Hatha yoga is the branch of yoga that typically comes to mind when you think of yoga in general terms. The practice involves breath, body, and mind, and classes are usually 45 minutes to 90 minutes of breathing, yoga poses, and meditation.
84 asanas
Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English. The 10th or 11th century Goraksha Sataka and the 15th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika identify 84 asanas; the 17th century Hatha Ratnavali provides a different list of 84 asanas, describing some of them.
Most forms of yoga in the West can be classified as Hatha Yoga. Hatha simply refers to the practice of physical yoga postures, meaning your Ashtanga, vinyasa, Iyengar and Power Yoga classes are all Hatha Yoga. The word “hatha” can be translated two ways: as “willful” or “forceful,” or the yoga of activity, and as “sun” (ha) and “moon” (tha), the yoga of balance. Hatha practices are designed to align and calm your body, mind, and spirit in preparation for meditation.
Yoga is both an ancient and modern way of life; its essence is purely in spirituality. Yoga is a quest to explore oneself by way of uniting the physical self through the emotional/mental self to the spiritual self. Yoga is a ritualistic expression of body through posture and asana; a devotion of one’s heart to the principle of love and an adaptation of one’s existence to live one’s truth in accordance with universal law. With commitment to one’s yoga path, a merging with one’s soul and God/Goddess essence occurs and the manifest world is perceived as an illusion. Yoga studies may incorporate the physical through asana, breath and diet, and the metaphysical (emotional/mental/spiritual) through meditation, positive thinking, chanting, breath and mastery of the mind.
Your Yoga School
My health Yoga is an eclectic approach to yoga and encourages the teacher trainee to not limit his or her learning to this course alone. External knowledge and information may be gathered on yoga for your lifetime and internal, intuitive understanding of yoga will also be developed over your lifetime. In this modern era, yoga has many approaches and applications and it is impossible to teach the wide variety of techniques and styles. At My Health Yoga, we aim to provide you with the yoga classics, and assist you to build upon this with YOUR OWN STYLE. Just as there is no one path towards God (Brahman), there is no one path with yoga, only you’re own. Upon completion of this course you will feel confident to teach yoga postures, breath work, yoga philosophy, chanting and meditation. We are also hoping that you will be more enlightened!
The History of Yoga
Yoga is a total health science that developed in India thousands of years ago. Yoga is the oldest system that interlinks body, mind and spirit for complete healing and personal development. The Vedas are the first records of yoga scripture (circa 2500BC), with the Upanishads forming the later part of the Vedas. During approximately the sixth century BC, the well known yogic scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, was written. The Bhagavad Gita discusses how to achieve liberation by fulfilling one’s duties in life. Later, Pantajali compiled the Yoga Sutras (approximately third century BC) and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika was written. It is Hatha Yoga that strongly influences the modern yoga practice. Since then, innumerable books and texts have been written on the subject of yoga.
The Paths of Yoga
There are four integral paths of yoga – Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Raja Yoga, the last being the root of this yoga teacher training. Karma Yoga is a path of selfless service to humanity to spread love and wisdom, the reward being a purified heart. Bhakti Yoga is a path of devotion to the God/Goddess, through worship, gratitude, unconditional love and unquestioning faith. Jnana Yoga focuses on the acquisition of sacred knowledge through the intellect, leading to wisdom. The science of physical and mental control, turning this energy into spiritual energy is Raja Yoga. Indeed without a strong body and peaceful mind, the other paths of yoga are impossible.