What is Yoga?
From Ancient Sources to Modern Times
“Bees prepare honey by collecting the essence of many flowers and trees, but then distill them into one essence. The juices themselves might think they are the essence of this or that tree, although they become one. And tigers, lions, wolves and worms, flies, gnats and mosquitos all become these forms, without knowing from whence they came. But this subtle essence pervades the whole world. That is the truth. That is the Self.”
— Chandogya Upaniṣad (8.16)
“A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms — it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude.”
— Albert Einstein
In modern times, when we mention yoga, the first thing that often comes to mind is a limber young woman in spandex. But yoga is so very much older and more complex than that. For most of its history, yoga had nothing at all to do with physical postures, unless they were seated poses used for meditation.
The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit yug, which means to yoke. And it refers to yoking the senses and the mind in order to be able to peer inside of ourselves in order to…
