Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers
Meta Chaya Hirschl
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN: 1615190406
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
As any yoga student or teacher knows, there’s more to yoga than Downward Dog. Meta Chaya Hirschl’s immersive guide offers a complete vision of yoga, from its historical and spiritual roots to modern practice. Whether you are a novice yogi or an experienced instructor, Vital Yoga will help you unlock yoga’s full potential—and your own.
Focusing on the traditional eight limbs of yoga, Hirschl covers a wide range of essential topics in three sections: Before the Mat, On the Mat, and Into the World. In Before the Mat, you’ll learn about the history and philosophy of yoga, with fresh insights into:
• Fundamental texts like the Bhagavad Gita
• The role of vibration in yogic practice
• Mantras for everything from health to job hunting
In On the Mat, you’ll find practical instructions for every aspect of yoga, including:
• Breathing consciously to guide your vital energies
• Meditating to master and heighten your senses
• Posing with intention, strength, and balance
Throughout, Vital Yoga invites you to delve into the heart of yoga with derivations of Sanskrit terms, “stealth” yoga practices you can do anywhere, wisdom from the great sages, and accounts by contemporary yogis. Its goal is to help you connect to your inner self, transcend fear and attachment to the stresses of life, and achieve bliss—and when you’ve achieved it, you’ll be able to share it.
Emotional Yoga: How the Body Can Heal the Mind
don’t know if I feel any better really, but I feel better about the way I feel.” Figure 2.2. Ashtanga map: The Eight Petals of Yoga In general, the eight limbs are strategies for opening to our inner reservoir of peace. The first two limbs guide our behavior toward ourselves and the world. The third limb opens the body through physical poses, the fourth cultivates breathing, and the fifth teaches withdrawal of the senses. The remaining limbs teach us how to gradually master meditation. To help
breathing practice she learned in yoga classes to relax and thus enhance her performance during tournaments. She says that at this point in her career she doesn’t need to improve her golf technique but rather to quiet her mind. The fifth limb, pratyahara, demonstrates ways to withdraw the senses in order to achieve balance and peace. Sense withdrawal is actually something we practice unconsciously—for example, when being unaware of sounds while reading. The text suggests, however, that by
at ease in any event?” Since the Bhagavad Gita was originally part of an oral tradition, the way it sounds is also important. Consequently, you may want to read it aloud or listen to it read. Deepak Chopra has recorded a CD of the Bhagavad Gita, and you can find other readings of it online. There are also new translations that may appeal to you more than the older ones. The Bhagavad Gita has inspired readers for generations, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, and Mahatma Gandhi. For
4.2). We can call this a wave of breath. Just as ocean waves rise to a crest and fall, so breath waves rise and fall in the body. Figure 4.2. Lying Release inhale (left) and exhale (right) Vanda Scaravelli’s work is based on this wave of the breath: There is a way of doing yoga poses that we call asanas without the slightest effort. Movement is the song of the body. Yes, the body has its own song from which the movement of dancing arises spontaneously. In other words, the liberation of the
able to focus or find calmness while breathing. Kapalabhati: Shining Skull Breath The meaning of kapalabhati, shining skull, suggests how you might feel after practicing it—like your head is radiant. The physical benefits of kapalabhati include developing internal warmth; cleansing and opening the sinus cavities; increasing lung and heart strength; and opening the ears. The mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits are a sense of inner warmth that can be comforting, like a self-embrace; less