by Kirk Stefanski

Created on: June 09, 2009   Last Updated: June 10, 2009

Hrmmmmmm.

"Yogi......what is the yoga for me?"

Excellent question. Everyone is different. Everyone has different goals, though ultimately most of us have the same predilections, predispositions, prejudices and expectations for, through and from life. Each of us, though on a meta(grand) scale have evolved through similar circumstance....yet we are all so unique and distinct. Therefore, the ancient yogies, sages, seers, in their own diversity of being, had evolved quite a few systems for evolving the body, mind and spirit of humankind to suit different people's temperments.

Such a hectic frantic, and frenetic life so many of us live today. Most of us are obsessed with the physical. 'Is my ass too big?' 'Is my gut too hangy?' 'My hair.....my eyes.....my nose.....dear me nothing is right at all......' This is how many people have been tricked into filtering their lives. I say 'filter' because our senses are filters for our minds, and our minds are filters for our selves. There is much involved in perception. There is much involved in what is perceived. The perceiver themself is yet another piece of it. These are the topics in our lives for which the yogies evolved the systems of yoga.

In the words of the ancients, when you try to change the mind through the mind, it is raja yoga. when the mind is influenced through self-inquiry,it is gyana(jnana) yoga. when you transform the mind through emotion, it is bhakti yoga. When you try to change the mind through selfless service and detachment, it is karma yoga. when you change the nature of the mind through herbs, it is part of tantra yoga. when you try to influence the mind by adjusting and balancing the chemicals of the body, that is hatha yoga.

What do we live for today? Hrrmm? The love of our life? The office? The 'good of the world' ? How much do we want? Do we want a whole host of many things....or is our desire concentrated on one or two circumstances? Do we feel as if the level of a tangible thing called happiness would well up inside of us and spring forth if some set of conditions were met? These feelings are only natural.

Yoga is what allows us to react to our lives and ourselves differently. You're not going to learn these things by going to gyms or to most western 'studios'. The different paths of yoga are not exclusive of each other. The ancient texts all speak of one's yoga being "perfected". That implies that yoga is a process of working towards ends. Not necessarily final ends...but realizable goals.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>