2004
USA
Richard Freeman
120 min
English
The Freedom of the Present Moment
"Ashtanga Yoga allows the body itself to become the ground for enlightenment," teaches Richard Freeman. With Ashtanga Yoga, The Primary Series, you will learn the core practices of this challenging, fulfilling path--a precise union of breath, alignment, and flowing sequence of postures. On this acclaimed DVD, named by Yoga Journal as one of the top Yoga instructional programs available, Richard Freemen offers in-depth training on the potent Primary Series, a classical sequence of postures as taught by renowned teacher, K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore, India. With inspiring precision, he demonstrates the continuous, dynamic flow, and the internal forms and techniques that characterize this type of yoga. As he demonstrates each posture, his clear explanation of alignment and form facilitates an understanding of how the postures may be approached. The Primary series will help to ignite your inner “fire” and awaken the nervous system to its natural vital state. A must for anyone interested in Ashtanga Yoga.
D. Fershtaynom - "Lost teachings of yoga"
Simplifying we yoga? By inner freedom directed our aspirations or do we just want to make our bodies stronger and more flexible?
"Lost " teaching yoga , deep wisdom which disappeared in the West , in fact, not gone anywhere . Yoga can not be effective unless applied in life, but to do that we must be close to its traditions .
Spiritual Heritage of India came to our western shores in its original form . Crossed the ocean yoga master with the greatest scrupulousness passed yogic teachings to Westerners . It was such a yoga teacher as survivor Shivapuri Baba (1826-1963) , Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) , Baba Premananda Bharati ( another name - Surendranah Mukherjee , died 1914) , Swami Rama Tirtha ( 1873-1906 ) , Ananda Acharya ( 1881-1945) , Yogendra Mastanov ( arrived in New York in 1919 ) , Paramahansa Yogananda ( 1893-1952 ) and Swami Vishnu Devananda ( 1927-1993 ) - famous disciple of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh . They spent a huge amount of strength to bring undistorted West this great teaching . Emphasized the great importance of ethics (pit ) : harmlessness , truthfulness , lack of desire to possess things or titles , not earned by the sweat of his brow , and abstaining ; absence of greed . Taught that meditation and inner peace are the surest road to enlightenment. And of course, praised as the ideal enlightenment or liberation.
Why today we hear so little in yogic circles about ethics, meditation and enlightenment ? What has changed in that time? Why dull teaching artists of the late XIX and early XX centuries and emerged so many secular varieties of yoga ?
Traditional yoga has reached the shores of the West in the late XIX century. Gradually deprived of its spiritual content and turned into a means of maintaining fitness. Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda even now still have true followers , however, approximately 20 million Americans who believe that they do yoga really know nothing about them, nor about their teaching. Most modern " yogis " has no idea about ethics. They are almost not interested in meditation . The idea of having a guru for them far , even alien . The concept of liberation for them is very vague , even if we assume that they are familiar with it .
Transformation into a secular yoga craze began in the West , apparently , with the mysterious writer , who called himself Ramacharaka . As it turned out , the nickname took a Chicago lawyer, William Warren Atkinson (1862-1932) , who seems to have studied in India at a certain Baba Bharata . Books " Ramacharaka " starting with " Science of Breath " and " Fourteen lessons on yoga philosophy and oriental occultism " (both published in 1903) , have been quite popular for decades.
Another important figure in those early years was Selvaradzhan Esudyan (1916-1998) , the son of an Indian doctor. Behind him, in 1947 , Indra Devi ( 1899-2002 ) , the first female disciple ( 1937 ) famous Tirumalai Krishnamacharya , who arrived in the United States, became an immediate success as a yoga instructor in Hollywood.
In the mid-1950s in California contributed to the spread of yoga Waltham Baptist ( 1917-2001 ) and his wife Magana - especially in its physical aspect. As disciples of Paramahansa Yogananda , they were aware of the spiritual aspect of yoga, but the less intensively involved in sports side of yoga, bodybuilding and (in the case Magana ) dances.
In the 60 -e and 70 of the most influential popularizers of hatha yoga in the West were Richard Hittleman , Lilias Folan and Sir Paul Duke (former intelligence chief UK ) .
In the 90 asanas (postures ) of Hatha Yoga has become even more popular due to video cassettes with recordings of programs Jane Fonda , Ali McGraw and Rodney Yee . A growing number of Hollywood stars - Sting , Madonna, Raquel Welch , Meg Ryan, David Duchovny , as well as popular sporstsmeny - basketball star Kareem Abdul Jabbar , footballer Dan Marino , John McEnroe tennis legend - became interested in yoga , or just doing aerobics or finding and deeper meaning. Participation stars attracted the media, which in turn heated up even more interest in the community to yoga asanas .
Starting from 1930 , the direction of " yoga body" paralleled the direction of " the spirit of yoga ," initiated the Shivapuri Baba , Swami Vivekananda and others. Of India kept coming strong teacher spiritual tradition. Among them - Gopi Krishna (1903-1984) , Swami Muktananda (1908-1982) , Swami Satyananda Saraswati ( 1923 -) , Swami Rama ( 1925-1996 ) and Swami Shiv Mangal Tirtha (1945 - ) . The boundary between these two areas of yoga in the West has always been floating. However, Western-oriented hatha yoga gradually took a dominant position , its popularizers , belittle , if not abandoning the spiritual aspects , have generated millions of followers of the secular yoga , which , at least to date , do not show any interest in the spiritual side of yoga.
As these practitioners asanas will develop your body and mind will inevitably come a time when they will ask themselves , as did the people before them : " Who am I? " And " Why am I here ? " And since our culture is not able to answer these deep questions of life , then after some time they will turn to the spiritual teachings of yoga. So I have no doubt that eventually , as the development of humanity , spiritual type of yoga schools come to the fore . In the meantime, we are faced with the difficult choice of how to distinguish between a supporter of the physical development of the practitioner primarily spiritual techniques .
Search freedom in yoga
Since the late 1960s in its publications I more actively promoted traditional yoga. I am more and more focused on this goal , as the popularization of yoga acts destructively relative to its roots. While I welcome the fact that yoga has become accessible to millions of people outside India , I can not help but note the distortions that have resulted from such a wide dissemination .
If we want to ensure a decent future yoga ( which has become a social movement , although its followers and do not see it clearly enough ) , we must look not only forward but also to look back into the past . We have to remember the origins of traditional yoga , remember that without the proper configuration with the great spiritual heritage of India , our modern yoga practice is doomed to increasing loss of meaning and content , until it is unnecessary to man's spiritual growth .
Let us remember that the goal of traditional yoga - make us inwardly free . Whatever the direction , strain or yoga school , everything always revolves around this core , barely perceptible thing called "freedom." Classical yoga claims that regardless of external circumstances, we can enjoy the inner freedom , at any time . So some of the prisoners of concentration camps told how they were able to achieve a sense of inner freedom , even under such inhumane circumstances.
Traditional yoga aims to introduce us to the spiritual dimension that is free in nature. In contrast, as we have seen , the majority of modern yoga movements engaged not achieve inner freedom and the exercise of the body and improve health. There is nothing wrong , it just is not the ultimate goal of traditional yoga . This is also relatively popular today and hatha yoga. Only a few followers "modern" hatha yoga know that they practice the system was originally aimed at the complete transformation of the physical body into a " shining body " (vajra-deha). Shining body - completely transformed body , endowed with all sorts of paranormal properties - known in the Christian tradition as the "body of Fame " in Tibetan yogis - "Rainbow" .
Practicing yoga simply for reasons of health , we can improve our support - condition , physical condition, body flexibility . Asanas and breathing exercises really able to do wonders . But if we practice yoga for training the mind and strength of spirit , we are able to move confidently towards freedom , which authorities yoga is traditionally considered the main goal of human life . My students , I often remind you that even the most perfect body can be destroyed in a car accident . In this case, our only refuge will be our strength of mind and inner peace . Figuratively speaking, such a casualty for all of us is the passing of time . In the hour of death , when the body begins to decompose , the only thing we can rely on, - only internal resources. Yoga in this sense - as if preparing for the last hour on earth. It is very important how we go from life , for death actually - go to another existence . The quality of this existence depends on the way we live , the state in which our mind.
This is the answer to the question that I am often asked : what is the meaning for the modern man , especially the west , yoga as a spiritual discipline. We need a yoga even more than our forefathers , because our civilization off course , and our spirit - in the power of the event.
Today, we all - participants in the global evolutionary experiment , and I hope and pray that one day he really rocks the great Western masters of yoga that will breathe new life into our ailing civilization. Worth to keep this picture in mind , always , when we measure their strength doing yoga . Transformation of society must begin with each of us. Using the perfect statement of Swami Sivananda , we can say that we are like gardeners who called to clear our mental overgrown gardens, so that they can bear fruit . Cleaning is the gradual replacement of our subconscious patterns of thinking and behavior with new, more productive structures , which are the expression of the highest energies and distinctive features of enlightenment.
"Lost " yoga exercise , in the form as described in classical literature , enriched by the experience of the great masters , can serve as a guide to action and guiding light on this extremely difficult path of self-improvement . Without them we would not be able to overcome obstacles misinterpretations , bias and self-deception, which are abundant in our present state of consciousness . We need a "lost" teachings of yoga to awaken dormant in us own wisdom (buddhi), the inspiration to become a permanent momentum for deeper inner realization.
With the permission of the magazine Yoga International,
RR1 Box 1130 , Honesdale, PA 18431-9718
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