2010 March « Yoga Press

Yoga and sex do go together

March 22, 2010 at 9:04 am | Posted in Yoga Life | 2 Comments
Tags: yoga contact

Now contrary to what many people believe, the true yoga practitioners are no more against the pleasures of sex than they are food even though some of the elder sages do live on a lofty spiritual plane where all aspects of yoga sex techniques have ceased to matter.
On the contrary, Yoga, being a philosophy singularly free of both Puritanism and hypocrisy, its disciples recognize the yoga sex urge for the healthy instinct it is and would consider any attempt at its suppression profoundly unhealthy.
In other words, yoga and sex do go together.

Suppression and denial of yoga sex improvements can lead only to physical upsets and mental harm.
The Hindu believe that woman is the complementary part of man, a gift from heaven, man’s soul companion and helpmate, and that union must be not only mental and spiritual, but physical.
Marriage is entered upon in an attitude of humility, with full recognition of its solemnity.
In fact, one of the basic Hindu yoga sex writings, the Kama Sutra, is an elaborate treatise on the philosophy and etiquette of love, courtship and yoga sex behavior, both male and female, detailed in a manner which our best modern manuals on marriage techniques do not begin to approach.
Hindu temples are often decorated with phallic yoga sex representations which shock the traveler, but which to the worshippers have a deep spiritual significance. Because of this cultural attitude Oriental women share with their men an approach at the same time more natural and more sophisticated.
The Yogis, who teach that man’s supreme goal is Self-realization, understand that such realization cannot be wholly achieved except through union with woman, his other half.
What one sex lacks the other provides.
Rigid denial of yoga sex is merely a superficial form of escape which is self-defeating. To live fully, with understanding, each human being must know something of the innermost depths of the mind of the other sex.
It is impossible to advance to complete understanding of Self, and of the world at large, while living in ignorance of the other half of mankind. Man and woman have been created for each other, not to exist in separate vacuums.
However, Self-realization may not be equated with self-indulgence. Therefore yoga sex teaches that much of our sex drive must also be sublimated, that is, channelled into other life drives, creative or otherwise useful and always constructive.
The Yogis themselves have learned how to transmute yoga sex energy into psychic channels. Thus it is never either actually suppressed or dissipated but rather transmuted.
Sometimes it is drawn to the solar plexus for utilizing in healthful physical exercise. Sometimes it is sent to the brain and toward the spirit. To the advanced Yoga sex expert it then brings poise, harmony, freedom from desire, lasting serenity, and finally a merging with the universal consciousness.
To us average individuals, control over this basic inner force may well mean a happier personal life.
The man and woman doesn’t exist whose personal life is not closely related to an amazing sex life – through yoga sex or any other improvements.
In the first place, a number of the yoga exercises help sublimate a restless sex urge while others awaken a sluggish body. Restlessness becomes positive, creative energy which may then be properly utilized instead of merely bringing trouble.
Conversely, lack of interest in one’s mate-and sometimes the free-floating hostility arising out of such feelings-slowly gives way to a warmer, more giving attitude.
The very last thing a Yogi would maintain is that one must rise above sex. On the contrary, Yoga teaches that it is desirable to rise by means of it to greater spiritual heights.
Properly used, sex is the greatest of gifts and none may despise its rich potentialities. Both sexes should therefore learn to accept themselves completely, man as man, woman as woman, while at the same time recognizing that each of us carries some of the qualities of the opposite sex within us.

Tantra Yoga

March 17, 2010 at 3:06 pm | Posted in Yoga Life | 1 Comment
Tags: tantra yoga

Tantra Yoga is an ancient system of spiritual practice which originated in India and spread to Tibet and South-east Asia. Of all the spiritual paths on this planet the Tantric teachings are unique, since they deal with energy or Shakti.

Unlike most spiritual paths which consider the world a place of transition or suffering, a reality meant for testing the human being and which is an illusion (Maya in Sanskrit), Tantra sees reality as a source of power and as a part of the divine consciousness itself. Ultimately Tantric teachings say that The Ultimate reality (also called Shiva) and Shakti are one and the same thing.

Because of this approach and deep understanding, the Tantric teachings cover much of nature and it’s forces/energies and even more importantly the forces and energies which govern and drive the human being. This study can be found in the traditional Tantric texts (ancient texts from India called the Agamas). There you can see that Tantra explores fascinating fields such as: Astronomy, Astrology, The science of colours and sounds, sacred dance, architecture, alternative therapies, spiritual realization, Kundalini, Chakras and much more.

Among all these fields of interest and mastery, the Tantrics also discovered the most powerful energy in creation and therefore in the human being – the sexual energy. The sexual energy can be seen in action at every level of reality, from the tiny Atom to the largest galaxy. And in the human being this energy, the Tantrics realized, is responsible for the spiritual evolution.

From this Tantra comes with revolutionary teachings about sex and spirituality. Tantra discovered that sexuality can be transformed (through special Tantric techniques and training) into a spiritual act, a conscious powerful act that can set the human being free and bring spiritual evolution and even spiritual realization.

The science of Tantra Yoga brings to the human being happiness, fulfilment and pleasure beyond belief. Through Tantric lovemaking, human beings can heal themselves miraculously and reach the most amazing multi – orgasmic pleasures and ascend to unparalleled spiritual heights.

Yoga goes against the Competition Spirit

March 11, 2010 at 11:29 am | Posted in Yoga and Sport | 6 Comments
Tags: competition spirit

I have already written 2 articles about Yoga Asana Championship and Yoga gurus reach for Olympic goal.
But none of you were not surprised about the Yoga interrelation with the Competition spirit. Those who never heard about yoga philosophy should know that Yoga goes against the Competition Spirit.

To cultivate the competition spirit in American yoga is trying famous teacher from India.
Bikram Choudhury, a former yoga champion in his native India who came to America, befriended celebrities, built a global franchise and made millions.

He managed to organize 7 Annual Bishnu Charan Ghosh International Yoga Asana Championships.

Few words about the championship: Participants of this kind of Yoga competition should have been performed 5 obligatory poses or asanas, and 2 poses on their choice. Judges evaluated the quality of technique performance. It was hard not to mix up it with the Gymnastic Championship.

More about competitions: For example, according to the standard of artistic -yoga championships, ( yogasports.com) participants should keep to the rules of Yoga Moral codex- non-violence, faithfulness etc. Out from 10 final points only one is added for the physical perfection. The champion is determined according the 4 “spiritual” points. Judges evaluate to what degree ( to their oppinion) participant is calm, marry, full of love, got rid of negative emotions.

Bikram Choudhury, made a career on Yoga and became Multimillionaire. The future goal is just fantastic – bring Yoga to the Olympic pedestal. But at the same time for many American people, who were able to find in yoga fantastic relaxation from the inherited passion for competition, this yoga approach seem to contradict the very core of the ancient Indian Art.

Entrepreneurial Hindu managed to patent in his honor his own yoga style- Bikram’s Yoga, that he copyrighted and franchised.

What is Bikram Yoga

Bikram’s style of Yoga is a technique that is done in a hot room. Bikram Yoga consists of 26 postures and 22 breathing exercise.

The question is : Can Choudhury take a sequence of two breathing exercises and 26 yoga poses from an ancient Indian practice, copyright it and control how it is practiced?
Choudhury, America’s best known and most controversial yogi, opened one of his first yoga schools in San Francisco in 1973 and now boasts 900 studios worldwide. He copyrighted, trademarked and franchised his poses, breathing techniques and dialogue, creating the first chain of its kind.
Now, a San Francisco nonprofit organization of yoga enthusiasts from San Rafael to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., is countering with a federal lawsuit attacking the guru’s claim that yoga is proprietary.

If one can think about the antipode of Yoga ideology- self-forgetfulness, truthfulness, humbleness – this might be only Bikram Choudhury.

WHY? Just because, the meaning of classical yoga lies not in the competition with others, but in achieving inner harmony. Actually, asana practice is only the third of 8 steps in yoga practice. Yoga is necessary for the healthy body improvement and for further preparation to the higher levels of yoga- spiritual search and meditation.

In India, at the yoga motherland, Yoga Asana competition is an ancient tradition. Almost everyone from yoga teachers will write in his resume that he is a gold medalist. Bikram Choudhury absorbed the competition spirti from the very childhood. At 14, Swami Shivananda declared him “Yogi Raj” (King of the Yogis). At age 20, a weightlifting accident crippled Bikram. As an adult he opened yoga schools in India and Japan, and in 1972 he opened his first U.S. school in San Francisco.

Last years yoga competitions spilled over the India and have been emerged several international federation, which assign rank of Yoga champions according to their own standards. The Yoga“show” element is also an ancient history. In ancient times yoga goru used to organized a demonstration of yoga skills at the Indian fairs, including the demonstration of the most difficult yoga asanas. The aim of such fairs was to attract new students. But if in the India itself Yoga Championships seem to be something natural – International Yoga championships seem to be something immoral.
Especially funny are efforts to evaluate not only technical performance of asana, but as well spirit development.

In conclusion I want to repeat my favorite quotation. “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Martin Luther King Jr