India's oldest yogini: V Nanammal, 98
qz.com
qz.com
There are thousands of path reaching to the same goal - in some you workup sweat, in some not so. All good.
Go to office, raise family, give 100% = Karma Yoga.
"Small" only in the "Raja Yoga" path.
[1] https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-word-yoga-mean-in-Sanskr...
There are a few classes from teachers who deviate from this, and I simply try to vote with my attendance at classes I prefer.
Nothing spiritual is prominently mentioned.
They do briefly mention her diet, which sounds Ayurvedic.
I too like the endorphins from yoga and hot yoga.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12936953/
Can't find the study, but they made people eat irradiated calcium, and those with higher protein just peed out the irradiated calcium. Bones stay intact.
> One mechanism by which high dietary protein could induce bone loss may be related to the metabolic acid load engendered by such a diet. Meat and fish, which are high in sulfur-containing amino acids, generate appreciable fixed metabolic acid loads, whereas fruits and vegetables generate little acid and, in fact, may under certain circumstances generate more base than acid.
> Paradoxically, when fracture is the principal outcome, low protein intakes are associated with lower rates of fracture in most epidemiologic studies
My point about craving processed food high in table salt and sulfur-containing amino acids—which ought to be also high in protein—after an alkalizing high intensity training is still valid.
Here's the study I was looking for. It's all radioactive calcium.
There might be an effect on muscle tissue but it's still quite unresearched as to how does the body counter the acidity.
What if all these new age yogis with their sweating ways turned out to be able to perform their 100 surya namaskaras well past the age of 105, would it validate their form of yoga then? Do most people who practice the "traditional way" get to do it way past their 90s?
Every time I see someone pushing the "you're doing it wrong, here's the one true way" message, I have to remind myself that even Buddha insisted that he can only help to guide you in your own quest, but he can't be your master. There is certainly something to learn from all of the ways that yoga is practiced, claiming that you know better simply turns you into a nearly full jar. I'd rather take some and leave some.
I don't think "validation" is the right language any more than "right" or "wrong". People do yoga for a reason - health, aesthetic, spiritual, whatever. The validation comes from whether they get out of it what they want. Someone hoping to discover the spiritual stuff the gurus write about may be better served by a practice that focuses on that instead of longevity. Just because someone's reached 100+ years old doesn't mean they've got out of it what they want (i.e. if they seek spiritual experiences but haven't had any they may still feel frustrated).
Any good exercise should be accessible, the american "peleton" way of doing things is at best gimmiky. The only redeeming quality of neo-yoga is its much accessible, given the profitability aspect of it.
For maximum return of value stick to the traditional, if it is accessible to you.
"Neo"-Yoga greatly misses on the mental aspects, and reduces a comprehensive system to a physical training. But, even in this diminished form its better than many alternatives. That was the point. I do not consider "neo"-yoga exploitative, I just consider it neo-mania, appealing to our urge for novelty.
How do you think these refinements happen, if not by trial and error? You don't just discover the right way to do something, you more likely also find a few wrong ways in the process. If there's one thing history has taught us about innovation it's that it happens in the most unlikely of places.
You know what else have gone through multiple refinements over millennia? Pleiades of religions that claim to successfully usher our spirituality. Are they wrong, are they right? Who knows? What I'm observing is that the world is still here waiting for something better.
When you have an actual problem and go looking for solutions you will find stuff. People who don't know what they are looking for will find a lot of unnecessary things. I think that's also from Buddha...or maybe Bruce Lee :)
1) The Gheranda Samhita
2) The Hatha Yoga Pradipika
3) The Siva Samhita
But I want to stress that yoga is not body building. It's not about bring beautiful, although that tends to be a side effect of health and happiness. The aim of yoga is to make you healthy, so healthy in fact that you can just forget about your body for a few days and meditate.
Yoga is also not just about asanas. It's about eight limbs (hatha), that include asanas, but also cleansing, right eating (vegetarian, and not too much), breathing exercises and a few other things. It's about doing what's good for your body so your mind can focus on what's important - meditation, doing right, ...
But what should be avoided is any harm. This is where for example hot yoga falls short - the heat is meant to increase flexibility, but it's also the most risky kind of yoga that sees frequent injuries. There's no reason to force your body to go beyond its current limits - rather you should slowly work to develop your flexibility, rather than force it with 'tricks'.
Do as you like, but don't try to do anything that is against your body. You only have one body. Make sure its healthy but don't try to do things you are not ready for or that might be harmful. E.g. an obvious one: crow pose is amazing but can for women put quite a bit of pressure on the ovaries so for any woman still planning to have kids it's not something to practice too intensely. Yes, do it, but don't force it and don't try to get to the point of pain.
Enjoy yoga - in all its forms.
>It's about eight limbs (hatha)
"Hatha" does not mean eight limbs. The correct phrase is "Ashta(eight) Anga(limbs)" in Sanskrit.
yoga asana - the moving aspect - is only 1 of 8 branches of yoga and it has evolved significantly over time.
Even BKS Iyengar, the man who brought yoga to the West, changed his practice over time from a strong, powerful and probably sweaty style when he was younger to a slower style as he aged.
there isn't a "right way" to do yoga, but if you're looking for authenticity then follow a lineage that has ties to India. Iyengar yoga is probably the closest in the US and even those expert teachers will have different styles.
at any rate, find an instructor that gives detailed instructions. you shouldn't have to look at your neighbor to figure out what your body ought to be doing, and the point isn't for your hand to reach that one hard-to-reach place on day 1. that's why there are props because everyone's body is different.
Patanjali in his "Yoga Sutras"(main text for Raja Yoga) only says "posture should be steady and comfortable" (note asana = posture). Thats it. He also says nothing detailed about Pranayama. It is the internal mental aspects that are crucial in his system. Whether you do it sitting in a Chair, lying on a Bed is immaterial.
On the other hand, in Hatha Yoga the physical aspects are all important and are defined by Asana, Pranayama, Bandhas and Mudras. Here is where the forceful exercises come in. By a combination of body and breath, you try to induce certain sensations in your mind which is often defined as "Laya" i.e. "dissolution".
For me, adhering to some kind of rigid protocol or model of perfection just ruins all the fun of it. I always strive towards making whatever it is feel good and fun, so I'm inspired to do it more, not less.
Doing anything physical every day is infinitely better than not doing it at all, even if done "imperfectly".
My $.02.
I've had people cricitize me for doing pullups underhand instead of overhand, telling me my ability to do 10 of them is only because I'm "cheating" by doing them underhand. Nowadays I do them overhand, but when I first started exercising decades ago, it was easier and more fun to do them underhand so that's how I did it until my fitness improved.
The same thing has happened in consequence of some bro learning I do hundreds of pushups daily, but when I demonstrate it they criticize my not doing them "properly" because I don't go entirely to the ground on every rep. rolls eyes
Then I went distance running with someone and they criticized my slow pace as being the only reason I was able to run so much further than them, that I'm doing it wrong because I run too slowly.
It's important to ignore these folks, they're simply not helpful, and they're not saving anyone from injury.
Keep your activities fun for yourself and you'll do them more often, and doing them often is far more important than meeting the expectations of others.
For example, merely waving your arms and legs around will not make you a Martial Artist. You need to focus on the core concepts, techniques and methods of practice. One can approach this with three different goals in mind;
a) For simple Health benefits - Here you take it as easy or as difficult as you want to maintain health. Eg. Taichi chuan.
b) For Competitive purposes - Here you focus on the correct execution of techniques according to some standard. "Perfection" is the goal here. Eg. Wushu competition
c) For some other ideal eg. Fighting in Martial Arts - This requires a different approach where you focus on power, strength, mental toughness etc. Eg. Muay Thai, MMA etc.
The point is that while you have to keep your motivation up, you still have to go through a "correct" process which may not be always "feel good and fun".
* I've heard hot yoga can lead people to over stretch and injure themselves.
* Doing the lotus unless you're hyperflexible will probably knacker your knees
* There's lots of controversy around head stands. Who could imagine that putting 12 stone of bodyweight through your cervical vertebrae could possibly damage them?!?
But otherwise I agree with you. People tend to prefer the carrot rather than the stick, so as long as you feel good and have fun you're probably doing it right for you.
Like its fun to just waltz in a minefield, but sometimes learning from net personal experiance is worse than following advice from someone who already lost a leg to a mine.
For example, if you do pushups every day but don't go 100% down to the ground on every rep, you're not risking anything at all. It's just not a meaningful count for comparison to other people's pushup numbers for competitive purposes. Since it's not a competition, who cares, do it however you find is most pleasant and most likely to continue happening daily.
Qi Gong has solved all of my lower back problems and the tensions in my shoulders and arms. You loosen and breath rather than pulling and stretching.
Yoga pranayama typically only works with prana in the body or uses mechanical breathing techniques (e.g. bhastrika, etc) to draw in prana as a by-product. But it'd be impractical (and probably dangerous) to do a practice like bhastrika while performing yoga asanas.
Doing Qi Gong practices while practicing yoga can really supercharge them. On the inhalation draw energy in from deep in the Earth through your feet to your lower dan tien/navel, and on the exhalation send it out your hands wherever they're pointing (probably the sky or Earth). Then on the next round inhale from where your hands are pointing, taking the qi/prana to the lower dan tien and then exhale out the feet or crown. Keep repeating this, always inhaling in through the 'gate' you just exhaled from. Do this for 5-10 minutes at first and build up. It'll really charge you up. You should learn the Macrocosmic Orbit first, but hopefully you already know that if you've been learning Qi Gong. If not, check out Mantak Chia's Awaken Healing Energy through the Tao.
I highly suggest that you look for some authentic sources (see my other posts in this thread) in subjects that interest you and base your studies on them instead.
Why should i try this when i can do 12-point Neigong-Daoyin-Waigong-Shaolin-Micro-Macro with a side of Yoga-Tantra-Chakra-Channels and a topping of Reiki? :-)
...jk...
I am just trying to help out people who are interested in esoteric subjects of which i have some knowledge by steering them away from BS and charlatans.
I will provide a more serious answer in my response to your other post so that everything is in one place.
The Mantak Chia book is exactly the kind of text I've been looking for. Thanks!
Just like authentic Yoga has been corrupted in the West by incompetent teachers and plain charlatans, so is the case with Qigong. You should always go to the original sources i.e. Chinese works where possible. To that end you may find the following helpful;
1) Qigong Essentials for Health Promotion - https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Essentials-Health-Promotion-Gu...
2) Chinese Qigong Therapy - https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Qigong-Therapy-Zhang-Mingwu/d...
Some of them may be expensive because they are hard to get but no need to pay too much for any of them. You can get authentic works from the website "china-guide.com".
By whom exactly? People who are upset that he's selling books on the practices for less than $10 instead of $300? Apparently some schools' highest teaching is the Macrocosmic Orbit. Of course you'd be annoyed if someone was giving away your highest secrets in a $10 book - you'd struggle to find new students prepared to sit at your feet for several decades while you drip feed it to them (which is what I've heard of).
There may be an issue with making sense of the volume of material he's put out and its repetitive nature, but to imply he's incompetent and a charlatan is just spreading FUD.
Note that the price of the book has got nothing whatever to do with it. You are probably referring to my first book recommendation which some enterprising soul is trying to sell for a huge markup (i.e. $300 because it is not easily available) but i just provided the link for reference. You can get it cheap if you search. Or you can read other cheaper equivalent books, one of which i had also provided as my second recommendation.
Now you asked me to define "authentic" sources in your other post. For TCM/Qigong you would start with publications from mainland China preferably by doctors/professors from a Medical College/University/Hospital who study both modern and TCM medicine. You would then try to get at the root texts for the subject. With these sources in hand, you can now start your study. So here goes;
1) The root text for TCM is "Huangdi Neijing" aka "The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Medicine". Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangdi_Neijing for your research.
2) TCM textbooks have been published from many doctors/institutes in China, two of which (related to Qigong) i had already listed earlier. Here is another recommendation - https://www.amazon.com/Illustration-channels-points-acupunct... Also check the website "www.china-guide.com" for authentic books on TCM/Qigong.
Finally here is a paper named "The Man who Invented Qigong" which explains the origin of the word and its current methodology - https://www.qigonginstitute.org/docs/The%20Man%20Who%20Inven...
That is true. And the "amorphous" comment holds for any teacher. Had you really investigated his stuff (which I get the feeling you haven't) you'd probably have gone further. Chia's books contain a lot of repetition and in aggregate are confusing to follow. Some even contain such gibberish as claiming that water has a "crystalline structure". In my experience it's difficult to find a competent teacher who actually understands (and can teach) the overall system. However, the Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbits are effective as can be discovered with a day or two's effort and are widely referenced in much older sources as the Lesser and Greater Water Wheels/Heavenly Cycles. So it'd be unwise to throw the baby out with the bath water on account of someone being a businessman. The Fusion practices are interesting and insightful if done correctly and the Kan & Li meditations also appears effective (but I'm still exploring them). The Kan & Li is the mainstay of internal alchemy and is widely discussed in a variety of far older texts [1], so I doubt he's made that one up either.
Michael Winn talks about how the Communist government gutted qi gong of its spiritual practices and that TCM is diluted as a result (one of your articles mentions a clampdown on it too). I believe Winn's been to China several times and has studied with a variety of teachers apart from Chia. His stuff stacks up so I'm inclined to believe him.
While it's fine to reference older texts though, no one has a monopoly on our nervous systems. For me, the only thing that matters is efficacy regardless of lineage/culture. I don't care for names, superstitions, mythologies or rituals - I only seek (and keep hold of) what works for me. We are incredibly fortunate to live at a time when formerly secret knowledge is widely available. I would encourage the astute student to also study cross-culturally in order to find the most effective, personally verifiable practices available given today's opportunities for research.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Harmonizing-Yin-Yang-Dragon-Tiger-Cla...
1) First, my point in listing the paper on Qigong is that, it is a practice which has been established after the "Cultural Revolution" and thus is a sanitized version from a whole babel of ancient texts with a severe focus on practical efficacy and knowledge of modern science. Thus its inclusion under TCM which was promoted by the Chinese govt. In this process some of the possible valid allegorical levels and mystical knowledge may have been lost since they were considered "woo-woo" gilded in mere flowery language. But the end result is something which is concrete and valid enough to be accepted as "Alternative Medicine" which is a good thing. So you have a solid baseline if you start your studies here.
2) Now you might be interested in studying the ancient texts(from Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism) with all their allegories and flowery language to figure out what might have been lost during the standardization process. But this is quite hard without having the baseline knowledge mentioned above. This is where the hucksters and charlatans have a field day. They take some words/verses/ideas from these texts, interpret them in their own way with no proper comprehension, draw absurd parallels with other similar systems/modern science and hey presto; you have a series of books to sell and a cult to build. The waters have now been muddied. So a student first needs to do some proper research for authentic sources. In this day and age that is not too difficult. For example, you have definitive translations done by "Fabizio Pregadio"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrizio_Pregadio) who is a scholar on "Taoist Alchemy" which is what you seem to be interested in. See his works here: https://www.goldenelixir.com/press/_sub_taoism.html
BKS Iyengar was the one who really revitalized and established yoga in the modern era, but know it's been over run by pure Hatha Asana.
True inspiration