit कुम्भ ''kumbha'', a pot, comparing the torso to a vessel full of air. ''Kumbhaka'' is the retention of the breath in pranayama, either after inhalation, the inner or ''Antara Kumbhaka'', or after exhalation, the outer or ''Bahya Kumbhaka'' (also called ''Bahir Kumbhaka''). According to B.K.S. Iyengar in ''Light on Yoga'', ''kumbhaka'' is the "retention or holding the breath, a state where there is no inhalation or exhalation". ''Sahit'' or ''Sahaja Kumbhaka'' is an intermediate state, when breath retention becomes natural, at the stage of withdrawal of the senses, Pratyahara, the fifth of the eight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashtanga (eight Limbs Of Yoga)
Ashtanga yoga (, "eight limbs of yoga") is Patanjali, Pātañjali's classification of classical yoga, as set out in his ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Yoga Sūtras''. He defined the eight limbs as ''Yamas, yama'' (abstinences), ''niyama'' (observances), ''Asana, āsana'' (postures), ''Pranayama, prāṇāyāma'' (breath control), ''Pratyahara, pratyāhāra'' (withdrawal of the senses), ''dhāraṇā'' (concentration), ''Dhyana in Hinduism, dhyāna'' (meditation), and ''Samadhi, samādhi'' (absorption). The eight limbs form a sequence from the outer to the inner. The posture, asana, must be steady and comfortable for a long time, in order for the yogi to practice the limbs from ''Pranayama, prāṇāyāma'' until ''Samadhi, samādhi''. The main aim is ''kaivalya'', discernment of ''Purusha, Puruṣa'', the witness-conscious, as separate from ''Prakṛti'', the cognitive apparatus, and disentanglement of ''Puruṣa'' from its muddled defilements. Definition of yoga Patanjali, Pā ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoga
Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as practiced in the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ... traditions. Yoga may have pre-Vedic period, Vedic origins, but is first attested in the early first millennium BCE. It developed as various traditions in the eastern Ganges basin drew from a common body of practices, including Vedas, Vedic elements. Yoga-like practices are mentioned in the ''Rigveda'' and a number of early Upanishads, but systematic yoga concepts emerge during the fifth and sixth centuries BCE in ancient India's sannyasa, ascetic and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nadi Shodhana
''Anuloma Pranayama'' () is one of several Pranayama or breath exercises used in the Hindu practice of hatha yoga. Similar to the practice of ''Nadi Shodhana'' (commonly called alternate nostril breathing and known in some circles as ''Anuloma Viloma'') is the practice of inhaling through both nostrils together and exhaling each breath alternately between the left and right nostrils. The thumb of the right hand is used to manipulate the right nostril, while the pinky and ring finger are used to control the left nostril. Inverted Anuloma breath is called ''Pratiloma'' and involves inhaling through alternating nostrils and exhaling through both together. The practice of a ''kumbhaka'' or retention is encouraged as students advance at the practice; first at the end of the inhale and eventually the end of the exhale. When practiced as ''Saṃa Vṛtti'' the inhalation, retention and exhalation are all of equal duration. More advanced students may employ ''Viṣaṃa Vṛtti'' or unev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asana
An āsana (Sanskrit: आसन) is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali'' define "asana" as " position thatis steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system. Patanjali '' Yoga sutras'', Book II:29, 46 Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English. The 10th or 11th century '' Goraksha Sataka'' and the 15th century '' Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' identify 84 asanas; the 17th century '' Hatha Ratnavali'' provides a different list of 84 asanas, describing some of them. In the 20th century, Indian nationalism favoured physical culture in response t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ujjayi Breath
Ujjayi (, IAST ujjāyī, "victorious" or "conquering" ) is a pranayama ( breathing technique) practised simultaneously with asanas in modern yoga as exercise. It is practised especially in Pattabhi Jois's Ashtanga (vinyasa) yoga, where it accompanies vigorous asana flow exercise. It is described as a seated practice in B. K. S. Iyengar's 1966 book '' Light on Yoga''. Etymology and origins "Ujjayi ranayama () means "victorious or conquering reath in Sanskrit. According to B. K. S. Iyengar, the prefix "ut" denotes superiority, while the word "jaya" means victory or conquest. While ujjayi is described as pranayama, the classical yoga practice is stated by the yoga scholar Andrea Jain to have been "marginal to the most widely cited sources" before the 20th century, and "dramatically" unlike the modern ones. She writes that while modern pranayama in yoga as exercise consists of synchronising the breath with movements (between asanas), in classical texts like the ''Bhagavad Gi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashtanga (vinyasa) Yoga
Ashtanga yoga (not to be confused with Patanjali's ''Ashtanga (eight limbs of yoga), aṣṭāṅgayoga'', the eight limbs of yoga) is a style of yoga as exercise popularised by K. Pattabhi Jois during the twentieth century, often promoted as a dynamic form of medieval hatha yoga. Jois claimed to have learnt the system from his teacher Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. The style is energetic, synchronising breath with movements. The individual poses (asanas) are linked by flowing movements called vinyasas. Jois established his Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in 1948. The current style of teaching is called "Mysore style", after the city in India where the practice was originally taught. Ashtanga yoga has given rise to various spinoff styles of Power Yoga, power yoga. Approach Traditionally, Ashtanga yoga students memorised a sequence of asanas and practised it together without being led by a teacher. Teacher-led classes were introduced in K. Pattabhi Jois's later years. Such classes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bandha (Yoga)
A bandha () is a kriyā in Hatha Yoga, being a kind of internal Mudra (Yoga), mudra described as a "body lock," to lock the vital energy into the body. ''Bandha'' literally means bond, fetter, or "catching hold of".Iyengar, 1976: pp.435–437Iyengar, 1976: p.525 ''Maha Bandha'' Mahā Bandha ("the great lock") combines all the other three bandhas, namely: * Mula Bandha, contraction of the perineum * Uddiyana bandha, contraction of the human abdomen, abdomen into the human rib cage, rib cage * Jalandhara Bandha, tucking the chin close to the chest In Ashtanga (vinyasa) yoga#Bandhas, Ashtanga Yoga, these three Bandhas are considered to be one of the three key principles of yoga practice. ''Mula bandha'' ''Mūla bandha'' is a primary ''bandha'' in traditional yoga. The earliest textual mention of ''mūla bandha'' is in the 12th century Shaiva Natha text ''Goraksha Śataka, Gorakṣaśataka'' which defines it as a yogic technique to achieve mastery of breath and to awaken the goddes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
