Октябрь 2019

Open Yoga Journal

Our modern life is very erse. There are many theories, teachings, doctrines, religious organizations with distinct world views. Each one of us at a certain age faces a choice: to believe in a Creator of the Universe and predefined processes or to succumb to randomness and Fortune.

People are eager to know their origin. This is our nature!

When we are born, we accept the world as is, without asking ourselves why things are the way they are and without having expectations from the others. We take everything as given. Our moms and dads represent the Universe in miniature. In this sense, children resemble a bhakti yogi because they perceive the Universe through their parents and totally trust them. Childhood is a very important period, because children can absorb and believe any information they are given without any discernment, and this information will influence their worldview for the rest of their lives. After all, as adults we must be able to independently decide whether to trust the outside world or not. And if we decide to trust it, how do we do that?

Relying on ancient sources

There are generally recognized cultural monuments of humanity, which are many years old and which reveal to us an overall idea of ​​a controversial issue that is the personal interaction with the Universe. The texts of the Eastern Heritage describe a type of yoga known as Bhakti, or yoga of sensual perception of the world.

Open Yoga Journal

Sometimes in our daily routine we forget to track our condition and don’t analyze the cause of any changes. At first, we simply don’t notice or ignore these changes. When we start having certain health problems and things fall apart, we cannot understand what is the reason for that. To make sure this does not happen, it is important to ask ourselves a few questions, which will test our current state. By identifying the reasons for the negative side of things, we could work on an action plan to improve the situation.

Below are the questions on different areas of our life. If you agree with the statement choose “Yes” as an answer, otherwise– choose “No”. The results are below the test.

Waking up

• How do you usually feel when you wake up: rushing to the bathroom happy to start  a new day, ready for new opportunities and meetings; you have millions of ideas and desires to reach all your goals?
  

Open Yoga Journal

Studying at International Open Yoga University (IOYU) gives us the opportunity to receive an additional profession as a teacher of yoga in English and Russian, as well as to acquire additional competencies. This opens broad prospects and significantly expands the degree of our freedom. Let’s see what innovations are being introduced at IOYU and what additional competencies can be obtained in the learning process.

What specialists are now in demand?

Nowadays many educational institutions release on the market specialists whose professions are not in demand. At the same time, in some domains there are simply no specialists at all. Employers do not need the inidual but want a solution to their own problems. There are tasks for the solution of which employers are ready to pay a lot of money. To be in demand, it is necessary to quickly adapt to meet the needs of the market and be able to receive additional competencies.

In the Middle Ages in Europe there were guilds that passed the business secret from generation to generation. It took half a century to be an apprentice to find out the secret. Now such a company would go bankrupt. Studying for a long time and then working no longer works. We need to quickly acquire the necessary knowledge in practical courses. We can start earning money and feeding our families a day after we  have mastered a certain set of knowledge while, in our free time, we will increase the fundamental knowledge, without which it is impossible to become a specialist in a given field.

Open Yoga Journal

A study plan for yoga offers many advantages, maximizing our ability to effectively utilize our own resources for self-exploration. In this article we will try to answer such questions as: What are the key factors for successful learning? How to choose the right school of yoga? Why is the personal presence important during the studying process?

Yoga is a path that liberates us from all constraints and ultimately leads us to absolute freedom. Just as there are numerous paths that lead to one mountain peak, there are many ways that lead to the highest goal, and each person is looking for their own way. There are periods of life when it is better for us to rediscover the knowledge of yoga on our own. At some point, there comes a time to interact actively with our community. At this point we can walk along with people whose paths are close, helping each other on the way. The communities that use the same methods in yoga form a so called “yoga school.”

In a yoga school, we can find help and support from people who already have a strong theoretical base consolidated by a deep personal practice. Moreover, we can accelerate our spiritual growth by passing this freshly obtained knowledge to the others.

What are the benefits of interacting with like-minded people?

Open Yoga Journal

In modern society people are often faced with multitasking. Solving several problems at a time became normal and watching those, who succeed in being all over the place, we admire them and think, that it is effective. But is it right? What is multitasking? Where did this behavior pattern come from? Is it possible to become the modern Julius Caesar? What advice does yoga give us?

We can find the definition of this term in computing. ‘Multitasking is an attribute of operating system or execute environment to provide the possibility of parallel processing of different actions.’

Multitasking is not a quality of a person. But sometimes, it seems that a person is solving different problems at a time, as if he was a computer, processing different actions in parallel. But that is not exactly right. The attention of people is just switching from one subject to another.

Today the representatives of many professions, for example, the secretary or operator, always face the problems, which need the simultaneous solving. In such regime the attention splits up between incoming information flows, but the concentration on every problem is seriously reducing.

Just think, not for nothing it is forbidden to speak on the phone while driving.

Open Yoga Journal

What are the peculiarities of the way yoga spread in the cultural environment of the West? Why is it often impossible in the Western culture  to reproduce the spirit of yoga by blindly copying techniques and practices? Why some followers give up yoga so quickly? What is the paradox of yoga in the West? What factors should merge together to open the “lotus” of self-improvement?

Over the last century, yoga began to spread extremely rapidly in the West. Due to the fact that the knowledge of yoga began to rapidly disappear, teachers, independently coming to America and the countries of Europe, began to openly spread this teaching in order to attract followers. Because of the difference in mentality, it was necessary to adapt the ancient teaching, expounding it in modern language, separating the wheat from the chaff and transmitting the core knowledge in understandable interpretations. Unfortunately, yoga novelty in the West became fashionable and turned into an industry.

Mainstream, as any phenomenon in a multi-layered society, exposed both positive and less desirable aspects. On one hand, millions of people gained access to rare and powerful practices previously available only to the initiates. On the other hand, the risk of misinterpreting these practices emerged when trying to use them outside the context of a holistic teaching.