Re: Is this list not moderated, or what?

try
this:
target=new>http://vancouveryoga.com/primaryseriesashtanga.htm
there was a
french? site that had a chart but I can't
remember what the name is.
you can also buy a ashtanga
yoga poster with Lino Miele here
target=new>http://www.ashtanga.com/html/resources.html
you may not have
gotten an answer because many of us
don't use the sheets...

Suzboop, you can find more resources here:

href=http://pub42.ezboard.com/fyoga84291frm9.showMessage?topicID=11.topic
target=new>http://pub42.ezboard.com/fyoga84291frm9.showMessage?topicID=11.topic<\
/a>

"Moderated"? Is that like "moderation"? No, we don't do that here.

here's the link to the french
site:

href=http://www.ifrance.com/fourmiesyoga/SITE%202/sommaire/sommaire.html
target=new>http://www.ifrance.com/fourmiesyoga/SITE%202/sommaire/sommaire.html a>

A word of caution, theses pictures are copywited
but are apparently being used in an unauthorized
fashion by this site. Or that matter most of the sheets
that people use in thier classes are unauthorized
copies of the pictures drawn by john scott for lino's
book. Use your own judgement on whether to copy and use
them

I did try to post this link the day you asked your
question, bit thier site was down or at least I couldn't
acces it to get the URL, and I subsequently forgot.
Didn't think to give the EZBoard link, that would have
been easier.

If you wish to discuss yoga, join ezboard:

href=http://pub42.ezboard.com/byoga84291
target=new>http://pub42.ezboard.com/byoga84291

I appreciate the reference, but I am confused. So, this is an Astanga Yoga list
that does not discuss yoga?

Suzboop: This club does discuss yoga, but with
the number of posters here on a daily basis,
questions can get lost in the crowd, so to speak. I think
Malsag's referring you to EZBoard is not saying that the
group there is better or more informed than this one.
The posts there are grouped into various areas so
that questions or comments about yoga are easier to
address because they are in their own area and not lumped
in with off topic ones.

SS - I don't think
that people are leaving here because of the existence
of the EZBoard group. I think that it gets
frustrating trying to discuss or gain insight to ashtanga
when so much infighting goes on here. By saying that I
am not trying to speak badly of this board; I have
said in an earlier post that I have learned much in
being here. I just get tired of wading through posts
full of name calling and trying to root out numerous
screen identities. With all that is going on in the
world right now, life is just way too short to have to
deal with unnecessary vitriol.

If your choice
is not to post on EZBoard, so be it. Your experience
with Lino Miele will be valuable no matter where you
decide to share it.

and the girls of ezboard are hotties! check out their pictures:

href=http://www.artflex.com/f_1.htm
target=new>http://www.artflex.com/f_1.htm

yeah baby!

omprem

For my part I can only say that we
do discuss other topics too, moral issues among
other things. Lately, however, there has actually been
little talk about asana and pranayama as well, as people
are discussing the future of this board and Gurujis
workshop.

For me it's natural that we discuss mostly asana and
pranayama, because I believe that's the issue we're the most
experienced in. Would it be better if we just quoted texts
treating the other angas, and forgot our own history,
knowledge and experience in yoga?

om
shanti

inermis

I think we should be free to discuss what we want
as it relates to our experience, struggle and ease
with our expression of the practice.

What has
happened lately is that there is a sourness in peoples
tones with correcting others and imposing their
'righteousness' on others.

Not all who practice yoga [or
the limited two forms of it] want to change our faith
or our belief systems.

Shame on those who
conduct a hidden religous agenda by not disclosing TRUE
intent and meaning of symbols, prayers, chants and idols
!!!

makapow

Raja Yoga, also known as Ashtanga
Yoga, is not connected with any religion. It's main
purpose is to develop one's spiritual awareness
independent of whatever religion one may or may not be
practicing.

If one has a religion, Ashtanga Yoga will give one a
more profound understanding of that religion. If one
does not have a religion, or, even if one is
anti-religious, Ashtanga Yoga will still develop spiritual
understanding in the practitioner.

I have had Hindus,
Sikhs, and others of no religious affiliation teach me
Ashtanga Yoga approaches to hatha yoga. I have had
teachers who practiced a religion and others who did not
practice a religion teach me other approaches to hatha
yoga.

But they all taught that there are 8
(ashta) essential, interconnected elements to Ashtanga or
Raja Yoga.

If you want to focus on asana -
pranayama exclusively, you are not practicing Ashtanga
Yoga. You are practicing Dwi Anga
Yoga.


omprem

>> If you want to focus on asana-pranayama
exclusively, you are not practicing Ashtanga Yoga.
<<

For all I know, Mahatma Gandi in fact practised only
one sub-limb of Patanjali's yoga system thoroughly
and with devotion: Ahimsa, that is. He was a great
yogi nonetheless. So why shouldn't it be possible to
attain the ultimate goal by just practising
Asana?

"Focus" may be the key here. In order to make progress in
yoga, you must have something to focus your mind on. In
the case of astanga vinyasa yoga, the centre of
attention upon which to focus the mind is the synchronicity
of breath and movement.

Hi Shiny

I thought that you were leaving
this club. Did you change your mind?

But in
answer to your post, Gandhi practiced far more than
ahimsa. One of his more obvious qualifications was his
devotion of God. At the moment of his death, he is
reported to said, "Rama". Most others would have said,
"Damn."

This devotion to God is what separates
those who have made some spiritual progress from those
who do not.

To answer your other question, if
all you do is practice asana, no amount of that
practice will result in spiritual liberation. As Patanjali
himself has said, "Samyama [meditation] on one's physical
body suspends the ability of another to see it: the
reflected light [from the body] does not come into contact
with another's eyes, hence the power of
invisibility."

As intriguing as invisibility may be to some, it is
not spiritual liberation and it may, in fact, be a
hindrance to spiritual liberation as are all of the siddhis
if one focuses on them instead of focusing on the
spiritual path.

omprem

I was about to leave this club, in fact. But then
someone asked about the workshop I'll be going to on
Friday, and I had second thought. Maybe I shouldn't be
too attached to certain persons who are now leaving;
people come and go, as this is just a public message
board. Doesn't yoga teach non-attachment? I'm sure I'll
leave some day too, it may be sooner than you think.
For now I hope that I still have something helpful to
say. (And btw, it's such fun to quarrel with perfect
strangers across the globe...)

Just an aside to the Omprem-Shiny-Guy
discussion:

Gandhi would not have considered himself a follower of
Patanjali's system. He did read the Yogasutras early n the
1900's, and according to some of his biographers they
significantly influenced the principles on which he operated
one of his Ashrams in South Africa (phoenix Farm, I
think). Most of this influence concerned yamas and
niyamas, especially: satya and ahimsa (the link between
these was central to Gandhi's thought) but also
svadhyaya (study), devotion to the Lord, brahamcharya
(understood in the traditional sense of sexual abstinence),
and a whole lotta tapas, apparently centered around
diet. Everyone in the ashram particpated in this way of
life to some extent, whether or not it suited
them!

In his autobiogrpahy, Gandhi writes that he tried
some other yogic practices on his own -- sounds as if
he meant pranayama, meditation or the like -- but
decided not to pursue them further until he could find a
teacher. He never did so.

Of course most people
consider Gandhi to be a great example of a karma-yogin,
rather than a Patanjali-style raja-yogin. Certainly
Gandhi was more influenced by the Baghavad Gita than by
any other single text, and karma yoga gets a lot of
play there. But to my knowledge karma yoga has not
been systematized to the degree that Patanjali
systematized his approach, so it's hard to tell what exactly
Gandhi was practicing. If indeed he practiced anything
-- he was such an original, singular
person.

Peace and Good,
Homer

Hey Omprem,

Don't you think that doing
asana will open up the channels so movement into the
more spiritual practices might begin? I just know for
myself, when I began my astanga practice I was not overly
interested in much more than asana, but as I've grown and
learned more about the yogic path and experienced the
calmness and the mystery from doing these asanas on a
regular basis, something has shifted. Yoga has become
more than asana for me--but somehow the asanas brought
me to that. I see them all working together in a
way--

Shining Skull

I didn't ask if you were
leaving this club because I wanted you to leave. You
definitely add something to this board.

I asked only
out of curiousity.

By the way, I didn't
realize that the two of us were having an argument. I
thought we were having a discussion.

If you want
an argument, there are people here who are much more
argumentative than myself.


Omprem