Yoga, as a practice and an approach to life, offers us tools for changing habits, connecting to the present moment, healing, and awakening our ability to live a fulfilling life. Yoga is a cultivation of prana, or life force, and strengthens our connection with ourselves, with others, and the world.
There are various schools and styles of yoga, all of which have the have the same overall purpose, which is self-realization. Teachers of yoga describe self-realization as wisdom, liberation (moksha), awakening (bodhi), independence/freedom (svatantrya), perfection (siddhi), and bliss (ananda). Yoga is intended to lift the individual out of his or her ordinary perception of, and relationship to, the world. It cultivates compassion for ourselves, others and the world around us.
Practice provides a regular time for the inquiry of self – study and a much needed refuge for quieting the mind and exercising the body. Yoga helps to gain new awareness and provides an opportunity to listen your inner wisdom. By learning to incorporate yoga into your daily life, you can begin to detach from the ego-mind (the thinking mind) and become aware of the intuitive mind, one’s authentic self. Through yoga and meditation, the fluctuations of the mind (citta) can be quieted and observed, leading to a place of pure wisdom, peacefulness, and clarity.
As the Zen tradition says:
“There are not enlightened beings, only enlightened activity”.