Philosophy of Yoga
The main philosophy of yoga is simple: mind, body and spirit are all one and cannot be clearly separated. Yet there is a multitude of philosophical ideas developed by looking into the deeper dimensions of the body, mind and spirit.
The Law of Karma
Central to the philosophy of yoga is the universal spiritual concept of reaping what you sow: the law of Karma.
The Kleshas
The Kleshas are known as the Cause of Suffering. These "afflictions" distort our mind and our perceptions effecting how we think, act and feel. The kleshas not only create suffering, but are said to bind us to the endless cycle of birth and rebirth, and thus preventing us from achieving enlightenment and fully connecting to God.
The Inward Journey Through the Koshas
The koshas are imagined as layers of an onion and form a barrier from realizing our true nature of bliss and oneness with the universe. We all have one maker. Yoga is the tool to peel back these layers to bring our awareness deeper and deeper into our bodies, eventually reaching the innermost core, our True Self, divinely created.
Moksha and Maya
Moksha (liberation, freedom) is the state of non-ego, where the “me” vanishes and one stands free from all desires, actions and consequences in a total state of oneness.
The 3 Gunas of Nature
In the philosophy of Yoga, all matter in the universe arises from the fundamental substrate called Prakriti. From this ethereal Prakriti the three primary gunas (qualities) emerge creating the essential aspects of all nature—energy, matter and consciousness. These three gunas are tamas (darkness or ignorance), rajas (activity or passion), and sattva (beingness or goodness).
Prakriti also means nature. Nature can be described as environment. It can also be used to denote the 'feminine' in sense of the 'male' being the purusha. According to ayurveda our body is made up of three doshas kapha, pitta, vayu. The balance or imbalance of these doshas defines the prakriti of our body.
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