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Post by Nictoshek on Aug 21, 2014 7:26:50 GMT -7
 Iyengar, yoga teacher to the stars, dies at the age of 95The Indian guru who brought yoga to the West and transformed it from a Hindu ritual to a church hall keep fit class has died By Dean Nelson, New Delhi 20 Aug 2014 Gurus in India have paid tribute to B.K.S Iyengar - the man who popularised yoga throughout the world and turned it into a global 'mind, body and spirit’ industry - who has died at the age of 95. He began practising yoga in 1934 under the tutelage of his brother-in-law and by the time of his death on Wednesday, his brand of yoga was taught in 70 countries. His unique style of yoga, which involved the use of foam blocks and straps to increase stretching, was brought to the West in the early 1950s after the young guru met the violinist Yehudi Menuhin. The music maestro had complained that he could not relax or sleep, but in an interview with the veteran India broadcaster Sir Mark Tully in 2001, Guru Iyengar said “within one minute”, he was “snoring happily away”. Sir Yehudi Menuhin took his new guru on a tour of Europe where he found a new source of devotees. The author Aldous Huxley became a follower while the Queen of Belgium is said to have learned his trademark sirsasana headstand at the age of 80. Guru Iyengar continued to practise the posture, which he claimed “cooled his brain”, until his health began to deteriorate last year. His popularity with new audiences encouraged other Indian gurus to export their techniques around the world. Some, like Baba Ramdev, have created television, medicines and spiritual centre business empires worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Leading yoga teachers in India today said he was a modern innovator whose legacy is the global interest in the Hindu spiritual ritual. “The West knows yoga because of Iyengar. He developed a style of yoga for ordinary people. He introduced simple props and aids like ropes, blankets, wall to facilitate people to make it easy for the masses," said Yogi Santatmananda Saraswati of Swami Dayananda Ashram, in Rishikesh. “It is sad that he left us but what he left will be there for times to come through his disciples and teachings”, he added. |
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Post by Jaga on Aug 21, 2014 16:16:13 GMT -7
Nictoe,
thanks for posting. I am so crazy about yoga that I appreciate it even more!
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Post by Nictoshek on Aug 23, 2014 2:10:29 GMT -7
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Post by Jaga on Sept 12, 2014 19:34:28 GMT -7
Nictoe, finally I had a chance watch and read more about Lyengar. He was an amazing man, ge lived a long life and his legacy is great. I am a big yoga follower and student. It is interesting because it seems that in Europe yoga stopped on asanas (poses) while in the US it evolved into a form of exercise as power yoga.
I am trying to get better with my poses. Here is what Lyengar could do, just 5 min worth to watch:
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Post by Nictoshek on Oct 1, 2014 3:05:49 GMT -7
 Is yoga really about exercise?
BBC 30 September 2014 Yoga practitioners are fighting a new sales tax by insisting the activity isn't primarily about fitness. Around the world, its definition can often be rather more flexible, writes Jon Kelly. It might feel a lot like exercise to millions of gym-goers as their muscles strain and they struggle to hold that pose. But in the US, the yoga community is arguing vociferously that's not really what their asanas are all about. From 1 October, a sales tax of 5.75% in Washington, DC, will be extended to gyms, fitness centres and other premises "the purpose of which is physical exercise". Locally, it's been nicknamed the "yoga tax", even though the city council's legislation doesn't actually mention the Y-word. And local yoga fans insist that the levy shouldn't apply to them. With yoga, exercise is "a by-product in the same way as it is with dance or Tai Chi", says Richard Karpel, president of the Yoga Alliance, a US non-profit association. While the type of yoga practised in many gyms may have little to do with Buddhist or Hindu spirituality, he says, the primary purpose of specialist yoga studios "is to integrate the mind, the body and the spirit". Getting fit is a happy side effect. It's true that for many centuries yoga was primarily practised as a form of meditation and as a path to spiritual enlightenment. Hare Krishna monks, for example, are adherents of bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion. The asanas or postures of hatha yoga only took off in popularity in the west during the 20th Century. For this reason, state authorities in New York - where the activity is hugely popular - ruled in 2012 that yoga was not "true exercise" and thus exempt from local sales taxes. But advocates for yoga have often found themselves maintaining quite a different position - that it isn't, in fact, a fundamentally spiritual activity. In Iran, to comply with Sharia law, teachers are careful to always refer to "the sport of yoga". Prohibitions on spiritual yoga are upheld in Malaysia, where a 2008 fatwa led to a yoga ban in five states. In the capital Kuala Lumpur, chanting and meditation during yoga classes are forbidden. In 2013, San Diego County's Superior Court ruled that although yoga's roots are religious, teaching a modified form of the practice does not breach the separation of church and state. In the District of Columbia, the local tax authorities are clear - yoga is exercise. "It's an existential question," says David Umansky, spokesman for the city's chief financial officer, "but the city council passing the law made it very clear that yoga is included." Elsewhere, it might not be. At a stretch. |
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Post by Nictoshek on Nov 11, 2014 7:15:04 GMT -7
 Your Brain on Yoga (Harvard Medical School Guides) by Sat Bir Singh Khalsa PhD and Jodie GouldDoes yoga really reduce stress? Can we feel happier after meditating just 10 minutes a day? How about smarter? Your Brain on Yoga presents the latest, cutting-edge studies that show the physical and psychological benefits of yoga and meditation. Author Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, Ph.D, assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and certified Kundalini Yoga instructor, has conducted clinical research on of yoga and meditation for more than a decade. He offers compelling scientific evidence about how yoga and meditation can change our brains, and our lives, by: • Reducing stress that makes us look and feel older than our years. • Making the parts of the brain responsible for memory grow stronger and sharper. • Elevating our mood and enhancing our spiritual outlook, giving us a sense of peace and calm. Your Brain on Yoga explains how a regular practice can reduce your heart rate and blood pressure, increase lung capacity, and help treat conditions such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia. This book will also help you find the right style of yoga for you with information on the most popular practices today from Ashtanga to Vinyasa. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, PhD has been fully engaged in basic and clinical research on the effectiveness of yoga and meditation practices in improving physical and psychological health for over 10 years. He has also practiced a yoga lifestyle for over 40 years and is a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor. He is the Director of Research for the Kundalini Research Institute, Research Director of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He has been involved in efficacy studies of yoga for a number of conditions including chronic insomnia and anxiety disorders. His current studies include clinical trials of yoga for post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic stress and ongoing research funded by the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health evaluating a yoga program within the academic curriculum of public schools to determine the benefits in mental health characteristics such as perceived stress, resilience, emotion regulation and anxiety. Dr. Khalsa routinely interacts internationally with other yoga researchers and he is actively working with the International Association of Yoga Therapists to promote the field of research on yoga therapy. For the over 5 years he has also been teaching an elective course at Harvard Medical School in Mind-Body Medicine. Jodie Gould is an award-winning writer and author of eight books, including Beautiful Brain, Beautiful You. Her articles have appeared in numerous national publications and web sites. She has a master's degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was awarded a Pulitzer Fellowship and Alfred I. duPont Fellowship. |
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Post by Nictoshek on Sept 22, 2015 6:47:06 GMT -7
Wow this looks like FUN:
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Post by Nictoshek on Dec 14, 2015 5:32:00 GMT -7
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Post by Jaga on Dec 14, 2015 21:24:56 GMT -7
Nictoe, I am glad you noticed that this is the same guru. I saw it today and yoga and it reminded me something but I could not directly pinpoint it!
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