The Rich Traditions Of Yoga From The Perspective Of A Long Island Yoga Studio
Monday, August 16th, 2010Want to go to some Long Island yoga classes, but you don’t even know what it entails? Read on about Yoga’s rich history and see if what’s worked for thousands of years and millions of people will work for you.
Yoga is so ancient that it was developed well before even the written word. Stone carvings depicting figures in Yoga positions have been found in archeological sites in the Indus Valley dating back 5,000 years or more. There is a common misconception that Yoga is rooted in Hinduism; on the contrary, Hinduism’s religious structures evolved much later and incorporated some of the practices of Yoga.
While you can find books that teach Yoga, the traditional means for learning Yoga is to have a teacher pass his knowledge onto his students through oral lectures and practical demonstration. The many techniques that encompass Yoga are based on the collective knowledge and experience of many, many teachers over the course of several thousand years.
One of the earliest texts having to do with Yoga was compiled by a scholar named Patanjali, who set down the most prevalent Yoga theories and practices of his time in a book he called Yoga Sutras (“Yoga Aphorisms”) as early as the 1st or 2nd century B.C. or as late as the 5th century A.D. He wrote about a system known as “Asthanga Yoga”, which means “the eight limbs of Yoga”. This is what we refer to when we speak of Classical Yoga today. Most practitioners of Yoga today use some form of the system Patanjali recorded.
There are eight steps to Classical Yoga. These are:
1. yama, the showing of restraint in engaging in such activities as violence, casual sex, the hoarding of possessions, lying, and stealing.
2. niyama, meaning “observance” — purity, contentment, tolerance, study, and remembrance.
3. asana, which means the physical exercises you should routinely do.
4. pranayama, meaning “breathing techniques”.
5. pratyahara, which refers to preparing the mind for meditation.
6. dharana, the ability to concentrate and focus the mind on a specific object for a set amount of time.
7. dhyana, the supreme meditation. This is focusing your mind on one thing indefinitely.
8. samadhi, which means to absorb into one’s self. This is the focus on the inner self.
Modern western Yoga classes generally focus on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th steps.
Yoga has been in the United States since the late 1800s, but it did not gain in popularity until the 1960s. Yoga eventually gained acceptance as a great means of reducing stress and improving health as its beneficial effects became widely known.
Ready to find out what Yoga has in store for you? Get to your local Yoga studio and get involved! Love to sweat? Give Long Island hot yoga a try, and you won’t be disappointed!
Sole Pilates and Yoga is the hottest Long Island yoga studio on Huntington. Visit their website and come to one of their Long Island yoga classes soon!
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