1. Meditation in the West is mostly known for its calming effect on the mind since Western culture popularize relaxation types of meditations because of the stressful Western lifestyle, however, there are stimulating types of meditations as well, which increase arousal (= wakeful state of enhanced cognitions and emotions), e.g. Tibetan Tantric Buddhist deity meditations, Hindu Tantric Kundalini meditations.
3 relaxing meditation techniques from three traditions (Hindu, Theravadin Buddhist and Japanese Zen)
2. Stimulating meditations, which employ intense visualization (e.g. Tibetan deity meditation), increase arousal and boosts mental performance immediately. Regular practice transmutes negative emotions and generates compassion, which eventually changes your life entirely, you will radiate love and joy.
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3. Tantric yoga is most known about sexual rituals in the West, and indeed the left hand division of Kaula tantra uses sexual union and other external rituals including drinking wine and eating meat as powerful tools for transformation, however, during higher Tantra practices, the ritual is completely internal process (visualization).
4. Yoga is rooted in Vedic sacrifical culture (3000-1500 BCE), in which seers (Sanskrit: rishi) during the ritual of fire sacrifice transcended the limitations of the ordinary mind through prolonged inner focusing (meditation) and joined the invisible world of the spirit to receive benedictions.
5. Modern Yoga in the West is most known for its yogic postures (asana), however traditional styles of yoga employ meditation (raja yoga), devotion (bhakti yoga), selfless service (karma yoga), self-inquiry (jnana yoga), rituals (tantra), and incorporates ethical guidelines.
How to start yoga posture training at home
7. The Yogi adopt a vegetarian diet since he does not kill for food. In yoga philosophy, all sentient beings are equal and emanation of the same eternal, universal spirit. Thus, the human species is not superior to other creations on this Earth and should respect all sentient beings and not to feed on animals. That is why, you cannot find slaughter-houses in Eastern countries that cultivate this principle. All creation (living, non-living, formless, seen or imagined) are subjected to the continuing cycle of death and rebirth (samsara) governed by the effect of past actions (karma), and Yoga is the ultimate way to transcent this endless cycle.
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8. Hatha Yoga (the foundation-stone of modern Western yoga) focuses on the purification of the physical body as leading to the purification of the mind, and employ astonishing cleansing techniques, which are included in the regular daily practices today in an authentic Hatha yoga hermitage or monastery (ashram) in India. These are: dhauti (cleaning/vomit the stomach every morning by drinking warm saline water); bhasti (enema, cleaning of the bowels once in a while); nauli (churning the abdominal muscles to the left and right repeatedly to tone up the organs in the abdomen and remove digestive disorders); and neti (nasal cleaning done by inserting the spout of a small pot filled with salt water in one nostril, tilting the head and water leave through the other nostril).
9. Modern science has already confirmed the beneficial effects of regular meditative practice on the human body. It triggers chemicals in the brain that regulate mood and behavior, and modulate psychological disorders. Meditation is a harmless way to prevent and treat stress symptoms, anxiety and depression, thereby making the practitioner able to get off the emotional roller-coaster.
10. Meditation practices and Yoga posture training train your attention and improve your self-awareness, which is essential for accurate self-assessment. The self-knowledge you gain gives you a new perspective and opportunity to change your unliked qualities, thinking and behavior in order to attain your ideal self, the person you would like to be and live a peaceful and happy life.
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11. Yogic austerity practices (restraint, tapas) through self-control of body, speech, and mind make you able to reduce craving desires and liberate yourself from worldly things and not to feel the loss or the lack of anything. These are: making your life as simple as possible (non-possessiveness); fasting or reduction of amount of food (sacrifice of food); philanthropic social work (sacrifice of income); silence or reduction in talk (sacrifice of speech); asceticism (sacrifice of comfort); solitude or seclusion; chastity (for monks); and renouncing the fruits of the actions (e.g. satisfaction, pride).
12. Regular modern yoga posture training improves physical fitness, you gain body strength, flexibity and balance, and it reduces back pain as well.
Yoga pose (asana) Preparatory sequence ...90 min workout
13. Regular meditation practice and yoga posture training together increase your satisfaction of life, you will be capable of giving, compassion, patience, and steadfastness, and you will be able to remain tranquil and content with whatever happens to you.
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