Sri Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translation and commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda (Yogaville, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 1978, 2011) ("You seem to have lost you irugubak identity with your thoughts and body. Suppose I ask who you are if you don't identify with anything whatsoever. If you say, 'I a a man,' you have identified yourself with a masculine body. If you say, 'I am a professor,' you are identifying with the ideas gathered in your brain. If you say, 'I am a millionaire,' you are identifying with your bank account; if 'a mother,' with a child; 'a husband,' with a wife. 'I am tall; I am short; I am black or white' shows your identification with the color and shape of the body. But without any identification, who are you? Have you ever though about it? When you really understand that, you will see we are all the same. If you detach yourself completely from all the things you have identified yourself with, you realize yourself as the pure 'I.' In that pure 'I' there is no difference between you and me." Id. at 7-8. "Another obstacle is slipping down from the ground one has gained. This puzzles many people. A beginner, for example, will practice with intense interest. Everyday she will feel more and more interested and feel she is progressing steadily. She may even be proud of her progress. All of a sudden one day she will find that she has lost everything and slipped down to rock bottom." "It happens to many people. If we know it is a common occurrence on the spiritual path, we won't get disheartened. Otherwise, we will say, 'Oh, I lost everything. There is no hope for me,' and we lose all our interest. Let us know that this is common in the case of every aspirant. The mind can't function on the same level always--it has its heights and depths. If there is going to be steady progress always, there will be no challenge, no game in it." "Remember, Yoga practice is like an obstacle race; many obstructions are purposely put on the way for us to pass through. They are there to make us understand and express our own capacities. We all have that strength, but we don't seem to know it. We seem to need to be challenged and tested in order to understand our own capacities. In fact, that is the natural law. If a river just flows easily, the water in the river does not express its power. But once you put an obstacle to the flow by constructing a dam, then you can see its strength in the form of tremendous electrical power." Id. at 50-51. "33. [] By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undistributed calmness." "Whether you are interested in reaching samadhi or plan to ignore Yoga entirely, I would advise you to remember at least this one Sutra. It will be very helpful to you in keeping a peaceful mind in your daily life. You many not have any great goal in your life, but just try to follow this one Sutra very well and you will see its efficacy. In my own experience, this Sutra became my guiding light to keep my mind serene always." "Who would not like serenity of mind always? Who would not like to be happy always? Everybody wants that. So Patanjali gives four keys: friendliness, compassion, delight and disregard. There are only four kinds of locks in the world, keep these four keys always with you, and when you come across any one of these four locks you will have the proper key to open it." "What are the four locks? Sukha, duhkha, punya and apunya--the happy people, unhappy people, the virtuous and the wicked. At any given moment, you can fit any person into one of these four categories." Id. at 54-55. 'Any person' includes oneself; includes me. Which category do I fit into this moment? At any given moment? "Asana means the posture that brings comfort and steadiness. Any pose that brings this comfort and steadiness is an asana. If you can achieve one pose, that is enough. It may sound easy, but in how many poses are we really comfortable and steady? As soon as we sit in a particular position, there is a small cramp here, a tiny pain there. We have to move this way and that. Continuously we are reminded of our legs, hands, hips and spine. Unless the body is perfectly healthy and free from all toxins and tensions, a comfortable pose is not easily obtained. Physical and mental toxins create stiffness and tension. Anything that makes us stiff can also break us. Only if we are supple will we never break...." "What we need is the strength of steel, but with steel's flexibility--not like crude iron, which is very strong and hard but breaks. The body must be so supple it can bend any way you want it to. Such a body will always be healthy and tension-free. The moment we sit down for mediation in such a body, we'll forget it." "In order to achieve such a meditative pose, we may practice many preliminary cultural poses. This is why Hatha Yoga was created. People trying to sit quietly found they couldn't. They encountered pain, stiffness, bile, gas, etc., and thought, 'What is the reason for these things and how can we get rid of them?' They realized it was due to toxins from eating the wrong foods, at the wrong times and in the wrong quantities. These people pondered, 'What is good food that won't leave toxins? What should the limits be? When is the proper time to eat?' They formed the Yogic diet, free of meat, fish, eggs, stimulants and excessive use of spices." "The next problem was what to do with the toxins already inside the body. They concluded that these could be gotten rid of by squeezing the body in all different directions.... Although Hatha Yoga is several thousands of years old, it never becomes outdated. The truths of it are always current...." Id. at 152-154.").
David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 1996) (From the backcover: "The Alchemical Body excavates and centers within its Indian context the lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from a body of previously unexplored alchemical sources, David Gordon White demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people, and that they can only be understood when viewed together. White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism,and Islam.").
David Gordon White, Kiss of the Yogini: "Tantric Sex" in Its South Asian Contexts (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2003) ("As far as I can recall, my searches for an authentic Tantric practitioner began in 1974 in Benares.... This was the first time I had heard the pseudonym of the English court judge who, based in Bengal, had became the father of Tantric studies and, by extension, of the emergence of 'Tantric' practice in Europe and the United Sates. This was also my first introduction to the funhouse mirror world of modern-day Tantra, in which Indian practitioners and gurus take their ideas from Western scholars and sell them to Western disciples thirsting for initiation into the mysteries of the East.... Today Assi Ghat, just a short way up river from Kedar Ghat, will, on any given day in the same postmonsoon season, sport a number of North Americans and Europeans dressed up as Tantric specialists. California, France, and Italy, in particular, are crawling with such people, may of whom advertise New Age 'retreats' or 'workshops' in 'Tantric sex' and many other types of hybrid practice on the Internet." "Medieval Indian literature had an overarching term for entrepreneurs of this type, who targeted a certain leisured segment of the population in their marketing of a product nowadays known as 'Tantric sex': they were 'impostors.' Now, there was and remains an authentic body of precepts and practice know as 'Kaula' or 'Tantra,' which has been, among other things, a sexualization of ritual (as opposed to a ritualization of sex, one of the many fundamental errors on the part of the present-day 'Tantric sex' entrepreneurs). In about the eleventh century, a scholasticizing trend in Kashmirian Hindu circles, led by the great systematic theologian Abhinavagupta, sought to aestheticize the sexual rituals of the Kaula. These theoreticians whose intended audience was likely composed of conformist householder practitioners, sublimated the end and raison d'etre of Kaula sexual practice--the production of powerful, transformative sexual fluids--into simple by-products of a higher goal: the cultivation of a divine state of consciousness homologous to the bliss experienced in sexual orgasm. At nearly no point in the original Kaula sources on sexualized ritual, however, is mention made of pleasure, let alone bliss or ecstasy. Nonetheless, it was this experience of a blissful expansion of consciousness that became the watchword of later scholasticist revisions of Tantra. Now it was precisely these second-order, derivative developments that early-twentieth-century Tantric scholars-practitioners, both Asian and Western, emphasized in their attempts to rehabilitate Tantra. Here, I am referring specifically to the 'reformed' Tantra of Bengal and the influence it exerted on Sir John Woodroffe, a.k.a. Arthur Avalon, the father of Western Tantric scholarship...." "Presenting the entire history of Tantra as a unified, monolithic 'cult of ecstasy' and assuming that all that has smacked of eroticism in Indian culture is by definition Tantric, New Age Tantra eclectically blends together Indian erotics (kamasatra, ratisatra), erotic art, techniques of massage, Ayurveda, and yoga into a single invented tradition. Furthermore, its emphasis on ecstasy and mind expansion draws on what was already a second-order reflection in the original meaning and power of Kaula ritual, a cosmeticized interpretation offered to a stratum of eleventh-century Kashmiri society for whose members the oral consumption of sexual fluids as power substances, practices that lay at the heart of Kaula ritual, would have been too shocking and perverse to contemplate. Abhinavagupta's 'packaging' of Tantra as a path to ecstatic, exalted god-consciousness was pitched at a leisured Kashmiri populace whose 'bobo' profile was arguably homologous to the demographics of the twentieth- and twenty-first-century New Age seekers who treat 'Tantric sex' as a consumer product.... " Id. at xi-xiii.).
David Gordon White, Sinister Yogis (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2009) (From the backcover: "Since the 1960s, yoga has become a billion-dollar industry in the West, attracting housewives and hipsters, New Agers and the old aged. But our modern conception of yoga derives much from nineteenth-century European spirituality, and the true story of yoga's origins in South Asia is far richer, stranger and more entertaining than most of us realize." "To uncover this history, David Gordon White focuses on yoga's practitioners. Combing through millennia of South Asia's vast and diverse literature, he discovers that yogis are usually portrayed as wonder-workers or sorcerers who use their dangerous supernatural abilities---which can include raising the dead, possession, and levitation--to acquire power, wealth, and sexual gratification. As White shows, even those yogis who aren't downright villainous bear little resemblance to Western stereotypes about them. By turns rollicking and sophisticated, Sinister Yogis tears down the image of yogis as detached, contemplative teachers finally placing them in their proper context.").
David Gordon White, ed., Yoga in Practice (Princeton Readings in Religions) (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2012) (From the backcover: "Yoga is a body of practice that spans two millennia and transcends the boundaries of any single religion, geographic region, or teaching lineage. In fact, over the centuries there have been many 'yogas--yogas of battlefield warriors, of itinerant minstrels and beggars, of religious reformers, and of course, the yogas of mind and body so popular today. Yoga in Practice is an anthology of primary texts drawn from the diverse yoga traditions if India, greater Asia, and the West. This one-of-a-kind sourcebook features elegant translations of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and even Islamic yogic writings, many of them being made available in English for the very first time...." From Sasidhara, The Garb of Dispassion (Vairagyamvara), as discussed in the chapter/essay by Sthaneshwar Timalsina, titled "The Yoga System of the Josmanis," 309-324: "For the sake of maintaining the practice of yoga, one should think of things that are good for the body and eat mild, warm food. Not all [people] have the same body. With this insight [in mind], one should think of one's body and eat the things that are good for one[self]. This body is impermanent. One should be dispassionate toward [worldly] objects and keep practicing as long as the mind does not dissolve in the abode of Hari. One should not talk too much. One should not walk too much. One should keep one's body pure and at peace in these ways, and being endowed with love and the yoga of devotion one should practice a self that is eternally at peace. All [one's] defilements will be removed through the glory of [this]non-dual practice. One's primordial form will be illuminated. Furthermore, the bliss that is free from all fears will be natural. The more the non-dual self is practiced, the more [one's] heightened bliss will be revealed. The more [one's] heightened bliss is revealed, the more the mind will dissolve in the self. The more the mind dissolved, the more one will hear various sounds, such as [that of] a flute. Among all the sounds, one very blissful sound will be heard. On certain occasions, something like lightning will appear around the eyebrows. One should hear that [blissful] sound and be immersed in the practice of sound. Due to the good conduct [observed] in previous lives, some will realize these symptoms quickly. Not everyone will have the same symptoms of yoga due to the kindling of the Brahma fire. There is no rule with regard to the sequence [of symptoms]." Id. at 317. From T. Krishnamacharya''s Yoga Makaranda, as discussed in the chapter/essay by Mark Singleton, "Yoga Makaranda of T. Krishnamacharya," 337-352: "I have something extremely important to say right at the outset. There seems to have been of late an increase in the numbers of commercially minded people. Such a tendency is highly detrimental to one's evolution. Merchants who wander in the marketplace like to get what they want without delay, and are ready to pay any amount to obtain what they desire. This sort of expectation is known as the 'commercial mentality.' Introducing such commercial-mindedness into this ancient dharmic society of ours, and into the path leading to evolution and evaluation, is frankly detrimental not only to society but to the individual as well. We should never insist on, nor even hope for, immediate results in return for an hour or two repeating mantras or engaging in worship (puja), yoga practice, or dawn and evening prayers etc. If we do, we are like the coolie who considers that it is not worth doing a couple of hours of work if he does not receive his wages. Ever since monetary considerations of this kind have caught hold of our minds, we have become victims of the venal mindset and are growing meaner by the day." "Discipline in yoga (yogabhasya) is not like the activities that one sees in the bazaar. Nowadays in every aspect of life, including the domain of dharmic action, people are losing interest simply because there is no quick monetary return. Because of this tendency our minds are becoming distanced from elevated thinking and higher aspirations, and we are more in doubt and crisis at each and every moment. This is the primary and paramount point that our dear readers should know." Id. at 344.).
Vivian Worthington, A History of Yoga (London: Arkana, 1982, 1989) ("Only in the last thousand years or so have efforts been made to provide [yoga] with intellectual content such as would elevate it to the status of philosophy in it own right. The attempts have not been successful because yoga is not an intellectual activity.... Yoga has in fact tended all along to be anti-intellectual, even anti-religious. To be true to itself it must ever stand close to the spontaneous fount of human creativity. It is more intuitive than reasonable, more experimental than formalistic, more other-wordly than of this world, and more akin to art than to science." Id. at 1. "Because it is non-intellectual and even anti-intellectual, yoga has never felt the need to have a carefully worked-out rational explanation for things. Any explanation only becomes apparent in the course of actual experience. For those who look for a rational explanation it points to a system of thought almost as old as itself, and whose tenets accord very closely with its own. This is the Samkhya philosophy." Id. at 85. "In the West at the present time the physical benefits of yoga are emphasized. Hatha yoga is so popular, especially among women, that many teachers do not teach the other aspects. This is often because they are ignorant of them Raja or mental yoga is more popular among men, who usually study and practice alone." Id. at 8. "Who sees the many and not the one wanders on from death to death. This truth cannot be learnt even by the mind. It can only be learnt by the practice of yoga. When the sense and the mind are still, and reason itself rests in silence, then begins the path supreme. This calm steadiness of the senses is called yoga. But in treading this path be watchful, for yoga comes and goes. It is difficult to hold this state for very long at any one time." Id. at 25-26. "The importance of [The Bhagavad] Gita cannot be over-emphasized. For the first time the practice of yoga is brought right down into ordinary life. A new kind of yoga is promulgated. This is not the traditional ascetic and meditative jnana yoga of the Upanishads, but an active yoga of everyday living. It is not intended to supplant but to complement the older form. Its results are to be social and psychological, not transcendental. The full potential of this yoga has yet to be realized, and the Gita has by no means had the last word." "This yoga of selfless action takes hold of the ancient concept of dharma, and makes its ramifications more understandable to ordinary people. The concept...is here brought out into the daylight and given a broader interpretation. From being a moral precept it became an active discipline, being combined with yoga in a most original way." "Karma yoga calls for performance of the ordinary activities of daily life, but ordains detachment from their fruits. Think of the act, not the result...." Id. at 59. "When you are free from all delusions you will be indifferent to the results of your actions." "This is the central theme of karma yoga--to work according to one's dharma, but be unattached to the results of one's works. Be established in the Atman, and walk among sense objects unaffected by them. To find the Atman, control the mind and withdraw the sense. Find the Atman, unite it with Brahman, and then do your duty. In this state of mind your work will be effective, and you will not be anxious about results." Id. at 61-62 "The yogi must free himself from all mental distractions fixing his attention only on the Self, the Atman. If the mind wanders it must be drawn back unceasingly. The yogi sees the Self in all things, and all things in the Self. He suffers the sorrows of all creatures, and feels joy at their happiness." "If a man practises yoga, but falls away from the practise, finding it too rigorous he will still have earned merit. He will be born again in better circumstances than his present life. In his next life he will return to the position he reached in this life, and will be able to make further progress. In this way he will reach perfection through many births. The yogi who seeks to unite the Self with Brahman is greater than those who practise austerities. He is greater than the learned, and greater than those who practise good works." Id. at 63. "Hell has three doors: lust, rage and greed. All three must be avoided or they will lead you downwards. For one who has sunk to the lowest depths the way to climb back is first to practise the yoga of selfless action, karma yoga. This is easiest for them. Then read the scriptures, and so rise to bhakti and the ascending order of yogas. The task is immeasurably difficult, and will take many incarnations, and aeons of time." Id. at 66-67. "Buddhist yoga, or at least the mental side of it, is designed to conduce to the understanding that there is no substantial ego. This is somewhat different from the older jnana yoga which implied that the ego was real, even though we might ultimately be prepared to merge it into the being of supreme Brahman. The Buddhist ascetic training and meditation is meant to prepare one for the realization that nothing ultimately has any substance. There are only spiritual processes, sensations, feelings and visions appearing and reappearing. They can be watched with complete detachment. They can also be set in motion or brought to rest. The suppression of desire, which is the greatest message of the earliest of Buddha's discourses, became meaningless when the detachment of this point of view has been attained." Id. at 92. "The Buddhist yogi is taught, by means of the disciplines, to realize within such a peace as one realizes when looking into the realms of infinite space. He looks inwardly, and there experiences the wonders of his own nature. Through successive stages of self-control and meditation he realizes utter stillness and voidness unmodified by any thought and uncoloured by any emotion. In these deep meditative states he realizes that fundamentally nothing is happening to the true essence of his own nature, nothing to cause either distress or joy." Id. at 94. "Meditation is the very heart of yoga." Id. at 126. "It has always been customary to refer to the devotee of Zen as a Zen yogi, when he is somewhat advanced along the way." Id. at 153. "Zen too has always been at pains to insist that it is not only anti-intellectual and anti-morality, but also anti-religious. The writings of its leaders are proof of this. But if neither intellect, morality nor religion find any foothold in it, what is left? The answer is yoga, and a very distinctive brand of it. Technique, method and personal experience are everything in Zen." Id. at 154. "The Chan (Zen) school teaches a direct way to enlightenment. It has no formal organization, nor any sacred literature. Although its devotees are encouraged to read sacred literature from any sources and traditions, it is made clear that the reading of literature alone will not lead to enlightenment. At the same time the reading of elevating ideas can create a translucent state of mind which is conducive to the growth of the intuitive faculty, and will better allow the flash of intuition to become manifest when the student is ready." Id. at 156. "[O]ur claim is that Zen is entirely yogic, and has been so throughout its history. The yoga element has been strong in all the schools of Buddhism in China and Japan." Id. at 181. "References to asana (postures and exercises) are found in all yoga literature right back to the Upanishads. At that time the asana were for purposes of meditation. The body was to be placed in a suitable seated posture so that the aspirant could meditate with a straight spine, and with lungs and stomach not restricted. In such a position the body could be forgotten and rhythmic breathing practiced " Id. at 162. [Note: It would seem, then, that the typical Western yoga studio gets wrong both the order and the emphasis of yoga. The typical Western yoga practice is essentially an asana or posture practice; beginning with a short (e.g., 3-5 minute) meditation, followed by an hour or so of asana exercises. This is so, rather than an hour or so of asana exercises, followed by an hour or so of meditation. Of course, perhaps the attendees at such yoga studios go home immediately and engage in an hour of so of meditation. I doubt it. More likely it is an hour or so of hanging out at the local coffee shop.] "This array of physical practices was considered entirely secondary and subservient to the main practice, which was sitting for meditation with the object of eventually achieving samadhi.... In the tantric period, however, when attempt were being made to develop the siddhis, more active exercises began to be employed. It was also noticed that the general health of yoga practitioners could often be greatly improved by the practice of certain asana. It began to be apparent that the purely physical aspect of yoga had its own considerable value." "The Nath yogis of north India took up this aspect of the art, and widened its basis considerably...." "The yoga became distinguished from other forms by taking the name hatha yoga. Hatha is a compound word. 'Ha' means sun, and 'tha' means moon.... Both must be brought if our nature is to be balanced, " Id. at 162-163.).
FOR APPRECIATING THAT TRUE YOGA IS ABOUT SOMETHING SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER THAT MERE POSES, THE FOLLOWING LINK IS HELPFUL:
http://www.swamij.com/traditional-yoga.htm
"The goal of Yoga is Yoga: The goal or destination of Yoga is Yoga itself, union itself, of the little self and the True Self, a process of awakening to the preexisting union that is called Yoga. While it is not the intent of this article to give a final or conclusive definition of the term Yoga--which can be described in different ways--it has to do with the realization through direct experience of the preexisting union between Atman and Brahman, Jivatman and Paramatman, and Shiva and Shakti, or the realization of Purusha standing alone as separate from Prakriti. The mere fact that one might do a few stretches with the physical body does not in itself mean that one is headed towards that high union referred to as Yoga."
From Modern Yoga versus Traditional Yoga by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati.
David Gordon White, ed., Yoga in Practice (Princeton Readings in Religions) (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2012) (From the backcover: "Yoga is a body of practice that spans two millennia and transcends the boundaries of any single religion, geographic region, or teaching lineage. In fact, over the centuries there have been many 'yogas--yogas of battlefield warriors, of itinerant minstrels and beggars, of religious reformers, and of course, the yogas of mind and body so popular today. Yoga in Practice is an anthology of primary texts drawn from the diverse yoga traditions if India, greater Asia, and the West. This one-of-a-kind sourcebook features elegant translations of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and even Islamic yogic writings, many of them being made available in English for the very first time...." From Sasidhara, The Garb of Dispassion (Vairagyamvara), as discussed in the chapter/essay by Sthaneshwar Timalsina, titled "The Yoga System of the Josmanis," 309-324: "For the sake of maintaining the practice of yoga, one should think of things that are good for the body and eat mild, warm food. Not all [people] have the same body. With this insight [in mind], one should think of one's body and eat the things that are good for one[self]. This body is impermanent. One should be dispassionate toward [worldly] objects and keep practicing as long as the mind does not dissolve in the abode of Hari. One should not talk too much. One should not walk too much. One should keep one's body pure and at peace in these ways, and being endowed with love and the yoga of devotion one should practice a self that is eternally at peace. All [one's] defilements will be removed through the glory of [this]non-dual practice. One's primordial form will be illuminated. Furthermore, the bliss that is free from all fears will be natural. The more the non-dual self is practiced, the more [one's] heightened bliss will be revealed. The more [one's] heightened bliss is revealed, the more the mind will dissolve in the self. The more the mind dissolved, the more one will hear various sounds, such as [that of] a flute. Among all the sounds, one very blissful sound will be heard. On certain occasions, something like lightning will appear around the eyebrows. One should hear that [blissful] sound and be immersed in the practice of sound. Due to the good conduct [observed] in previous lives, some will realize these symptoms quickly. Not everyone will have the same symptoms of yoga due to the kindling of the Brahma fire. There is no rule with regard to the sequence [of symptoms]." Id. at 317. From T. Krishnamacharya''s Yoga Makaranda, as discussed in the chapter/essay by Mark Singleton, "Yoga Makaranda of T. Krishnamacharya," 337-352: "I have something extremely important to say right at the outset. There seems to have been of late an increase in the numbers of commercially minded people. Such a tendency is highly detrimental to one's evolution. Merchants who wander in the marketplace like to get what they want without delay, and are ready to pay any amount to obtain what they desire. This sort of expectation is known as the 'commercial mentality.' Introducing such commercial-mindedness into this ancient dharmic society of ours, and into the path leading to evolution and evaluation, is frankly detrimental not only to society but to the individual as well. We should never insist on, nor even hope for, immediate results in return for an hour or two repeating mantras or engaging in worship (puja), yoga practice, or dawn and evening prayers etc. If we do, we are like the coolie who considers that it is not worth doing a couple of hours of work if he does not receive his wages. Ever since monetary considerations of this kind have caught hold of our minds, we have become victims of the venal mindset and are growing meaner by the day." "Discipline in yoga (yogabhasya) is not like the activities that one sees in the bazaar. Nowadays in every aspect of life, including the domain of dharmic action, people are losing interest simply because there is no quick monetary return. Because of this tendency our minds are becoming distanced from elevated thinking and higher aspirations, and we are more in doubt and crisis at each and every moment. This is the primary and paramount point that our dear readers should know." Id. at 344.).
Vivian Worthington, A History of Yoga (London: Arkana, 1982, 1989) ("Only in the last thousand years or so have efforts been made to provide [yoga] with intellectual content such as would elevate it to the status of philosophy in it own right. The attempts have not been successful because yoga is not an intellectual activity.... Yoga has in fact tended all along to be anti-intellectual, even anti-religious. To be true to itself it must ever stand close to the spontaneous fount of human creativity. It is more intuitive than reasonable, more experimental than formalistic, more other-wordly than of this world, and more akin to art than to science." Id. at 1. "Because it is non-intellectual and even anti-intellectual, yoga has never felt the need to have a carefully worked-out rational explanation for things. Any explanation only becomes apparent in the course of actual experience. For those who look for a rational explanation it points to a system of thought almost as old as itself, and whose tenets accord very closely with its own. This is the Samkhya philosophy." Id. at 85. "In the West at the present time the physical benefits of yoga are emphasized. Hatha yoga is so popular, especially among women, that many teachers do not teach the other aspects. This is often because they are ignorant of them Raja or mental yoga is more popular among men, who usually study and practice alone." Id. at 8. "Who sees the many and not the one wanders on from death to death. This truth cannot be learnt even by the mind. It can only be learnt by the practice of yoga. When the sense and the mind are still, and reason itself rests in silence, then begins the path supreme. This calm steadiness of the senses is called yoga. But in treading this path be watchful, for yoga comes and goes. It is difficult to hold this state for very long at any one time." Id. at 25-26. "The importance of [The Bhagavad] Gita cannot be over-emphasized. For the first time the practice of yoga is brought right down into ordinary life. A new kind of yoga is promulgated. This is not the traditional ascetic and meditative jnana yoga of the Upanishads, but an active yoga of everyday living. It is not intended to supplant but to complement the older form. Its results are to be social and psychological, not transcendental. The full potential of this yoga has yet to be realized, and the Gita has by no means had the last word." "This yoga of selfless action takes hold of the ancient concept of dharma, and makes its ramifications more understandable to ordinary people. The concept...is here brought out into the daylight and given a broader interpretation. From being a moral precept it became an active discipline, being combined with yoga in a most original way." "Karma yoga calls for performance of the ordinary activities of daily life, but ordains detachment from their fruits. Think of the act, not the result...." Id. at 59. "When you are free from all delusions you will be indifferent to the results of your actions." "This is the central theme of karma yoga--to work according to one's dharma, but be unattached to the results of one's works. Be established in the Atman, and walk among sense objects unaffected by them. To find the Atman, control the mind and withdraw the sense. Find the Atman, unite it with Brahman, and then do your duty. In this state of mind your work will be effective, and you will not be anxious about results." Id. at 61-62 "The yogi must free himself from all mental distractions fixing his attention only on the Self, the Atman. If the mind wanders it must be drawn back unceasingly. The yogi sees the Self in all things, and all things in the Self. He suffers the sorrows of all creatures, and feels joy at their happiness." "If a man practises yoga, but falls away from the practise, finding it too rigorous he will still have earned merit. He will be born again in better circumstances than his present life. In his next life he will return to the position he reached in this life, and will be able to make further progress. In this way he will reach perfection through many births. The yogi who seeks to unite the Self with Brahman is greater than those who practise austerities. He is greater than the learned, and greater than those who practise good works." Id. at 63. "Hell has three doors: lust, rage and greed. All three must be avoided or they will lead you downwards. For one who has sunk to the lowest depths the way to climb back is first to practise the yoga of selfless action, karma yoga. This is easiest for them. Then read the scriptures, and so rise to bhakti and the ascending order of yogas. The task is immeasurably difficult, and will take many incarnations, and aeons of time." Id. at 66-67. "Buddhist yoga, or at least the mental side of it, is designed to conduce to the understanding that there is no substantial ego. This is somewhat different from the older jnana yoga which implied that the ego was real, even though we might ultimately be prepared to merge it into the being of supreme Brahman. The Buddhist ascetic training and meditation is meant to prepare one for the realization that nothing ultimately has any substance. There are only spiritual processes, sensations, feelings and visions appearing and reappearing. They can be watched with complete detachment. They can also be set in motion or brought to rest. The suppression of desire, which is the greatest message of the earliest of Buddha's discourses, became meaningless when the detachment of this point of view has been attained." Id. at 92. "The Buddhist yogi is taught, by means of the disciplines, to realize within such a peace as one realizes when looking into the realms of infinite space. He looks inwardly, and there experiences the wonders of his own nature. Through successive stages of self-control and meditation he realizes utter stillness and voidness unmodified by any thought and uncoloured by any emotion. In these deep meditative states he realizes that fundamentally nothing is happening to the true essence of his own nature, nothing to cause either distress or joy." Id. at 94. "Meditation is the very heart of yoga." Id. at 126. "It has always been customary to refer to the devotee of Zen as a Zen yogi, when he is somewhat advanced along the way." Id. at 153. "Zen too has always been at pains to insist that it is not only anti-intellectual and anti-morality, but also anti-religious. The writings of its leaders are proof of this. But if neither intellect, morality nor religion find any foothold in it, what is left? The answer is yoga, and a very distinctive brand of it. Technique, method and personal experience are everything in Zen." Id. at 154. "The Chan (Zen) school teaches a direct way to enlightenment. It has no formal organization, nor any sacred literature. Although its devotees are encouraged to read sacred literature from any sources and traditions, it is made clear that the reading of literature alone will not lead to enlightenment. At the same time the reading of elevating ideas can create a translucent state of mind which is conducive to the growth of the intuitive faculty, and will better allow the flash of intuition to become manifest when the student is ready." Id. at 156. "[O]ur claim is that Zen is entirely yogic, and has been so throughout its history. The yoga element has been strong in all the schools of Buddhism in China and Japan." Id. at 181. "References to asana (postures and exercises) are found in all yoga literature right back to the Upanishads. At that time the asana were for purposes of meditation. The body was to be placed in a suitable seated posture so that the aspirant could meditate with a straight spine, and with lungs and stomach not restricted. In such a position the body could be forgotten and rhythmic breathing practiced " Id. at 162. [Note: It would seem, then, that the typical Western yoga studio gets wrong both the order and the emphasis of yoga. The typical Western yoga practice is essentially an asana or posture practice; beginning with a short (e.g., 3-5 minute) meditation, followed by an hour or so of asana exercises. This is so, rather than an hour or so of asana exercises, followed by an hour or so of meditation. Of course, perhaps the attendees at such yoga studios go home immediately and engage in an hour of so of meditation. I doubt it. More likely it is an hour or so of hanging out at the local coffee shop.] "This array of physical practices was considered entirely secondary and subservient to the main practice, which was sitting for meditation with the object of eventually achieving samadhi.... In the tantric period, however, when attempt were being made to develop the siddhis, more active exercises began to be employed. It was also noticed that the general health of yoga practitioners could often be greatly improved by the practice of certain asana. It began to be apparent that the purely physical aspect of yoga had its own considerable value." "The Nath yogis of north India took up this aspect of the art, and widened its basis considerably...." "The yoga became distinguished from other forms by taking the name hatha yoga. Hatha is a compound word. 'Ha' means sun, and 'tha' means moon.... Both must be brought if our nature is to be balanced, " Id. at 162-163.).
FOR APPRECIATING THAT TRUE YOGA IS ABOUT SOMETHING SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER THAT MERE POSES, THE FOLLOWING LINK IS HELPFUL:
http://www.swamij.com/traditional-yoga.htm
"The goal of Yoga is Yoga: The goal or destination of Yoga is Yoga itself, union itself, of the little self and the True Self, a process of awakening to the preexisting union that is called Yoga. While it is not the intent of this article to give a final or conclusive definition of the term Yoga--which can be described in different ways--it has to do with the realization through direct experience of the preexisting union between Atman and Brahman, Jivatman and Paramatman, and Shiva and Shakti, or the realization of Purusha standing alone as separate from Prakriti. The mere fact that one might do a few stretches with the physical body does not in itself mean that one is headed towards that high union referred to as Yoga."
From Modern Yoga versus Traditional Yoga by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati.
