From the category archives:

Yoga Practice and Posture

Arizona (?!) Embraces School Yoga

October 28, 2010

Lauding few Arizona schools for introducing yoga, Hindus urge all USA schools to launch yoga. Brought to you by the same state that will want to see your papers if you ain’t quite white enough: yoga for high schoolers. I suppose anything is possible now. But YOW – advanced yoga philosophy and the Ashtanga intermediate [...]

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College Men and Yoga

October 5, 2010

The Collegian » Yoga classes on campus help students relax. While otherwise a fairly standard presentation of yoga benefits and practice, it is intriguing that increasing numbers of men – especially in college – are beginning to take yoga. Football players, who require a good deal of focus as well as injury prevention, are beginning [...]

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Function and Symbolism of the Mat – NYTimes.com

October 4, 2010

Noticed – Yoga Mats Falling Out of Favor – NYTimes.com. The yoga mat is both a functional and a symbolic component of modern yoga practice. Symbolically, the mat constitutes a microcosm, a space sealed off from everyday life where concentration becomes possible. It also contains within it, virtually speaking, every asana session, every meditation performed [...]

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Cannabis and Yoga?

September 25, 2010

Ganja Yoga Getting Popular in Toronto | TopNews United States. Ganja yoga may be a growing fad in both Canada and America, and it probably seems like a gross debasement of the tradition to many. Now Indian yogins (especially Shaivite) have used cannabis in meditation practice for centuries. According to some quite reputable authorities, it [...]

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Yoga and Nature: Good, Bad and Ugly

August 26, 2010

Class brings yoga into nature zone | mydesert.com | The Desert Sun. Yoga and nature immersion are parallel practices. There is a mysterious term in the first chapter of the Yoga Sutra – the term is prakrti-laya, or ‘absorbed in nature.’ I have been fascinated by this term for many years, since it seemed to [...]

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Fox (!) Cites Yoga Health Benefits

August 26, 2010

Yoga Shows Potential to Ward Off Certain Diseases Physiologists have detected lower levels of stress hormones in *expert* (check the definition in the article – it’s pretty darn loose!) yoga practitioners. It will be interesting to see how these findings dovetail news-wise with Fox’s well-known bias in terms of what we might call ‘culture’ and [...]

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Tai Chi Eases Fibromyalgia

August 24, 2010

Tai Chi Eases Symptoms of Fibromyalgia, Study Finds – NYTimes.com. The complex mind-body condition ‘chronic fatigue’ requires an equally mind-body oriented solution. Tai Chi gently moves the physical body and breath in even patterns that distribute attention throughout the organism, thus releasing deeply-held tensions and toxins. It is likely that yoga carries with it many [...]

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Yoga Wars! NPR

August 24, 2010

Yoga Wars! India Blocks Patents On Poses Metaphorical *patents* on spiritual material are well-known historically – every lineage in India has its own private, proprietary set of yoga methods. This becomes a strange brew in the modern world where these techniques can potentially become money-makers if they are understood as publicly proprietary.

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