Kundalini yoga derives from kundalini, defined in Vedanta (Hinduism) as energy. It lies dormant at the base of the spine until…
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga (अष्टांग विनयसा योग) is a style of yoga as exercise popularized by K. Pattabhi Jois during the…
Samadhi (समाधि), in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In the yogic traditions and the Buddhist commentarial tradition on which the Burmese Vipassana movement and…
Pranayama is the yogic practice of focusing on the breath. In Sanskrit, prana means “vital life force”, and Yama means to gain control. In yoga, breath…
An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose, and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as…
Dhyana yoga in Hinduism means contemplation and meditation. Dhyana is taken up in Yoga practices and is a means to Samadhi and self-knowledge. The various…
Pratyahara (Sanskrit: प्रत्याहार) or the withdrawal of the senses is the fifth element among the Eight stages of Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga, as…
Dharana yoga (Sanskrit: धारणा योग) is translated as “collection or concentration of the mind (joined with the retention of breath)”,…
Jnana Yoga (Sanskrit: ज्ञान योग) is the process of converting intellectual knowledge into practical wisdom. It is a discovery of…