Any Wilmotters which practice yoga? Just taken a course and seems very interesting. After a session you feel much better. It seems that yoga is winning its place in the world as an ancient method of relaxation. Anyway, the classical and ultimate goal was the realization of the self (whatever that is!).(Now will come FDAXhunter and Nonious to laugh a little bit)

QuoteOriginally posted by: pericoAny Wilmotters which practice yoga? Just taken a course and seems very interesting. After a session you feel much better. It seems that yoga is winning its place in the world as an ancient method of relaxation. Anyway, the classical and ultimate goal was the realization of the self (whatever that is!).(Now will come FDAXhunter and Nonious to laugh a little bit)No, I don't laugh about that at all....I want to do that too, so I can quit the Wilmott addiction.

Realization of the self is understanding the source of where all things spring forth. It's not so funny if you consider that science can never approach an understanding of what really is. If you trust your physical senses, you can only ever know the world that exists in relation to those senses, which themselves only exist in the framework of the things perceived by the senses. It is in essence a big circular loop. Yet, we take for granted that the world has physicality, and we trust that the senses were designed to 'capture' the essential features of that physicality. When really, all we know, hear, or see is always the experience of a group of senses which themselves cannot be shown to have independent existence from the objects of perception.The proof is in the pudding as they say -- so tell me then, if everything that we can ever know is a function of our sensory organs, and these sensory organs create a picture of the world (i.e., the senses taken together provide a 'feature space' if you will) and these are integrated in the mind, well then the only thing you can ever really know is whatever is the picture/sounds/etc. that you have in your mind (i.e., you can't know what is actually in the world, only the world that exists IN your mental space) -- so where then is your independent verification that what is in your mind, is really what is "out there"? All that exists IS the mental map of the world -- there is no independent proof that a 'world' really exists, if you will. Self-realization consists partly of experiencing that which lies beyond the map -- that is, we must ask "who observes the map?" The answer is "the Self".Think on this deeply and you'll start to realize that there may be a point to self-realization afterall.You should read up more on the teachings of Ramana Maharshi. Google him.

QuoteOriginally posted by: pericoAny Wilmotters which practice yoga? Just taken a course and seems very interesting. After a session you feel much better. It seems that yoga is winning its place in the world as an ancient method of relaxation. Anyway, the classical and ultimate goal was the realization of the self (whatever that is!).(Now will come FDAXhunter and Nonious to laugh a little bit)You are correct it is ancient, well over 6,000 years old. Yoga has many forms, most people know Yoga as only Hatha (physical) Yoga, which in reality is a very very small part of complete yoga. Most people only ever practice Hatha Yoga or physical Yoga. The few people who ever follow complete Yoga are maybe a few Rishis or Maharishis in the Himalayas if there are any left. It is not just a form of relaxation (although it will do that too). It’s a complete exercise for “every” external and internal organ in you body. You will never ever need to go the gym in your life.Make sure you follow it completely else you will hurt yourself and not get full benefit of Yoga, it is important that you have a very good teacher, the older and wiser the better.To learn more read a book by B K S Iyengar: Light on Yoga, he has several others. Avoid the riff raff written by others who have wrongly over simplified Yoga.“the classical and ultimate goal was the realization of the self (whatever that is!).”Don't worry one day it will come to you if you keep all channels open K

Simply put 'self realization' refers to the state where you stop identifying yourself with your body but identify yourself with your true self i.e. the eternal spirit. It is supposed to be impossible to explain what 'self realization' i.e. you have to realize/experience it for yourself. When we say Gautam Buddha recd enlightenment what we mean is that he attained self realization.Yoga is a set of 8 steps that lead to 'self realization'. The physical bit/hatha yoga is just 1 of the 8 steps. BTW some of the other steps like Pranayama & Raja Yoga have much greater powers both spiritually as well as in terms of inducing relaxataion alertness etc. But if you want to attain sure shot self realn you have to follow all 8 steps perfectly, which is very difficult to do for people living 'normal' lives.Cheers,Vikram.

QuoteOriginally posted by: kutilyaThe few people who ever follow complete Yoga are maybe a few Rishis or Maharishis in the Himalayas if there are any left. Actually, there are a quite a few Maharishis/saints who run Vedic schools where these techniques are taught fully & correctly to children from the very begining.Quote Avoid the riff raff written by others who have wrongly over simplified Yoga.Yeah this is really important, I find a lot of people in the west (some Indians too, sadly) are modifying/extending yoga to suit themselves or cater to fitness fads. The other day I was reading about somebody conducting Yoga in a heated environment where you get to 'sweat it out' while practicing the techniques. It is so wrong & anybody doing a corrupted form of yoga is only fooling himself. Yoga has been a perfect science since its inception & is the shortest & best way to its goal. The last thing it needs is 'improvements' especially by spiritually unrealized people!

QuoteYeah this is really important, I find a lot of people in the west (some Indians too, sadly) are modifying/extending yoga to suit themselves or cater to fitness fads. The other day I was reading about somebody conducting Yoga in a heated environment where you get to 'sweat it out' while practicing the techniques. It is so wrong & anybody doing a corrupted form of yoga is only fooling himself. Yoga has been a perfect science since its inception & is the shortest & best way to its goal. The last thing it needs is 'improvements' especially by spiritually unrealized people!Yes, yoga is now cool, especially in the States, but overall the new practices, ashtanga yoga, power yoga, and so on. They seem to be a mix of ancient yoga, aerobic, sauna,..

I know of a yoga teacher which is really serious. He gets up every morning at 4 a.m. and practices asanas for 2 hours, 1 hour pranayama, 1 hour meditation (daily!). Besides, he is vegetarian. He leads a normal life, is married, with one child. He has two jobs, and sleep only around 4-5 hours.

<b>>>Yes, yoga is now cool, especially in the States, but overall the new practices, ashtanga yoga, power yoga, and so on. They seem to be a mix of ancient yoga, aerobic, sauna,.. <<</b>Some how Yoga cannot be cool it is far to serious to labelled as “Cool” or “Trendy” or “Fashionable”, if you do Yoga for these reasons you are only kidding yourself. Yoga has been devised and practised for a far more important and serious purpose which 99.9% of the people who do it can even comprehend (that sometimes includes me as well). To be a proper Yogi not only do you have to be a vegetarian, you also have to give up all vices and intoxicants, like alcohol, tobacco etc.

Anyone see the report publicised yesterday saying yoga classes could be dangerous. Many yoga "teachers" apparently only have one weekend of training before being unleashed on the public.

so what, a lot of option traders start that way?

QuoteOriginally posted by: JohnnyAnyone see the report publicised yesterday saying yoga classes could be dangerous. Many yoga "teachers" apparently only have one weekend of training before being unleashed on the public.Is that right? I reckon to be a *proper* Yoga teacher you need years of practise and study under a very competent teacher.

Nothing new under the sun. Most "teachers" in any field are totally clueless.