In pre-Communist Russia, some credit a painter and aristocrat, named Nicolas Roerich, and his wife, with traveling to India to study Agni or Fire Yoga and bringing back the teachings around 1894. The man was nearly single-handedly responsible for Yoga in the Soviet Bloc; Vasily Brodov, was an intriguing figure. A Moscow native, born in 1912, he was a natural dissident who spent time in the gulags, and on the front lines, in World War II.
I attended a Yoga teacher intensive in Attleboro, Massachusetts on meditation in 2006. At that intensive, Paul taught us so many different forms of meditation over the course of a Columbus Day weekend that I filled a note book. One method that really stuck to my mind was a mantra meditation…
Yoga is meditation. Whether it’s fast or slow, hot or cold; all forms of yogic methodology rely on the principles of meditation to exist. It’s true that yoga is a form of exercise as well, but yogic exercise is exercise at its most evolved level, which means that yogic exercise itself is a form of meditation.
The core experience of Bhakti Yoga is that the essential nature of all reality is comprised of love, and love is what comprises the essential nature of God. The deep inner longing for oneness with the Divine is what propels and catalyzes the devotional practices of a Bhakti Yogi or Yogini. At the core of this longing is a sense of separateness from the Divine.
Bhakti Yoga practitioners also have an intense longing for oneness with their Guru or teacher. An enlightened teacher who awakens the inner divinity of a student will embody divine love and grace for that student. The student’s Guru will also act as a mirror for the student, reflecting the student’s positive and negative qualities back to the student, so that the student may go through the alchemical process of purification and live more fully in the awareness of God’s love and presence within his or her own heart.
Yoga, due to its increasing popularity, has become such a focus. Below, please find some accessories that marketers have tried to pair…
During a study, participants engaged in daily mindfulness meditation and their results were recorded over an 8 week period. At the end…
The smiling meditation is so powerful because it non-verbally projects acceptance into the external world. In addition, a smile is a…
The intense meditation practiced in yoga nidra helps with true relaxation, which can lead to better rest when sleeping. Yoga nidra is…
Meditation is an extremely powerful tool for self-empowerment. When meditation is practiced correctly, it has been known to be the key…