Tag Archives: yogic life

Yoga – the ethical precepts

Yoga – the ethical precepts
Yoga Divinity!

Yoga Divinity!

We all enroll in yoga class expecting to engage in stretching and strenghening movements that, over time will make us look and feel better. Maybe want to lose some weight or have a firmer, more toned body. Or we have stressful jobs and want to work off some of the tension we bring home from them. Or we feel guilty about not exercising and figure we ought to do something physical.

By joining a gym or taking up jogging can only make you lose those extra pounds and accomplish those goals. We are drawn to yoga looking for something more, either consciously or at some deeper level. We may be seeking more meaning in our lives. Or greater self-control. Or to know ourselves better.These are among the promises of yoga.

As individuals, we may have strong spiritual beliefs, but our culture frowns on letting these strongly affct our dealings in the real world. Things were quite different in ancient India, where Yoga developed. There, the touchstone of reality was the spiritual world, and life on earth was seen as a mere reflection, described by the Sanskrit word Maya.

If you have made up your mind to find joy within yourself, sooner or Later you shall find it – Paramahansa Yogananda.

Paramahansa Yogananda - A true Yogi

Paramahansa Yogananda – A true Yogi

Believing that development of the soul was the purpose of living in a body, yoga’s early teachers would only take on prospective students after they had mastered yoga’s ethical precepts. It is different in the twenty-first century West. Usually only serious students who Continue reading “Yoga – the ethical precepts” »