Many are those who try to start their journey on the search for the truth with questions about God, paradise, enlightenment... However, if you pay attention, you will notice that all these inquiries point to distant places... After all, these riddles refer to concepts that you can hardly understand... There is immense distance between your actual situation, or at least what we presently see, from our perspective, as our situation, and heaven... the sarvikalpa or nirvikalpa samadhi...
Hatha—yoga teaches us that any journey, as long as it may be, necessarily begins in the place where you are... If you do not know how to get to certain street and you call the police, or any information service, before telling you how to get to that place, they will ask you where exactly you are located now...
Much before going to buy a ticket to any place... much before setting out your run towards those distant places... it would be indispensable that you know where you are now...
This is what hatha—yoga suggests, while inviting us to inquire closer to ourselves in our present reality, while inviting us to start the search from the closest to us now... our body...
To realize it... to live it...
For many, it appears strange that a religion can contain in itself something like Hatha—yoga; it gives them the impression that being engaged with the body in one way or another, is not a very spiritual occupation...
This is not difficult to understand, if we understand the negative attitude, especially of the Western religious institute, towards the human body, which is seen as an instrument of sin and even an obstacle for the spiritual progress...
The attitude of Hinduism and the East in general towards the human body and the human form of life is very different...
An example is found in our holy Bhagavad—gita, where in the ninth chapter, verse eleven, Lord Krisna says:
avajananti mam mudha
manusim tanum asritam
param bhavam ajananto
mama bhuta—mahesvaram
"Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Lord of all that exists."
It is much easier for us to recognize the sacred in temples and cathedrals, in masses and prayers, in holy books and sermons... than to perceive The Divine in one of the most marvelous miracles of the creation, the human body... and very especially in the human form of life that is seen as a very precious opportunity to awaken the consciousness...
Hatha—yoga teaches us to love the body and to be in it... I say to be because although this will surprise some, I would say that the modern man is not found in the body, but in the thought...
We are a society that resides in the intellect... the modern society is a mind—society, a society that directs the human being to dwell in the mind...
The modern society is characterized by stress and tension that in the corporal level is mostly because of this "ignoring" the body...
We go with the sensation that "we have" a body, or that "we carry" a sack of flesh and bones on us, without actually being in it, being in the body is to develop awareness of it, which will be like to wear it...
We drink a cup of tea while reading the newspaper and while thinking about what awaits us today in the office...
To be in the body or to develop awareness of the body is to perceive the aroma of the tea, to feel its heat on our lips and tongue, to feel our buttocks on the seat... that is, to situate ourselves in the marvelous experience of reality, instead of plunging into a world of dreams, memories, illusions and imaginations, until you reach a point of leading the life of half—sleeping zombies. Consciously situating ourselves in the body is the beginning of waking up...
In order to get out of our programmed sleepwalking and become beings of observation... the millenial hatha—yoga, which is only a part of raja—yoga, knows that the human being is much more than a body, but it is important to begin with "being in the body," for which it offers us these incredible and miraculous psycho—physiological asanas, or yogic postures, denominated hatha—yoga.
The practice and entertainment of asanas helps the development of flexibility in the muscles of the body, simultaneously improving the function of the internal organs, the immune system and the nervous system, resulting in a long and healthy life. Yoga speaks about health, although its definition for it is a little different from that of the West. For yoga, health does not only consist of not suffering from illnesses, but a state of complete balance and harmony. Many do not understand the real difference between hatha—yoga and the different and varied methods of gymnastics and sports. One of the most notable peculiarities of the Vedic method is that it is performed in the body and in the mind in parallel, influencing both simultaneously. The practice does not only refer to the physical level, but it also stimulates mental concentration, relaxation and observation. The characteristics that draw hatha—yoga further than different methods of gymnastics are so abundant, to mention some of them I would say that:
1. In hatha—yoga one pays very special attention and importance to all the stages of breathing,
including its retention.
2. The movements are slow, and are stopped when the body reaches a posture (with the
exception of cyclic movements such as surya—namaskara— the sun salutation)
3. Relaxation is emphasized, being given a capital importance.
4. Concentration is notably developed, which is enhanced together with the advancement or the
training.
5. Consciousness is developed, through observation and the attention to the muscles and parts of
the body that can be relaxed during the posture or asana, just like the attention to the
sensations on every level before, during and after the performance of the posture.
6. The practice of hatha—yoga produces not only strengthening, but also elongation and flexibility
of the muscles, filaments and tendons.
Another very important aspect of hatha—yoga is pranayama, which is mistakenly known in the West as techniques of "proper breathing"...
Prana in Sanskrit is a term that denotes the energy of life itself, the vital energy... any movement in the cosmic manifestation, from the movement of the thoughts, through the heartbeats, to the movement of the planets and the galaxies, is a consequence of the vital energy or prana... the electric energy, the nuclear energy, the magnetism, and in general any manifestation of energy that is manifested in the physical plane, in the universe, is directly or indirectly prana, vital energy...
On the other hand, the term yama means expansion. Therefore pranayama refers to an expansive movement of the vital energy...
Breathing is one of the clearest manifestations or an external expression of the vital energy or prana in the human body... through pranayama it is possible to observe the marvelous movement of vital energy in our body and proceed to expand it consciously up to harmonizing it with the prana in the cosmic level, with totality.
The thought and the mind are directly and intimately related with prana, this is the reason that through breathing it is possible to influence mental states or produce suitable mental situations as a preamble for concentration and meditation, because when we manage to effect the external or gross prana, through breathing, it is possible to go on effecting prana in more subtle levels, such as the mental... the will, the individual soul and from it, the Supreme Self... In life everything is interdependent, and we can see this very clearly in the interdependence between the mind and the breathing. For example a state of rage, anger and tension produces accelerated breathing, a state of a quiet, tranquil and peaceful mind is manifested as serene breathing, and a situation of high concentration will notably reduce the mental activity.
The observation of the breathing and the expansion of prana will provide us the power to observe mental states and the possibility of transcending them, of going beyond them.
S´avasana, or relaxation, also occupies a very important place in the context of hatha—yoga. In the course of time, more and more professionals, physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists have come to appreciate the practice of relaxation, which forms an inseparable part of every hatha—yoga session. Every one of us who suffers from any disease or discomfort, has heard from his doctor this very familiar phrase... rest, repose in bed...
Modern Western medicine knows that when we reach states of rest and tranquility, the organism has the power to cure itself. Apart from the numerous benefits of relaxation in maintaining the physical and mental health, we cannot ignore its great contribution to the development of moral and ethical values in the human being or, as technically called in raja—yoga yama and niyama. A relaxed and tranquil person will react in a mature way to difficult situations, and will be patient in his relations with others.
The person who knows the art of relaxation is able to save a lot of power and vital energy, for the simple reason that both the muscular tension and the mental and emotional tensions, by unnecessary worries, constitute tremendous loss of energy; stress is a great waste of energy.
The physical body is not our only cover, so to speak, apart from it we have other energetic layers that cover the soul... for example, the yogis, just like most of the methods of eastern medicine, speak about a body of prana , a body of vital energy called "astral body", in which we find the cakras, or energetic centers, and the nadis, prana conductors, something like veins or channels through which the vital energy flows...
Many of the so—called illnesses are due to obstacles in the natural flow of vital energy through the nadis, what Chinese medicine tries to do through acupuncture, digit puncture, what the different types of massage try... or what the Japanese Shiatzu tries is... to release obstructions in order to allow the free flow of prana through its conducting channels in the astral body... so, this is exactly what the asanas achieve, they affect the chakras or energetic centers one after the other, the yogic relaxation eliminates tension, thus also eliminating the energetic obstacles, giving us a very deep sensation of peace and tranquility, not only on the muscular level but also on the energetic one. Hatha—yoga is only the basic step of raja—yoga, apart from all the previously mentioned it includes postures that require very high levels of concentration which are called mudras and bandhas and directly affect energetic circuits, it is very important that their practice shall be carried out on an empty stomach. In many cases these mudras and bandhas are interconnected between them. Regular practice of them produces a high concentration of prana, which derives to different benefits, both in the physical level, such as strengthening the organism to cure illnesses, and even to awaken different mystic powers, called siddhis... apart from that it is important to mention the kriyas as well, which are exercises for purification that also notably stimulate the awakening of kundalini.
Yoga means union... union with reality...
We live in a mind that lives "from" and "in" the nostalgias and memories of the past... it projects us from that yesterday, and through hopes, expectations and dreams it creates a future in which it constantly dreams... a dream of goals and ideals...
As ego we are past... we are yesterday projecting itself and creating that tomorrow...
However, the past does not exist, it does not have a concrete existence... neither does the tomorrow with the future, imaginations and fantasies... the reality or what there is, as it is, occurs only in the present... here and now...
Hatha—yoga situates you in the present moment, in the now, for the simple reason that it locates you in the body... and the body moves in the present, to be in the body is to be in the now...
You cannot move a leg tomorrow or raise an arm yesterday...
To go into and out of every posture with tremendous observation invites you to be here and in the now...
To be conscious of this eternal union and harmony with the reality... because in going after the body you will touch the soul...
(I invite anybody who desires to deepen in Hatha—yoga to read my book, "Hatha Yoga")
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