I have been taking this series of workshops on them and it's been pretty mind expanding. I wish everyone understood how much deeper yoga went then just stretching. Anyone read these?
Patanjali expounded what is known as Ashtanga Yoga, which means Yoga of eight limbs. These limbs are yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi. But the typical so called ashtanga yoga practiced today merely utilize the first four limbs, and never even make mention of the other four. This eight limbed system is intended to be a progressive system, each limb leading to the next in a sequential order. In publications today, such as Yoga Journal, you find all this emphasis placed on asana. But Patanjali, frequently quoted by these publications, only mentions four seated asanas in the Yoga Sutras, which are meant to be used in the higher practices of Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. Now its been said one this forum that meditation has nothing to do with concentration. But Patanjali set the precedent, which he gleaned from the Tantrics, defining dharana as concentrated one-pointedness. Dharana leads to Dhyana, or meditation. Ultimately Dhyana leads to the state of Samadhi, which builds upon itself as higher and higher states of Divine Consciousness. And all of this is entirely over looked by almost all Yoga practitioners that claim to practice Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga. This one of the many examples of how Yoga has become disenfranchised from its original purpose of Divine Consciousness. Peace, Love, Om.
