Book of the Week: Light on Yoga
11 Nov 2016
This week I read Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar, because I want to enhance my practice. This is the bible on yoga. It has descriptions and photos of 200 asanas, different yoga postures. The appendix has a 300 week course if you want to be able to do all the poses. Although many fail to get past week 166. It is recommended that you do your practice under a guru. The origins of the word guru come from gu, darkness and ru, light. You need control over the mind to be absent of desire, fear and anger. It is thought that the loss of semen leads to death and its retention to life. 8 Stages of Yoga
- Yama - universal moral commandments
- Niyama - self purification by discipline
- Asana - posture
- Pranayama - rhythmic control of the breath
- Pratyahara - withdrawal and emancipation of the mind from the domination of the senses and exterior objects
- Dharana - concentration
- Dhyana - meditation
- Samadhi - state of super-consciousness brought about by profound meditation, in which the individual aspirant (sadhaka) becomes one with the object of his meditation - Paramatma or the Universal Spirit