Meditative Yoga

The Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary resource, which frames and contextualises the rapidly expanding fields that explore yoga and meditative techniques. The book analyses yoga and meditation studies in a variety of religious, historical and geographical settings. The chapters, authored by an international set of experts, are laid out across five sections: Introduction to yoga and meditation studies History of yoga and meditation in South Asia Doctrinal perspectives: technique and praxis Global and regional transmissions Disciplinary framings In addition to up-to-date explorations of the history of yoga and meditation in the Indian subcontinent, new contexts include a case study of yoga and meditation in the contemporary Tibetan diaspora, and unique summaries of historical developments in Japan and Latin America as well as an introduction to the growing academic study of yoga in Korea. Underpinned by critical and theoretical engagement, the volume provides an in-depth guide to the history of yoga and meditation studies and combines the best of established research with attention to emerging directions for future investigation. This handbook will be of interest to multidisciplinary academic audiences from across the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Chapters 1, 4, 9, 12, and 27 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Return to balance with this calming, healing approach. Yin yoga offer remedies to the stresses of your busy yang life. Each restorative pose targets your deeper fascia and connective tissues, helping you experience increased flexibility and improved joint health. Yin yoga also focuses on deep breathing and longer hold times, allowing you the time and space to clear your mind and enhance your mental acuity. These meditative poses will help you attain a renewed sense of mindfulness and physical well-being, making them the perfect complement to an active yang lifestyle and helping bring you back into balance. Yin Yoga includes these features: • More than 50 step-by-step poses that focus on specific areas of the body • 20 sequences linking the poses, designed to help you reach specific physical, mental, or emotional goals • Expert information on techniques and philosophies, including correct breathing techniques, chakras and meridians, and how best to practice yin yoga If you’ve been looking for something to settle your mind and body, look no further than yin yoga the practice and Yin Yoga the book.

Contemplative experience is central to Hindu yoga traditions, Buddhist meditation practices, and Catholic mystical theology, and, despite doctrinal differences, it expresses itself in suggestively similar meditative landmarks in each of these three meditative systems. In Yoga, Meditation and Mysticism, Kenneth Rose shifts the dominant focus of contemporary religious studies away from tradition-specific studies of individual religious traditions, communities, and practices to examine the 'contemplative universals' that arise globally in meditative experience. Through a comparative exploration of the itineraries detailed in the contemplative manuals of Theravada Buddhism, Patañjalian Yoga, and Catholic mystical theology, Rose identifies in each tradition a moment of sharply focused awareness that marks the threshold between immersion in mundane consciousness and contemplative insight. As concentration deepens, the meditator steps through this threshold onto a globally shared contemplative itinerary, which leads through a series of virtually identical stages to mental stillness and insight. Rose argues that these contemplative universals, familiar to experienced contemplatives in multiple traditions, point to a common spiritual, mental, and biological heritage. Pioneering the exploration of contemplative practice and experience with a comparative perspective that ranges over multiple religious traditions, religious studies, philosophy, neuroscience, and the cognitive science of religion, this book is a landmark contribution to the fields of contemplative practice and religious studies.

"Yoga Meditations presents a wide variety of mind-body practices for personal use or for teaching others. It is an invaluable resource for people interested in techniques for stress management, self-awareness, spiritual development, health, and well being. It's perfect for teachers, students and helping professionals. Provides a wide variety of mind-body practices, such as: guided relaxation techniques, breathing practices, meditations and guided imagery, affirmations, yoga postures for each chakra, and yoga wisdom for contemplation."--Publisher.

"All yoga practices are preparation for focusing the mind during meditation," notes renowned yogi Stephen Sturgess. In his new book, Sturgess demonstrates how to use a wide range of yoga meditation practices as a portal to higher consciousness. Initial chapters explain what yoga meditation is and why it is so useful in our busy, modern lives. Here, Sturgess gives insight into the Eight Limbs of Yoga (an established approach to the successive stages of yoga) and enlightens us on the workings of our internal energy system - all of which lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of the practices to come. Sturgess then guides us through the key seated meditation postures and a range of helpful mudras (hand gestures) and bandhas (energetic seals) before going on to offer clear, step-by-step guidance on a wide choice of the most effective yoga postures, purification practices, breathing exercises and meditation techniques to still the mind and awaken the inner spirit. In the final chapter he recommends how to put these practices together in the form of nourishing daily routines to suit your individual needs, as well as giving advice on how to establish an overall healthy lifestyle, based on ancient Indian health traditions. Beautifully illustrated, highly practical and deeply inspirational, this is the ideal guide to establishing a regular holistic health program. It will allow you to connect with your true divine Inner Self, realize your fullest potential for creative thought and action, and establish balance, harmony and happiness in every aspect of your life.

365 daily reflections offering a way to integrate the mindfulness that yoga teaches into everyday life, from the acclaimed yoga teacher, Rolf Gates. As more and more people in the West pursue yoga in its various forms, whether at traditional centers, in the high-powered atmosphere of sports clubs, or on their own, they begin to realize that far from being just another exercise routine, yoga is a discipline of the body and the mind. Whether used in the morning to set the tone for the day, during yoga exercise itself, or at the end of the day, during evening reflection, the daily reflections in Meditations from the Mat will support and enhance anyone’s yoga journey.

This book has provided an essential description of the process of yoga and meditation, from the basic purpose up to the preparations and techniques for attaining enlightenment and spiritual perfection. This, along with which processes are most recommended, and which ones work the best for the particular age of Kali in which we presently find ourselves, gives the average person a quick understanding on how to begin and what to expect, and how to get the most out of it. Regardless of whatever your personal aims in life may be, yoga can help you become more efficient, peaceful, and aware. It can definitely transform your life into a more exciting adventure–a journey to inner enlightenment and spiritual unfoldment.