Yogic Arts
The harmony of the whole
The great seers believed there was a rhythm to life and the cosmos; a rhythm and a way of being that included life's imbalances but transformed them into the higher good. In doing Yoga they sought to come into harmony with the rhythm and beauty of the cosmic whole.
The great idea in Yoga, as in all the mystical traditions, is that if you realise you are a fragment of the whole, a part of the creative energy of the cosmos, then through understanding the part you can come to know the whole. Perhaps you could think of the way a single cell contains all the information of the entire body, or the way in which one part of a hologram is made in the image of the whole.
Yoga is essentially an art and science of self-discovery. The old masters taught that every individual must have self-knowledge for without it you cannot relate to other people, or the world around you in an authentic way. It is only through our own experience that we can grow in wisdom and perception. Yoga is a word derived from the Sanskrit "Yuj" meaning union and speaks of the unity within oneself and between all living beings. Hatha-Yoga has evolved over thousands of years and is a living art that continues to change and adapt to the environment and culture of the times. It is total in the sense of seeking to unify the potentials of the mind and body simultaneously as an expression of personal freedom and in harmony with the whole of nature. Why limit yourself to the lone star shuffle when you can join in the cosmic dance?
Origins of a mystery
Although the ideas in yoga are often viewed as originating in India the ancient myths seem to suggest that they were once part of a global wisdom. In India it seems the teachings were uniquely preserved and evolved. It is not within the scope of this article to detail the new picture of the pre-history roots of yoga now emerging from contemporary research in archaeology, linguistics and geology but you may refer to the links section of this site for books that provide a deeper study. The old seers believed the teachings were part of an oral tradition passed on over millennia from a time when the Earth was thought to have been a treasure-garden of flowering abundance and human magic.
Historically we know Yoga dates back at least 4500 years with archaeological evidence of Yoga-style ideas and practices being found in the Indus-Sarasvati civilisation. Yoga notions abound in the oldest written works of India, the Vedas and Upanishads, which are part of the Hindu scriptures. Around the third century BC a book called the Bhagavad Gita appeared integrating the most popular teachings of the time. Beautiful and poetic it personifies the divine in the form of Lord Krishna. The inspirations of the great masters may have found a place in religion, but Yoga itself is not a religion. The Yogis explored and experimented freely in their quest to gain the highest wisdom. In the second century AD the remarkable Yogi Patanjali passed on his discoveries in a text called "The Yoga Sutrus" which, in many contemporary Yoga schools, is still regarded as the heart of Yoga. Books such as the Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati (tenth century AD) and the Hatha-Yoga Pradipika (fourteenth century AD) and Gheranda Samhita (seventeenth century AD) are the first to detail a few of the physical postures, although numerous other books are said to have been lost or destroyed and many are yet to be translated.
Yoga crossed over to the West in 1893 when Swami Vivekananda, a disciple of the renowned master Rama Krishna, arrived at the World Fair in Chicago to present a talk on philosophy. A flood of Gurus, Swamis and teachers followed and from the twentieth century onwards it has been a very mixed bag! Some, like Paramahansa YogaNanda, who authored the famous "Autobiography of a Yogi" appeared very noble and enlightening, while others seemed to play out all the comedies and farces of pop western culture; Yogis on T-shirts and bikinis sipping pepsi-cola!
Perhaps the most influential of modern Hatha-Yogis was T.Krishnamacharya whose four most famous pupils played a crucial role in taking Yoga to the world-stage; Pattabhi Jois, with his dynamic and aerobic Vinyasa style, B.K.S Iyengar of the refined and precise asana approach, Indra Devi whose gentle forms were the first to attract the Hollywood stars and T.K's son Dasikachar whose work perhaps most closely reflects the subtle aspects of his father's teachings. Another style to popularise Yoga in the West and not directly linked to T.K.'s tradition is Sivananda-Yoga. Swami Sivananda's method places as much importance on positive thinking and meditation as it does on the physical postures. There have always been endless ways to practice and teach Yoga.
In our era of infinite possibilities Yoga pops up in all manner of new permutations. Strange hybrids abound; Aqua, Disco and Boxing Yoga et cetera et cetera. Yet all the authentic styles are really branches of the same tree and rooted in the collective experience of countless adventurers who were brave enough to dive deep within themselves and the world of nature and share their discoveries as part of the Yoga-wisdom.
Hatha Yoga - sun and moon union
The masters taught that all phenomena arise in the world through the interplay of two expressions of energy they named Ha and Tha, pronounced Ha-Ta, which were symbolised respectively by the sun and the moon. The sun stands for the "masculine" dynamic and stimulating force; heat, light and sound etc. The moon stands for the "feminine" receptive force, which receives the stimulus and reacts to it; coldness, darkness and silence etc.
In Yoga the sun energy is the persevering, disciplining part of our practice that can push us on past our limitations and develop intensity and strength. The moon-energy relates to the harmonious flow of the breath and body in movement and the way in which we can intuit when to yield, let go and relax in a pose. It is the part of our practice that develops sensitivity and serenity. It is our aim in Yoga to recognise and reconcile the ever-changing dance of sol and luna within ourselves.