Hidden Door

the ?six Yogas of Naropa?); Taoist Yoga (commonly known as Qigong ~ the basis for all of the martial & healing arts with origins in China); and the Yogas associated with the so-called ?Hindu? traditions of India.

The practice of

asana

, as it?s best known in this country, falls into the last of these categories: the Hindu Yoga traditions. But this tradition itself has numerous aspects. One way of looking at it is through the lens of ?The Six Yoga Systems,? which can be understood as six different doorways, entry-points, portals, or vehicles through which a practitioner might approach, engage with, and enter the territory of Yoga.

The Six Yoga Systems

1.

Hatha Yoga

is the category under which

asana

falls. One way of translating the word ?Hatha? is to break it into two parts: ?ha?=sun and ?tha?=moon. Sun and moon, in this context, refer to the two opposite currents that regulate all processes in our body: the ?masculine? and the ?feminine,? or ~ in terms of subtle anatomy, the

pingala

and the , the two

nadis

, or channels of energy, whose union within the central channel of the

shushumna nadi

is ~ for those practicing in this tradition, the very definition of Yoga.
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