0_Wizard
I am a yoga instructor. I do hatha yoga and raja which are well known types.
Among the most well-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga.
chosen_Yoga_0
Yoga
chosen_topic_0_Yoga
Hatha yoga
Hatha yoga is a branch of yoga that emphasizes physical exercises to master the body along with mind as well as exercises to withdraw it from external objects. The word "haṭha" means "force" in Sanskrit, and may have this association because the early Indians believed that its practice was challenging and "forced its results to happen" on the yogi. The term "Hatha yoga" connotes a system of supplementary physical techniques within the broader concept of Yoga. The Hatha yoga origins have been credited by some scholars to the Nath yogi tradition of Shaivism, particularly to Gorakhnath. However, according to James Mallinson, Hatha yoga has more ancient roots and the oldest known twenty texts on Hatha yoga suggest this attribution to the Naths is incorrect.
Yoga
Yoga (; Sanskrit, योगः Listen) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. There is a broad variety of yoga schools, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Among the most well-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga. The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions; it is mentioned in the Rigveda, but most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic and śramaṇa movements. The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Hindu Upanishads.
Baba Hari Dass
Baba Hari Dass (Devanagari: बाबा हरि दास); born 26 March 1923 in Almora near Nainital, Uttar Pradesh, now Uttarakhand, India, is a yoga master, a silent monk, and a commentator of Indian scriptural tradition of Dharma and Moksha. He was classically trained in Ashtanga Yoga – Raja Yoga of Patanjali (the Yoga of Eight Limbs), as well as Kriya Yoga, Ayurveda, Samkhya, Tantra Yoga, Vedanta, and Sanskrit. Born into the 13th generation of a Kumaoni Karnatak Brahmin family, in the lunar month of Chaitra, in Shukla Paksha (Rama Navami), he is also an author, playwright, martial arts teacher, sculptor and builder of temples.
Rāja yoga
In Sanskrit texts, Rāja yoga () refers to the goal of yoga (which is usually samadhi) and not a method of attaining it. The term also became a modern retronym, when in the 19th-century Swami Vivekananda equated raja yoga with the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Since then, Rāja yoga has variously referred to as "royal yoga", "royal union", "sahaj marg", "classical yoga", and "aṣṭāṅga yoga". Rāja (Sanskrit: राज) means "chief, best of its kind" or "king". Rāja yoga thus refers to "chief, best of yoga". The historical use of the term "Rāja yoga" is found in other contexts, quite different than its modern usage.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika
The Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā ( or Light on Hatha Yoga) is a classic fifteenth-century Sanskrit manual on hatha yoga, written by "Svāmi" Svātmārāma, who connects the teaching's lineage to Matsyendranath of the Nathas. It is among the most influential surviving texts on hatha yoga. The "Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā" is also one of three classic texts on hatha yoga, alongside the "Gheranda Samhita" and the "Shiva Samhita". Because this work originated so long ago, different manuscripts offer various versions of its title. The database of the A.C. Woolner manuscript project at the Library of the University of Vienna gives the following variant titles, gleaned from different manuscript colophons: "Haṭhayogapradīpikā", "Haṭhapradīpikā", "Haṭhapradī", "Hath-Pradipika".
Yogatattva Upanishad
The Yogatattva Upanishad (Sanskrit: योगतत्त्व उपनिषत्, IAST: Yogatattva Upaniṣhad), also called as Yogatattvopanishad (योगतत्त्वोपनिषत्), is one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism. A Sanskrit text, it is one of eleven Yoga Upanishads attached to the Atharvaveda, and one of twenty Yoga Upanishads in the four Vedas. It is listed at number 41 in the serial order of the Muktika enumerated by Rama to Hanuman in the modern era anthology of 108 Upanishads. It is, as an Upanishad, a part of the corpus of Vedanta literature collection that present the philosophical concepts of Hinduism. Two major versions of its manuscripts are known.
Kundalini yoga
Kundalini Yoga (), also known as laya yoga, is a school of yoga that is influenced by Shaktism and Tantra schools of Hinduism. It derives its name through a focus on awakening kundalini energy through regular practice of meditation, pranayama, chanting mantra and yoga asana. Called by practitioners "the yoga of awareness", it aims "to cultivate the creative spiritual potential of a human to uphold values, speak truth, and focus on the compassion and consciousness needed to serve and heal others." What has become known as "Kundalini yoga" in the 20th century, after a technical term peculiar to this tradition, is actually a synthesis of many traditions which may include haṭha yoga techniques (such as bandha, pranayama, and asana), Patañjali's kriya yoga (consisting of self-discipline, self-study, and devotion to god), tantric visualization and meditation techniques of "laya yoga" (known as "samsketas"), and other techniques oriented towards the 'awakening of kundalini'.
1_Apprentice
I don't know much about yoga. What are the benefits?
0_Wizard
Well it became popular in the 1980s as a from of physical exercise. Also great for the mental state.
In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world.
chosen_Yoga_0
Yoga
chosen_topic_0_Yoga
Physical exercise
Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons, including increasing growth and development, preventing aging, strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance, and also enjoyment. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system and helps prevent certain "diseases of affluence" such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. It may also help prevent stress and depression, increase quality of sleep and act as a non-pharmaceutical sleep aid to treat diseases such as insomnia, help promote or maintain positive self-esteem, improve mental health, maintain steady digestion and treat constipation and gas, regulate fertility health, and augment an individual's sex appeal or body image.
Neurobiological effects of physical exercise
The are numerous and involve a wide range of interrelated effects on brain structure, brain function, and cognition. A large body of research in humans has demonstrated that consistent aerobic exercise (e.g., 30 minutes every day) induces persistent improvements in certain cognitive functions, healthy alterations in gene expression in the brain, and beneficial forms of neuroplasticity and behavioral plasticity; some of these long-term effects include: increased neuron growth, increased neurological activity (e.g., and BDNF signaling), improved stress coping, enhanced cognitive control of behavior, improved declarative, spatial, and working memory, and structural and functional improvements in brain structures and pathways associated with cognitive control and memory.
Epigenetics of physical exercise
Epigenetics of physical exercise is the study of epigenetic modifications resulting from physical exercise to the genome of cells. Epigenetic modifications are heritable alterations that are not due to changes in the sequence of nucleotides. Epigenetic modifications, such as histone modifications and DNA methylation, alter the accessibility to DNA and change chromatin structure, thereby regulating patterns of gene expression. Methylated histones can act as binding sites for certain transcription factors due to their bromodomains and chromodomains. Methylated histones can also prevent the binding of transcription factors by hiding the transcription factor's recognition site, which is usually found on the major groove of DNA.
Yoga
Yoga (; Sanskrit, योगः Listen) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. There is a broad variety of yoga schools, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Among the most well-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga. The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions; it is mentioned in the Rigveda, but most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic and śramaṇa movements. The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Hindu Upanishads.
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind. The mind–body problem is a paradigm issue in philosophy of mind, although other issues are addressed, such as the hard problem of consciousness, and the nature of particular mental states. Aspects of the mind that are studied include mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness, the ontology of the mind, the nature of thought, and the relationship of the mind to the body. Dualism and monism are the two central schools of thought on the mind–body problem, although nuanced views have arisen that do not fit one or the other category neatly.
Functionalism (philosophy of mind)
Functionalism is a view in the theory of the mind. It states that mental states (beliefs, desires, being in pain, etc.) are constituted solely by their functional role – that is, they have causal relations to other mental states, numerous sensory inputs, and behavioral outputs. Functionalism developed largely as an alternative to the identity theory of mind and behaviorism. Functionalism is a theoretical level between the physical implementation and behavioral output. Therefore, it is different from its predecessors of Cartesian dualism (advocating independent mental and physical substances) and Skinnerian behaviorism and physicalism (declaring only physical substances) because it is only concerned with the effective functions of the brain, through its organization or its "software programs".
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD), also referred to simply as Alzheimer's, is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time. It is the cause of 60% to 70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss). As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, disorientation (including easily getting lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, not managing self care, and behavioural issues. As a person's condition declines, they often withdraw from family and society. Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death.
1_Apprentice
I heard it is good for relaxation. What is the difference between hatha and raja?