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Yoga!! Wow!! Um. Yes and No. Hatha Yoga, the yoga of physical poses, is intimately linked to meditation. But not inevitably linked to it. |
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At least in many of the variations currently practiced her in the US.. And yes, there are religious implications to many of the meditation techniques associated with yoga, which some may find inappropriate.
Uh-oh. What implications?
The classical eight-part yogic program, of which the physical poses are just one section (and which includes meditation) is designed to open the student (unfold, lotus flower) to "ultimate reality": to the unity of life within God. One interpretation of yoga is "yoke," as in "yoked together." The yogic system teaches that this unity, this joining together, may be experienced in meditation, in stilling the mind. Western mystics have commented on the same phenomenon, but without the yogic/Hindu overlay.
How do you avoid these implications?
The physical poses we teach at Alpine may be practiced by students of any religious persuasion (fundamentalists of any sort to atheists of any sort) without infringing on their religion. My first teacher in America, for example, was Russian Orthodox.
In our classes we do a relaxation pose at the end of class, lying down in the cheerfully-named "corpse pose." Sinking into "corpse" after the exertions of a class is designed to put the mind and body into a deeply relaxed state. And this deeply relaxed state, especially with the body's energy channels having been opened up by the postures, is considered productive for meditation. One yogic sequence is, therefore, that after the "corpse pose" the student sits up and meditates (with or without "pranayama," or controlled breathing techniques).
And, in our classes, we do in fact sit up after "corpse pose" (and cross our legs and close our eyes!). The student is then invited to go inside the physical body, to bring it into harmony and balance. No religion, just Health.
Meditation = Health
This is the delicate party-line line trod in much of Western meditation teaching. We skip neatly around the religious implications inherent in the Indian import by saying, Yup, look what great HEALTH benefits you'll get from meditating!
And, in my experience, meditation, in combination with yoga or by itself, does lead to health benefits. What many orthodox western health authorities have observed, primarily, is a lessening of stress. And these clinical observations are of course why "generic" meditation is now promoted in mainstream Western health circles.
But, in the total meditation picture, there's more.
With yoga, or with meditation, or with yoga and meditation, life seems
to roll more easily. And the WHY of that is where one can get, quite easily,
into religious discussions. We don't go there, here. Teaching-wise.
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