What is yoga?

The word “yoga” has several interconnected meanings. Primarily, yoga is a classical Indian philosophical system. It also denotes a number of methods aimed at gaining self-understanding and at providing mental and bodily calm. In the Western part of the world, most people associate yoga with hatha yoga (body yoga) and pranayama (breathing practices). In a wider perspective, however, yoga encompasses many activities intended to develop awareness and increased capacity for insight. Thus, in the broadest sense, yoga includes physical postures, breathing practices, the cultivation of emotions, thoughts and actions, as well as several approaches to meditation. Meditation is regarded as the most advanced and quintessential form of yoga. In this regard, the intention of yoga is to fulfil the ancient Greek maxim of the Apollo temple in Delphi: “Know thyself.” In addition to philosophy, Indian culture has focused on ways to cultivate consciousness in order to obtain deeper insights into self and existence. Some Western philosophers, for example Pythagoras and his followers in Greece about 2,500 years ago, had a similar orientation. Pythagoras’ writings on what he probably considered most important, i.e., lifestyle, diet and insight, are long since lost. Today, Pythagoras is most famous for his mathematical theorem about right-angled triangles.

Yoga sutra

The person credited with writing down the basic doctrines on the philosophy of yoga is called Patanjali. The book Yoga Sutra (often translated as “Aphorisms on yoga”) was probably written in India about 150-200 AD, maybe 500 years earlier. There are indications that the statements, thoughts and ideas in it had previously existed as oral traditions for thousands of years.

Patanjali’s second sutra defines yoga. In Sanskrit it reads:

Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah

The aphorism “Know thyself” from the Oracle of Delphi is cited by several ancient philosophers, including Socrates and Pythagoras; it underscores humankind’s eternal quest for self-knowledge.

yogash – yoga chitta – mind vritti – fluctuations or activity, incessant changes (may include thoughts, feelings, images, sensations, pain, etc.) nirodhah – to silence or annihilate, render calm Translation: Yoga brings the activities (fluctuations) of the mind to silence.

Meaning of the word yoga: integration

In Sanskrit, the word “yoga” is derived from the root of the verb “yuj”. According to Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, yuj means to join something together or to assemble something into a whole – for example when attaching a horse to a cart. The word may also mean to make ready, prepare, equip, become absorbed in meditation, become unified or united with the universal, say prayers or perform rites of sacrifice, or to equip oneself with remedies against illness. In this perspective, yoga aims at helping the individual to become a more complete person through working on one’s consciousness. In our opinion, this perspective is the most original and primary aspect of yoga; it covers the classical meaning, i.e., the move towards integration and apprehending the nature of things from within. Integration includes body, breath and mind.

Tradition and transmission

Dating ancient roots and events in Indian history is usually problematic, and this holds true for yoga. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra provides a general perspective, but does not describe any yoga practice. The various forms of yoga have emerged over a long time, but it is impossible to ascribe the basic ideas to specific individuals, traditions or eras. Early traces of yoga may be found on some terracotta seals used for trade in the Indus valley in Pakistan, dating from approximately 2,500 BC or earlier. They display people in postures suitable for meditation. However, the script on the seals has so far not been deciphered, and it is therefore unclear what the figures allude to.

A few written works on physical yoga from the 14th century and later are preserved, but they are unsuitable as textbooks. In addition, they contain elements from other traditions, and the body yoga they describe is very different from yoga as we know it today. There also exist a few manuscripts with illustrations of yoga postures from the beginning of the 19th century. On the whole, rather than being codified in writing, physical yoga has been passed down from masters to students over the centuries.

Different approaches

It is often said that yoga is based on traditions from thousands of years back, as if yoga were one unified tradition. This is not true. There are several, widely varying ways of performing the postures. This diversity shows some of the flexibility and adaptability of yoga, but it may also have contributed to diluting the content.

Somewhat freely, we have translated hatha yoga as physical yoga or body yoga. In Sanskrit, hatha means power, discipline or strength. Hatha yoga implies using discipline to achieve a mastery of the various physical postures.

Body and mind are endowed with power and strength.

In a later text on yoga, Hatha yoga pradipika, from about 1350 AD, the use of ascetic self-discipline or even self-torture is mentioned. Such perspectives do not belong to the main branches of hatha yoga, and they are therefore not pursued in this book. We build on Patanjali’s definition and the principle of a free mental attitude. In any kind of yoga, the ultimate aim is self-realization, and in hatha yoga this is achieved by cultivating the physical basis for consciousness.

Yoga comes to the west

Since the era of Romanticism at the end of the 18th century, some people in Europe and North America have looked to India for inspiration and understanding about the deeper aspects of existence.

The picture to the right shows a page from a manuscript on physical yoga from the 19th century, purportedly by a Maharaja of Mysore in South India.

The widespread Western interest in yoga emerged much later, in the 1970s and even more strongly in the 1990s. Acem School of Yoga was founded before the first major wave of yoga in the West.

Alain Daniélou, a French professor at the BHU – Benares Hindu University in Varanasi – published a thorough and impressive exposition of yoga in 1949. It is not a textbook, but an account of central aims, ideas and concepts with a large number of references to classical Sanskrit texts. The title of the book is Yoga – The Method of Reintegration, which is meant to explain the meaning of yoga. In classical yoga, however, “reintegration” is never an issue.

The word reflects a European idea about a “Paradise lost” which is without Oriental roots. In yoga, one is not trying to reachieve a lost state of childlike integration, purity or innocence. Instead, one is attempting to reach a state that has never previously been attained. Achieving this requires persistence and mobilization of the inner resources of the mature, reflecting adult.

Yoga gymnastics

Yoga has been disseminated in the West through many different channels.

Much of what is currently taught in yoga classes and displayed in magazines, books and DVDs about yoga represents an odd mixture of Eastern and Western approaches to fitness and training. Let us also add that in our opinion, it is not necessarily a mark of quality today that the teachings have an Indian basis.

A sort of synthesis between Indian yoga, English calisthenics and martial arts was developed in the palaces of the maharajas of Mysore in South India during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially from the middle of the 1930s. The result was various types of yoga gymnastics aimed at providing physical and mental training for the royal princes. B.K.S. Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois (the father of ashtanga yoga) were prominent figures in this movement.

Pilates also seems to have similar origins. Such teaching revolves around intense exercises that increase the heart rate, circulation and breathing in ways that are incompatible with meditation, silence and insight. This form of yoga characterizes much of what is presently taught, in India as well as in the rest of the world. Our exposition covers an entirely different orientation.

In this book, the words “pose” and “posture” are used interchangeably to cover the Sanskrit word “asana”. We have deliberately avoided using the word “exercise” as it is closely associated with gymnastics and sports, and it thereby signifies something remote from the meditative qualities of yoga that we want to underscore.

Classical or meditative yoga

This book follows a meditative, classical approach to yoga. The aim is silence in the mind, chitta vritti nirodhah, in other words, bringing the activity of the mind to rest and peace. This is in accordance with Patanjali’s definition.

The postures described in these pages are conducive to health, fitness and deeper meditation practices such as Acem Meditation and certain kinds of mindfulness meditation. Classical yoga of this type is useful for anyone who wants to unwind, be re-energised for the challenges of life and acquire self-insight. This sort of yoga strengthens both body and mind in more comprehensive ways than yoga gymnastics.

Some exceptions

This book also includes a few practices that do not originate from what may be considered as classical or meditative yoga.

Surya namaskar, salute to the sun, is not a classical yoga posture. It was developed in Southern India in recent times, and it was first taught in our context in the early 1960s by India’s ambassador to Norway, son of a former Maharaja of Mysore. The value of the exercise lies in its powerful stimulation of the circulation and muscles, and it should be thought of as a kind of yoga gymnastics.

The impulse practice is inspired by parts of the Tantric traditions. It has been included because it may enhance the practitioner’s contact with unresolved inner psychological issues and bring relief. It is not part of classical yoga, but we consider it useful for its potential to open inner aspects of the psyche that may be cultivated further by classical yoga and meditation.

Basic distinctions in yoga and meditation

In the book Acem Meditation: An Introductory Companion (Acem Publishing, 2007), Are Holen writes as follows:

One of the most essential distinctions between meditation practices [is] the difference between what we may call (1) directed techniques (or concentration techniques), which tend to be strongly state oriented, and (2) non-directed techniques, which tend to be process oriented.... In concentration techniques, the point is to stand porter at the entrance of the mind and allow nothing undesirable to get in. Often the goal is to get rid of all thoughts. (Page 51)

He continues:

In non-directed techniques [however] the mind’s spontaneous activity is a central element of the meditation. Rather than suppressing this stream of consciousness, the aim is to gain access to it by relaxing control. At the interface between the willed and involuntary activities, by relaxing the breath and/or allowing the free flow of consciousness, the student may enter fascinating and revitalizing areas of the psyche. Only a non-directed approach enables work with the unconscious. Goal orientation has a tendency to interfere with these processes.

A similar distinction applies in yoga. To a large extent, the outcome is related to the attitude adopted by the student in the performance of the postures. In yoga gymnastics, force, speed and concentration are often applied. The approach emphasized in this book is in the opposite direction; it is characterized by softness, calmness and a free mental attitude. The point is not to discipline the body and mind by force, but to find the coordinated flow in movements and breath, and to open the mind to awareness of the body and the spontaneous stream of consciousness. In this way, the student may work through issues of the body and mind. Free mental openness allows silent aspects of existence access into our lives.

Are Holen founded the Acem School of Yoga in 1968, at the age of 23. At that time, he had been practising and teaching yoga and meditation for several years.

This is from a yoga class led by Are Holen in 1970.

An article in the weekend magazine of the leading Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten, covered the Acem School of Yoga and published this photo.