Knowra Yoga Yoga Yoga is a family of Indian disciplines and philosophical systems involving practices for training body, mind, or awareness. Its traditions differ in goals and methods, from liberation through meditation to physical postures and breathwork.
Samkhya : An Indian philosophical system that explains experience through the interaction of consciousness and material nature. Its distinction between consciousness and nature underlies classical yoga’s account of liberation.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali : A concise Sanskrit treatise that systematizes yoga as the stilling of mental fluctuations and presents an eight-limbed path. It is the best-known source for yoga’s classical account of mental discipline.
Vedic religion : The religious tradition associated with the ancient Sanskrit texts known as the Vedas. Yoga’s history is situated within the wider development of Indian religious traditions.
Modern postural yoga : A modern global movement centered largely on physical postures, often combined with breathing and relaxation. It is the form most visible today, but represents only part of yoga’s wider history.
Karma yoga : A path of spiritual practice centered on action performed without attachment to its fruits. It presents action without possessiveness as a yogic route to freedom.
Ashtanga : The eight-limbed system of ethical restraints, observances, posture, breath control, sense withdrawal, concentration, meditation, and absorption. Its eight limbs explain how classical yoga links conduct, bodily practice, and meditation.
Upanishads : A body of ancient Indian texts exploring themes such as self, ultimate reality, and liberation. Several early discussions of meditation and liberation appear in these texts.
Meditation : A family of practices that train attention, awareness, or emotional response. Meditation overlaps with yoga but also exists independently across many traditions.
Jnana yoga : A path of spiritual practice centered on knowledge and discernment of the self and ultimate reality. It shows how inquiry and insight can serve as yoga rather than bodily exercise.
Pranayama : Yogic regulation of breathing through techniques that shape its rhythm, depth, or retention. Breath regulation is a distinct limb and a practical bridge between body and attention.
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