YOGA significa unità o unicità dalla parola sanscrita yuj, in termini spirituali unità della coscienza individuale con la coscienza universale, a un livelli più pratico lo yoga è un mezzo per per equilibrare e armonizzare il corpo, la mente e le emozioni.
METODO HATHA YOGA
Popular thinking ‘in the West’ (an all-too-common expression now), is that Hatha yoga is about balancing the body and mind. With ‘ha’ representing the esoteric sun, and ‘tha’ the moon, and the practice of Hatha yoga aiming to join, yoke, or balance these two energies.
A yoga class described as ‘Hatha' will typically involve a set of physical postures and breathing techniques, practised more slowly and with more static posture holds. Literally however, Hatha means ‘force’ and is more traditionally defined as ‘the yoga of force’, or ‘the means of attaining a state of yoga through force’. So Hatha yoga can be considered as anything you might do with the body, including:
• asana - yoga postures (practised in any style of 'yoga')
• pranayama - breathing techniques
• mantra - chanting or reciting
• mudra - hand gestures
• shatkriyas and shatkarmas - cleansing techniques
• and even types of visualisation