There is a worldwide sensation for which even a new word ‘fashion yoga’ has been created, and so everyone might have encountered yoga at least once. As it has a long history, the philosophy or effects of yoga are a lot richer and deeper than any other exercises. In fact, not many people know that many postures, so-called yoga ‘Asana,’ are movements to build a body that can endure a long time of sitting meditation. Therefore, the yoga that we know of is actually a part of ‘meditation’ that is merely a warming up activity. It is not originally for the purpose of exercise but for meditation purposes. However, perceiving it as an exercise, its rationale and effects suggest to us many things.
Most of all, it perceives a human body as ‘universe’ and emphasizes a natural harmony of every muscle and organ. Our body is the universe itself, and thus, itself has a perfect system. In fact, our body has an ability of natural healing without additional physical treatments. However, yoga is an exercise requiring patience. If you practice it for a long term, consistently, the body naturally returns to the original state of a perfect harmony and builds up a power of natural healing. That’s why yoga is an exercise of ‘healing,’ not ‘curing’ the body.
There are a variety of possible methods. However, the biggest thing is a repetition and harmony of ‘tension’ and ‘relaxation.’ Asana yoga movements mostly require your body to stay in uncomfortable postures. It enables you to move your body and use muscles in manners completely opposite of your ordinary movements. You keep that posture for few minutes. You keep your body in an unfamiliar manner – a state of tension – for a few minutes, and completely relax your body and rest for as long as you have kept the posture or longer. In fact, a process of healing activates in resting times. While living our life, our body keeps a state of tension either consciously or subconsciously. Such tension accumulates in the body, which manifests as fatigue and the body remembers it as stress. That is why it is important to ‘lay down’ everything – to rest. The moment you completely lay down your tension, your breathing gets clear and the nervous system begins to harmoniously activate. Meanwhile, the real energy is filled up in that emptied space. Although yoga is a pretty intensive exercise, you feel rather refreshed and lighter after practicing it, instead of feeling exhausted. This seemingly simple principle, however, is not as simple as it seems. Yoga allows you to consciously rest your body but it is actually related to the mind to lay down yourself completely. That’s why the highest level of yoga is meditation. It is to lift your consciousness to the highest level. The ultimate aim of yoga is to reach nirvana. Such a state can be reached when you lay down your ego and self completely.
Unknowingly, you keep your body tense but yoga lets you lay it down; at least, forces you do so. After completing yoga exercises, you feel so light that you do not even feel your body. It is the same when you go into meditation. You can feel real peace and happiness if you lay down all kinds of tension, anxiety and stress that have been accumulated in your mind. True ‘laying down’ would begin from that. Since body and mind are one, ‘laying down’ of body and mind must go together. The process of throwing away the false self that you have been holding onto and finding the true self is when you empty out the ‘falseness’ that you have been attached to, and only true mind remains. It is the same principle as filling up with the real energy while resting between yoga movements. The principle is that as much falseness has been emptied out, that much truth will fill in: this is the flow of nature, universe. You cannot obtain true happiness while you are trying to add more. When letting go of everything you have been holding onto, happiness naturally fills up the emptied space. The real meditation is actually the method of throwing away the mind completely and emptying it out.
Now, it is the time that you must keep the balance of body and mind that have not been balanced due to your attachments. Let’s ‘lay down’ tense body due to possession and ‘empty out’ mind filled up with stress. Real happiness filling up in that space is wholly yours.
