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The Mind Body Link - Yoga and Meditation
by: Michael Saunders Yoga is a family of ancient spiritual practices originating in India. It is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. In India and across the World, Yoga is seen as a means to both physical health and spiritual mastery. Outside India, Yoga has become primarily associated with the practice of asanas or postures of Hatha Yoga. In the United States the American Fitness Professionals & Associates offers Yoga Certification for intructors. Yoga developed as a worldview, as a lifestyle. It integrates the asanas (bodily poses) and pranayamas (breathing exercises) with the concept of meditation to make the yogi at peace with the world.
Meditation comes from intense concentration, where the individual focuses so thoroughly on a single object that he or she thinks of nothing besides his or her awareness of that object (Some religions may find that their idea of prayer could fall under this definition). Yoga takes that further, making meditation the highest element of the Eight Limbs of Yoga.
These "eight limbs" define Yoga as a lifestyle: your attitude to the world around you is followed by your attitudes towards yourself, physical posturing, breathing exercises, withdrawing the senses, concentrating, contemplating, and finally enlightenment. Enlightenment, better known as a state of bliss, comes only as a result of full use and development of the other seven. Meditation combines withdrawing the senses, concentrating, and contemplating to be the final state that can be accomplished before bliss.
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The Mind Body Link - Yoga and Meditation
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