What is Yoga?

What is Yoga?  Yoga is a mental and spiritual practice. Yoga comes from the word Yuj which means union or yoke.  Union with what?  

We, in the West, have done Yoga a disservice by saying it is the union of the body, mind, and spirit.  I've said this myself.  However, I've found the focus seems to becoming overly focused on the body.  The union or yoke is the absorption with the true self through the mental practices of Yoga. 

Briefly, what Yoga is not ... 

Yoga is not poses.  The poses are not actually Yoga.  They are a part of Yoga and a small part at that.  When someone says "I am doing Yoga," these days in the Western Civilization, it usually means I am doing Yoga Poses.  This is not "doing" Yoga.  This is doing Asana.  And it may not even be doing that.  

What is Asana?  If you know some the Sanskrit names of Yoga Poses you may have noticed they all end in "asana."  And you may already know Asana gets translated into Pose.  Even that is not quite right.  Asana literally means "seat."  It was the place the person practicing Yoga sat for meditation.  There are 196 Sutras/Sayings/ Threads.  Asana is covered by 3 Sutras.

Patanjali is often the go-to for Western students of Yoga who want to explore the Eastern Philosophy   Before Patanjali there is a lengthy history both oral and written on Yoga and that too is not doing poses.*  Patanajlai put these concepts into the 4 books of the Yoga Sutras around 500 BCE and 400 CE in India.  

Let us start here -- "Yoga is the cessation of the Mental Fluctuations." (Yoga Sutra 1.2).  Yoga is a Mental Practice.  

One is doing Yoga when one is practicing the mental aspects of Yoga.  You can do a super cool pose but without the mental practices and intentions it is just a posture.  

Yoga isn't about being flexible, or strong, or having good balance. -- In the body.  

But it is about being flexible, strong, and having good balance in the Mind.  In fact, so much about Yoga is for balance in the Mind. The "goal" of Yoga is to know the True Self and to enter into a state of peace or absorption in the infinite through the practices. 

Yoga Poses are just one of 8 Mental Practices of Yoga. 

Here is what the Sutras say about Asana/Poses after many Sutras on the Yoga Way of Living-- The Yamas and Niyamas of which there are 10:

2.46 The Poses should be steady and comfortable. (one of my favorite) 

“Sthira Sukham Asanam”

2.47 The Poses are mastered when all effort is relaxed and the mind is absorbed in the Infinite.

2.48  Then we are free from the play of opposites/duality/suffering.

Here we see the Poses are meant to be a mental practice. 

That is all.  Then, Patanjali goes on to explore Yoga Breath Practices. 

* We will get more into the older history of Yoga.  A great resource is  "Yoga and the Mahabharata: Engaged Renouncers" by  Christopher Key Chapple 1-1-2006

Loyola Marymount University. https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1133&context=theo_fac