The Historical Origins of Yoga

Today’s society is much faster paced that ever before.  People have more stress problems which lead to more health problems, mental and physical.  There are more concerns with toxicity in the food we eat and the air we breathe.  Millions of Americans today live a sedentary lifestyle, which is associated with obesity.  The body, the cavities of our soul, was not meant to deteriorate in such a way that leads to disease.  Yoga was developed over 5,000 years ago in India and it included spiritual beliefs, physical techniques, and scholarly philosophy.

There is a growing trend to practicing Yoga for many different reasons, which include attaining the yoga body or physique, relaxation and peace of mind, or to prevent injury and ailments.  Americans mainly practice Hatha Yoga, which focuses on postures and stretching the body.

Yoga, which is derived from the sacred Sanskrit language of India, meaning *union* or *to yoke or harness*.  Yoga is a way or path to transcendence and liberation from the self and the ego by purifying the mind and body.  Practicing yoga leads to a union with the mind and body or the individual and universal consciousness.  In other words, yoga is the union with the Individual Self and the Universal Self.  Yoga predates all other religions and has influenced and inspired many other traditions and philosophies.  Yoga is better understood as a union of the physical, physiological, mental, emotional, and intellectual bodies, which leads to a purposeful and balanced life.

There is simply no other discipline quite like yoga because it utilized the body, mind and spirit, all in one practice.  Yoga is indeed a spiritual path that is based on ancient sacred philosophy, but one does not need to make an ethical decision when practicing yoga, rather finding your own path is wholly accepted.  The holistic benefits of yoga are suitable for the young or old, sick or well, with any religious background.  The secrets of yoga are inwardness, concentration, and purification of mind and body with cleansing thoughts and food. Indian philosophy states that within man is the spirit that is the center of everything.  *Internal equilibrium is the basis and the ground for the higher illumination,* The cultural Heritage of India (Vol. I) - published by The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, India

The Art Of Tai Chi

Tai Chi is an ancient martial art, one that was practiced for centuries in China as an exercise, a martial art, and a way to improve the internal flow of energy in the body.  It emphasis correct form and feeling with each and every movement, which is why it is always taught to be practiced in a slow and gentle fashion.

By involving the entire body with little to no impact, Tai Chi promotes strength, flexibility, and stamina.  With the entire body being taught to move as a whole, Tai Chi cultivates the link among the mind and the body, helping to enhance one’s coordination and balance.  It can also help with the joints as well, especially if an individual is very stiff in the joints.

Although it was developed to be a martial art, it involves very little striking, offensive, or even defense techniques.  Tai Chi is a movement and breathing art that works all of the major muscles and joints in the body, helping to circulate internal energy, or chi.  The Chinese believe that internal energy, or chi is what prevents or stops diseases.

When practicing the art, the body will remain very soft and relaxed, just like it was suspended from the top of the head with the joints being similar to that of a puppet.  The mind of the student is focused on each movement, focusing on the flow of energy.  By being relaxed and focused, you allow the energy to flow through your entire body.

Even though you are soft and relaxed, you are still constantly moving.  The energy that flows through your body never stops, it keeps you moving.  When you move in reality, it takes little to no energy to make a movement.  By using your chi, everything you do seems as if it is weightless.

In combat, the Tai Chi student uses his opponent’s energy against him.  The stylist is very relaxed, believing that the energy of the opponent can be used against him.  There is little to no strength involved.  When the opponent becomes weak and tires himself out - the stylist attacks.  This way, there is very little energy left for defense or even attacking.

Tai Chi is one of the oldest styles of martial arts, and one of the hardest to find these days.  Just like other martial arts, such as Tiger Claw and Ninjutsu, it can be very hard to find a dojo that teaches the art.  If you can find a dojo that teaches the art of Tai Chi, you really shouldn’t pass it up.  It can teach you a lot about internal energy and your spiritual well being - learning more about yourself than you ever thought possible in the process.

The Zen Path of the Shaolin Monks

Shaolin kung fu is not just about defending yourself against an attacker or inflicting bodily harm. Shaolin martial arts also stress discipline, respect for yourself and others, patience, and being humble even in victory. The mental training of Shaolin martial arts helps prepare the student for any events that may come. Being physically prepared for an altercation is good, but if you are not mentally prepared you will not be focused enough to use the tools that your body has. This is why Shaolin meditation is such an important part of the Shaolin martial arts training. Meditation may not be literally practicing your physical tools, but it allows your mind to make better use of those tools.

Keeping cool in a self defense situation is one of the best ways to ensure you will survive. Tough mental preparedness allows the body to be pushed beyond its physical limits. Out bodies can only do so much, but our minds allow for much greater feats. I am sure you have heard of "mind over matter" and the truth is that it works. When the Shaolin added mental training to their physical training the result was that their martial arts system obviously surpassed all others in application and practical results.

One form of Shaolin meditation is called "Chan" or "Zen". The Shaolin received the concept of Zen meditation from an Indian priest named Bodhidharma. What Bodhidharma did that was so unique was to introduce breathing patterns into the meditation. You see Bodhidharma would find that the Shaolin monks were falling asleep during their meditation, so he added the breathing exercises to help keep them focus on increase their mental development. To this day Shoalin Kung Fu practitioners still use Chan meditation and it has formed the basis of the Shaolin mental preparation and development.

The Shaolin monks would prepare their minds to withstand the most terrible conditions so that when faces with those conditions in the real world, they would be prepared instead of shocked. Knowing that you have the mental toughness and readiness instills a confidence that allows you to go into any situation ready to act without hesitating. Self doubt is the number one way to be defeated before the enemy has even thrown a punch.

Meditation also allows one to focus his inner energy into his actions. The Japanese call this Chi, and many Westerners have heard of it. The Chinese, however, call it Kiai. Kiai allows a Kung Fu student to do things their physical body alone cannot do. Developing control over your Kiai is a matter of intense mental strength and conditioning. While some people may scoff at the idea of Kiai, and it is true that it might be more of a mind over matter application than an actual force, but Chinese Kung Fu masters has demonstrated their control over their Kiai by doing physical feats that would otherwise be impossible.

How to Learn Falun Gong Exercise For Beginners Tutorial Routine Martial Arts

Falun Gong or Falun Dafa (literally means "Dharma Wheel Practice" or "Law Wheel Practice") is a Chinese spiritual practice that combines meditation and qigong exercises with a moral philosophy centered on the tenets of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance (Chinese: 真、善、忍). The practice emphasizes morality and the cultivation of virtue, and identifies as a qigong practice of the Buddhist school, though its teachings also incorporate elements drawn from Taoist traditions. Through moral rectitude and the practice of meditation, practitioners of Falun Gong aspire to better health and, ultimately, spiritual enlightenment.

Falun Gong was first taught publicly in Northeast China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. It emerged toward the end of China's "qigong boom"—a period which saw the proliferation of similar practices of meditation, slow-moving exercises and regulated breathing. It differs from other qigong schools in its absence of fees or formal membership, lack of daily rituals of worship, its greater emphasis on morality, and the theological nature of its teachings. Western academics have described Falun Gong as a qigong discipline, a "spiritual movement", a "cultivation system" in the tradition of Chinese antiquity, or as a form of Chinese religion.

Easy Body Exercies to Increase Mind Power

For thousands of years, physical disciplines like yoga, Tai Chi and Sufi Dancing have been said to increase mental and spiritual powers. If this is true, how might one explain this, and even better, how can we use this fact, practically, to enhance our lives as artists, business people, parents, and partners?

First, we have to strip away the mysticism from the activity. Not that these activities have no esoteric aspect, but rather that we have to approach them on the most down-to-earth level. The higher the tree, the deeper the roots. The taller the building, the deeper the foundations. If you want to soar, be certain that your tether is strong. So we need to start with a simple, physiological explanation (if possible!) and then suggest a way that this ties in to advanced artistic accomplishment, relationship skills, intellectual clarity, and spiritual growth.

Perhaps the single most important in terms of Body-Mind is known as the “Flow State Performance Spiral.” In order to relate this breakthrough thinking in such a short essay, we’ll have to condense considerably:

1) All physical technique is composed of three aspects: breathing, movement, and structure.

2) Each of these aspects is controlled by the other two (breath is created by movement and structure, etc.)

3) Stress “dis-integrates” this structure. In other words, when you are under stress, the physiological signs will manifest in your breathing rate or shallowness, your posture, your muscle tension. This is why lie detectors work!

Before he died, Hans Selye, the creator of the “stress” concept, said that he had misspoken himself, that it is not stress that hurts us, it is strain. Stress is the pressure we are under. But strain is the degree to which that stress warps us out of true.

Stress is not the enemy. In fact, when handled healthfully, it is the primary trigger for growth. So the key is to avoid strain.

Let’s skip around a bit to a truth about artistic and intellectual pursuits: your ability to utilize your intelligence, education, skills or talents will be in direct proportion to your ability to maintain “flow” under stress. Or to put it another way, in life, we are rewarded for how much stress we can handle without folding. Writer’s block, for instance, is nothing but a poor reaction to performance stress.

Combining these ideas, what we have is that mental and emotional balance under stress leads to excellence. Combine this with the fact that learning to cope with physical stress develops skills that are tremendously applicable to the mental arena. The most vulnerable portion of the “Flow State” triad (breath, movement, structure) is breathing. Proper breathing will be degraded by stress before you can detect it in posture or muscle tension. This is one of the reasons breath control is addressed in most religions and spiritual disciplines, whether this is through pranayama (yoga), exercise, hymns, ritual prayers, dance, or sacred postures.

A good yoga teacher, for instance, will place the student in a posture sufficiently extreme to force total concentration. When the student learns to relax and focus, that posture becomes relatively easy, and a more extreme posture is given. The point is to teach the student to monitor their own internal process. Fine martial arts or breathing meditation teachers use similar techniques.

The student learns to recognize the early signs of strain, and to dissipate them. NOTHING in life creates more stress than lack of oxygen, and learning to remain calm in the midst of oxygen debt will teach you to remain calm when the children are screaming, when your boss is on the rampage, when someone cuts you off on the freeway.

Or when you have a writing deadline, or when insecurity and fear hammers at the door of your resolve.

Deliberately practicing a physical discipline to enhance this quality of calmness and centeredness, while simultaneously working toward goals balanced in body, mind, and spirit, exposes you to the currents of life while helping you develop the skills and strategies necessary to excel. This, over time, leads to excellence, even in a purely mental arena.

There are numerous disciplines that will teach proper breathing under stress, and this article has listed a few. If you wish to reach your maximum potential as a mental, spiritual, and emotional being, seek one of these techniques out, and integrate it into your life. It is one of the best investments you could ever make in your future.