Yoga

Yoga : or union with the soul is popularly thought of as either a series of deep breathing exercises or, perhaps a rather strange set of holding postures. However, there is a lot more to it than that.

Although Yoga is not a religion itself it is sometimes referred to as the art of living based on the science of living, and can enhance sincerely held religious beliefs. There is certainly no incompatibility between the basic principles of yoga and those of the main religious doctrines.

In the textbooks it is variously described as a philosophy, an art, a healing therapy or an ancient classical science dealing with the search for and union with the soul. It is all of these. About 2000 years ago an Indian sage named Patanjali, wrote a treatise on yoga which had been practiced for many hundreds of years with no formal written texts.

In this treatise Patanjali defined yoga practice as stilling the fluctuations of consciousness, sometimes more simply interpreted as thought control, and set out the foundation and philosophy of Astanga yoga, the eight limbs of yoga, to achieve this aim.