A Brief History Of Asanas In Hatha Yoga

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Let’s talk about the history and evolution of asanas in hatha yoga!

Modern Yoga is synonym with asana, or postural practice: it is very common for the vast majority of teachers to base their classes on posture, even when offering meditation as part of their classes.

This makes it extremely easy for everybody to practice: just pick up a book, a video, or even an app on your phone, and you are good to go! No physical teacher needed!

There is a lot of talk about mindfulness, especially when it comes to movement. The implication is that meditation naturally arises during physical practice. It comes with being grounded, present, and achieving the perfect pose as fast as possible.

It may come as a surprise then to know that when Swami Vivekananda came to the West to teach yoga in the late 1800s, he was against the practice of asanas altogether! He claimed postural practice would lead the practitioner to cling to their own body even more, thus holding them back from achieving significant spiritual growth.

When Vivekananda introduced his vision of yoga in the West, there was also widespread prejudice around Indian yogins (especially haṭha yoga practitioners), shared by both Europeans and locals. Yogins and ascetics were the only ones who were seen practicing postures in public settings, and they were seen as ill-tempered mendicants.

According to some, modern yoga has been filtered so much that the term ‘yoga’ may no longer be appropriate at all.

So how is there so much focus on asanas in hatha yoga today?

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Hatha yoga used to be considered a lesser practice

The term hatha yoga can be understood in two ways:

  • “yoga of force“, due to the effort required to practice it, specifically referring to techniques such as prāṇāyāma (breath control) which are strenuous and may even cause pain;
  • “the union of the sun (ha) and the moon (ṭha) in the body“.

Additionally, the term hatha yoga can be found in Buddhist tantras, but was understood as preliminary practice to meditation.

This same pattern can be found in later Vedanta and Yoga literature, where hatha yoga was presented in conjunction and with rivalry with raja yoga. Some texts claim that raja yoga is superior because it is effortless yet fruitful, while hatha yoga is an unnecessary effort. At other times, hatha yoga is understood as a simplified practice for second-rate students.

A few centuries later, the Haṭayogapradīpikā joined hatha and raja yoga into a complete system, still under the name of haṭha yoga, asserting that they are dependent on each other. This is the first instance where some spotlight is given to asana practice: previous texts only generally recommended firm and comfortable sitting postures for the purpose of the other ancillary parts of yoga. Even the Bhagavadgita, one of the most famous texts on yoga, skims over postural practice.

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Traditional texts skim over the practice of asanas in hatha yoga

First of all it should be mentioned that not all texts that are considered to be part of the hatha yoga corpus openly refer to hatha, however all the techniques they present were later incorporated into the Haṭayogapradīpikā. Such techniques regarded:

  • pranayama
  • ten mudras (seals)
  • diet
  • the stages of yoga
  • samadhi

The satkarmas (or cleansing practices) and asanas other than seated meditation postures were also first brought up in the Haṭayogapradīpikā. However, the text still only teaches fifteen asanas, only six of which are non-seated.

Some texts define asanas as a comfortable posture “in which continuous reflection on brahman is easily possible.” (Aparoksanubhuti, v 112)

Other texts explain that the goal of asanas is fitness, health, lightness of the body, yet they only hold a preparatory and subordinate place in the pursuit of liberation from the cycle of rebirth.

There is no final agreement on how many asanas there are. Some texts claim 180, others claim it’s as many as species of living beings, others claim it’s 84 asanas as taught by Shiva. Older texts claim that of the 84 asanas, only a small number is actually important.

Only two texts talk extensively of all 84 asanas, and yet they accompany the performance of such postures with practices of meditation and pranayama. This highlights that even at this point, asanas in hatha yoga were not the only focus but rather a basic tool for a higher technique.

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Vivekananda was against asana practice

As previously mentioned, the late 1800s saw a revival of yoga, especially due to the teachings of Vivekananda. However, asanas and other hatha yoga techniques were seen as unsuitable or distasteful by Vivekananda and many of his followers.

Postural practice was associated with unlikeable yogins, seen as street performers and symbols of all that was wrong in certain branches of the Hindu religion, and therefore asanas came to be associated with backwardness and superstition. Not to mention that contortionism was already a popular form of entertainment in Europe, meaning that Westerners would have further misunderstood the practice.

But if asana practice was not a feature of the yoga exported by individuals such as Vivekananda, how did it gain so much audience?

During the first half of the 20th century, the world gain interest in physical culture, and everybody wanted to improve their body. It was common belief that people had created an imbalance by focusing too much on intellect, disregarding spirituality and physicality. Thus, people were looking for wholeness.

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Yoga became popular as a comprehensive fitness regime

Physical culturists had started experimenting with different techniques, until they established themselves as contemporary expressions of the hatha yoga tradition in the 1920s. Yoga had then become a comprehensive fitness regimen for physical, mental and spiritual growth.

Understandably, the postural side of yoga was the most appealing to physical culturalists, and physical fitness became the ultimate goal of the practice. A century later, as the craze for physical culture has become less prevalent, postural yoga is still just as prominent.

Yoga classes are available to everyone, from the gym to the work places, in a variety of settings and added props. Modern yoga keeps being reinvented, but the only thing that never changes is the focus on the body.

Quoting Singleton’s book Yoga Body,

“the locus of yoga is no longer at the centre of an invisible ground of being, hidden from the gaze of all but the elite initiate or the mystic […] In the yoga body – sold back to a million consumer-practitioners as an irresistible commodity of the holistic, perfectible self – surface and anatomical structure promise ineffable depth and the dream of incarnate transcendence.” (pg 174)

Sources

If you found my work useful or entertaining and want to say thanks, you can always buy me a cup of tea!

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Yoga and Spirituality: Wholesome Practice Or Capitalist Tool?

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“Is it even possible to practice ‘real’ yoga anymore?”

I see this question pop up often in discussions between yoga teachers and practitioners alike. Is Yoga a New Age practice? Has it become a tool of capitalism? Is there even such a thing as “real” yoga?

In order to try and answer this question, I have done some research (sources will b available at the bottom of this post).

The modern understanding of Yoga has been affected by globalisation. Yoga has been exported and reinterpreted to making it more appealing to western standards and ideas by westernising and removing the practice from its traditions.

Oriental teachers often found that Westerners would seek their teachings, only to later discover that their teachings were deeply misunderstood due to the inevitable cultural barrier.

Such gurus wanted to teach of enlightenment and letting go of the ego. Instead, self-improvement culture took over, turning these teachings into a tool to focus on the ego instead.

And so many believe that yoga has been reduced to a consumable good under the category of the spiritual.

But is there a way as a Westerner to experience yoga without falling into the attractive trap of its newly found goals of efficiency and sanity?

How is spirituality linked to capitalism?

Yoga falls under the brand of spirituality, a generic term linked to the late 60’s and early 70’s New Age movement. Spirituality entails a person’s faith in a deity, nature, a moral value, or just in themselves. It is something which is experienced, an inner journey which taps into religion but is deeply individual and very much removed from any fixed tradition or institution.

Everybody’s spirituality looks different, there can be no ‘wrong’: everybody’s journey should be respected, so misunderstanding is not a possibility.

Indian spirituality has been the most important influence for Western spirituality, encouraging individuality and autonomous practice, which provides personal experience rather than blind belief.

Just by engaging in effective practices, one can explore the Inner Self and experience one’s own barriers.

This same ambiguity and individuality allow spirituality to work so well within capitalist societies. It provides a niche, yet it applies to many social groups. It is a label for the search of meaning, values and connectedness.

Swami Vivekananda was central to the increasing popularity of spirituality and yoga in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He appealed to the Romantic attractiveness of the mystical and exotic east, claiming that while the West was materially superior, it lacked spirituality.

From the 80’s, spirituality starts to become a part of all domains of public life, which led to the emergence of capitalist spirituality: the need to explore one’s Self becomes a demand from the corporate machine.

Picking tools from different Asian religious traditions, New Age Spirituality started exploiting and selectively repackaging tradition with little care to rectify misunderstanding and mistranslation.

This unfortunate mixture of spirituality and capitalism led to some individuals believing they were justified in making use of this selective appropriation approach simply because they paid to ‘study’ them in their original context first.

Because superficial interpretations of Eastern traditions are so wide spread, it is easy to sell new products and techniques while claiming ‘authenticity’.

Yoga Today

So, what happened to yoga?

Initially yoga was regarded as a set of renunciatory practices to attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth, while eradicating selfish desires and the fluctuations of the mind.

Now, it has been westernised into psychologised spirituality and a system of therapy (mental and physical).

It has become a tool to experience altered states of consciousness, but the original intent was to prevent such altered states, promoting stability and contentment instead. Yoga is marketed by appealing to its exoticism. It is a secular tool which is imbued with ageless wisdom.

As Cox skilfully puts it in his 1977 publication while referring specifically to meditation, this approach “turns into an excuse to keep Narcissus poised by the side of the reflecting pool, to persuade him that if he just keeps on staring he will eventually discover something.”

Thus, Eastern spirituality focuses on isolating the self, rather than the individual’s involvement within the cosmos.

Due to the aforementioned globalisation, this view of yoga as a tool for physical health and an embodiment of spirituality, while being stripped of its mysticality, has made into South Asia as well.

In the late 20th century, yoga was regarded as an antiquated practice. It had no practical purpose and was not suitable for moden life.

Now, as it re-entered the region in a westernised form, it has become a trendy activity, a technique for self-management.

So… is it possible?

Yes and no.

Because the East re-appropriated rebranded version of yoga, practices and audiences have homogenised, meaning it is almost impossible to practice ‘real’ yoga as a Westerner.

The only way would be to actively seek out a direct source of the traditional version, which would then entail adhering to certain institutions and beliefs. This is not an easy feat, as many of these practices jut don’t fit with the rules and lifestyle of modern society. There is a reason why yogis are traditionally renouncers of society.

It is not possible to live a perfectly holistic, balanced life while still being a productive member of the workforce.

At the same time, it should be noted that our modern understanding of ‘authentic’ yoga, is already an adaptation (albeit an ancient one) meant to make the practice of austerities, and therefore spiritual realisation, available to all. So, how far back would we need to go to practice ‘real’ yoga?

Personally, I believe that even if your practice of yoga is not perfect, it is a step in the right direction. You will find your path. After all, it’s about the journey, not the destination.

Sources

Askegaard, S. and Eckhardt, G.M., 2012. Glocal yoga: Re-appropriation in the Indian consumptionscape. Marketing Theory, 12(1), pp.45-60.

Beaudoin, T., 2007. Consuming faith: Integrating who we are with what we buy. Rowman & Littlefield.

Carrette, J.R., Carrette, J. and King, R., 2005. Selling spirituality: The silent takeover of religion. Psychology Press.

Cox, H.G. and Cox, H., 1977. Turning east: The promise and peril of the new orientalism (p. 32). New York: Simon and Schuster.

Heelas, P. The New Age Movement. Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1996.

If you found my work useful or entertaining and want to say thanks, you can always buy me a cup of tea!

yoga paintingCreative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) terms and conditions https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Credit: An Indian person of high rank in a yogic posture (the bow pose, or dhanurāsana). Gouache painting by an Indian painter. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

What is Hatha Yoga?

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Nowadays yoga styles like Vinyasa and Ashtanga are all the rage, while Hatha yoga is not as widely practised. It doesn’t have any strong defining traits, so some can be confused as to what exactly it entails.

Truly, Hatha is a practice of yoga that entails physical movement, meaning that all styles that include an Asana practice are types of Hatha yoga. There are instances of yoga styles that focus solely on breathing techniques and meditation, such as Raja yoga.

Generally, a Hatha yoga class entails a complete practice of poses, breathing and meditation. The poses are not practised back to back, but rather you are prompted to rest in recovery poses in between. As with all styles, Savasana is the most important pose.

Where does Hatha Yoga come from?

The term Hatha yoga can be understood in two ways:

  • ‘the yoga of force’ due to the effort required to practice it, since techniques of breath control are strenuous
  • ‘the union of the sun (ha) and the moon (ṭha) in the body.’

Some Buddhist texts and later medieval literature feature the term ‘hatha’, presenting it as a preliminary practice, often in rivalry with Raja yoga. A few texts claim that Raja yoga is superior because it is effortless yet fruitful. Hatha yoga, on the other hand, requires too much effort to reach the same goal. However, Hatha texts refer to practices with neutral words such as ‘carefully’, ‘diligently’, ‘gradually’, ‘gently’, sometimes ‘vigorously’, ‘energetically’ or ‘forcibly’.

Other sources saw Hatha yoga as a second-rate practice for second-rate students, since it wasn’t a purely intellectual practice. However, just a few centuries later the Haṭayogapradīpikā joined Hatha and Raja yoga into a complete system, still under the name of Hatha Yoga, asserting that they are dependent on each other.

Interestingly, no texts before the Haṭayogapradīpikā ever focused on asanas (or postures) in any significant way. This means we have no way of knowing how prevalent asana practice was.

The First Mentions of Asanas

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali calls asana any seated posture that is stable and comfortable to hold through the whole practice.

A later commentary of the Yoga Sutras specifies eleven asanas and indicates by an ‘etc.’ that the author knew additional postures. These are meditative asanas, which allow the practitioner to sit with a straight back for a long time.

Why the focus on seated postures? Simply, when you’re standing the mind cannot focus in the same way, and when lying down you could easily fall asleep!

The Innovation of Hatha Yoga

The goals of Hatha yoga, traditionally, are the same as those of other varieties of yoga: supernatural powers and/or liberation.

However, what made Hatha yoga different is the fact that the body does not function solely as a pneumatic system when it comes to breath control practices, it is not something that needs to be abandoned upon reaching liberation. The body is seen as a complete instrument, that can be perfected and retained after liberation, even cheating death with clever use of the advanced practice of Samadhi.

Is Hatha yoga then a superior practice? It depends on the practitioner’s goals. All yoga can be practised by all, regardless of their identity or beliefs, as it is practice alone that leads to success.

If you found my work useful or entertaining and want to say thanks, you can always buy me a cup of tea!

6 Benefits To Using Singing Bowls In Your Yoga Practice

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Many yoga teachers use singing bowls in their classes, or have full sessions called sound baths! There are many reasons why these experiences are so enjoyable, but in this post I will limit myself to listing 6 benefits to using singing bowls in your yoga practice.

If you have attended one of my classes you will know I love using Tibetan singing bowls at the end of class, walking around with one so that everybody can feel the vibrations. Like a mini sound-bath.

Of course, this is not an original idea of mine, as many teachers use either Tibetan singing bowls, which are made of metal, or crystal singing bowls.

I have tried both, but I find that I’m drawn to metal ones more. Materials aside, the main difference is in sound: crystal bowls have a lovely light and ethereal sound, while metal ones are more soothing and grounding.

What are they?

Singing bowls are like standing bells, you can play them by striking them or rotating the mallet around the rim.

They originated in China, and they were made of bronze or cast-iron. Traditional Tibetan bowls are said to be made of a bronze alloy containing copper, tin, zinc, iron, silver, gold and nickel, metals which are connected to the 7 planets of the Solar System.

Crystal bowls, instead, are usually made of crushed Quartz.

Regardless, all bowls are tuned to specific notes, which are said to stimulate the corresponding Chakra.

singing bowl

The 6 Benefits of Singing Bowls

I often find that my mind is pretty volatile, I’m always thinking about the future or the past, generally overthinking. Similarly, students most likely come to class wanting to shake off the day. Here, the comforting vibrations and harmonic sounds of the bowls are of great help. We know it from experience, but there is some science behind it too!

It has been estimated that about 75% of illnesses can be attributed to stress, especially hypertension and cardiac disease. There is a handful of scientific articles presenting evidence for the benefits of meditation and the mantra Om, the vibrations of which are replicated by the sound of the singing bowls. The main recorded benefit is the effects of such vibrations on blood pressure and heart rate. Using these instruments, especially during a relaxation session, significantly decreases both, which is extremely helpful in treating hypertension! Additionally, using them to accompany meditation has been shown to significantly reduce the feeling of physical pain, as well as decrease negative moods such as tension, anger and depression!

singing bowl

So, here’s 6 benefits to using singing bowls:

  • Deep relaxation;
  • Reduces stress, anger, and anxiety;
  • Lowers blood pressure and heart rate;
  • Improves mood;
  • Better pain management;
  • Improves hypertension.

I hope you will include the use of these lovely instruments in your future practices!

Share this article if you’ve found it interesting, and let me know what your experience with bowls is!

Om Shanti

P.S. If you’re interested in reading the data-filled articles I mention in this post, you can find them here and here.

P.P.S. Enjoy some singing bowls music from my Instagram!

If you found my work useful or entertaining and want to say thanks, you can always buy me a cup of tea!

The Secrets of the Yogic Diet

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Every time we go online or open a newspaper or magazine we will find a new ‘miracle’ diet that will supposedly allow us to lose all the weight in the blink of an eye and that will make us the healthiest we’ve ever been. These diets usually involve being very restrictive with the kinds of food that we eat, but having celery juice in the morning and a whole head of lettuce for lunch is not a good plan long term.

Achieving and maintaining physical health is, of course, one of the basic aims of yoga. If we lack physical health, we cannot advance mentally or spiritually. If you are sick and you try to meditate, what will happen? Well, Nothing. Your mind feels foggy, you feel sleepy, your back and your neck hurts, your foot is falling asleep, you need to cough, and you’re also getting a migraine.

Therefore, we have the 5 points of yoga:
– Proper exercise;
– Proper breathing;
– Proper relaxation;
– Proper eating;
– Positive thinking and meditation.

All of these are the tools to achieve health.

The Yogic diet is very simple, and follows the rules that doctors already recommend: have of freshly prepared, wholesome food that gives us energy (or Prana, a derivative of that universal energy which keeps us and the universe alive). You should eat slowly and chew properly. Avoid snacking. Do not overeat, rather leave some space in the stomach for stronger digestion. Eat with awareness, avoiding discussions or distractions of any kind. If we feel stressed while eating, it will impact our digestion. Have food that was prepared with love and care. Meat is greatly discouraged as we will absorb the last emotion that the creature felt before passing, which is usually fear, anxiety, or anger. The Yogic diet is therefore historically vegetarian, but many yogis nowadays prefer to take a step further and become vegan.

Eat to live, don’t live to eat.

Food is divided in three categories called Gunas, or qualities of nature:
Sattvic foods are fresh, in season, pure, and create balance. Sattva is the quality of light, knowledge, balance and purity. These are the kind of foods we should eat the most. These foods include fruits, vegetables, nuts, milk, grains, legumes etc.
Rajasic foods are stimulating and if taken in excess can make us aggressive and irritable. They give us a big rush and then have us crash. We should have these in moderation. They include spicy and salty foods, as well as sugar and caffeine.
Tamasic foods create dullness, they represent the principle of inertia. All stale foods are tamasic and even freshly cooked food becomes tamasic after couple of hours of preparation. They are hard to digest, and make us more prone to illness. These also include meat, alcohol, processed foods, onion, garlic etc. Tamasic foods are strictly discouraged for those on the spiritual path and even for those who aren’t, are best kept to a minimum.

Achieving health is not an easy task, but we should do all we can and not take it for granted.
Living in the hectic, modern world makes it hard to follow the rules of proper eating, because we’re stressed, we’re in a rush, we don’t know where our food comes from, we eat foods that cannot be grown without the aid of chemicals, and at the first sign of illness we rush to medicines and antibiotics that deal with the simptoms but not the root of the problem.

Having a perfect, proper diet is extremely hard, and food should not become such a big factor in our lives that it defines who we are.

Experiment with food, listen to your body, really try to understand what gives you energy, what makes you feel tired, but also try to gauge what is doable for you.

Be kind to yourself.

Meditation - Basildon

What is Meditation?

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