Shadow Yoga, Chaya Yoga

Book excerpt: Discover how you can utilize hatha yoga to enhance all aspects of your physical and spiritual health Drawing from years of experience studying hatha yoga, author Shandor Remete delves deep into original Sanskrit texts to explain the theoretical foundation of yoga in clear, encouraging language. He describes ways to move beyond the “shadows”—or blocks—that students often face in their practice and covers essential yogic concepts such as: • The foundations of traditional yoga: the marmas, chakras, vayus (sources of energy), and nadis (flows of energy through the body) • Yogic techniques to improve condition and function: asana (poses), nauli (abdominal exercises), pranayama (breathing), mudra (gestures), laya (absorptions) • The most important asanas, with illustrations of key sequences Shadow Yoga, Chaya Yoga also discusses various little-understood, oft-neglected aspects of yogic training, such as the role of marma points (acupuncture-like energy points) and the influence of the zodiac. Detailed drawings of the body’s energy system and its links to these elemental and planetary forces provide a visual guide to these largely unknown areas of yoga. This knowledge—considered essential in Indian yogic traditions—has been almost entirely lost in modern Western schools of yoga, but Shandor Remete restores that information in this beautifully designed book.