Hatha Yoga

Ha = Sun, Tha = Moon

Hatha is what the Western Culture conceptualizes as Yoga or what Yogic Science is all about, which is erroneous. Hatha is that specific physical practice that people associate with hippies twisting into pretzels. The sun and moon are to opposite forces that live and flow through the body (in the Nadis according to this science. Essentially the yoga practictioner is activating and bringing them into equilibrium.

As a physical science, Hatha Yoga, deals with:

Asanas - Postures
Pranayama - Breath Exercises
Bandhas - Special poses that bind Prana in the body Special techniques that stoke & bind energy in the body
Mudras - Gestures that promote and redirect circulation of Prana in the body ("circuits" that are toggled open and close like electrical switches,create pathways for that energy to circulate in).
Nadis - Energy pathways, similiar to Traditional Chinese Medicine's Meridians.

This science incorporates the observer into the experiment, which western science is just now wrapping its brain around with Quantum Physics. The experiment being techniques that function to tone and shift the myriad of systems within the body, with the goal to master them, to prepare the practitioner for meditation.

All this knowledge comes from ancient Vedic scriptures. Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are refferences that concentrates the many "scattered" refferences from the Vedic scriptures about Hatha Yoga into a practical, codified system.

There are many forms of physical yoga (hatha) practiced these days, due to different teachers teaching students who go on to put their own little twist on it. It is important to remember that they are all correct to a certain extent because they are based on Patanjali and his 8 limbs of yoga.

List of some known ones:

Hatha yoga is just one form of many practices in the Yogic Science.

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Free Hatha Yoga Pradipika (.pdf) Ebooks (offers Bhagavad Gita, Katha Upanishad, Samkhya Karika and Yoga Sutras)

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