The Yoga of Delight, Wonder, and Astonishment

The Yoga of Delight, Wonder, and Astonishment
Author: Jaideva Singh
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 1991-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780791410738

This book offers 112 dhāraṇās -- 112 meditations or techniques -- for experiencing the extraordinary and paradoxical reality of unbounded consciousness called Bhairava. In her initial question to Bhairava, the Goddess asks him to reveal his own essential nature to her. Bhairava praises her question as pertaining to the very essence of the Tantra, and he praises the transcendent aspect of the Supreme. The Goddess then beseeches Bhairava to teach her the method by which she may gain an understanding of this blissful, nondual reality. The methods offered here hint at a profound secret: only a subtle shift of attention is required in order to bring this astonishing reality into view. The shift will open a chink in the apparently impregnable smoothness of the ordinary world. Here are 112 secret gestures of attention that will reveal infinity. True to its tantric provenance, the Vijñāna-bhairava discovers Supreme Reality in unexpected and bizarre places. As one scans the great variety of methods it offers, one is struck by the contrast in tone between this text and the classical expositions of Yoga. While equally serious, the Vijñāna-bhairava has a playful approach anchored in the confidence that one can really never stray from the reality of Shiva. Because it is grounded in the tantric realization, the text has a freedom to explore meditational domains puritanically disdained by classical Yoga. All things, all experiences, all moments are bathed in the unassailable purity of the absolute consciousness. Only a shift of attention, a subtle refocusing, is required for that extraordinary reality to come into view. The Vijñāna-bhairava contains no sustained philosophical position. Rather, it is an instructional guide that continuously invites the practitioner to look more deeply and more subtly at her own experience. The blissful and shattering realizations that she will undergo as a result of its method serves as the only form of proof or justification. This is an initiatory manual that instructs in the intricacies of the advanced sport of Shiva.

Pārvatīdarpaṇa

Pārvatīdarpaṇa
Author: Harsha V. Dehejia
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Total Pages: 138
Release: 1997
Genre: Idols and images
ISBN: 9788120814844

The Yoga Tradition

The Yoga Tradition
Author: Georg Feuerstein
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Total Pages: 794
Release: 2012-09-18
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1935387391

A unique reference work from the foremost writer on Yoga today, THE YOGA TRADITION surveys the 5,000-year history of Hindy, Buddhistm, Jaina, and Sikh Yoga, featuring full and partial translations of numerous key scriptures and over 200 illustrations. It is considered the CLASSIC text on Yoga practice and history.

The Yoga of Breath

The Yoga of Breath
Author: Richard Rosen
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2002-08-13
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0834825783

Discover the basics and benefits of breath control—pranayama—and how to incorporate it into your yoga practice For several thousand years, yogis have drawn on the powerful practice of pranayama, a technique of controlling the breath to maximize prana or life energy. Pranayama has been practiced to rejuvenate the body and as a means of self-study and self-transformation. While most yoga practitioners today focus on asanas, or body postures, a growing number of people are learning the complementary practice of pranayama to deepen and enrich their practice. The Yoga of Breath is a guide to learning the fundamentals of pranayama and incorporating them into an existing yoga practice. Rosen's approach is easy to follow with step-by-step descriptions of breath and body awareness exercises accompanied by clear illustrations. The book also covers the history and philosophy of pranayama, offers useful practice tips, and teaches readers how to use props to enhance the exercises.

The Yoga of Vibration and Divine Pulsation

The Yoga of Vibration and Divine Pulsation
Author: Vasugupta
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780791411797

Spanda is the vibratory dynamism of the absolute consciousness. In the first section of his commentary, Kṣemarāja presents spanda as identical with the essential self of each person. The second section presents a methodology that allows access to the world of spanda yoga. The third section describes the spiritual powers attained by the realization of spanda. Through modern physics, we have grown accustomed to thinking of physical reality as waves of energy--as the matter-energy continuum. Tantric Shaivism presents the full matrix of energy pulsation of which physical reality is only a part. From the relatively superficial perceptions of the senses to the progressively subtle forms of inner awareness, a unified spectrum of spanda leads inward until the most delicate and powerful tendrils of individuality merge with the infinitely rapid vibration of the ultimate consciousness. The text prescribes a continuous refinement of perception in order for that aspect of spanda which continuously subsides into infinity to be discovered in the awareness of the practitioner. Through prescribed use of mantra, the yogi develops a continuous attentiveness to the presence of the spanda--the spanda that reveals itself to her as an ecstatic flashing forth within her own awareness. The Guru enlivened mantra leads the yogi through the vibratory spectrum of awareness to the ever subtler domains within. As this occurs, the surface word-form of the mantra falls away and only the original lively pulsation of enlightenment is left. At a certain definite point, the individual awareness is permanently caught up in this subtle pulsation of the ultimate. It then transcends all of the relative spatial distinctions of inner and outer, higher and lower, above and below. The nondimensional, global encompassing of the individuality by the absolute consciousness is the state of jivanmukti, the goal of the tantric practice prescribed by the Spanda Karikas.

Yoga

Yoga
Author: Daren Callahan
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2015-01-28
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476607028

Millions of people practice some form of yoga, but they often do so without a clear understanding of its history, traditions, and purposes. This comprehensive bibliography, designed to assist researchers, practitioners, and general readers in navigating the extensive yoga literature, lists and comments upon English-language yoga texts published since 1981. It includes entries for more than 2,400 scholarly as well as popular works, manuals, original Sanskrit source text translations, conference proceedings, doctoral dissertations, and master's theses. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author for easy access, while thorough author, title, and subject indexes will help readers find books of interest.

Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra
Author: Richard Miller, Ph.D.
Publisher: Sounds True
Total Pages: 131
Release: 2010-04-01
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1591798442

Now available in paperback, this book-and-CD offers a complete program for spiritual awakening through deep relaxation. Drawing from his extensive study of yoga in India and his training in Taoism and Chinese Medicine, Miller expertly guides listeners through practices that include sensing the body and exploring your essential qualities.

The Deeper Dimension of Yoga

The Deeper Dimension of Yoga
Author: Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D.
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2003-07-08
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0834822083

An in-depth primer on the history, philosophy, spirituality, and current practices of yoga, from a respected scholar and longtime yoga practitioner Here is a comprehensive survey of the full breadth and depth of the 5,000-year-old Yoga tradition, emphasizing its potent philosophy and spiritual vision. Georg Feuerstein demonstrates that Yoga is much more than a system of physical exercises—it is a profound path of self-transformation that encompasses a range of teachings, practices, and sacred texts that can help us cultivate wisdom, balance, and inner freedom, as well as physical health. Feuerstein is one of the few Western scholar-teachers of Yoga whose writing and teaching penetrate the full richness and depth of this ancient tradition. Here he offers a collection of essays touching on all facets of the discipline. Topics include: • The different branches and styles of Yoga • The ethical teachings of Yoga • Yoga and vegetarianism • Meditation and mantras • Choosing a teacher • Tantric Yoga • The experience of ecstasy

Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth

Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth
Author: Stephen Phillips
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2009-06-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0231144849

For serious yoga practitioners curious to know the ancient origins of the art, Stephen Phillips, a professional philosopher and sanskritist with a long-standing personal practice, lays out the philosophies of action, knowledge, and devotion as well as the processes of meditation, reasoning, and self-analysis that formed the basis of yoga in ancient and classical India and continue to shape it today. In discussing yoga's fundamental commitments, Phillips explores traditional teachings of hatha yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and tantra, and shows how such core concepts as self-monitoring consciousness, karma, nonharmfulness ( ahimsa), reincarnation, and the powers of consciousness relate to modern practice. He outlines values implicit in bhakti yoga and the tantric yoga of beauty and art and explains the occult psychologies of koshas, skandhas, and chakras. His book incorporates original translations from the early Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutra (the entire text), the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and seminal tantric writings of the tenth-century Kashmiri Shaivite, Abhinava Gupta. A glossary defining more than three hundred technical terms and an extensive bibliography offer further help to nonscholars. A remarkable exploration of yoga's conceptual legacy, Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth crystallizes ideas about self and reality that unite the many incarnations of yoga.

Yoga of the Subtle Body

Yoga of the Subtle Body
Author: Tias Little
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2017-05-30
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0834829762

With his expert teachings, philosophical insights, and pragmatic imagery, world-class yoga instructor Tias Little turns the anatomy of the physical body into a tool for navigating the subtle body If you spend considerable time doing yoga, you begin to see that it is about much more than just the body—the practice of yoga in fact reveals that the body is in no way separate from the psychospiritual forces that animate it. Here, Tias Little provides a way to understand these forces as they relate to an integrated yoga of body, mind, and spirit. He unites somatic concepts and wisdom teachings in this practical guide to the anatomy of the physical, mental, emotional, and subtle (or energetic) body. Little is a master teacher who offers us a guided tour of the body’s structure and physical anatomy, then uses this new structural awareness as the basis for exploring the subtle body. In a meaningful and pragmatic way, the book maps the connection between the body and the rich symbolism that pervades the yogic imagination, including the chakras, nadis, and koshas. Further, Little offers readers clear, insightful yoga, pranayama, and meditation exercises that apply these body-mind principles.