The Encyclopedia Of Yoga And Tantra

The ever-increasing popularity of Yoga and related practices makes a desktop reference like this indispensible. With over twenty-five hundred entries and extensive illustrations, it combines comprehensiveness with accessibility. The book is arranged and written in a manner that will inform rather than overwhelm the lay reader, while at the same time offering valuable references for the professional researcher and the historian of religion. This new edition includes information about contemporary Yoga teachers. It also provides fuller descriptions and illustrations of Yoga poses, and features additional cross references.

A leading yoga researcher offers a clear and lively introduction to the history, philosophy, and practice of the Tantric spiritual tradition Tantra—often associated with Kundalini Yoga—is a fundamental dimension of Hinduism, emphasizing the cultivation of “divine power” (shakti) as a path to infinite bliss. Tantra has been widely misunderstood in the West, however, where its practices are often confused with eroticism and licentious morality. Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy dispels many common misconceptions, providing an accessible introduction to the history, philosophy, and practice of this extraordinary spiritual tradition. The Tantric teachings are geared toward the attainment of enlightenment as well as spiritual power and are present not only in Hinduism but also Jainism and Vajrayana Buddhism. In this book, Georg Feuerstein offers readers a clear understanding of authentic Tantra, as well as appropriate guidance for spiritual practice and the attainment of higher consciousness.

Here is an authentic portrayal of a rich and complex spiritual tradition of India. The over two thousand entries cover Yoga's history, its many approaches, schools, teachers, scriptures, as well as its technical terminology. The book is arranged and written in a manner that will inform rather than overwhelm the lay reader, while at the same time offering valuable references for the professional researcher and the historian of religion. The Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga offers the following features: * Each entry has cross-references providing pertinent conceptual links * Entries are in English alphabetical order, unlike comparable reference works that follow Sanskrit alphabetical order, which is difficult for the lay reader to follow * Orientational entries provide an overview of central aspects of the Yoga tradition, such as history, psychology, and major branches * Many entries cite or even quote original sources, shedding light on how a given term is used by traditional Yoga authorities

The author demonstrates how you can practice Tantric Yoga and go on living your life as you usually do, adding another habit to the ones you already have. The step-by-step, well-illustrated instructions in this book take you from beginners' exercises to those for advanced students. You will learn how to meditate easily, breathe correctly during yoga or meditation, and how to do easy yoga poses and exercises, such as the back program to improve posture and maintain youthfulness, and a great deal more!

Often mistaken as solely the "yoga of sex," Tantra Yoga is more accurately described as the "yoga of everything," in which the spiritual is united with every aspect of life. This book offers step-by-step instructions and illustrations to explain the practice and philosophy of Tantra Yoga — adapted to the specific physical, emotional, and spiritual concerns of women. The author explains differing methods of meditation and mantras, breathing and relaxation, yoga positions, visualization, and affirmations — demonstrating how a daily routine of meditation and yoga can bring focus and strength both physically and spiritually. More than a guide to fitness, A Woman's Guide to Tantra Yoga brilliantly adapts one of the most venerable Eastern practices to the demands of modern life.

Yoga, tantra and other forms of Asian meditation are practised in modernized forms throughout the world today, but most introductions to Hinduism or Buddhism tell only part of the story of how they developed. This book is an interpretation of the history of Indic religions up to around 1200 CE, with particular focus on the development of yogic and tantric traditions. It assesses how much we really know about this period, and asks what sense we can make of the evolution of yogic and tantric practices, which were to become such central and important features of the Indic religious scene. Its originality lies in seeking to understand these traditions in terms of the total social and religious context of South Asian society during this period, including the religious practices of the general population with their close engagement with family, gender, economic life and other pragmatic concerns.

As David White explains in the Introduction to Tantra in Practice, Tantra is an Asian body of beliefs and practices that seeks to channel the divine energy that grounds the universe, in creative and liberating ways. The subsequent chapters reflect the wide geographical and temporal scope of Tantra by examining thirty-six texts from China, India, Japan, Nepal, and Tibet, ranging from the seventh century to the present day, and representing the full range of Tantric experience--Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and even Islamic. Each text has been chosen and translated, often for the first time, by an international expert in the field who also provides detailed background material. Students of Asian religions and general readers alike will find the book rich and informative. The book includes plays, transcribed interviews, poetry, parodies, inscriptions, instructional texts, scriptures, philosophical conjectures, dreams, and astronomical speculations, each text illustrating one of the diverse traditions and practices of Tantra. Thus, the nineteenth-century Indian Buddhist Garland of Gems, a series of songs, warns against the illusion of appearance by referring to bees, yogurt, and the fire of Malaya Mountain; while fourteenth-century Chinese Buddhist manuscripts detail how to prosper through the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper by burning incense, making offerings to scriptures, and chanting incantations. In a transcribed conversation, a modern Hindu priest in Bengal candidly explains how he serves the black Goddess Kali and feeds temple skulls lentils, wine, or rice; a seventeenth-century Nepalese Hindu praise-poem hammered into the golden doors to the temple of the Goddess Taleju lists a king's faults and begs her forgiveness and grace. An introduction accompanies each text, identifying its period and genre, discussing the history and influence of the work, and identifying points of particular interest or difficulty. The first book to bring together texts from the entire range of Tantric phenomena, Tantra in Practice continues the Princeton Readings in Religions series. The breadth of work included, geographic areas spanned, and expert scholarship highlighting each piece serve to expand our understanding of what it means to practice Tantra.