What is the Course About Anyway????

What is Yoga? (that depends on who you ask)

• "The stilling of the movements of the mind" (YS 1.2)- Yoga is a meditative technique that brings stillness and connects one to the divine force
• "Skill in Action" (BG 4.22) -Yoga is one's ability to perform one's action with the utmost skill so that one might always "act" properly
• "Yoga is a technique which stops death"(HYP 2.16) -yogic techniques are meant to stop the natural processes of time and have one experience the eternal divine force.
• "Yoga is the practice of non attachment" (BG 6.15) -Yoga is the ability to perform all actions according to one's purpose (dharma) without regard to the consequences of these actions.
• "Yoga is a form of exercise which practice a designed to empower you with the focus, training and insight you need to achieve consistent results in the most important areas of your life." (Baron Baptiste)- Yoga is a form of physical culture which helps you succeed in your life.
• "Yoga is a series of postures systematically work every part of the body, to give all the internal organs, all the veins, all the ligaments, and all the muscles everything they need to maintain optimum health and maximum function." (Bikram Chodouroy)-Yoga is a means for healing and maintaining health. 
• "Yoga is a way to reduce the stress in our lives" (Dr. Oz) -Yoga is a form of relaxation.

What are the Origins of Yoga? (that depends who you ask as well)

• The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) believes that yoga has strayed to far in the West from its HINDU roots. They see yoga as Hindu religion in practice.
• Kundalini practitioners claim that yoga is a 10,000 year old practice originating in the pre-hindu northern regions of Kashmir in India.
• Archaeologists have traced yoga "symbology" back 5000 years to the oldest civilization known to exist in the archaeological record Mohenjo-daro.
• The physical postures that are part of the modern yoga cannon are at most 100 years old.
• Modern Yoga practice was formed out of the Physical Culture Movement of the mid-nineteenth century. Before then yoga was a spiritual and alchemical practice.
• Yoga has many different practices and developed through a number of different traditions. The three most prominent are from the Brahmanic period (Baghdad Gita), The Classical Period (the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali) and the Tantric Period (Hatha Yoga Pradipika).
• Does Yoga in the West have any connection to these roots today?

Is Yoga a Religion? (that depends on who you ask)

• What is "religion"? and how does this differ from "spirituality"?
• "Yoga is in religion, religion is not in yoga"-the many yoga practices along with their transcendent goal of direct experience, are typically not practiced by adherents of religion. (Swami Rama)
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Can Yoga Really Heal You? (and other special powers afforded by yoga -siddhis)

• Many health claims have been attributed to yoga (are they true?)
• Many psychological empowerment claims have been attributed to yoga (are they true?)
• Yoga makes you a better person (does it?)

Why is Yoga a Girl Thing? (or is it?)

• Certainly here in the West, Yoga is for chicks. 93 percent of practitioners are women. Why?
• Traditionally, Yoga was (an exclusively) male practice.
• How and why did this happen?